Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Building Villages and Collecting New (Old) Quilts

When the pandemic lockdowns first started, Moda and Miss Rosie's Quilt Company shared The Village pattern as a free download. I've always loved house quilts, and have been tempted more than once to try the one with 365 tiny hand-pieced houses, so this one definitely caught my attention. The houses are so quick and easy to make!  Of course, I started off strong and made about 20 of them and then was distracted by other projects and set them aside.  My friend Pat recently finished her version of the quilt, though, and it turned out so stinking adorable that I decided I needed to get back to mine.  I have "built" quite a few houses over the past month and my total is now around 100, so only about 32 left to go before I can assemble the top.  My goal for this month is to finish all of the houses and then to work on setting the blocks in May.


I also managed to make a start on my TAS challenge.  My first block is from this quilt that I acquired fairly recently:


Here's a close-up of one block.  As I started to trace the shapes to create the pattern I noticed that no two blocks were the same - the placement of the pieces varies a bit from block to block, and the number of berries came down to whatever fit the space. You would never notice to look at the quilt overall. The quilting is absolutely phenomenal!


I'm not sure if this first block will be the center of my project or one of the surrounding blocks - it all depends on what other blocks I end up doing. My "cheddar" looks far more yellow and not at all close to the original in this photo, but they are in reality a bit closer in color.  I struggled to find a yellow or orange that was similar in color. The block is around 20" square.


I'm not sure what block I will work on next - that will be a project for next weekend.  It may be one of my corner cross sprays assuming my latest purchase arrives on Friday as projected.  I had to find a quilt to add to my collection to satisfy the challenge requirements as I didn't really have any with cross sprays.  Here's the one that is making its way here - it gives me a few options for those corners!



I also managed to make a little progress on my Huguenot blocks.  I am still a block behind, but hope to make some headway on that this week.  Here are the last two blocks I finished:




They are really the same fabrics - poor photography is to blame for the differences. This week I will be participating in an applique workshop with Veronique Diligent of Australia.  I am really looking forward to meeting her and learning her techniques.  One more project to add to my list!