One little lighthouse...

I had a play around with some alternative fabrics

but decided to stick with the Charley Harper for this one and this is how it went.

 I've ended up with this.  

Clearly it will need a back and possibly, though I don't much fancy doing it, a zip, but I am thinking I would also like to add a little bit of quilting.  Never having done this before I'd welcome any words of wisdom!

Detours

I'm not sure where the last week has gone, though I know there have been detours for duck fleas, tick bites. a dead starter motor and quite a lot of sport.  There's a detour too in the sewing.  I don't want to start something new before Ann issues the next AHIQ challenge at the end of the month, so have been giving some thought to undertaking a smaller project.  Yes, I know, I'm always saying I don't like making small stuff, but here I am, for the second time this year, doing just that.  I've been asked about the possibility of making a cushion-sized lighthouse piece so I'm giving it a go.  In fact, I'm giving it two goes, since it seemed to make sense to piece two lighthouses at the same time.  

A couple of pictures, then.  The first is lighthouse number one, the second shows pretty much where I got to by end of play. I've got two half-made lighthouses, some little HST-based sea bits and vague ideas about the sky.  Not much is cast in stone yet, but it's a start.

Taking Flight- done for now

On Tuesday I added the second side and bottom borders...

 and today, by the skin of my teeth, I got the blocks for the top edge done and sewn on.  It's funny, isn't it, how long it can take to make a few string blocks.  You'll see there are more small blocks in the top, because I was using my scraps, but in fact I had more left over than I expected.  Not enough to tempt me into another round though.

That's this one done for now, so the next task is to press on with the hand quilting and try to catch up a bit.  The World Cup is helping with this, the heat is not, though I'm not complaining about being warm.

Saturday photos revisited

I used to enjoy making a weekly photo collage, until I suddenly didn't any more.  Soma at Whims and Fancies has just relaunched her monthly photo link up, Wandering Camera, so I thought I'd have a go at joining in - should be able to manage one a month!

Last week I was in a butterfly house, taking lots of photos, trying to catch the split second when the little beggars stop moving.  I didn't do too badly.  When I looked at the pictures afterwards the thing that struck me was how well each butterfly camouflages itself - there were flowers and foliage of all shapes and colours, but look how neatly they have blended in.

What to do when you run short of fabric...

So, I decided to go with a border in the blue fabric, which has been in the original pull for this quilt but hadn't made it into the string blocks.  Of course there wasn't quite enough, as you can see below.

I cut up everything I had and ended up with enough for three out of four sides.  I did consider not adding the border all the way round, but decided to eke things out by adding some bits of the blue shirt fabric that's already in the quilt.

And then started making more string blocks.

I think I need another 22.  Not sure whether I can get there - you'll see I've started making some much smaller bits and then sewing them together to make 6" squares.  This is not so much playing with scale as trying to use every last bit of fabric.  If I run out, then I'll worry about what I do instead.

AHIQ: new beginnings

This is the 4th Tuesday, which would usually be AHIQ link up  day.  If you are here looking for AHIQ, it now has a blog of its own here.  If you would like to join in, let me know and I'll send you an invitation.  If you have a post you would like to share, but don't want to be a contributor, you can email me and I'll happily add a link for you. If you post on instagram and don't blog, then again, I am happy to add your links.

Breaking my own rule

Some progress I think.  I spend ages fiddling around, as stated in the previous post and couldn't get things how I wanted.  My inclination was to have the brown squares spread around, and the larger blue diagonals in the bottom right corner and that wasn't feasible, since there was a brown square sewn onto the blue.   This is a good example though, of why you should question the rules you set yourself.  I always tend to look at the spread of things (shapes/colours) but what worked best for me in this case was to plonk one big brown bit right next to another one.  This is where it got me.

This is about 60" long but not quite 40" wide.  I have enough blocks already made to add one more column, which I will get on and do  Then I am wondering about some borders. And maybe one more round of squares.  Or something else entirely.