Two blocks challenge: done and dusted

My piecing has slowed down this month, but at least my quilting has benefited.  Here's the quilt I made for the AHIQ two-blocks challenge.

I bound it with a really pretty Monaluna print that, honestly, I would have liked to use for something else, but of all the options I tried it was the best by quite a distance, so binding it became.

I started this on 25th April and finished piecing on 27th June 2017.

Started quilting on 1st October and finished on 29th November this year.

The wadding is the 70/30 all recycled mix that I am using for most of my utility quilts and it was quilted with this handquilting thread, which was new to me.  I was perfectly happy with it, though to be honest I bought it mostly because it came on wooden reels rather than plastic.  

Mr SewSlowly says it looks "old-fashioned" in a way that leaves me not entirely sure if that's a compliment or not, but I like it a lot. The thing I like the best is that it is a finished quilt, in a year when finishes have been few and far between!

AHIQ: share your improv #22

I'm done!  

I'm very happy with how this has turned out, especially given that it has caused a few headaches along the way.  I know I set this challenge, but it didn't really feel like that as I was working on it - there were definitely one or two moments when I wished I'd suggested something easier, or hadn't felt the urge to make those big log cabin blocks. But sticking with it was good for me. Working with the bigger pieces took me a bit outside my comfort zone, and figuring out how to combine them with the triangles taught me a lot: who knew that the triangles would read as the quiet spaces?  

Now I just want to quilt it, but there is still a backlog so I'm going to take a week or two off piecing (mostly), mull over possible new projects and put in some extra hours with my needle and thread.

A quick general note about these challenges: we have working on the theory of one every three months, just because that seemed manageable.  But, and I can't emphasise this enough, you are welcome to link any (improv) project at any time. I know some people are still working on the first challenge and that's fine. Others have already done a piece for the second challenge and that's fine.  Still others have improv pieces that are not a response to a challenge at all and that too is fine.  If you've done something you want to share, just go ahead and link.

An InLinkz Link-up

Nearly there

There was just one wee gap left to fill...

 ...and I had quite a few bits and pieces waiting to be used...

...so I made a few more, tinkered around a bit and filled it.

I've even made on sewing all my bits together.  I think I have an order that will work, though there are lots of partial seams ahead.  The first few went without incident, so fingers crossed.  All being well I am on track to finish in time for next week's AHIQ linkup on Tuesday.

Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Friday and NinaMarie for Off the Wall.

Quick update with no waffle

I am still making triangles, and making progress. There's not much more to say about it right now, so I won't waffle on, but here's the latest bit all filled in.  

I rather like this one!

Linking up with Linda and Julie for Sew, Stitch, Snap, Share.

Storing up trouble

As promised I went away and made more triangles, and refilled the gap up in the top left-hand corner.  This time I just used triangles instead of including a little lob cabin block.  I can't quite decide if I like this or not, but if I change my mind it's easy enough to rework.  I think once I've got things straight on the other side, though, that it will look fine as it is.

And here's a quick look at the bigger picture, so to speak.

As yet I haven't sewn many of these chunks together.  That's because what is pleasing to my eye will be a bit of a nightmare to piece - lots of partial seams and so on, but I am trying not to think about that yet, since I really need to get the whole lot done before I can work out the best order to sew in.  There may, though, be a week of blog silence at some point soon while I go off and bang my head against a wall somewhere.

In the meantime I've gone back over to the right-hand side of things and am playing around with this.

Since it's Friday I'm linking up with NinaMarie for Off the Wall.

I brought this on myself!

Ho hum, I'm still plugging away at this but one of the results of deciding that the triangle strips are functioning as the quiet spaces in this quilt is that I am spending ages, and ages, and ages making endless wee triangles.  Strangely I don't seem to mind this too much, despite my generally short attention span, though I do get a bit demob happy when I can stop making the strips and actually put together a chunk of quilt.  

After lots of tinkering I filled in the gap (bottom right in the picture below) that I had been puzzling over...

so that the left-hand side of things was looking like this.

But no sooner was that done than I decided that little piece was exactly somewhere else - down on the bottom right, in fact.

So I moved it.  The bottom right now looks like this and the top left has a neat rectangular gap, which I will have to fill in again.

But before I can do that, I need to make more triangles.

Sewing not ironing

Finally, I think I've got it.

Here's the bottom bit with an added stripe:

And here's the left-hand side, with a nice big area of triangles and some wider strips - mostly laid out and not yet sewn, but only because I've got to work out what happens at the top next and I want to add one more bit along the bottom. 

Everything's a bit wrinkly, but it gets folded up and put in a box, and if I ironed it every time it came out my blog would have to be called 'Ironing with a bit of sewing on the side'.

Small pauses

There's not much sewing going on here this week, but I have continued to mull over this question of space.  Last time I posted I used the expression 'negative space', though I realise that it's not quite right.  It really is more about creating little resting spaces for the eye, visual pauses, like the places in a musical score where you can take a breath.  

My plan is now two-fold: I am going to use some bigger pieces of the striped shirtings but I am also playing around with putting together larger areas of triangles.  This picture has both of these options going on, just to give you an idea.

I think this combination might get me where I want to go.

Considering negative space

Last week's AHIQ posts by Monica, Ann and Sharon and a comment here, also by Sharon, have prompted me to think about making choices as I work, and specifically to consider negative space.  It's pretty clear from my quilts that it's not a concept I spend a lot of time pondering; my approach seems generally to be not so much 'less is more', but rather 'more is more'.  However there's a time and a place and maybe this is it.  

I had moved my latest chunk down to the bottom and paired it with one of the big blocks, but it's not quite working for me - just a bit too busy I think.  So I sat there, pondering the image of the existing blocks floating in white space, or grey space.  Eventually I came to the conclusion that I will try using my striped shirtings in bigger pieces (for as long as they last), to try and add extra quiet space around the quilt.  I haven't sewn anything together, but you can see I've laid out a couple of bigger bits, just to see what I think.

My intention now is to separate those two bits at the bottom, either with a triangle strip or, more likely, with one of these shirting strips. 

Another day's work...

Just a few quick shots of what I've been playing around with.

Thinking about ways of filling in the spaces between the big blocks and also pondering the questions of what needs to go on vertically and how many triangle bits I can bring myself to make.

I've now got this bit in the bottom left-hand corner, though as it happens that's not where it's going to end up, just where I had floor space.

Linking up with Linda at Kokaquilts and JulieLou for sew stitch snap share.

AHIQ- share your improv #21

I'm still plugging away at this.  The fourth big square is finished.

and I've made a couple of smaller ones too.

I think the challenge with these very square blocks is still how to stop everything looking static and lumpy, so before I put the bits away yesterday I tried moving things around a bit to see what I thought.  

I don't know that this makes much difference, but it all helps.   Right now I am wondering if I can introduce a few more vertical pieces and keep varying the size of my housetop blocks;  tomorrow I may have other ideas.

Since this is AHIQ week, I want to say thanks to everyone who is joining us in this latest adventure.  I have seen some projects here and there over the last month and, as with the Chinese Coins, am fascinated to see how different people go about tackling the theme.  It's definitely provided me with some food for thought already.

Still making bits

I think the bit-making phase of this quilt is going to be a long one; that's what I get for deciding little triangles were the way to go instead of enormous strip sets.  

But progress is being made. I have now made three of the big blocks

and the fourth is underway. Each one is different. The individual quarter blocks are not measured so vary in size.  When I come to sew four together this dictates what happens.  If the two quarters match, I sew them together without tweaking; if they don't then I add a strip, or some triangles.  Then I look at the next two.  I like the variations.

 Right now my floor looks like this.

I should note that I am not making assumptions about layout yet, but this arrangement is the easiest way to fit everything into a photo without taking in swathes of mess around the edges.  I am pretty sure that the centre piece in the picture about will be in the centre of the quilt, but beyond that it's all still up for grabs.  

Now there is a pile of little triangle-y bits waiting for me, so back to work.

Groundwork

The bulk of my time now is going on making bits and pieces.  I've done a pile of smaller housetop blocks, like these:

and loads of little triangle bits.  I like how they look, but it does take ages to turn out a decent number of them.  

To keep myself interested I stop every so often for a play, like this.

I'm not making any firm decisions, but it's fun to move things around and get a feel for what I like and I guess it's all groundwork too.

Another small step

Pointy bits added, top right and bottom left, and then the two sides joined together.  Then I've added another row of triangles across the bottom, only these are a bit bigger.  I went back to my stash and pulled out a minty green Grunge for this.  It works well with the other fabrics and provides another little quiet space amongst all the pattern. That's the theory, anyway.

I don't want to make all my bits the same so the next one, (bottom left in the picture below) has just got one little strip on the top right, though I'm thinking I'll add some across the bottom too.  The third set I haven't done anything with yet.  

Next up, I clearly need to make some more blocks and some more triangles strips.  I'm thinking of mixing up the sizes a bit too.

Linking up with NinaMarie for Off the Wall Friday.

1+1

The big question circling my brain for the last few days has been what should I add to my housetop blocks.  A quick gallop through my thought process would go: pinwheel, hourglass, pinwheel, a different version of log cabin, hourglass...What this amounts to is that I was having a hard time letting go of what had been in my head way back when, even though I had abandoned the initial plans.  I'm sure that you could shut your eyes, pick one of the options and, with a bit of application, come up with something that worked.  But I didn't do that.  Instead I engaged my brain and tried to understand why I couldn't settle.

The answer I came up with was that in all cases what I pictured in my head was too static - just a collection of big, square blocks with different things in them.  Again, that's I'm pretty sure tha's not how it would be if I sewed them, but it's definitely what happened when I just conjured up a mental image.

So I moved away from square-based options and made this long, thin, pointy thing instead.

This, in fact, is not unlike the long, thin, pointy things I was in love with before I even started, so it pleases me inordinately that I have ended up here.

Of course nothing is simple: my housetops are nice and big, but when I made a big pointy triangle strip I didn't like it, so this one is teeny. It seems like my mind just likes lots of little pieces; wherever I start from, they sneak in somewhere along the way.  Ho hum.  

I added the strip down the left hand side first, but now I've added one at the top on the right too.  I have a cunning plan.  I also have socks that match my sewing.

I'm linking this post up with Linda and Julie for Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE.

Three,six, nine

I have gone from 6 housetop blocks to 9...

and from 9 to 12. 

I don't like the middle one here, (I want to separate those two red strips with the little birds) but it doesn't matter as they are reorganised every time I get them out of their box.

I have laid them out in random formations and in more orderly groupings. I have had them facing in and out, left and right, up and done. I have even contemplated slicing into them.  Right now I'm still just fiddling about, to be honest, getting a feel for things (can you tell?)

I could just keep on making on doing what I'm doing; it's good, clean fun, and I'm not doing any harm,  but really I need to decide what direction I'm heading in next so that I don't waste fabric making blocks I don't end up using.  

Capitulating

Having spent a day or two letting things simmer while I attended a funeral, mopped up quite a lot of sick and enjoyed a very pleasant walk in the bluebell woods, I came back to my unco-operative fabrics.   

For the curious amongst you, I had originally thought I would keep it simple and carry on with the pinwheels I used in last quilt, but had then been distracted by this combination of pointy triangles and cross blocks, which I love.  But no, instead I'm making these housetop/quarter log cabins.  They weren't on the my radar at all, and to be honest I'm a bit scared of them as I think it would be easy to end up with something very predictable.

I also have, of course, not a clue what else I am going to put with them, or how it will all hang together, but there you go; I've made a start and will have to feel my way for now.  Before I do anything else I'm going to make a few more of these, sticking to the fabrics I've already used, and see how that feels.  

All part of the fun, I guess!