BOM 16 - Playpen

C16 Playpen

Well I suppose at some stage I had to have an English Paper Piecing block in a quilt of hexagons. As many of you will already know I didn't make this using EPP but with regular piecing but have included the papers for people who like that method.

This block contains one of my favourite blocks, Yvonne's Mystery which is a miniature feathered star.  Cute isn't it?

Feathered Stars

	I have been having some fun lately working with the feathered star. The versions below are ones which I made in previous attempts but my latest is definitely my favourite. So much so that I have even cut out the fabric for six more. I have drawn up the foundation papers and when I buy some paper I will get stuck into printing the papers and that will only leave finding time to actually sew the pieces together.
Another project for when my attention refocuses here again Isn't it amazing what a different colour placement makes. All of these blocks are identical but for the different placement of the background fabric and the feature fabric.

Collection 42 and Carol

Collection 42	Well Carol has definitely been busy. Here we have the entire C42 and you couldn't ask for a prettier selection.  I have no idea why Bouquet for Mary was named as it was. The name just seemed appropriate .. even though I don't know a Mary :)	C42 Bouquet for Mary
The central star in Reaching Out looks like someone reaching out to others, like the children's game Blind Man's Bluff.	C42 Christabella	The blue fabric in the original block was a beautiful (bella) scrap from a friend Chris.
C42 Reaching Out	A star Within a star the name comes purely from the design.	C42 Within
Where would a garden be without glorious flowers. Alone nothing but together so vibrant and joyful... the Two of Us or the two of them ... really doesn't matter.	C42 The Two of Us	There are many gems but one of the prettiest has to be emerald green and Ruby Red.
C42 Twirling Dervish	Twirling Dervish  are traditional male dancers seen in the Istanbul, Turkey. You may see a video here of some of these amazing men in action.	C42 Ruby Red

Collection 2 revisited in Nursery Rhymes

Collection 2	Well here are a few more blocks from Nursery Rhymes. All of these come from Collection 2 and so I have included it here so you can compare. As you can see these fabrics still have a similar feeling to those from the original Raconteur. I again stayed with the pale or light background and the stronger colour for the feature.
This time around I am keeping the one fabric for the background throughout and I'm not too sure that I like it. Unfortunately I have cut and sewn too many blocks to go back and redo them. We will see what the finished quilt looks like.  I have added another border this time around  as I wanted to try a different kind of sashing.	C2 Cafe Creme block 2
C2 I Love Lucy	Although it looks like just another round of border that is only because of my poor photoshop skills. The outer colour border is in truth a set of whirling arms.  The idea was good but I am having difficulties with the layout and so am having to work another design.
The problem of the whirling arms was that the blocks end up sitting slightly off straight as I didn't guess the correct width to use for the sashing. I have been trying out different options on the computer but none have really excited me.	C2 Creme de Chantilly

Carol & Collection 44

C44 Khanam's Gift	Three blocks from Collection 44, where as you can see I decided to really get into the curves. Carol completed these using EPP and appliqué, while I completed them using the old fashioned trace the template and sew along the lines trick....old tricks never fail as they say... I never appliqué unless desperate and even curves don't make me that desperate:)
C44 Morning After	C44 First Flower

C44 Stripes Rule

And just so you didn't think I was the kind of person to get into a rut... a few straight lines almost hidden by more straight lines

Collection 41

Again you can see Carol's colour choices are so much more vibrant than the originals. Don't you just love patchwork you are never sure what you will finish with?

	C41 Halloween
C41 Twisted Bunting	C41 Let Me Fly
C41 Mud Pies	C41 Summer Frock

Nursery Rhymes - unnamed

Unnamed 1	Nursery Rhymes is a quilt that I have been working on for the past twelve months I think. I had an idea to make a larger version of Raconteur using the Raconteur 141 blocks. Most of the blocks in this quilt have been simply the blocks taken from Raconteur and then enlarged.
I wanted another hand pieced project and so chose blocks which were best for hand piecing but which also would look good in the larger size. I'm not sure how many blocks I have finished so far but I don't have many more to go until I have enough for the baby quilt I plan to make...that's where the quilt title came from.	Unnamed 2
Unnamed 3	These three blocks are not from the original quilt. While working out which blocks I would use I occasionally felt like playing around with the design and viola these appeared. I liked them and thus they were made up. I haven't yet worked out a name for them but it will appear..someday soon I hope.