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.

BOM 15 - Searching

C15 Searching

How appropriate! The name for the BOM this month is Searching and I'm positive I will receive a few emails from people asking me whatever happened to BOM14. They will be positive that last month they picked up 12 or perhaps they will think they had missed a month and so will search their files. But no they/you haven't missed anything. There is no BOM14 because Collection 14 is one of the side collections and rather than using regular hexagons I have used extended hexagons for those collections. 

The BOM series will make a wallhanging, either small if only using seven blocks or large if using 49 blocks. Neither wallhanging needs the extended hexagons and so when we reach one of those collections I simply miss it.

Although I hand pieced Searching, (what else did you expect?) the instructions include foundation piecing templates. Happy sewing and looking forward to seeing photos of your work.

Collection 39 Variations

	Here it is another collection of changes.  I am amazed at how quickly Carol is finishing all of her blocks. Surely she gets as much enjoyment out of sewing as I do.	C39 Tutu in the Snow
C39 Monkey in the Middle	C39 Cotton Candy	C39 Fluorescent
C39 Reflections	C39 Mums for Mum	C39 New Grid

Georgina's Blocks

C5 Behind the Walls

I was working my way through my photos today and realised I hadn't yet uploaded these two blocks by Georgina. She initially decide to do all of her blocks blue on blue but is now tending towards blue on light. Personally I think both look good and am looking forward to seeing what she does long term. These look beaut and will go well with both ideas.

C39 Tut in the Snow

Colour was one of the problems I had when I started Raconteur. I had intended for it to be a pastel quilt but found after quite a number of blocks that I needed more 'life' in the colours and so then added brighter pastels. Even at the end I was still changing colours and remade about twenty blocks just because I didn't like the colours.

Collection 38

C38 Couer d'Or	C38 Round and Round
C38 Strawberry Shortcake	Carol is still powering along. To be truthful she is ahead of me..she sews quicker than I can photoshop and upload! I think I still have more than ten photos to crop and put up for you to see. Isn't it wonderful to see what she does. I find it amazing that she is still going with EPP but it does go to show that everyone has their own way and whichever method suits you is the best for you.

Collection 36 & 37

C36 The Dish	C37 Alexander's Gold	C37 Fish Kiss
Well you have to admit that Carol is going to have one WOW quilt. I thought you might like to see the original blocks and Carol's.		Of these blocks Alexander's Gold would be my favourite. Alex was a gorgeous boy whom I taught for several years. He had many problems but there was a real sunshine in him.
C37 Bounds of Hope	C37 Summer Sun	C37 Temple Within

Another Gift from Carol

Today is my birthday and so for anyone passing here are two gifts for you. Both are new designs by Carol. She has been finding a lot of inspiration in projects she has made previously and has been rescaling these to fit in with Raconteur. Curiosity is a modification of a table runner Carol made several years ago. 

Raconteur is such a wonderful project as it allows you to incorporate other designs you have if you rescale them.

Original - Curiosity	Carol's original layout Templates for this Curiosity may be found here.
Rose Garden was made while Carol was designing a project for some women she sews with. she planned to make this in six inch size for her project but couldn't resist making a block for Raconteur. Gorgeous fabric isn't it. Templates for Rose Garden may be found here	Original - Rose Garden

Something a Little Bit Different

A few years ago I entered a block into Quiltmakers 100 Blocks competition and luckily it was chosen. The block was called Yvonne's Mystery as I had designed it for Yvonne, one of my students who wanted to do something different. As we were unsure of where we were going with the quilt it was a mystery. This morning someone asked me to design her a quilt based on this block and here are my first two attempts. Be interesting to see what her  thoughts are on these.

Isn't it amazing the difference colour placement makes. both blocks are the same but I have swapped the light and dark value in most places for the darker block. It will be interesting to see which block Linda decides to go with... and then we will see what ideas we can come up with for the border. I have a few more of this also...another mystery.

More of Carol and me!

Another couple of blocks from Carol plus my Nursery Rhymes quilt. I am glad that I have finished Raconteur as I am simply falling in love with Carol's fabrics and colours. Were it not that there really is a limit to one's obsessiveness I might have considered redoing my blocks. 

C36 Starburst	C36 Starburst
C37 Stolen Threads	C37 Stolen Threads

Actually I don't know if I told you this before but there was a time I did consider redoing the quilt. I had made about 100 and was talking with Margaret from Oak flats who was saying that Raconteur would be the perfect quilt for Civil War reproduction fabrics. I had to agree with her and went home and did no more for a few weeks while I seriously considered if it was worth redoing those blocks. Thankfully I came to my senses and continued with my scrappy version. 

 I have since attempted to make a couple of other quilts using civil War reproductions and although the fabrics are gorgeous the final result leaves me totally unimpressed. I suspect it suffers from the same difficulty that Nursery Rhymes is suffering ..too much restriction. I do a lot better with pick up two fabrics that go together and see what evolves.