The RSC color for April is light and bright blue. With last month's challenge being teal and aqua, my blue scrap bin has had a workout but still seems full of blue. I love the way blues pop on my design wall!
Cynthia Brunz Irish Chain
Strings
I had help on my strings from Julierose at
Julierose Quilts, who took the time to send me instructions on how she makes her beautiful "Ojos" - thank you Julierose!
Now that my "scrap chores" are over for the month I get to concentrate on other projects, such as this Picket Star block from
Preeti's blog. She has generously created an excellent tutorial for it
right here. Preeti has a perfectly lovely and appropriate name for it, but to me it is simply "Preeti's Block". It makes a big 17-1/2 inch block!
I love this block so much that I ordered more of these luscious fabrics by
Jinny Beyer to make several blocks into a quilt.
One of the online stores where I found my fabric was
Lone Star Quiltworks, a store I had visited in December when we took our grandson and his girlfriend to lunch in their college town. I talked my husband into going early so we could check out the store before we met them. It is a quilter's dream - clean and bright and full of beautiful fabrics! For some reason I migrated toward the long arm machines they had set up. I gave the
Hand-Quilter Simply Sixteen a test drive, and oh my goodness! What a fun time I had easily maneuvering that piece of metal around. We asked the friendly demonstrator several questions before I finally asked "how much is it?" Well at $5995.95, and even with a payment plan, I decided maybe I'd just stick with my domestic Janome. And even if we could afford it, we would have to add on a room for it somewhere - lol! But oh it is fun to dream about it, especially when I'm wrestling a quilt through Miss Janome.
I am adding this post to the other fabulous blogs linking up to Cynthia's
Oh Scrap! and Angela's
Scrap Happy Saturday.
Loving all your "blue" blocks... & Preeti's block and your choice of fabric will make a gOrgeOus quilt...xox
ReplyDeleteYour blue blocks are sparkly! Especially with those tidbits of yellow and red. Your Preeti blocks will be so pretty. I want to make those eventually, too, and will definitely have to buy fabric to make them. My current stash is sorely lacking in big pieces.
ReplyDeleteLook at all those pretty blues on your design wall! I like your variety of blocks, too, Linda. I've admired Julierose's Ojos, too! I bet they'll make a neat quilt design! It's amazing how much those sit down quilting machines cost, isn't it? I wouldn't have space for one either!
ReplyDeleteI see you're making some of Cynthia's blocks. Glad to see I'm not the only one inspired by her blog! The hard part is resisting the temptation to make ALL her fun quilts. Your blue blocks are looking great :)
ReplyDeleteLove the blue! So vibrant. I also love that combination of blue and brown.
ReplyDeleteOh you are so welcome; aren't they fun to make? All of your blues are so lovely...I love that Irish chain a lot...very pretty
ReplyDeletenice work ~ ~ ~ ~waving in my winter coat--brrr Julierose
Lots of lovely BLUE, but Preeti's Block is SEW fantastic!! I'm glad you bought fabric for more blocks. Have fun!
ReplyDeletewow, $6.000 ....amazing. All of the quilt patches you have shown are wonderful~~
ReplyDeleteI would imagine that you couldn't any better with one that expensive as you are doing now! wow, love these.
Thank you Sandy, that is such a sweet thing to say. Yes $6000 is crazy expensive! If I could get busy and sell quilts for a living, maybe I could afford it - lol!
Deletebut then it might not be as fun ...or maybe selling them would as the money rolled in ...heck yeah.
DeleteHah! Well you might be right about not as much fun. I mean, how many quilts would I have to sell to ever be able to recoup the amount we would spend on it - wow!
DeleteYou have such an interesting collection of fabrics, Linda. I really like that fabric with the sketch of a girl. I shared the tutorial - you made it pretty :-) I am glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for the shout-out. Hugs from a safe distance away.
ReplyDeleteMay I ask what model your Janome machine is? I'm at the point where I'm starting to look at buying a new sewing machine and so far it's a toss up between Janome and BabyLock. I have a Bernina and two Singers (9960 Quantum Stylist and an older model, Singer 1914 that uses cams). I love your string quilt blocks. Some day... LOL And I wholeheartedly agree that $6,000 is a bit much to pay for a quilting machine. I don't have room either, unless I want my car to sit outside in the rain, wind and snow. Nope... don't think so.
ReplyDelete