January Blues

 Hello there and a happy New Year to you all!

( my post contains affiliate links~please see my disclosure in the sidebar)

The house looks so bare with all ( most) of the decorations taken down and I don't care for it AT ALL! I asked my husband to just leave the Christmas lights on the house for now, until I get sick of them, which may be never ( or Easter~who knows?). I did squirrel away the fairy lights that I used over Christmas and am seriously considering hanging those in my quilt room to make it look cozy and festive all year round,, and very briefly thought of  leaving a few smaller evergreen trees clumped together on the landing to make a little make-do forest, but then practicality got the better of me and they were put away until next season.

Over the Christmas holidays we got to spend lots of time as a family and it was wonderful! So creating got put on hold until this week, when routines returned somewhat to normal.

I decided to pull out a not-so-old UFO to work on in January:

I think I started this quilt 2 years back? It is from the book by Susan Smith, called Somewhat In The Middle ( click).

The pattern I'm working on is called The Garden at Ederveen and  I love it because the little tulips done in blue just give a Delft Blue tile vibe that I couldn't resist. ( The rest of the book has some great quilts too, but this is the one I just HAD to start with :D ).

I had already made a whole load of the little blocks, but not quite enough for the 49 the original pattern calls for, so I decided to make do with what I had ( and had to make just one extra) and change the pattern just a little bit....sorry, Susan!

I also cheated quite a bit and used fusible applique ( EEEEK, the horror!), rather than needle-turn applique simply because needle-turn and I do NOT get along ( nope, I have tried it a few times and I just do not care for it). So anyway, all my shapes are fused, and I zig-zagged the circles on my sewing machine, but then DID handstitch all those shapes down with my all-time favorite thread ( click).

So now that I have completed my blocks, I am figuring out how to finish the rest of the quilt top...the measurements in the pattern don't match my blocks anymore, so I saw this as an opportunity to make a few ( ahem) changes. 

I thought a border of flying geese in dark blue would look very nice, so pulled out my trusty fabric cutter  ( click) and started cutting and sewing A LOT of geese! 

I think those flying geese will look very nice surrounding the "tulip garden", but I only have a little bit of the dark blue left and I'm not sure there will be enough to go around....so now I have to decide whether to add in another color blue, or maybe some red ( because #redisbest!), or maybe do something else altogether....

More updates on this to follow in a future blog post!

Have you gotten back into any fun projects? Please share what it is you're working on in the comments!

Alright, that is all for now. 

Until next time~happy creating!

Monique

little dutch tulips

 hello friends, 

I am back this week to share a little project that has been occupying me in the evenings, and oh , what a wonderful way to fill those evenings, while sitting next to hubby watching television!

You may recall that for Christmas I received this wonderful book, written by Susan Smith, called Somewhat in the Middle. 

It contains some amazing projects designed by Susan. The photos in this book are pure eye candy! But one quilt in particular really caught my eye ( and this may have been the one that prompted me to want this book! ;)). Just look at this beauty:  

( image source: Somewhat in the Middle, by Susan Smith, published by QuiltMania)

I decided that I really needed to start this quilt immediately ....don't you have patterns that are bossy like that?? Anyway, even though I have a healthy ( AHEM!) fabric stash, I did not have enough Delft- Blue- looking- fabrics. A sane person might have waited and done some shopping for the right fabric before starting the project, but not me, no sir! That project had to be started right then and there. So I pulled my blue scraps and got to work. I still wanted to honor the blue theme, but just with a slightly more scrappy look than the original quilt. And here are some of the results: 

I have to admit that at first I didn't like the really scrappy blues...but now I just adore the different fabrics and I am totally smitten with these blocks! 

I did decide to keep all my backgrounds the same color, as well as all the circles, just to have some cohesiveness, but other than that anything ( blue) goes!

Susan uses needleturn applique in all her quilts and I am not a fan of that so I have been using fusible web for my blocks.  

BUT, because I really love doing handwork in the evening, I am using my favorite 12wt Sulky Petites to stitch down all my fused appliques by hand. 

The only thing that I'm opting to do by machine is the circles, because that fabric is very busy and it would be almost impossible to see the stitches ( and yes, I want the stitches to show!), and stitching all those circles by hand would be deadly boring. 

A few people have asked me if I have a circle cutter, and no, I do not ( but wish I did for this project!). But having  great scissors with serrated edges is very helpful!

My husband was curious how many blocks I was going to make. My answer: until it stops being fun. Ha!

I think the original pattern has 56 blocks and I think I have made around 12, so if  I'll make 56 remains to be seen. I do know that using up lots of blue scraps is very satisfying indeed ;).

I have included some links to some of the products I am using, in case you NEED to start your very own Dutch tulip collection . As always, using my links to buy a product doesn't cost you a penny extra, but does provide me with a small commission, which I'm grateful for.

Somewhat in the Middle book by Susan Smith ( click)

Tim Holz serrated scissors ( click).

Fusible web ( click).

Sulky 12wt cotton petites ( click).

Until next time~ happy creating!

Monique