...a poke in the eye

I was all excited about marching on with the cross border after I last posted - I was still undecided about the wide un-pieced border and I decided that I would make the cross border and then see how the options looked.

Then I went to Pilates and got flicked in the eye with a resistance bad. A trip to the Eye & Ear Hospital ensued followed by 7 days of strict bed-rest to ensure the injury was not worsened. The injury, and the treatment, caused my pupils to unevenly dilate. And meant that my vision, especially fine detail, was and still is pretty blurry. 

 So Marcelle had to wait. Yesterday though I'd had enough waiting and got sewing again.

I had started cutting the background for the cross border with one eye and I finished cutting and sewing it yesterday the same way. Not recommended, but I still have all my fingertips and a new border so it wasn't all bad. 

I'm just making a final decision on the corner stones and then hopefully I can finish the top this week. Really hoping my vision will return to normal so I can baste and get to the quilting this (Melbourne Cup) weekend!

...still getting to know Marcelle

After I last posted last time we had some friends come to stay and the Quilty Cave was given over to bedroom duties. All that meant that the flying geese border didn't get cut and made until yesterday.

Like The Elven Garden I separated my four colours and made the flying geese from the warm colours and the bricks border from the cool colours. I think this works well to ensure they stand apart from each other.

I'm pondering a fabric choice for the next border now. Thoughts? I'm thinking one of these or the pink down the bottom in the more pink colourway. It's patches from Sarah Fielke's new range at Spotlight.

...more progress on the Marcelle Medallion

After I got the centre star sewn last week and added the first border I felt a little 'meh' about the colours I had chosen. In my head I had strong colours contrasting with black (where the low volume fabrics are used in the original) and on reflection I knew that the fabrics I had chosen weren't strong enough colours. 

So I started again. I used Color Scheme designer to help me clarify the colour scheme I wanted to use - especially as I am still hoping to make this one entirely from stash. 

I was still a little dubious at this point but then I added the 60 degree triangle border and I was sold on the colour scheme. 

I've added border 3 and next up are the flying geese. 

I am hoping to get these cut out tonight or tomorrow as my sewing 'cave' will be converted to a bedroom for guests next weekend so I'd like to have it sewn on this week. We'll see though - they are a funny size!

...Marcelle Medallion Quilt Along

Several months ago I bought the fist copy of this magazine because of the quilt on the cover and then later a bought this book with the pattern in it as well. 

Until last week I hadn't started it. I'm still only as far as the center and border one but we'll see how it goes. 

Thanks to Penny for the push to get started by hosting the QAL. 

...have you checked this out?

Have you checked out the Umbrella Prints Trimmings competition Pinterest board for this year?

There are heaps of inspiring projects - and if you re-pin an item from the board you will be voting in the Peoples Choice Award! Voting is open until June 5th, 12am Australian Central Standard Time.

...what's the time?

Because I save most of my sewing for the weekend I can sometimes get stuck into things and lose track of time - and not least because until tonight I didn't have a way to tell the time in the sewing room. 

But last weekend - when 6:30pm arrived without due warning I decided enough was enough and I pulled out my Trimmings pack. 

I traced numbers the numbers onto visoflix, fused them to the 'trimmimgs' and then I cut them out and fused them on to a piece of cotton/hemp fabric I had in my stash.

 I sewed a running stitch just inside the number to secure it to the background and then again just outside to define them slightly more.

I also added a small spool of thread to the centre of the clock face. The print offered a number of thin lines in one direction and I back-stitched lines perpendicular to make the 'thread'.

All done! I'm pretty happy with it!

...a roadblock - my Made to Measure Quilt

I am a prolific collector of quilt books. Can help it. I find them really inspiring. Within their pages there must be hundreds of quilts that I would like to make 'one day'. So it was no real surprise to myself that I pre-ordered Sarah Fielke's new book, Hand Quilted with Love earlier this year. The bigger surprise, at least to myself, is that I started a quilt from its pages on the day it arrived!

I had been hanging about on Twitter and Instagram in the weeks before Easter and a Quilt Along had been got up. I got sucked in - a combination of inspired, Easter weekend and a cupboard full of fabric.

The pictures show the medallion quilt growingv.

And stopping right as it reached the edge of my bed.

There are two more borders to grow and I have hit a roadblock.

See I'm not confident in choosing colour scheme when it comes to a scrappy many fabric quilt like this one. So armed with a desire to start right now I decided to work from what I had. Where there was pink in Sarah's I went with that, black I chose a black print. my shades are very different and consequently so is the whole look but it gave me some structure to my fabric choices.

 

It was working until I got to the yellow in the second to final HST/Flying Geese border. All the yellows I had a brown base. I went ahead and used it, but my slowing work rate should have warned me that I wasn't sold on the look.

I think that to continue with a yellow I need a green-y yellow but there are none of them in my stash and I can't find any in the stores either.  It has been suggested that I substitute turquoise (picking up some hints of colour in earlier fabrics).

I'll need to hunt some out but the theory has promise, I think. Opinions?