Moda Building Blocks: done!

After a year of piecing the beautiful Moda building blocks quilt top is done!

It's so big I had to cut the corners off the picture to get it to fit on screen! 

I pieced this quilt as part of the Simply Solids block of the month project and slowly but surely it's been coming together. 

This was one of the better block of the month projects I was doing this year: it had a good variety of blocks (although no curves, foundation or paper piecing, inset seams etc.) and definitely forced me out of my comfort zone for piecing. Having initially cursed Moda's technique for cutting and piecing flying geese and half square triangles (bias anyone?!) it's now my favourite way to piece these units. No more flippy corners for me! 

For the backing I've chosen a very simple monochrome text. As front is so colourful and busy, I didn't want the back to fight with or detract from the front. I love that the names of some of the fabrics used in the top are listed on the back.

The added bonus with this project is the sheer volume of fabric I have left over. At the beginning of the project Simply Solids warned us to retain our scraps as we'd need them later on. So over the course of the year I've been retaining and re-using any scraps over 1". Which means at the end of the year I've ended up with this stash 

That's at least 15 fat quarters or half yards of white and numerous fat quarters of half yards of colours from across the Kona range. I've set aside the colours to make the Elizabeth Hartman Patchwork City quilt, perhaps supplementing from my print scraps. 

The white is going to be used for another project coming up. 

But as soon as one door closes, another opens. Starting this month is Don't Call Me Betsy's Epic Sampler Block of the Month project and I've got my fabric all ready to go! 

Almost there

Some more sneaky BOM progress today - this time on the Moda Building Blocks project by Simply Solids.

I just love the clean geometric lines of these blocks. They're just so...straight. Which is more than can be said for my photo.

Once again I managed to piece these little 6.5" raw blocks from scraps so didn't have to cut into the fabric posted to me. Score! Into the stash those lovely fat quarters go.

I think we must be almost at the end of this project. This month's blocks included block 47 which is the penultimate block in the pack. I know we're not working through the blocks in order but still, there don't seem to be many we haven't done.

Of course the closer I get to the end of this project, the closer I get to having to actually piece the Elizabeth Hartman Patchwork City pattern I've convinced myself I'm going to put these rainbow scraps towards. Maybe later in the year? Yeah right...

Scrappy Saturday?

Yesterday I wrote about the sheer volume of scraps I keep (basically everything!) and how completely unsorted they are (bad girl, bad!).

But there's one project I have ongoing where the scraps beat all others. They are numerous and large. The behemoth of scraps if you like - Moda's Building blocks BOM from Simply Solids.

At the beginning of this project I *think* we were told to save our scraps as we would be reusing FQs from one  month's block in future months. As a result I've been diligently saving every little scrap (well ok, bigger than 1") and using those scraps in future months.

As you can see they're all carefully labelled by colour, except for the whites which are just thrown all together.

It seems however that the Simply Solids team have been awesome and are actually sending us fresh cuts each month. Which means that my scraps pile for this project alone has grown and grown.

Yes, those are FQs of Kona Snow, 14 in all.

Once this project is completed I'm going to decide what to do with my scraps. I could throw them into my general stash but I feel that there's so many, I could tackle another project. Maybe Elizabeth Hartman's Patchwork City?

Two quilts out of one stash? Score.

The sound of silence: not finishing anything up Friday

It's been a bad migraine week (I've contemplated voluntarily donating my brain to medical science whilst still alive) but, amidst it all I had a rather strange revelation - I don't have anything on my cutting mat. I have nothing to bring to the show-and-tell that is "Finish it up Friday".

Well, TBH that's not quite true - I have all those UFOs I recently mentioned but, with His Highness away, I don't have anyone to assist me with basting.

I have my block of the month projects but I'm up to date (smug level: high).

I have the Lets Talk About William commission but I'm waiting for the clients to confirm they're happy with the mock up.

I'm halfway through my Carol Doak paper foundation pieced stars so I could get on with more of those. But what else shall I do too - I can't just have one project going on.

Should I start the Jaybird Quilts Gravity?

Or maybe Elizabeth Hartman's Aviatrix Medallion? 

Decisions, decisions.