Monday, April 9, 2007

Play time --

Since I've finished dd's new heart quilt, and work and school are about to become very busy I am at a point where I really don't want to start a new quilt. (ok, not quite true -- I WANT to start about three quilts, I have an idea for the Dick and Jane fabrics, there is my mil's Christmas present, and a few other "projects" I've had on the back burner for so long I need to revisit them. But TIME, TIME I won't have for another month.) So, what to do? More bags are an option -- I have tons of FQs left from dd's quilt and in addition to the drawstring bags I've shown here, I have a few other patterns that don't call for much more. Plus, really, how hard could it be to come up with my own little bag without a pattern?

But -- well, I really wanted a chance to play a bit. What to do? I had seen this post from Tracey at ozcountryquiltingmum about what she had done with some extra HST blocks. I had a stack of orphan HST's (thanks to Tonya for the name "Orphan" block -- I like it much more than either mistake or leftovers. Mistakes -- well, who wants to admit to or deal with them? Leftovers give me visions of the nasty containers that get shoved to the back of the refrigerator and eventually find their way into the garbage. But orphans -- orphans I feel for. They deserve to find a home.) from the quilt I made for my mother for Christmas this year (still looking for a picture of this one - I swear it's around here somewhere). I decide to play!

It was a lot of fun just cutting them up and mixing and matching to see how they could be arranged. The two blocks I ended up with (with a couple of squares of other scraps from Mom's quilt) I really like. I still have some more orphan HST's -- I'm thinking about reversing the colors and having the white be the points rather than the background.

Other than this bit of fun playing, the weekend was pretty laid back. A trip to pick up my mil at the airport ended up in a stop on the way home at a quilt shop I love but don't get to often because of distance. I found a few things -- but not as much as I could have. My mil bought some fun fabrics for me to turn into a purse for her and a fun little crafty project that makes fabric origami stars and bags. We got to play with these on Easter Sunday when the inlaws came over for dinner.




The Easter Bunny brought dd a bubble blowing dragon (the package says dinosaur -- but who ever heard about a bubble breathing dinosaur? Now a bubble breathing dragon I will buy) and it was sunny for long enough for us to take him outside for a test drive. She loved chasing after the bubbles! All in all, a great weekend -- a bit of the cleaning I mentioned before done, most not. But I think I spent my time much more productively playing with bubbles and fabric than with dust bunnies!

7 comments:

Kim said...

How fun! I like what you did with those blocks! Tracey's post fascinated me too (as did Happy Valley Quilter's April 3rd post about her Pioneer Picnic quilt).

Helen in the UK said...

Love what you've done with your orphan blocks. Beautiful colours too :)

Paula, the quilter said...

I just did a bit of archive reading on your blog and I just love your color sense.

Elaine Adair said...

Oh my, another wonderful Blog! And from a fellow (former) Illinois quilter! I'll be back when I have more time to look at everything! You're getting added to my Bloglines!

Tracey @ozcountryquiltingmum said...

Yum, yum-that way of putting them together looks great!! It really is pure fun coming up with new ways to use the old (or orphan!)Well done. Cheers, Tracey
ps, do you think there is something wrong with us that this type of playing is high excitement indeed..or just something wrong with those who don't agree??

Anonymous said...

LOVE the hot pink and lime green together!

dot said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I clicked over to your blog for a visit and what a surprise to see your beautiful quiilts. I love your color choices, so bright and cheery. Your stars are wonderful. I will mark your blog as a favorite and follow your progress.