Patches of Destruxion

Hello everyone! My April Tula Palooza sewalong block is done. This month we are doing Wildwood, a free pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop, available here . Using the block size in the pattern would have meant I could have fitted in 4 squares to create a single block. I decided that wasn't enough, so I shrunk the dimensions a bit to make a 9-patch. For fabric choices, I was sure very early on that I wanted to do an orange to pink gradient, but I was completely stumped over the background choice. I auditioned several possibilities before settling on the purple De La Luna. Then on to cutting and piecing. Other than the series of mistakes mentioned here , this went together quickly and smoothly. So here it is finished! I like it. Hubby says he likes the colours, even though he can't see the gradient effect I was going for. It runs through the block diagonally from bottom right to top left. So, onwards to May! Thanks for reading!

Now that it has finally found a home, I can share the story of this mini quilt with you all. This is my first finish of 2019, Springtime Cabin! I made this for a swap. It was a secret swap, meaning we didn't know who was making for us. I did some sketches here after I first signed up for the swap. However when the rules and partner info came through from the host, they specified a minimum of 9 log cabin blocks, and none of those ideas really matched my partner's mosaic of things she liked. I used these two pics from my partner's mosaic as my starting point (these are obviously not my work or photos - happy to give proper credit to the artists if anyone recognizes them). Here's my sketch of the new design. This got positive feedback from the swap group on IG, although the person it was intended for didn't comment. So I decided to stick with this design, and made a test block. After a very brief, disastrous attempt at machine FPP, I elected trad...

Bernie at Needle and Foot  is doing a blog-along this week, in which we talk about our imperfections. It is intended as a counterpoint to the polished images of apparent perfection that are all over IG and Pinterest. Thanks to Wendy's Pieceful Thoughts blog for telling me about this. First up, I know my sewing is a long way from perfect and I generally do mention mistakes and difficulties. But I still edit, downplay problems and leave things out. I take at least half a dozen photos of everything and usually only one or two are even usable, due to poor focus or shadows of the phone. Most of them look like this. Admittedly my camera focus has improved since I got new glasses a couple of weeks ago. So, sewing mistakes. My general policy is to unpick as little as possible. Make it a feature, quilt it so it doesn't show, accept that the finished item will be less than perfect. But that's not always possible.  Let's look at the mistakes I was making/fixing on Monday...