Patches of Destruxion

Hello everyone! My Tula Palooza block for June is finished. This month we are using the Cobblestone pattern, a free pattern from The Fat Quarter Shop available here . This pattern is pieced in strips, not blocks, so it wasn't instantly clear to me how to adapt it to a single block. After doing some maths, I decided to do a miniaturised version of the crib quilt pattern. This still meant I had space for some fussy cutting, so that's where I started for my fabric pull. I chose the fabrics mostly for their colours, but I like that they have a common theme of water. I am also really happy to have a red and green combo that doesn't scream Christmas. To make the most of the fussy cuts, I decided to rotate the design through 90 degrees. This pattern is easy to stitch, but does require some planning to get everything in the right place. So I did a quick sketch. And then on to cutting and sewing. I made a start, and realised I had cut a couple of the green Gi...

Hello everyone! I have been working in a very bitty way on everything recently. I have lots of different things on the go and I work on whichever takes my fancy at the time. I thought I would round up my progress on a few of my more active projects that I haven't been posting about so regularly. Tula Palooza June block This has hit a snag in that I cut some fabric pieces out too small and now I can't find the rest of it to cut some more. I have looked everywhere, it seems to have vanished off the face of the earth. Very annoying. Particularly as I really like how it's coming together. This will get a proper post when I find the fabric / cave in and buy some more. Fortunately, it's not an out-of-print fabric. Fussy cutting forest I last posted about this here  and here , but it has been progressing steadily since then. Here's how it looked in January when I took this pic as a layout guide: Here's how it looks now. I am well over ...

Hello everyone! I am wondering if my lack of motivation for the fussy cutting sewalong in May (read here ) is partly because I have had quite a bit of enthusiasm for my other projects. Some decisions about colours and a couple of fabric purchases mean I have been able to get on with my La Passacaglia quilt. Here's what I have done since my last blog post  about this. This large orange rosette has been expanded. For this one, I stitched the stars as stars, instead of in a different order like I did with the large purple rosette. For that one I was emphasising different shapes and I found stitching the little triangles quite hard going. They are much more fun to stitch like this! Most of the stars in this quilt (and there are lots!) will be more like these ones, so I am looking forward to them much more than I was. I have done some new rosette centres, and added diamonds to a couple more. One has been expanded to have some of the pentagons as well. T...

Hello everyone! After all my enthusiasm in April, I seemed to have much less energy for this sewalong in May. I am not sure why. The theme of animals is a nice, concrete one to work with and I had been looking forward to it. However, even with the downturn in mood I still made 5 blocks in a 4-week month. Week one was whole animal motifs. This was an easy start - I had these fabrics picked out in my head as soon as the prompt details were up. The pairing of cats and milk appealed to my sense of humour. Next up is this Mickey Mouse block. I basically made this one because I had noticed the fabric would work well and I wanted an excuse to make it. And fictional animals were explicitly allowed in the prompt details. Week 2 was mystery sections from the top half of an animal. I really struggled with this one. I played around with my templates on lots of fabrics to find one that would even work. The trouble was if the motif was big enough to isolate a section, then ...

Hello everyone! Here's my May block for the tulapalooza sewalong. This one came together very quickly. The pattern is Sweet Tea by Amy at During Quiet Time and can be purchased from her shop here . Here's my fabric pieces cut out. I knew straight away I wanted to adapt the pattern to allow a large fussy cut of the octopus in the centre. I very much chose the fabrics based on colour rather than design, so this mixes three different Tula lines together. I also wanted to get away from the greens and purples that have dominated the last few blocks. This block came together very quickly! It's a nice simple block and the piecing instructions are very straight forward. I am really happy with it, I like how the cat's eyes and woodgrain emphasises the strippiness of the block. What I am not sure of is how I am going to make it fit with the rest of the blocks in the sampler quilt, because it is a different shape. I am considering squaring it up with more of the ...

Hello everyone! Another selection of hexagons made out of diamonds for you all. This month the theme was Shapes. I was busier than I realised, making a total of 10 starflower over the 5 weeks. We kicked off April with a freestyle week to celebrate being a quarter of the way through the year. I made three for that week. Mostly, I was playing with fabrics I had wanted to use, but not had an opportunity to yet, and returning to the theme of lines. This first one is playing with lines in the centre. Once I had joined the inner diamonds, it reminded me of ironwork railings or balconies. So I chose this delicate floral for the outside and fussy cut it so the flowers looked like they were trailing. The beige backgrounds didn't match as closely as I hoped. Next up, a new layout. I originally cut this out intending to have a traditional layout with the lined fabric in the centre and the dog ears in the outer diamonds. But I saw so many people on IG playing with the la...

Hello everyone! One of the reasons I started this blog was because I wanted to tell the stories of pieces I made in the past, before I had a blog. Seeing as my Mum dropped off this piece at my house a few days ago, I figured this was a good a place to start. This was made in 1989/1990 from a long stitch kit made by Anchor. We were living with my grandfather in Maidstone, Kent at the time. My Mum bought this kit for me. It was the most ambitious long stitch kit I had done at the time. I loved everything about it. The old-fashioned dress and parasol, and the pretty, flowery vintage vibe was very me at the time. The kit provided canvas with the shape outlines marked on, pre-cut lengths of wool and an organiser card for them, and a chart. I had made 2 or 3 kits previously, but I am pretty sure this was the first time I had done French knots. The only thing I dislike about this is the small stitches in the skirt. They weren't on the pattern. Having finished the pattern...