Patches of Destruxion

 Hello everybody! This will only be a short post, as I only did three blocks for this month.  It was only a 3-week month in the sewalong's calendar, and having the kids off school affords me very little spare time for sewing, so I didn't do any extras. Here are my three blocks. The theme was Human, which I found quite hard with my stash, as I don't have a lot of fabric featuring humans. Week 1 was identifiable motifs. Here is my block. Little cowboys. I got really stumped for what to put in the middle of this, I ended up asking for suggestions on Instagram. I got several suggestions for bandanas (I don't have any bandana fabric) and a couple for cows or horses (the few I do have don't work well) but otherwise people suggested solids. I ended up going for this spotty orangey-yellow to evoke the colour of wheat, based on one suggestion I received. The second week was obscure motifs. This was very difficult to find an appropriate fabric for, I ended up settling on this...

Hello everybody! I have caught up on this sewalong for July. I am not that far behind, but I do think if it hadn't been for the wedding I would have made quite a few more blocks on this theme. Which was animals. If I need more blocks for however I decide to join these together, this is a theme I will want to revisit. I made 5 blocks in total for the 4 weeks. The first week was identifiable motifs. I made two quite different blocks.  The first one was this bright toucan block.  I liked how I could fit a pair of toucans into each half hexie. Also, I am not sure what noise toucans make, but I am pretty sure it is covered somewhere in the central hexie.  For the second block, I went a lot more delicate with these butterflies.  The central hexie is a flower cut from my Kaffe Fasset fabric squares, that has also featured in my April post . It felt like the sort of flower that butterflies would flutter around.  The second week was sections from the upper half of an ani...

Hello everybody! Today I want to talk to you about this!  When I got married 16 years ago, my Mum organised for a quilt to be made with half the blocks coming from my side of the family and the other half coming from my husband's. Here we are with the quilt they made us. So, with my sister getting married, my Mum organised the same thing for Vanessa and Jon-Frode. This was done unbeknownst to them, in complete secret and I had the privilege to be one of the people asked to make a block for the quilt. It took me a long time to come up with my concept for this. I wanted to do something that was special to me and Vanessa, that wasn't musical (because I thought music was a bit too obvious). I watched the other people in the secret group posting their blocks, but even though they were all awesome and thoughtful blocks, I remained uninspired.  Eventually, the idea hit me. As children my sister and I had a game we would play, where I was the Fairy of Stilts, and she was the Fairy of ...

Hello everybody! I made myself a whole dress! And wore it as my bridesmaid's dress for my sister's wedding. I am so proud of this. Top pic is a screenshot from a video by Laura Rodder. Don't tap it, it won't play.  I followed this pattern: The Gala Gown  by Patterns for Pirates.  The pattern has lots of options, I chose to do capped sleeves, the lower neckline option, the floor-length skirt, the pockets and the side split in the skirt.  The lace overlay was not part of the pattern, but was something I really wanted to add. I watched a YouTube video from the pattern company, that suggested for an overlay you should put the two pieces one on top of the other, and treat them as one piece. This made a lot of sense to me, however the front bodice is made of three pieces, and I didn't really want to piece the lace. On examining the pattern pieces I noticed the lining was not pieced, so I used the front lining as my pattern for the lace. I stitched the front and back bodic...

Hello everybody! This past month has been pretty busy for me on the sewing front, not least because I have been working on making myself a bridesmaid's dress for my sister's wedding (more to follow soon!). So this sewalong has been on the back burner, and I have only made 1 block per week - so just the 4 blocks this month. The theme this month has been Travel. I have been quite frustrated at my inability to travel internationally over the last few years - I haven't been abroad at all since 2014, and I haven't had a proper holiday abroad since 2012. That also makes a focus on the topic quite difficult for me, perhaps another reason why I didn't make so many blocks this month. The first prompt was identifiable motifs.  This block is an ode to my last proper holiday - a trip to Istanbul in 20012. The boats represent cruising down the Bosphorus, and the central hexie is one of my favourite fabrics, and is actually called Istanbul. The colours very much made me think of ...

 Hello everybody! Another month of actually managing to keep on top of this sewalong.  This was a 5-week month and the theme was 'The Senses' with each week representing one of sound, smell, sight, taste and touch. I completed 7 blocks this week. The first week was Sound. I made two blocks. The first block is a silly one, using an animal sounds fabric from my stash.  For the centre, I used a cute pic of two of the animals who make the sounds. The second one was slightly more serious, some musical instruments - the one I play, the violin, is at the top - and a centre with the name of my favourite baroque composer, Vivaldi.  I love his Four Seasons, and previously used this fabric in the 2018 sewalong for the theme of Autumn. Here it that block sewn in to my Fussy Cutting Forest quilt. On to smell week.  This one was really difficult for me. The basic problem is, my sense of smell is pretty rubbish, even when my nose isn't totally congested by hayfever. It's not t...