A little of this, a little of that

I am still playing with the "ugly" fabric challenge.  I have the sashing on each piece, and I think I have the arrangement I want.  Now, I just have to make it all fit.  A little trimming here, a little adding there.  I plan on playing with the quilting by following the patterns on the focus pieces.  I need to get this sewn together soon because I have other work that needs to go on the design wall.

Bright yellow is the color of the week at the 15 Minute Play color challenge.  This is not my favorite color, so I don't have much.  A while back, I asked for some scraps for another project, and I still had little bits, so I cobbled together some fabric, grabbed some blue scraps, and came up with this.  It is a 7.5" square.  Willa asked me to take a photo of all the blocks I have created so far for the color challenges, so here it is.

They are all very different.  Sometimes, I wish I would have made a plan to make them more alike so I could create a quilt when the challenges are over.  On the other hand, I have been having great fun just enjoying the process of playing with the colors.  Sometimes, that is the most important thing.

Tomorrow, I have a training all day so I won't be in the studio.  I will be back on Sunday, then I have all week to play.  Bella will be with her other grandparents.  I am looking forward to hours of creative time.  Until Sunday, joyful quilting, everyone.

The baby chicks

Aren't they cute!  I am not really sure when they will be big enough to come home with us.  They are only a few days old in this photo.  This will be a fun adventure.

Joyful quilting, everyone.

Working on a new challenge

The first thing I did today was to finish my part on this round of the Improvirobin.  I really wanted to bring back more of the orange and dark blue, so I found this wonderful border fabric in Willa's scrap stash and created a piece of blue coral to applique on top.  This will go on to Willa for the last round before it gets returned to the original designer.  If you want to see the progress of all five of the pieces in this robin, go to our flickr page.

In March, we were given another piece of "ugly" fabric at Rebels for another challenge.  Of course, I thought the fabric was quite wonderful.  I thought I posted a photo of it in the blog, but I can't find it, and of course I have cut it up now.  In the photo, it is the fabric with the gray background and the colorful flowers and birds.

When I was in Virginia, I took it with me to quilt shops to see what I could find to go with it.  I knew I wanted to cut it into blocks showing off the different motifs.  At the Jinny Beyer Studio, I found the wonderful red paisley-like fabric that I thought was perfect with it.  In the Old Country Store, I found three colors of Kona solids that I knew I wanted to use.  I decided not to use any purple solid because I thought there was enough in the print.  This is what I have so far.  The long gold and red pieces are just there for audition sake.  I wanted to make sure the colors worked as well as I thought they would.  I still have some layout decisions to make, but I think this is the general direction I am headed with this piece.  Each of the blocks will be bordered with the gold, the red, or the green.  I haven't done a quilt like this before, so I am enjoying the challenge.  Maybe I will even get this one finished by the last week in May when the challenge is due.  That would sure surprise everyone, including me.

Did I tell you all that Tom has decided we are going to go into raising chickens so we can have fresh eggs?  We have purchased four Americana (?) chicks that are being raised by someone who knows how to take care of teeny tiny chicks and today we are going to meet them.  I will try and post photos tomorrow.

Until then, joyful quilting everyone.