A Big Start and a Little Finish

 This week saw the start of Kathryn Kerr's (you remember, designer of the 365 challenge quilt) 'Aves' Quilt Block of the Week program.

On Saturday night I sat down and had a chat with my stash.

Participants had already been given fabric guidelines, which includes a recommendation for the use of three main colours and a range of tones within them.  I'm using not just batiks but prints for this quilt.  I don't know if I have the required amount of yardage, but plan to add more fabrics if required over the year.

 I did well on the turquoise, OK on the pink, and need a bit of a top up of purples in order to get the range of tones.

Here they are with the background that I'd like to use - a soft blotchy grey with sprigs of foliage on it.  I know that it was printed by Robert Kaufman but can't remember the name of the range or find it on the Robert Kaufman web site, so I suspect that it's out of print.  A trip to my local quilt shop beckons, as the one yardage that I'd like to keep consistent over the 47 weeks that this will run for.

 And here is the first block!

The outer edges are untrimmed, but I'm happy with how it turned out!  The journey has begun!

 I also made this little lovely.  The pattern is called 'Drawn Together' by Sarah Fielke and finishes 15" square when made like this with out the borders that she suggests.

I still can't decide whether or not I should have quilted the star - but I was happy with the close background quilting!

This is made with foundation paper piecing.  Enough to get me 'into the zone' for the Aves block above, and enough to remind me that I probably don't really want to make a New York Beauty quilt, lovely though I think they look.  I had been wondering about that as a project....

Instead of a New York Beauty I've decided to get back into my scrap drawers.  This is a pile of 5" squares.  I'm planning to split them into lights and darks (more or less), sew them in HST pairs and then to play with them to find a fun layout.  Simple sewing for undemanding fun!