community of makers – Daily Fiber

It’s time to put the final touches on the 2022 Stay at Home Round Robin quilts. Our quilting friend Chris has chosen Shoo-fly blocks this week.

https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/32776/posts/3844524934

After observing how she built it and how it is used, I am totally on-board. Here is where I am with my quilt after the end of the fifth round.

To summarize, I made five blocks built around vintage weaves and organized them in a Nine-Patch configuration. That leaves space for four in-between blocks. A few weeks back, I decided that I could create transitions between the corner blocks with Around The World strip-pieced blocks. The thought of connecting all of the elements in this manner inspired and delighted me.

And of course, it leaves room for the Shoo-fly blocks.

The more I look at the shoo-fly, the more I think of it as a symbol. To work this into my design, a shoo-fly will be placed at each cardinal point of the compass:

North, east, south, west.

Let’s get these made!

First come the half-square triangle. I made four in each of my primary fabrics.

I liked Chris’s design, where the middle row was half the width of the other two rows, so I made my blocks the same. The center block will give us the “sign,” telling where we are headed.

In this photo you see four blocks, including the center block, the fire block and the two transition blocks that are finished.

I have cut my background fabric an extra two inches bigger in the transition blocks. Eventually I will add enough background fabric to the edges of the corner blocks to level up the quilt. This will bring the finished piece up to 62 inches square.

If all goes well, I will have the whole thing pieced together quite soon.

To see the other round robin quilts, go to the linky party:

https://fresh.inlinkz.com/party/e9a2be034cae4219b07c3c7300b4c6eb

First of all, everyone said “Keep the fence.” Many of you liked the wine-purple color, but some agreed with me that an adjustment of some kind was needed.

I did try options 1 and 2.

Option 1: Start over with another fabric. Here are the samples I painted on the white fabric. I decided that it was a fun exercise, but just didn’t look too fence-like.

Option 2: I applied a wash of a cool blue color to tone down the strident red violet.

It just plain didn’t work as intended. To my eye, this is worse than before.

In the end, I chose to start again with the original fabric, for the same reason that I picked this fabric in the first place. The print had an earthy, woody texture to it. This time I mixed my violet paint with enough azure blue to create a sort of periwinkle or lavender tone. I also modified my foam brush by cutting notches into it.

Thanks to all who participated in the game. Your encouragement and positive remarks let me feel the community around me. I wish I could give you each a hug.

Now I can move on to sewing. I’ll start with a little hand embroidery on the flowers.