Chaletgirl

Oh, I’m only about 6 months behind the cool kids who do the Sunday Stash posts. But I have a few things to show you, and a once a week post sounds just about manageable.

To start, here’s one of my favourite recent finds:

One of Anna Maria Horner’s Bohemian prints. I’ve been keeping an eye out for this one, for a while.

Found on the ‘reduced’ shelves at Craft Depot.

Winner!

I missed out on all the deliciousness of 2008’s great Vintage Sheet Patchwork Swap. It wasn’t until I saw blog posts with pictures of sorbet coloured fat quarters popping up everywhere that I realised I had missed out on something special.

Organised by the brave, brave Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson! , 72 swappers sent over 2,300 fat quarters cut from vintage sheets in for swapping. Elizabeth has clearly said that she won’t be doing another one. Have a look at these pictures; how could you blame her?

So, of course, now is the time that I manage to score some great finds; finally, some pretty vintage sheets, at a Sydney op-shop/thrift store.

“I’m ready to swap now! Anybody? Anybody? Anybody left?”

My guess is that you are all vintage-sheet-swapped out. Everybody has had their fix and moved on. Are there even that many more sheets still unclaimed in thrift stores around the globe?

I am after some feedback. Did you, too, miss the boat? Is anyone interested in swapping?

I want to make a quilt for Emmeline. Something like this, or this, or this.

So firstly, if you know of anyone running a swap, leave me a comment with the details and I will go and join in the fun.

Secondly, tell me what you think of this idea. I could set up a Flickr group, a little like a trading room. You can post photos of your fat quarters that you have to swap and have a look around and see what everyone else has. For example, Donna might post a picture of some purple and yellow FQs and I can approach her and say I want one of yours, here, have a look at what I’ve got and see if there’s anything you like. And she says, sure, I love your pink and brown flowers, happy to swap. And then we swap addresses and fat quarters and everyone wins!

Finally, if you really think there is a need for a 2009 version of the Great Vintage Sheet Swap, and that need can’t be satisfied by my Flickr Group idea above, then let me know and, well, I’ll think about it if there is enough interest.

I’ve already taken over a corner of our bedroom for the Block Swap.

There’s four corners to every room, yeah?

You know, you were all right.

The ‘orange’ in the Option C yellow definitely pops, and I love it. But I do think the scale is too big for this quilt – some of those pieces are just 1.5″ wide and I think I am going to lose the colour in pieces that small. And the blocks will be sashed with white, so I really don’t want too much white showing in a block.

And I agree that the orange and yellow prints are very similar, but I knew I had a lot of orange to choose from! Then again, they actually won’t have to be next to each other, so I’m not sure how fussy I should be.

This morning I had half an hour to fill in between appointments, so we dropped into Craft Depot. I found a pretty yellow and brought some home.

So Option A is definitely out. Option B and Option C are still possibles. I present to you Option D with the new yellow and same orange.

And Option E which is same yellow as Option B, but with new orange.

Honestly, I am sure you have better things to do with your time than to vacillate with me over a piece of yellow fabric, but you are all so wise and clever. I promise this is the last time I’ll ask.

Donna introduced me to Elizabeth’s Oh, Fransson! blog last year, and I am afraid since then I have had a major crush on her and her quilts. You’ll see what I mean if you head on over there.

I’m already making one of her Mixtape quilts from a pattern I purchased from her. By the way, it’s the best quilt pattern I have ever seen. You know how most patterns just say, “and now you sew the backing, quilt it and then bind it.” All that work in just 12 words. Elizabeth takes you through all of those stages, every little step of the way. A great pattern for a beginning quilter. And even a great one for someone like me, who isn’t a beginner anymore, but is certainly not technically perfect and could do with a bit of expert help.

But that’s not what I wanted to tell you about.

Elizabeth has started a Quilt Along using her own pattern, a Mod Sampler pattern. She is up to the stage of providing cutting instructions, I think, today, Monday. It’s not too late to join in.

But whether or not you would like to quilt along with her (I will be!), you must go and read her posts on using colour in quilts. Her recent posts are by far the best I have ever read on this type of thing, with fantastic photos to illustrate.

These posts are here and here. You must read them.

And some more excellent information on materials and supplies is here and here.

When I decided to join the Quilt Along last week, I pulled out some Anna Maria Horner Chocolate Lollipop fat quarters and washed and dried them, ready for cutting. When I read the posts on colour, I realised how wrong, wrong, wrong my choice was. From all of the great pictures Elizabeth provided, the one that called to me was the rainbow one.

My Australian readers will know that Kona Cotton Solids are not that common over here. For those not familiar with them, they are an incredible range of solid fabrics in all colours and hues imaginable, in a quality much nicer than Homespun cotton which we tend to use here as solids. And then I remembered that ages ago, I bought a fat quarter packet of Kona Cotton Solids from Pink Chalk Fabrics. They were destined for a Plain Spoken quilt like this one.

Hurray! Beautiful solid fabrics for the Quilt Along in rainbow colours, and I found some prints in my stash to go with them.

I’m very happy with all the colours, except for the yellow print, which is just not right. But I don’t want to have to go and hunt down another fabric, so unless I can find something else in the stash, that’s going to be it.

I am so thrilled with these fabrics. I can’t wait to get started!

Postscript: I remembered that I had a new fat quarter pack of Sandi Henderson’s Farmer’s Market (what? I didn’t tell  you about that? things must be bad if I can’t even confess to the internets…).

So, tell me, do you prefer Option A which is above.

Or Option B below:

Or Option C below:

Now I think the purple print looks a bit odd as it has no white in it. But I really love that fabric!

Tell me what YOU think!