Here comes the Sun(flowers) 11

After loads of double Sunflowers, with and without the home-made middle bit, it's time to return to a single one. BUT with a fussy-cut / printed centre.

And yes. It works. Sort of.
The outer triangles are not the perfect green for this combination, BUT, it will work well enough, when seen with the others ... I hope.
I'll have to see what else I've got on the shelves that would work for fussy-printing.

That extra bit for the Sunflower

I've had a question : That extra bit for the Sunflower, the 'small outer-triangle, large inner-triangle combo' thingie. How have you drafted it.

Easy-peasy.

Use 2 sheets of freezer-paper.
From the 6" Sunflower collection, print a sheet of Outer Triangles
From the 12" Sunflower collection, print a sheet of Inner Triangles

Make sure your sheet of freezer-paper is big enough to yield 16 bits. I just printed on a Letter size (8.5 x 11") piece of freezer-paper. That got me too many bits, but that's ok.

Cut out 16 of each shape leaving the Seam Allowance in place.

On the 12" Sunflower Inner Triangle bits, cut away the bottom (curved) seam allowance.

Iron the outer-triangle bits on top of the inner-triangle bits (see picture on the right)

You can leave the seam-allowance on your templates, or you can cut them away. It all depends on how you prefer to prepare a block with freezer-paper rather than Inklingo.

I chose to leave the seam-allowance on. That way, I can place the composite templates right up to each other, and know I have the seam-allowance in place.

If you do that, you - again - have two options :
Draft the stiching-line on the fabric-piece, or not draft the stitching-line.
If the rest of your Sunflowe is prepared with Inklingo, you do not need a stitching-line, because there are stitching-lines on every piece it is going to be joined to. Just peel off the paper and you're ready to roll.


BUT, some of you might want a stitching-line anyway, in spite of it being unneccesary. I would suggest that you draft that before peeling off the freezer-paper.
I would further suggest, that you place your ruler so the 0.25" mark is just outside of the paper. Just. Not visibly away from it, just ... just outside.
When you draft your stitching-line (using a fine-line pencil), it will be placed right :-)
Click on the picture (right) to see it in a larger size, you will be able to see what I mean.

... but really, you don't need that stitching-line. You have perfectly good stitching-lines on the other pieces, and since you've used Inklingo to prepare everything (including the templates for this bit), it will all fit together nicely.

Here comes the Sun(flowers) 10

Green inner diamond. Check.
Homemade middle bit. Check.
.... hmmmm .....
Other than me thinking that the fabric I have chosen for the outer (large) diamonds, is not really suitable for this, I like it.
Maybe one could use the fabric better ?That'll be the next one to try.

... hanging on the wall

(sung to the tune of "Ten Green Bottles")
9 Sunflowers, hanging on the wall
9 Sunflowers, hanging on the wall ...

Picture is a bit dark, they are brighter in real life, but they are up there on the wall, brightening my play-room every day. And I think this is a case, where more is more. Don't you ?
And I've been looking into background-fabrics. A (little) while back, I ordered some F/4s and found what I believe is 'that perfect blue' for setting them. Sadly, it is a batik from ... ooooh ... 2005 (? I think), and I thought it was no longer available anywhere in the world.
So, I asked on a list, and someone found it at the Blue Bamboo on-line shop ... only - sadly - it turned out to be sold out. At the Hingeley Road quiltshop, all but a F/4 was sold out too.
SO, Google didn't return any useable results; quiltshops.com didn't return any useable results; eBay didn't return any useable results.
So this is my last ditch effort. The fabric is an (ancient) Hoffman batik; E137 Sea Breeze, and looks like this :

The above is a F/8 of the fabric, and the dark splashes are coppery, not really brown or red. Anyone ? I need (at least) 3.5 yards.

Only 100 days to Christmas !

Ladies (and gentlemen), I have an announcement : This year, Christmas day will be December 25th.
Yes. I know it is shocking news, and that it takes you completely unprepared.

There is worse : December 25th is only 100 days away.

If you want a stress-free (or just stress-reduced) Christmas, this is the perfect time to start doing what you can do in advance.

If you are planning to make hand-made Christmas-gifts this year, you are too late.
Sorry, but there it is. It will take (at least) twice as long as you think it will, and you will not have the time to work 8 hours a day on those projects for the next 3 months.
Face it !
Pick one of the Christmas-Present-Projects you have already started. Yes. Just one ! Focus on that. Take it all the way to the finishing line. Once that project is finished is time enough to pick up and focus on the next one.

Procrastination is a fine art, but it ain't fine if it stresses you out.

Here comes the Sun(flowers) 9

SO, double Sunflowers with or without the hand-made middle bit work for me.

But there is still a bit of 'shaking up' I can do.

Sunflower # 8 is - and this is one of the small ironies of life - not green enough :-)
And there is (at least) one placement of green I haven't tried yet.
So that's what is being tried this week : Green inner diamonds.

Do I like it ?
Well ... the inner Sunflower seems almost a separate flower, and I'm not sure I like that.
The centre 'spokes' stand out very clearly, and I think I like that.
I will try to mix 'green inner diamonds' with 'home-made middle-bit' and see if that works better.

That aside, yes, I like the block ... but then, I have liked all of my Sunflowers so far :-) And yes, I can see the 'faults' of a block and still love it. Lesson learned from Dear Jane :-)

On to the next one !

I have fabric !

The Dear Jane collection from Windham.
Lovely, lovely fabrics. Just the kind of cotton-therapy that one needs on a day like this.
And yes. I do remember.
All too well.
But I don't feel the need to add my voice to the throng. Read your newspaper today, or watch the many, many memorial-programs on your telly.
Then go hug the stuffing out of someone you love, and do something which makes you happy.
I'm patting fabric today :-)

Here comes the Sun(flowers) 8

SO, I liked the double Sunflower with 'homemade' middle sort-of diamonds (made from 6" outer triangles and 12" inner triangles), and decided to make another one. This one.

In conjunction with the other Sunflowers I've made (so far), the outer diamonds are very, very bright (and light), and the block sort-of stands out, but in and of itself, it is a great-looking block (at least to my eyes).

There must be something in the water

... there really must be. Something in the water. Or the air. Whatever.
Because these colours turn up everywhere :-)
We had some freinds over for dinner yesterday, and she had scrounged up some of the last flowers in the garden. A perfect match for my Sunflowers :-)