Beating the Monday blues...

Hey there everyone,

how was your weekend?
Hope you got some creative fun tucked in it? :)

I did a bit. It was a rainy one in Buffalo, NY and very often for me, summer rain = sewing time! There is something so appealing to me to sew while its raining outside and windows are open...maybe even a thunder or two... :) Am I just a bit nuts or do you have similar preferences?
Well, Sunday started with a great intention to take both dogs (our big boy Marley and grand puppy Oliver) for a nice morning walk along Ellicott Creek and...after about 1 mile there, sky opened and we got soaked... Oh well, back to the house we go, pups dried and fed, still pouring outside...what is one to do but - SEW!
Not to mention that I actually should be getting ready for the Christmas in July demo at my guild, so - to the shelf with Christmas fabrics I go!

My part will be to demo the use of Quick Curve Ruler by Sew Kind of Wonderful sisters. I blogged about that one in April, HERE and I have been wanting to make their Poinsettia block for a while (it's a free pattern on their blog, find it HERE )

So here are my fabric choices for the first trial - it will be the white poinsettia on this lovely green print that I only had just enough... Really love that one, but it is fabric from at least two years ago, so no chance of getting more. But that's OK - I am sure there is even more beautiful new ones coming along, right? :)

Cutting with QCR ruler is really easy and fun and off to sew I go:

Sewing these gentle curves is so relaxing for me now. I know, I know, you might say it is hard, you haven't done it before, you are scared... but DON'T BE. Just try it and you will see that it is not nearly as intimidating as it might seem.
When using this ruler, the main thing really is to square up blocks exactly how instructions say - that is the key! Once you sew the blocks, they might look to you quite awful... like this:

But that is OK! They will be perfect once squared-up properly! :)

With this block, it was squaring up to 5 1/2" size by placing 5 1/2" mark on the ends of curve seams first:

Once you cut that, the other two sides are done by just squaring it up to 5 1/2":

And you get your perfectly square, 5 1/2" blocks!

Time to play!!
Here are my blocks laid out for the poinsettia look:

Two shades of cream color need to be laid out to mimic two shades of petals - very nice! :)
After sewing the all together, here they are:

I really like this!!
 Love the fact that this is an easy way to cut and sew Half-square Triangles with a curved seam instead of straight one - don't you think?? The design possibilities with this are endless!
This was my practice block. I was so excited that all worked out great and I shared one photo of it on my Facebook page...and, only after looking at that post did I realize that I made a mistake in sewing!!
If you look at the photo above, you will see that my two shades of cream don't quite flow as they should...I switched places for the left block in the first row and the first (left-most) block in the second row....BLEH!!!

Oh well, date with the seam ripper while watching the last minutes of that World Cup final and chatting with hubby...

And all is well now. :)

Oh yes - you saw that right - I did have the block sandwiched and ready for quilting (to make a pillow) before I saw the mistake!! Crazy woman. But since it was small, I un-pinned just the half, frog-stitched the seams (rip-it, rip-it...), re-arranged the blocks, sewed them back in right order. As I said - all is well now.

I already have another color try (this time RED poinsettia!) cut and sewn, but then it was time to actually sleep a bit and be ready for Monday, work...all that, you know.
So stay tuned on the progress of this! :)

In the meantime, early Monday morning and coffee - I sailed the web as usual and found some fun stuff!
Wonderful Sarah of Sew Sweetness made this amazing quilt using Indelible collection and now is having a fun Sew-a-long on her blog  (photo is just a "snip" I made for illustration)

Pattern for this is Tessellation by another amazingly creative designer that I love, Alison Glass.

So guess what - I simply have to do this!! Yup, I do.
How about you? Let me know if you are IN too!!

Pattern purchased, triangle template too (although it is optional, but hey right tools are the best!) and tonight I will beat those Monday blues by playing and pulling fabrics for this!!
Fact is - I just LOVE these colors that Sarah used and I do have some of all those Indelible prints! On the other hand - I have been inspired lately by amazing photos my daughter sends me - she lives practically on the beach now and those colors of ocean, sky and sand are so calling my name... Hmm...TWO quilts?
He..he...MAYBE!! :)

Well, I don't know about you, but I already DID beat the Monday blues!! Feeling inspired and excited to finish those Poinsettias tonight AND play in my stash, YAY!!! (guess hubby is making dinner tonight? LOL)

Hope your weekend was fun and Monday even better!
Have a lovely week ahead,
Marija

PS - once rain stopped, I had to snap some lovely photos in the garden...Those "jewels of raindrops" are just irresistible... :)