APPLIQUE PAINTBOX-I LOVE APPLIQUE

We begin August with 3 inches of rain!
I have been staying cool and working away.  I finished another column of Chuck, Susan, and Me:

I am getting there-about 2 1/2 columns remaining to be done.  I have gotten to the point where I am thinking of layout.  My latest thought is to make a one inch border between each row and column.  I am thinking of using one inch squares (finished size) of variously colored Kona cotton.  The main colors of Chuck, Susan, and Me are minty green, peachy pinks, aquas, and butters.  

I am mostly an online shopper.  As I am sure you know, what the photo of a fabric looks like and what the color actually is can be 2 very different things.  So I ordered a Kona color chart which is great because the swatches are the actual fabric.  Now I can order my 16 to 18 half yards knowing they will be right.  Here is what the card looks like which is really a piece of eye candy for quilters.

I want all the colors-there are 303. 

Next: blocks for this week.  3 are Chucks, one is of unknown derivation, and one is mine.This block is very different from the others having a more traditional applique look to it.  This block was very time consuming with all the little pieces-remember we are talking 6 inch squares here.

Here is another nice wreath block of unusual design. This pattern was followed closely except I centered the wreath in the center as the other is more appropriate for a modern look in modern fabrics.

I gave a new mood to third block from Chuck's book.  Chuck's block is obviously pansies which would not work for me as, much as I love it, purple has no place in this quilt.  I also joined the stems together to make one plant.

   

This is the block of whose derivation I am not sure.  I know I have seen it somewhere and I am not claiming it an original (I think??)  If anyone knows where the design comes from, please let us know.  A few weeks ago, I made a block which, to me, seemed really obvious design.  A reader wrote in to say the block came from the Dear Jane quilt.  She was right-the quilt had that block.  So much is done at a subliminal level and, if you are a person who does lots of research (technical term for spending hours looking at quilts on line),  it is easy to be influenced.  

The last block for this week.

You can see this block is broderie perse with the fabric taken from a piece of French General Bouquet Francais.  I loved the look of the basket of flowers and the birds.

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The Petra Prins fabric for Quiltmania's Discovery quilt was delayed because the fabric was slow to come out of The Netherlands.  They had some problem but I have it now. There are 2 more months of the mystery quilt-September and November.  Here it is in all its glory:

I captured the colors pretty well.  Is this lovely or what?  I have not yet decided  how I will use it-the Discovery quilt is not exactly right for me. Anyway-this is not the quilt next in line.  Next in line and coming up soon is Sweet Surrender form the Aussie pattern maker Susanne Cody-she associates with Material Obsession. There are 2 more months of the mystery quilt-September and November.

One new country visited me this past week-Ukraine.  I will add the flag to the growing list.

Lastly, I wanted to show off two more blocks from Caswell:

This block has two of my favorite things: honeybees and Yoshi, my outdoor cat.  I just love the spider web.  The black and yellow spider is one we used to see in our garden (acres and acres it seemed if you had to weed the garden) on our zen farm.  You can see how the spider is dropped and the bees don't stay on the own block which helps the illusion that the quilt is not composed of blocks.

After I decided to join these 2 blocks, I knew something had to be placed the the wide space between the bottom of the vase and the blue buds.  After much thought (and research) I came up with this bird who is very busy eating birdseed.  You can also see a pink butterfly and a dragon fly which is going after the water in the birdbath of the block below. The blue, vaguely oriental vase is a reference to one of my other quilts-the Blue Collection by Maggie Walker.

That's all for right now.  Happy quilting and thanks for visiting my blog.  I love your comments so please leave one for me to read and enjoy!

This week I am linking to the blogs you can see listed on the left.  Good blogs, all.  I am also linking up with Bambi's show and tell monday @http://bambisyr-evaj.blogspot.com/