Just One Slab (Or 6)....

I had so much fun digging through my scraps to make some Slab blocks for the people of Southern Alberta. I love these blocks because I get to use my favourite scraps, and it feels like a puzzle putting all of the pieces together.

I started with green. Really, I could probably make five more in green....there are just so many green scraps.

Green slab block for Southern Alberta

That block was so fun, I decided to make a pink one:

Pink Slab block for Southern Alberta

Then last Friday, I took a trip to visit my friend, Kristine. She has amazing scraps. And she loves 'girly' fabrics in pink and purple. She was sweet to let me dig through her scraps and take some home to make more slab blocks. I couldn't resist the cute seahorse in this one:

Another Pink Slab Block for Southern Alberta

Kristine had so many purples, I was able to make both a light and dark purple block:



Light Purple Slab Block

Dark Purple Slab Block

 

 

After I made the pretty purples and pink blocks, I made a quick aqua block with my own scraps.

 

Aqua Slab block

 

Making these blocks really reminded me of crazy piecing the kite blocks for my Maple Leaf Rag. It is so satisfying to grab a bunch of scraps and just sew, sew, sew. It was my favourite part of that entire quilt.

 





Crazy Pieced Kites for Maple Leaf Rag Quilt

Here are a couple of quick hints on how to make a successful slab/crazy pieced block:

1. Sort your scraps before you start. If you have lots of scraps (like me), you may be able to make a light and dark block from each colour. I did find that some scraps fit well into both the light and dark blocks.
2. Don't think about it too much, just sew.
3. Start by sewing 6 or 7 sets together of one colour. Then add to those sets at least once before you start sewing the sets together. This will help you avoid a log cabin look to your block.
4. Once you have some larger pieces, I lay them out on my cutting mat, and start puzzling them together.
5. Don't think about it too much, just sew.
6. Make your block at least an inch bigger than you need (15.5"). I didn't want any seams in my seam allowance, and having a bigger block allowed me to trim as needed.
7. Once I got started, I made 2 or 3 blocks at the same time, which lets you chain piece. But once I got to the puzzling stage, I focused on just one block at a time.
8. Don't think about it too much, just sew.

These blocks are very addictive.  And to be honest, I think they are one of those blocks that look better in real life than in pictures. Now I want to make an entire quilt. And of course, I have enough scraps.

Aren't they pretty?

Are you making Slab blocks for Southern Alberta?

Just One Slab

The amazing Cheryl (co-author of Sunday Morning Quilts) and Calgarian is collecting quilt blocks for the people of Southern Alberta affected by recent flooding.

We have quite a bit of family in Calgary, and fortunately, they were not immediately affected by the flooding. I am shocked at the level of destruction in Southern Alberta and my heart aches for the people who are now dealing with the receding flood waters. What I love Cheryl's idea of collecting blocks is that it is easy for us quilters to make a couple of blocks. And every block sent brings our love and prayers with it.

I am pledging at least two 15.5" blocks. For all information, including block construction method, please visit Cheryl's blog.

What about you? Are you sending anything to Alberta?

WIP Wednesday 1

I guess since I made all of those New Year's goals, I should probably keep tabs on them. I've been watching lots of my favourite bloggers chart their progress with WIP Wednesdays, so I think I'm going to join the gang.

On the Go...

Here's my Maple Leaf Rag so far. (I know many of you have seen this on flickr already, but thank you for indulging me). I just moved this project from my 'design floor' to my 'design wall' (aka a piece of batting pinned to the wall), so I'm hoping to make a bit faster progress. When it was on the floor it got ran over by crawling babies and Thomas the Tank Engine on a fairly regular basis.

I love this quilt. I love using my favourite fabrics. I love that I only have to use a little bit of my favourite fabrics so I don't feel like I'm committing. This is my for fun project.

Maple Leaf Rag in progress

I also got a little quilt destined for our local NICU basted today. I was going to quilt it too but my machine was skipping stitches and generally being a big pain. So I gave up and went back to my fun project.

On hold...

• Wonky 1/4 Square {Bee Inspired} Quilt
• Colour Wheel Quilt
• And oh so many others that I'm not ready to admit to yet. Give me time. Please.

I'm hoping to link up to WIP Wednesdays as much as possible this year. I'll try for every week, and hope to get twice a month actually accomplished. 

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I was wondering if any of you could help me out? How do I use photos from Flickr here on blogger? Right now I'm doing 2 uploads - one here on blogger, and then again on Flickr. Any suggestions?

(Edit: Thanks to all of your helpful advice, I finally figured out how to post a photo from flickr. Thank you!)

Happy Mail Day!

I received my fabric from Holly last week for our Colour Wheel Quilt Swap.Oh Happy Day! We decided to swap 10 fabrics, 9 of which we chose and the 10th one was dedicated as a surprise. Holly sent the best surprise, Pink FMF Seeds! Isn't she the sweetest? These fabrics are going to be perfect for my quilt. (I am also in love with the elephants!)

I think I only have about 20 more fabrics to collect. Interestingly, I'm finding it difficult to find pure blues from my stash. I love blue, but I seem to have lots of aquas and multi-colour print blues, but very few tone on tone. I may have to fix that with some fabric shopping.

I also was very inspired by this post. I wanted to do my part so I made these two blocks last night. These cross blocks are quick and simple to make and they are fun and modern too. Check out the flickr group for all of the blocks being made around the world.

Lucia has inspired me to get working on some more charity quilts. Once I get this Colour Wheel Quilt wrapped up, I'm making a few quilts to give away.

Oh, and I almost forgot. I also got these gorgeous squares in the mail yesterday. I won them from Katy. Thank you! I love this fabric, it reminds me so much of the sheets we had growing up. Maybe I could make a quilt like this as my first charity quilt....

What about you? Do you make quilts to give-away? What do you make? Who do you make them for? How do you find time to fit them all in?

A Very Late Present...

My friend's little guy, Kai, turned 3 in September. SEPTEMBER! Yikes! And I just finished his birthday present. Oops. Where does the time go???
Anyway, I used the free pattern from Kellie at Don't Look Now. I love her patterns and quilts. The backing and binding is Bot Camp by Michael Miller that I got on a smoking deal from here.
I thought that this could be a place mat or a wall hanging. I'll let Kai decide.

Charity Quilts...and a giveaway!

I joined my local quilting guild a few months ago and signed up to help organize the charity quilts that we give to local children in care. We are giving the quilts away tomorrow and I quickly made two tops last week so we would have enough.

A zig-zag quilt using Amandajean's no triangle tutorial:

A fun Yellowbrick Road quilt using fabric from my stash. I was trying to make 'boy' quilts as there are many teen-aged boys in care in our town. Another guild member quilted them on her long-arm machine.

I've had the horses since the mid-nineties. It was time to use it up.
And since today is my 30th Birthday I thought I would give something to you. So here are two Amy Butler FQs for you. Just leave a comment with your name, where you are from, and what you would like for your birthday. Winner chosen randomly.
So, I'm Barb, from beautiful British Columbia, Canada. And I would love some of Heather Ross' Far, Far, Away for my birthday. Especially those purple unicorns...wouldn't it be a beautiful dress for my little girl?? Give-away closes Friday, May 22 at 9pm PST.