Rachel Meyer block 4 and some simple sewing

Well, my youngest son heads home today after a two week visit. He heads into his last semester of Graduate school so this may be the last time he will be here for such a long visit. On the other hand if he is unable to find a permanent job he may end up living here but at least he has a job planned for summer! It has been nice having him here and having my brother and his family spend some time here on his way to and from Florida. My brother lives in Canada, where I grew up, so our visits are not as often as we would like but it is so nice to catch up when we can. Unfortunately DH, DS and I have all been suffering with some weird cold/respiratory infection so we have not been doing too much this holiday. I did do a little hand stitching and since I had no more Stonefield's blocks prepped I pulled out a 1/2 finished block from my Rachel Meyer quilt and was able to complete it. The original quilt has lots of embroidered details so I am trying to incorporate embroidery into my version. I think this quilt needs to be higher on my list of priorities for 2015!

Just after Christmas I decided to go to my LQS to check out their annual sale. I stocked up on some Kona Snow and found a French General Jelly roll that I wanted to play with. I really wanted a quick simple machine piecing project to work on til the final Grand Illusion Mystery reveal. I had debated doing a New Years mystery sew along but I decided it would be more fun to work on something scrappy that I had been wanting to try. So I started pulling more French General fabrics and some leftover jelly roll strips to make Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trip Around the World.

This quilt has been popular around blogland for the last 2 years and I have loved seeing all the different versions. I originally had planned to do mine in brights but I need something to wrap around the cushion on an antique wicker sofa that will be used in the sitting room next to my sewing studio. DH is still working hard to get the basement finished but it is a huge job so it may be 2016 before I move in! I have a really comfortable chair and ottoman covered in a floral that will also be in the sitting room and two off white chairs and a wicker chaise style chair with yellow cushions so I am trying to pull these things together with lots of pillows and of course quilts. There will also be a guest room and bath room as well as open shelves and closets for quilt storage, I can't wait. Anyway back to my project. I am thinking this could be wrapped around the sofa cushion, or tossed on a chair or hung on a wall to help pull things together. But more important I am using up stuff and having fun.

Once you get the strips cut to size it is just a matter of putting 6 together and making a block. Not much thinking, just fun easy sewing. And I love seeing how the blocks come together.

The first 4 were looking a bit too planned so I began going even more random and added a bit of green to pull in the green of the floral. Now to get back to stitching more of these and to start thinking about what I want to accomplish in 2015.

 

 

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