Nursery Rhymes & Collection 6

Collection 6	Just a few more blocks from the Nursery Rhyme quilt. These blocks were taken from collection 6. Funny how we take a liking to a design and use it time and again.  Crystal Dreams has featured in three quilts so far.
Firstly in the original Raconteur quilt, where the colour choice was so terrible that you couldn't see it unless looking for it. Next I used it in Snippets, which is a collection of seven blocks that I taught at various retreats where people wished to start on their own Raconteur. Finally it is here in Nursery Rhymes. I know I will use it again as I have seen it made using a variety of colours in the one block and it looked good enough to try ..yet again :)	C6 Crystal Dreams
C6 Disappearing Hope	Disappearing Hope what a strange name and no idea where it came from but I do like the effect here with the blue outer border making your eyes lose the white design and focus on the blue.

Nursery Rhymes and Collection 5

Collection 5	Still trying to decide if I will make up the central block from Collection 5 for the Nursery Rhymes collection. Only time will tell. I am enjoying the working with brighter colours.
C5 Taylor's World	C5 Gift Wrapped <

Nursery Rhymes & Collection 4

Collection 4	Blackberry Freedom is another block that has been used in almost every variation of Raconteur so far. I just love the frame of alternating up and down triangles. New Beginnings...don't you just love the fabric. Unfortunately I only have a small square left of it and so will save it for someone special.
C4 Blackberry Freedom	C4 New Beginnings

Nursery Rhymes & Collection 3

Collection 3	Just as these blocks featured in early collections in Raconteur so they have been early blocks in the Nursery Rhymes quilt.
For Nursery Rhymes I wanted blocks with strong features and a good contrast so that they would show up well in a child's quilt.... although it now appears as though it will be too big for a child's quilt  ... such is life. Perhaps next time I will more of the layout rather than one block :)	C3 After the Showers
C3 Burning Bright	C3 Ketchiken Jewels

Collection 2 revisited in Nursery Rhymes

Collection 2	Well here are a few more blocks from Nursery Rhymes. All of these come from Collection 2 and so I have included it here so you can compare. As you can see these fabrics still have a similar feeling to those from the original Raconteur. I again stayed with the pale or light background and the stronger colour for the feature.
This time around I am keeping the one fabric for the background throughout and I'm not too sure that I like it. Unfortunately I have cut and sewn too many blocks to go back and redo them. We will see what the finished quilt looks like.  I have added another border this time around  as I wanted to try a different kind of sashing.	C2 Cafe Creme block 2
C2 I Love Lucy	Although it looks like just another round of border that is only because of my poor photoshop skills. The outer colour border is in truth a set of whirling arms.  The idea was good but I am having difficulties with the layout and so am having to work another design.
The problem of the whirling arms was that the blocks end up sitting slightly off straight as I didn't guess the correct width to use for the sashing. I have been trying out different options on the computer but none have really excited me.	C2 Creme de Chantilly

Collection 15 - Where Did That Name Come From?

Collection 15	Wow isn't it amazing how quickly we are racing through the collections. We are almost a third of the way through. a few people have sent along their photos and it is great to see these. I would love to see more and my photoshopping skills are improving. So why were these blocks named as they are? Searching, hey it's a maze and although you can easily find your way out most times you can't.	C15 Searching
Goldilocks, again this was to me the only choice. Aren't the 1930s fabrics cute. Mind you I'm positive I could never finish an entire quilt using just those.	C15 Goldilocks	e.coli this late at night I am assuming the only thing one can about the naming of this block. Was it on one of our cruises that I made this one or was it the time I ate seafood which didn't smell quite right. We never did go back to that shop.
C15 Bond Street	There are many of my memories within the blocks of Raconteur, the nights of Monopoly and cheers when I held the Bond Street card in my hand - it was my good luck charm. As a child I fought to win like every other child. Now I dislike the game and that same aspect. For every winner there are more losers and I won't play. Thankfully our children have discovered many other games which aren't quite as cut throat though cut throat are still their favourites.	C15 e.coli
September, for some reason the soft blue suggested the cool evenings of September.	C15 September	The star within the star suggested an enveloping of arms and protection.
C15 Bees to the Hive	Bees to the Hive, don't the dots look like small insects and although the hives look like little Pacmen from the arcade packman game of the 70s I took them to also be hives.	C15 Enveloped

Collection 13 - Where Did That Name Come From?

Collection 13	Oops Log Cabin Baskets is upside down. If you stand on your head you may be able to see the basket more clearly... or perhaps not:)	C13 Log Cabin Basket
The design for Argyle Sweaters was taken from a jumper I made many years ago. I must get back into knitting sometime it was such a relaxing pastime.	C13 Argyle Sweaters	Winter Secrets is a miniaturised version of one of the blocks from my quilt Winter Secrets. This was a stitchery which I designed, reworking some of the blocks from Raconteur, for when I was travelling and not wanting to take too much stuff.
C13 Norwegian Wind	The design for Norwegian Wind came from a jumper that my youngest son bought. He lives in Norway and so the name. Carol's version is here	C13 Winter Secrets
Maypole  is made in an interesting manner. I made two identical blocks and then cut sections out from one of them and appliquéd them onto the other reversing the colours.. my appliqué skills were definitely improving although it was just a circle that had to be appliquéd so no points or tricky bits. For a TOTALLY  different appearance check out Carol's two versions here.	C13 Nature's Force	Natures's Force was simply six arcs sewn together. If you check out Carol's block you will see though that it is also easily made using appliqué.
C13 Maypole	Spinning Spokes was my first attempt at really tiny hexagons NOT made with English Paper Piecing and it was a success confirming that this was a method I could avoid for now and the future.... try it. You will be amazed. Carol again showed a total change with her colour choices here.	C13 Spinning spokes

Madeleine Loves Lucy...or perhaps not

C2 I love Lucy 

Madeleine has just finished her second block I Love Lucy from collection 2. She says it wasn't a fun block and from the description of her difficulties it strikes me as though these were similar to others. 

I selected this block when I taught at a retreat recently assuming that it would be reasonably easy. I thought it was a good choice because it would show the students some of the layout features they need to watch for. Well it did do that. Most of my students had the same problem that Madeleine had in trying to fit the outer two borders to the inner triangle. 

Once I explained how the outer sections 'twisted' around the triangle everyone was able to continue happily...well maybe not totally happily but they were heading there. 

Madeleine emailed me with the same problem that they and struck and so I could understand what she was asking. I forgot the little idiosyncrasies of the different blocks as I had made so many of them. It is good to have to rethink what I did first time around. anyway it looks good doesn't it?

Btw if anyone does experience any difficulties understanding the directions I am only an email away.

Collection 12 - Where Did That Name Come From?

Collection 12	Collection 12 contains mainly blocks that were designed and made early on in the quilt that became Raconteur.  I hope you enjoy making them as much as I did.	C12 Hidden Extras
Watching was a very easy design to draw..but took several goes before I finally thought to resort to using a machine..at least  for parts of it... to centre the white hexagons I had to sew MINUTE triangle to two sides. I finally worked out it was best to strip piece this section and then it was a piece of cake	C12 Watching	Hidden Extras, look closely at this block and you will see a blue star in the centre. It appears to be  'made' by quilting lines but no I did actually sew those little triangles in separately. I had made a mistake when cutting the fabric and as I wasn't home when I sewed it I couldn't cut out more fabric.
C12 Turnaround	Doesn't Turnaround remind you of those artists who juggle sticks of fire. You can see them spinning and turning in the air. In Sparrow's Flight one can remember the little birds as they flit in and out from the bird feeders	C12 Sparrow's Flight
My youngest son has always participated in many charity fund raisers and Relay for Life was one of these. As part of their 'kit' everyone received a pair of lilac shoe laces.	C12 Relay for Life	There are few movies I remember from my youth and No Roses for Michael is one of those. It came out early on when drugs were becoming more common and was part of a government scare campaign. I always remembered the name and the poor fellow in the gutter at the end. It was probably one of the things that terrified me enough to keep me from experimenting in my youth.
C12 Lemon Souffle	Lemon Souffle was for many years my favourite summer desert. It isn't your usual hot runny version but a cold desert. Light as the name suggests but held together with gelatine.... must make another one soon.	C12 No Roses For Michael

Collection 2- Where Did That Name Come From?

Rice Pickers
Rice Pickers was made when Paul and I were travelling through Asia and we drove past these rice fields. I had never seen anything so lush and was amazed at where the rice could be grown. I always thought it had to be grown in large flat areas, as it needed constant, or regular flooding. You can tell by this comment that agriculture was not a subject I excelled at... or was awake for.
It appeared to be up the side of what had once been an almost vertical hillside.
The villagers had cut away at the sides of this small mountain/huge hill and terraced it entirely.
Although there were no rice pickers at the time the large triangles in this block reminded me of those old straw hats we saw being worn in old time TV shows and movies.


Crème de Chantilly
It was 2009 and we were visiting Paris to see our eldest son who was studying there. It had been 18 months since we had last seen him and it coincided with Paul's birthday. PJ bought a birthday cake complete with Chantilly cream, a favourite in Paris. The colours and design reflected the cake and its decorations. Our household has never worried about pink for girls and blue for boys.

A Merry Christmas
We have a star on our Christmas tree that we bought before children. Like us it is a little more worn at Christmas but still there in pride of place. Christmas has always been for Paul, aka the elf, the most special of times so I designed this block to reflect our Christmas star.

Flamboyance
I remember watching a news item about the Sydney Mardi Gras and seeing the floats pass by. I found the costumes and colours used amazing and so flamboyant. I tried to show the swirling and activity of those costumes in this block.

Cafe Crème
Our local cafe makes a very good cappuccino and I would go there every Saturday after my Pilates class with some of my classmates. This block was named after our regular outing.

Not Here Thanks
On the way to Sydney we pass through a suburb with a huge Nuclear Free Zone sign. One of our boys at the time said if there were bombs dropped would that mean they were not allowed to land here? Older child said how do they get the nuclear medicine to hospitals if they are not allowed to come through here.  Out of the mouths of babes as they as they say.
So the spaces on the block surrounding the nuclear symbol represent this attitude of ’Not here thanks.’

I Love Lucy
This was one of my favourite TV shows as a child. I always saw Lucille Ball as being surrounded by many people all of whom loved her.

Madeleine's First Block

C2 Flamboyance

Madeleine only started sewing her blocks last week and she has already completed Flamboyance. 

Initially she had difficulties because, of all of the blocks to choose to start with, she chose one which had somehow managed to sneak through my tester and unfortunately some of the diagrams needed to be reversed. So of course the pieces wouldn't fit... wouldn't you know it! 

Once she checked with me and I fixed up the diagrams she flew along. Although she  was all thumbs at the start it is obvious that she managed to overcome that. Great block.

Collection 11 - Where Did That Name Come From?

Collection 11	Well Collection 11 must be the most insane collection.  This collection contains about 500 individual pieces! Yet it doesn't contain the block with the most pieces from the entire collections. these are gorgeous blocks but if you haven't paper pieced before then I strongly suggest you do the exercises in the tutorial I uploaded earlier.	C11 Mandola at Midnight
Don't you just love those little children who hold up an assortment of fingers declaring I'm Three and what could me more enjoyable than a Rose Garden... well a rose garden that is maintained by someone else. I live opposite a TAFE college which taught horticulture. The students practiced on my garden and I enjoyed the fruits of their labour. Carol's blocks I'm Three and Rose Garden	C11 The Rose Garden	Mandola at Midnight - yes I did design this at midnight. I had received QNM just that day but being very busy didn't have the opportunity to read it until bedtime. This became another night of little sleep and so I decided I may as well get up and have a go at designing my own mandola as the directions seemed so easy :) To read more about this block and also to see Carol's block click here.
C11 I'm Three	Lynn Hewitt is a NSW quilter who teaches throughout the state. At one retreat I attended she taught sashiko and everyone in the class agreed it was a most relaxing pastime.	C11 Lynn  Loves Sashiko
Tall Ships was a variation on a block that I found in Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks. I can't remember which issue but it was an early one. The original block was an eight point star and didn't resemble ships at all... shows you how poor I am at trying to modify something... new block though	C11 Tall Ships	Hunter's Web was supposed to be a log cabin. If you found you way into this cabin you might not find your way out. Carol's block
C11 Winter Sun	I know there is little Winter Sun apparent in this block but it is what I think the winter sun would be like in the cold northern hemisphere where the sun seldom shines in summer. Carol's  block is a lot brighter.	C11 The Hunter's Web