Seeing Stars (NaMoBloPo #3)

I was doing some digging on Flickr for english paper pieced patterns and found this Group. It combines EPP with foundation piecing so you have to pick between them but there were some lovely ones there. For example:

Source: flickr.com via Alex on Pinterest

Divine.

Then a search on Pinterest led me to another Flickr group where I was instantly in love with this pattern:

Source: flickr.com via Alex on Pinterest

Aren't those colours divine? AND a genius in the group had created a template on A4 so you can cut out all the little bits, coat them in fabric and reassemble them. Cue my friday night (living the life chez byrne):

The fabric was just stuff I had enough of in my scrap box so not my idea of the perfect colour scheme but I rather like it. I think I might applique this and the one I made on Thursday to a cushion cover. I think overall I prefer the other one and so can see diamonds (ha) in my future.

Great Colours for Fairisle (NaMoBloPo #2)

I've been collecting cloud pictures for a few years now. They're all in this set on Flickr. My idea, apart from just loving clouds, is that eventually I'll get a shot with the right balance of colours for the *perfect* fairisle jumper. But how to distil the colours from the photo?

There are lots of free tools (and paid for ones) but I've been using a free Big Huge Labs tool. BHL have a number of different gadgets that connect with your Flickr account to make this kind of thing really easy. So it was no bother to have a play. I started with a photo from Exmoor two weeks ago. This was my favourite day of my holiday - excellent craft and clouds.

This palette is pretty good but I'd like a little more blue before it's perfect. Compare this with a shot of French countryside from the Eurostar.

Pretty beautiful but not as refined as the Exmoor one. Possibly the result of me being behind the glass of a fast moving train?! Then there is this one (I think from Haworth on a SkipNorth holiday) which has lovely blues but not enough brown.

Speaking of browns...

Some people don't need jumpers.

My New Most Favourite Thing (NaBloMoPo #1)

I have always loved paper pieced hexagons. I started making things with them when I was about 11. It has taken until today for me to try a different shape! But I'm glad I did.

Each hexagon takes 12 diamonds and mine have 1.5" sides. I had a pack of 4" charm squares and can get 3 diamonds out of each square. I can see more of these diamonds in my future! I can imagine tessalating these with large hexagons in just one fabric. I'd never thought about doing hexagons that large until I saw this quilt about a year ago.

Source: flickr.com via Alex on Pinterest

Of course since the advent of Pinterest I've become aware of other hexagon variations.

Source: flickr.com via Alex on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Alex on Pinterest

Source: carolinapatchworks.com via Alex on Pinterest

So many possibilities!

Patchwork Planning

I've scored two new books.

I read about the Ann Budd at the weekend and knew it had to be mine. I'm always trying to reverse engineer the Ann Budd Sweater Patterns books to be top down. An added bonus is the chapter on contiguous set in sleeves. I've been wanting to try those for ages and now I have the courage to go for it.

The other book is an old one form the sixties, but first published in the thirties. It's got lots of advice in it as well as the actual blocks, all of which seem to come out different sizes. I'd love to do a quilt that was lots of different blocks put together, but for that to work I need to decide on a range of fabrics. I'd really love to use the Moda Sew Stitchy set but the colours aren't really me.

I'd like to get it designed and work out what yardage I'll need by xmas so that I can buy fabric in the sale. In the meantime, more knitting!!!