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I had quite a few scraps of patterned fabric left over when I finished the quilt I made from Carolyn Friedlander's "Focal" pattern.  Rather than re-sorting them into my scrap bins, or just discarding them, I decided to piece them together, along with some hand-dyed scraps, making some blocks that I would use in some fashion for the back of the quilt.  Preliminary sections are in the pile above.  Below, I've sorted some out into blocks, next to the finished top. Not sure yet where I'll go from here.  I could separate blocks with solid fabric, or I could piece everything together.  (And if I love what I come up with, I'll change it to a top rather than a back.)  I've got all the scraps sewn into units with at least three or four pieces.  Now I have to put this aside for a while, as I need to prepare for a retreat I'm going to in 10 days, including a couple of new idea-based projects that need some extended thinking and sketching/planning.

I recently posted my last guest post on the blog ". . . And Then We Set It on Fire".  You can see it here. http://andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.com/2014/03/techniques-tools-materials.html   I've also posted it below. * * * * * * * Penny Gold  again here, with my last guest post.  Many thanks to Beata and the other guest bloggers for all of this month's posts! I know I appreciate hearing about specific techniques, tools, and materials used by others, so I thought I'd share some of my own favorites here. TECHNIQUES : Stitching without a hoop or frame:   Learning to quilt without a hoop or frame made a big difference to me.  I like hand-stitching to be portable, so didn't want to be tied to a frame, and even a hoop is awkward to carry around.  I learning the method I now use from Suzanne Marshall.  I have not seen it described in her books, which focus on applique, but this  Youtube  video shows the method I learned from her.  The key ...

I really enjoyed sewing this version of Carolyn Friedlander's quilt pattern "Focal"--my version above and hers below, and a link to the pattern  here  : I made several changes in the pattern beyond the obvious one of colors (though I like her colors very much).  I arranged the spikey bits to edge up on the center--I like the contrast there, and didn't want to lose any triangles in the binding.  I used my own hand-dyed fabric rather than commercial; I wanted a bit of movement in the central piece, which I get from the mottling in the hand-dye.  I arranged the corners differently--a by-product of sewing on the first border all around, without thinking of the consequences.  But the main difference is not so visible:  instead of paper-piecing the border, as called for in the pattern, I did only two 10" segments with paper-piecing, and then switched to improvisationally cutting and sewing the small pieces for the border.  I know some people really like...

A recent project demonstrated clearly to me how expanding a palette can make a more interesting quilt.  I recently got a ruler that makes it easy to cut isoceles triangles, and wanted to make a quilt with just the one shape.  I opened my drawer of hand-dyed fabrics, and picked out a few colors I had done this summer and was  really happy with the limited  palette I pulled--mauve s , lavender, blues, and greens.   My first layout: I liked these colors, but they seemed a little boring.  I tried adding in  light blue to get larger range of values: Then I added black and cream: I took out the black and cream, and added in yellow and orange--better! Finished front of quilt: Cutting the triangles left me with a lot of beautiful scraps.  I pieced them together together, intending to use them for the back of the quilt: After adding in some additional large pieces of my hand-dyed fabric, I decided this deserved to be the front of another quilt.  ...

I'm one of several guest-bloggers this month on the blog "And Then We Set It On Fire."  The theme of the month is "Hand-Stitching," with Beata Keller-Kerchner taking the lead and choosing the guests. An honor for me to be included! My two posts so far are " Bringing Stitching Forward ," which talks about the influence on my work of taking a drawing class, and " Letting Go ," which shows how a workshop with Dorothy Caldwell brought that influence to the arena of stitching.  Some of the photos will look familiar to you from earlier posts on my blog, but I've added more in these posts, and the reflections are new.  (I've also copied the two posts below.) If you're interested in hand-stitching, I highly recommend that you go back to March 1, 2014 on the blog--when Beata started the month with several posts--to read what she and others have been writing about.  It's not the easiest thing to go backwards in blogs.  I recommend you g...

I've made several small quilts in which I've tried to capture one or more elements of stones--color, texture, shape--and plan to do more.  I've done some of this work with hand-painted fabric--easy to get the colors and patterning I want, but the paint changes the hand of the fabric in a way I don't like.  Hand-dyed fabric would be better on that score, and I've been dyeing neutrals from time to time to build up my supply.  Some months ago,  I learned that Carol Soderlund would be doing a workshop at the Crow Barn specifically on Neutral Territory: 50 Shades of Gray and 50 Shades of Brown , but by the time I decided to sign up, the class was already full.  It will be offered again in 2015, but rather than wait until then, I decided to invest a few weeks of steady dyeing time to come up with neutrals tailored to the projects I have in mind.  (In addition to the stones project, I am also in the early stages of a project that has to do with trees, so I need so...