More than meets the eye!

Transformers! No, I'm not watching 80's cartoons...it's Saturday's workshop organized by my quilt guild.

I was so excited to go sewing for the day that I whipped up a snazzy new thread catcher from Merriment design. That's it hanging off the table. More Amy Butler and Kona! 

Here's my workstation all ready to go... 

With this amazing technique, you take a basic block, cut it up, and sew its parts back together to create a different block.

I chose to slice diagonally... just one of many options. I only cut once, but some of the options have you cutting twice. With the 6 inch block, the inner portions would be lost.

Once you get the blocks sewn back together, more decisions await you. There are so many options for layouts. After three, different options I had to stop. It was dizzying! I made really good use of the design wall... so much so that I'm thinking it might be a good addition to my studio.

And here's the completed top... 48 6 inch blocks. I wasn't sold on the chevron at all before we put it on the design wall. Just goes to show you should try stuff you think you don't like! The asymmetrical-ness just makes it even better. I love it so much that I'm considering whipping up another 48 to make this quilt into something large enough. Technically, it strikes one item off my Wanna do list (a project using all Konas)!

Q-A was at this workshop too... working all in oranges - her favourite! She opted for the same diagonal cut blocks. But her layout is completely different. Sorry, no pics of the finished product to share. You'll have to check her blog! :)

To top things off, I spent much of today at the sewing machine. I finished off the last three blocks to a challenge I'm doing for my guild. The participants each put a total of 2m of fabric in a lunch box. You could choose 2m of the same, 1m of two, whatever. Then the boxes were swapped around. Each participant makes a lap sized quilt with the fabric they received. You can add  fabric, make any kind of block... just so long as you make a 60 by 80 top. I'm working with this...

And as much as I'd like to show you the finished product, it'll have to wait until the big reveal in May! I'm excited to see what comes back to me. And once I put some borders on it, I get to strike something off the Gotta do list!

I also made some progress on my qui-vet - that's a quilt - duvet cover hybrid). The duvet cover back is pieced and pinned to the quilt that will make up the duvet cover top. I also got the ties all made (what fiddly work that was!) and the binding's done too.

All in all, a very productive weekend!

Thanks for reading!

J