A Whale of a time!

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend! Being able to enjoy the hope provided through the resurrection of Christ is one of the many blessing I'm thankful for!

March is practically gone, and I have not made much progress on the 2015 BOM. Would it sound strange if I said that I sort of needed a break? I don't like leaving things unfinished, but it seemed that I was no longer enjoying the quilting process, and it was all getting too stressful, or like that homework that we never did on time because it was so horrible, and we ended up putting it off for as loooooooooong as possible...  

So, just a teeny tiny break... I caved in! I just had to start working on a wall hanging that I had been thinking of making for a while...

After staring at the bookcase and the available fabric, I went for the gorgeous blue collection I got some time ago on sale. When I saw it, I knew I wanted it; I had no idea what I was going to make with it, but I just had to get it... Yes, I have my weak moments, but after seeing the results, who wouldn't like to consider having one of these every once in a while? 

The fabric waited patiently in the little bin for over three years, and when Elizabeth Hartman came up with her Preppy pattern, dots started to connect... You can find the link to this pattern on her page. Unlike her, I sometimes get these weird ideas in my head, but I cannot make them happen. It seems that she has this fantastic ability to see something and transform it into something beautiful. I love her eye for color, use of pattern and "shredding" something visually and transforming it into a quilt block.

I also had another roll of fabrics, from Jinny Beyer, who teaches the 2015 Craftsy BOM. I never knew that I already had some of her fabric in my stash, but it all went beautifully with the other fabric!  

Ah! The joys of happy quilty coincidences!

Even an old friend came to play with the happy whales! I did not follow of all the instructions in Elizabeth's pattern - you know me, I seem to be unable to follow instructions to the T. Instead, I used paper-pieced strips using adding machine tape. You can see my tutorial on this versatile technique here.

Tada!! Happy whales in purple waters... 

Ah! The joys of the joyful creative process!

Stay blessed,

Yiya

When things fail... Go Quilt!

Finding words to start this post is proving a tad difficult. In short, today was not the best day. Unexpected and inaccurate things will hopefully become interesting obstacles that will be in the past soon.

So... When things fail... Go Quilt! Go make something! Go do something useful! Go and enjoy the blessings God has given you! Go and hug your husband! Go enjoy your family! Go and put yourself back together for you, for them and for your purpose!

You know how it goes... If life gives you lemons, make lemonade!

And in the midst of trying to find my way back to some kind of normalcy, I kept starting at the pile of scraps on my dining crafting table.

Somehow, my old friends, Scrappy Improv Blocks, Extra Half-Square Triangles and Strip-pieced Blocks all made their appearance and, after about an hour or so of finding ways to fit each piece to each other, along with prayers that sometimes seemed to get stuck inside, a beautiful Improv piece had taken the uncertainty away and reminded me that, whatever happens, God is good.

It is my wish that you can enjoy the blessings that surround you and that your life be full of joy and hope.

Stay blessed,

Yiya.

A runner on the making...

Oh my! Where does time go?

I feel like I have some catching up to do. But after a sort of emergency trip back in October, things have just not been the same, so I have had to get creative and exercise my crafty bone in different ways.  

Crayons, color pencils, markers and sketch books are all quite a bit easier to transport than a sewing machine, cutting mat, and all the itty bitty tools and what-nots that come with it. I do have a project that I may start taking with me, but I'm honestly missing being at the sewing machine and getting relaxed in its humming sound when little pieces of fabric come together and make something special.

Well, when we came back from that trip, Mr. Fuzz said that he would like to change something in the bedroom. And that something was including a sort of cover for the dresser... YAY!!! Quilt!!!  :D

I am always buying bundles or fabric leftovers when they are on sale, and I had Mr. Fuzz choose one of the bundles. I just felt sort of bad thinking of buying more fabric if I had neglected the 2015 Craftsy BOM already. Anyway, I got over that fast enough, and Mr. Fuzz chose the one I had in mind - it was one of those many happy coincidences that often live in our household...

Anyway, this is a modern quilt, and I am actually trying to follow instructions. However, after making nine blocks, I had this:

And you know what we make with scraps, right? Mini blocks from all those extra half-square triangles and scrappy units from itty bitty pieces of fabric. If you want to download instructions on how to make those units, you can click here to go to the link.

Adding them together to larger pieces...

... and eventually forming large enough units to form a block.

Although I'm following a pattern, this is my grain of salt in this happy, bright Fuzzy Quilt.

Well, there you go!

It's amazing how much can be done with scraps, and how much fun quilt units turn out to be!

Just imagine... All of this fabric would have ended up in the trash can! Hey, I'm all for recycling, especially when it looks this pretty... :)

I hope you have a blessed week,

Yiya.