Midnight at the Oasis #2

No, its not snowing! This is the side of the box my Brunhild was couriered to me in. Yes, I now have a sewing machine again.

Of course it cost so much to retrieve the screw I dropped in her innards, I could have almost bought another sewing machine. But only a basic one. And they did clean out her innards, and do a little dusting while her covers were off. So at least I don’t have to pay for a service any time soon. Gotta look on the bright side.

Speaking of bright…

Midnight at the Oasis version #2, the night-time version.

In her absence, I continued churning out appliquéd blocks. I have committed myself to making two versions of Jen Kingwell’s Midnight at the Oasis by making the second border blocks for version #2, though I have still to sew around the “petals” yet.

Unlike version #1, this quilt will lean heavily on the Midnight theme, and features some garden related fabrics I have been stashing for the purpose. It features beetles, birds and flowers in the block backgrounds. I am trying to stay within a more limited palette, using only blue and the secondary colours either side of it.

Midnight at the Oasis version #1, the sunny summery version.

In contrast, I intend to use pretty much as many colours as have been invented in version #1. A bit like my summer garden. As much as I might wish to recreate the  White Garden at Sissinghurst, my flower beds end up containing whatever pretty flowers catch my eye as I stroll through the garden centre. A colourful, chaotic, riot of colour. With weeds.

The fabric for this quilt has sort of outgrown its container, but buying a larger container would be admitting I have a little too much fabric.

To avoid my scrap collection growing too much further, I am also trying to use up the batik and hand-dyed fabric scraps I bought from the Art Recycling Centre. The quilts feature lots of appliqué and paper piecing, so most of these scraps will get used on them.Speaking of paper piecing, I have been encouraged by all and sundry to give it a go. So last weekend I drafted the pattern for the centre medallion, and am waiting for The Hubbie to return home with photocopies. I figure by the time I have sewn the four pieces twice, I should have the basics under control.

I may take a break from this quilt for a couple of weeks and finish off some other quilts, now Brunhild has returned. I have a birthday deadline in a few weeks, and I may finish the Pansy Monstrosity and gift it to my MIL. She didn’t recoil in horror when she saw it, and mentioned she would take it if I didn’t want it.  Since I don’t see how I can co-ordinate a quilt featuring 28 pansy fabrics with my bedrooms floral wallpaper, I think it will be winging its way north shortly.

All will be revealed in a later post.

Linking up eventually with WIP Wednesday and Lets Bee Social.