Falling for Checkered Garden Blocks

My latest work in progress was inspired by the images of a quilt that my friend, Dana, has been sharing on her Instagram posts.  The colours she has been combining are so warm and cozy, making the must luscious checkered garden blocks for a fall quilt.  I couldn't stop thinking about those colours and wanted to try sewing a few blocks, too.

The first block (shown below), had me hooked!  I was sewing from the limited scrap stash I brought with me on our latest move, so this block came together using what I had on hand and set me to dreaming about dragging more of my fabrics out of our storage unit to have more fabrics to chose from.

Happily, my stash provided just the selection I was hoping for! Bonus, I am now able to use this quick piecing tutorial for checkered garden blocks, given by Ashley at Film in the Fridge.

My original plan of sewing a table runner for the dining room, has been upgraded.  I am in full blown make-enough-blocks-for-a-quilt mode!

Many   most of the fabrics I am using are from long ago collections, from some of my favourite designers, such as Amy Butler, Anna Maria Horner, Denyse Schmidt and Sandi Henderson. I am mixing those prints with great liberty and taking joy in the riot of colour and design!

 I have the prettiest view from our bedroom in this rental, which is where I am set up to sew.  Fabrics are spread out on our bed and the strips I cut for block making are hung on hangers to make selecting combinations for each block easier.  The trickiest bit was wanting to see the blocks in relation to one another, to help guide me in distributing the colours and prints throughout the blocks.  With no sizable available wall space for using, I have been using painter's tape to temporary place the blocks around the windows in our bedroom as a makeshift design "wall".  I love how it's working out and how it's spurring me on to sew more blocks!  I am fifteen blocks in and need to decide just how big I want the finished quilt to be.  More to come on this project!

I have a beautiful lake view from the windows where I sew and now I have a beautiful view of the blocks I'm making, too!

Happy sewing!