Nursery Rhymes & Collection 6

Collection 6	Just a few more blocks from the Nursery Rhyme quilt. These blocks were taken from collection 6. Funny how we take a liking to a design and use it time and again.  Crystal Dreams has featured in three quilts so far.
Firstly in the original Raconteur quilt, where the colour choice was so terrible that you couldn't see it unless looking for it. Next I used it in Snippets, which is a collection of seven blocks that I taught at various retreats where people wished to start on their own Raconteur. Finally it is here in Nursery Rhymes. I know I will use it again as I have seen it made using a variety of colours in the one block and it looked good enough to try ..yet again :)	C6 Crystal Dreams
C6 Disappearing Hope	Disappearing Hope what a strange name and no idea where it came from but I do like the effect here with the blue outer border making your eyes lose the white design and focus on the blue.

Nursery Rhymes and Collection 5

Collection 5	Still trying to decide if I will make up the central block from Collection 5 for the Nursery Rhymes collection. Only time will tell. I am enjoying the working with brighter colours.
C5 Taylor's World	C5 Gift Wrapped <

Nursery Rhymes & Collection 4

Collection 4	Blackberry Freedom is another block that has been used in almost every variation of Raconteur so far. I just love the frame of alternating up and down triangles. New Beginnings...don't you just love the fabric. Unfortunately I only have a small square left of it and so will save it for someone special.
C4 Blackberry Freedom	C4 New Beginnings

Nursery Rhymes & Collection 3

Collection 3	Just as these blocks featured in early collections in Raconteur so they have been early blocks in the Nursery Rhymes quilt.
For Nursery Rhymes I wanted blocks with strong features and a good contrast so that they would show up well in a child's quilt.... although it now appears as though it will be too big for a child's quilt  ... such is life. Perhaps next time I will more of the layout rather than one block :)	C3 After the Showers
C3 Burning Bright	C3 Ketchiken Jewels

Collection 2 revisited in Nursery Rhymes

Collection 2	Well here are a few more blocks from Nursery Rhymes. All of these come from Collection 2 and so I have included it here so you can compare. As you can see these fabrics still have a similar feeling to those from the original Raconteur. I again stayed with the pale or light background and the stronger colour for the feature.
This time around I am keeping the one fabric for the background throughout and I'm not too sure that I like it. Unfortunately I have cut and sewn too many blocks to go back and redo them. We will see what the finished quilt looks like.  I have added another border this time around  as I wanted to try a different kind of sashing.	C2 Cafe Creme block 2
C2 I Love Lucy	Although it looks like just another round of border that is only because of my poor photoshop skills. The outer colour border is in truth a set of whirling arms.  The idea was good but I am having difficulties with the layout and so am having to work another design.
The problem of the whirling arms was that the blocks end up sitting slightly off straight as I didn't guess the correct width to use for the sashing. I have been trying out different options on the computer but none have really excited me.	C2 Creme de Chantilly

Nursery Rhymes - unnamed

Unnamed 1	Nursery Rhymes is a quilt that I have been working on for the past twelve months I think. I had an idea to make a larger version of Raconteur using the Raconteur 141 blocks. Most of the blocks in this quilt have been simply the blocks taken from Raconteur and then enlarged.
I wanted another hand pieced project and so chose blocks which were best for hand piecing but which also would look good in the larger size. I'm not sure how many blocks I have finished so far but I don't have many more to go until I have enough for the baby quilt I plan to make...that's where the quilt title came from.	Unnamed 2
Unnamed 3	These three blocks are not from the original quilt. While working out which blocks I would use I occasionally felt like playing around with the design and viola these appeared. I liked them and thus they were made up. I haven't yet worked out a name for them but it will appear..someday soon I hope.

Great Minds Think Alike?

C31 16 Sixth Street	C31 16 Sixth Street
C36 Reunion	C36 Reunion

Aren't coincidences amazing? Carol sent in the above two photos a few weeks ago and it was just when I had been making the same blocks for my Nursery Rhymes quilt.  This has happened a few times but I have never managed to organise myself enough to photograph my blocks.
It is interesting to see what the blocks look like in different colours. Nursery Rhymes is the first quilt I have made for many, many years which uses one fabric for the background. I'm not sure that I like it as it appears rather bland in my mind even though it does have the advantage that all of the separate designs really stand out. Have to wait and see what the finished quilt will be like.
Nursery Rhymes was to be a cot quilt but due to a few design errors in the sashing it has now grown.. at the present rate it will probably be queen size:) oops! Have to think of a new name.

Nursery Rhymes begins

Well after a long delay I have decided to restart this blog. I had thought that it would be too busy for me to upload all of the photos from blocks that people are making, or hope to make. However it appears as though most people don't like to upload their photos and so I have decided to resume this blog to hopefully show some blocks made by others. 
I have photographed a few myself and am hoping to take some more photos in the next few weeks.

The above photo is of a new design layout that I am trialling with the Raconteur 141 blocks. I love the appearance but if you look carefully you will see that the top of the blocks slopes slightly. When I put the layout into my CAD it is very obvious that because of how the coloured borders meet each block is slightly lower than its neighbour.
The second photo shows the spacing needed for the blocks to line up straight but it doesn't seem as WOW as the first. Oh well I still have another 19 blocks to make and will worry about it when I finish.