I received Simply Retro by Camille Roskelley last week and while her first book Simplify is really nice, this contains several more quilts that I want to make, not just learn from reading the patterns. There is some fabric in my stash that was gifted to me and I thought it’d be perfect for a baby-sized quilt using the Sweet Life pattern.
Block 1 of Sweet Life, Retro by Camille Roskelley
As you can see, there’s both sashing and borders in the original pattern, but since I’m downsizing it to contain only four blocks, I’ll go with plain sashing (no nine patch in the middle) in between blocks as well as around them. In theory the sashing outside of the blocks is a border, but it will be the same width as the sashing, so the look will be thinner than in Camille’s pattern.
It’s a fun block to make although the bias edges aren’t a favourite of mine to work with. This was also the first time for me to make flying geese and they were quite fun to make compared to half-square triangles. I think we’re not best of friends, the HSTs and I; there’s just something about them that rubs me the wrong way.
The first block I’ve made is far from perfect, but it could be much worse, too. Its cheerful sharpness outweighs the imperfect points and I love how quickly a huge block like this can come together. Had I cut all the white fabric in one sitting rather than leave the part for the three remaining blocks uncut, potentially I could have finished both quilt top and back during the weekend. Since I wanted to use various scraps rather than cut from yardage, this didn’t happen. Currently, the middle sections are done for all three of them, whereas the outsides containing white are still not done. I’ll get around cutting the white fabric later this week and hopefully will finish the quilt top this week!
If you’re wondering about what happened to the Sound Wave block, well, kitty jumped up on the kitchen table and knocked down the pressing board with all the strips on, so when Retro arrived with the post, I took it as a sign to work on something else for a while.
There’s a part in Simply Retro where Camille says she never makes the same quilt twice, perhaps in a different size or such, but never the exact same quilt. It made me view my projects in a new way and I thought I’d apply a similar approach to my sewing and quilting, unless there’s a specific reason to duplicate something. Falling in love with a particular pattern classifies as a good enough reason to repeat myself, but in general I think it’s a great idea to make something with purpose, as best I can, learn from it, and move on to new pastures. Great food for thought!
Nina With Freckles 