Drunks and Designers

The recent surge in Craftsy BOM catching up continues!

September's blocks were based on the Drunkard's Path pattern, so two lots of curved pieces to conquer. The first up, called Chain Block, looks to me like snakes slithering across the floor but that might have something to do with my distaste for curved seams :)

Not only were the curved seams a pain to sew, but I also managed to get marks from the iron on three of the individual blocks and had to do them again.

The second Drunkard's Path block was called Cleopatra's Puzzle and was much more to my taste than slippery snakes. Can you spot the problem I only discovered after I had put it all together? Are you beginning to see why I have put off doing these blocks for so long?

 

Should have paid more attention to the fabric placement when I was cutting out those pieces! 

The final month's paper-pieced blocks will be light relief after these :)

Fortunately not all of my blocks recently have been so problematic. Last month in Katy's Everything and the Kitchen Sink SAL she showed us how to design a paper-piecing pattern using Microsoft Word. Having had my monthly struggle to come up with something appropriate for the Star of Africa Bee block, I thought I would have a go at designing my own paper-pieced block. The theme for February was shoes. Having visited the V and A Museum in London a few weeks ago, I had an idea of what I wanted to do for my block, but until Katy's post no idea how to achieve it.

There were some fabulous shoes on display at the V and A,

from the very old

to the very glamorous

and the retro!

The ones I chose to represent in my block though can just be seen in the bottom of this photo

The rivet shoe boot was designed by Alexander McQueen, so I even managed to fit in a Scottish connection as his parents were from Scotland!

Here is my interpretation for the Star of Africa block

I even managed to add a McQueen signature skull to the zip! Yes, I did get a zip in the paper-pieced block, it was an interesting experiment I can tell you :)

I had great fun designing the block and will definitely have a go at doing this again, thanks to Katy's brilliant instructions.

Waiting to see now what is next up for the Bee, it will be challenging I know.

Linking up to  and

The longevity of quilts and shoes

Last week whilst taking our youngest son back to University, we had a day free to wander around London. We headed for the Victoria and Albert Museum, as the current exhibition, Hollywood Costumes, had had great reviews. We didn't realise though that entrance to the exhibition was by timed ticket and, although we arrived at the museum mid-morning, as we had already arranged to meet our eldest son for lunch, the tickets available on the day would have given us about 15 minutes to spend in the exhibition.

So we skipped the exhibition and just wandered around the museum flitting in and out of the permanent exhibitions instead.

First up was the fashion gallery where I was looking for inspiration for this months Star of Africa Bee block as the theme is shoes!

 

These took my eye, maybe because I suspect I wore something similar (but not as expensive!) many moons ago! I have decided though that recreating the zig-zag pattern is beyond me.

 

Maybe these would be easier to recreate but not really my style.  

 

Now these were lovely and would be straightforward to recreate (I think!) but alas not really local as they were made for Dior, and we are supposed to represent our local culture in our blocks. So back to the drawing board :(

We finished our visit in the Renaissance Gallery, where we came across this quilt.

 

The quilt was made in the 1300's as a wedding gift and as you can see the quilting was amazing. It is also pretty amazing that the quilt has lasted so long intact and in such incredible condition. It did make me think that perhaps I should pay more attention to getting seams and joins right if any quilt of mine is going to last for even one quarter of that time! I would hate to think that quilters might be tutting over the mismatched corners in my quilts for decades :)

The V & A is definitely worth a visit, and next time I will check out the conditions of any exhibitions and book up beforehand as I would have loved to have seen the Hollywood Costumes. Apparently Daniel Craig is not as tall as you might think!

In complete contrast and perhaps going from the sublime to the ridiculous I shall leave you with a view of London's newest building, the Shard. If you want to see what the view from the top is like click here

 

Now that would be straightforward to recreate in a quilt block!

Linking up to Really Random Thursday at Live a Colorful Life and