Playing With Pieces!!

Happy Friday to you all out there in blogland ... although I realise some of my blogging buddies in the northern hemisphere are still getting to grips with Friday! :0) Once again I find my "day off" taken up with "grown up" chores before I get to do any fun stuff, but that's where I'm heading now ... to chop up little pieces of fabric and put them back together again. :0)

With my hitchhiking infection sapping most of my mojo, I hadn't really found the motivation to do much on the stitching/sewing front so far this week ... until I saw something that I just HAD to have a go at! Are you like me? You see a project/block/method shared by someone else and even though it's not your usual track to take ... you just HAVE to have a try to see if you can do it? Or is that just me with my Curiosity-Killed-The-Cat personality?! Tee! Hee! Hee!

My "I wonder if I could do that?" moment came this week whilst scrolling through Facebook. Many of you would be aware of ... may even be participating in ... the Splendid Sampler being hosted by Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson. There are over 10,000 gals from all over the world linking up for this free sampler quilt and somehow (still not entirely sure how!!) I was invited to be part of the Facebook group where gals are sharing their blocks, sharing tips and asking questions. What a FANTASTIC project this is, not only to give folks a chance to learn new patchwork/piecing/stitching techniques, but also to hook up with like-minded people from all corners of the globe who are all cheering each other along. Big congrats to Pat and Jane  and all the designers involved for achieving this.

Now I know this seems a bit random (no clever comments about random being normal for me, Chookyblue! Tee! Hee! Hee!) and you're still wondering how it links into my sewing this week ... well ... one of this week's blocks was by Melissa Corry

Isn't it cute?! I borrowed this image from the Splendid Sampler page. Now, this block (all the sampler blocks) are 6" finished ... which means LOTS of LITTLE pieces. So I won't be tackling this as a whole. being a bit of a piecing gumby!! :0) ... BUT ... I kept thinking about those pieced hearts until I decided to have a try ... in a much BIGGER version! :0) The result of my fiddling and playing (I didn't look at Melissa's pattern, just sort of nutted out what size pieces I needed) was ...

... a fairly respectable looking pieced heart! :0) I LOVE it!! This will be 7" finished ... no fiddly small bits for this patchwork gumby! :0) Now this was just a try-and-see block, but I'm so happy with it that I'm already planning a project to incorporate it into ... once it has some friends! :0) Thanks for inspiring my starting point for this new project, Melissa! :0) If you haven't yet discovered the Splendid Sampler quilt along then pop over for a peek ... follow the links from the blog to the galleries of finished block photos or to the Facebook page to see the progress ... I dare you to not be inspired! :0)

And speaking of world-wide cheer squads, sewing projects and being inspired ... OPAM gals ... it's almost the end of February ... though you DO get one extra day this year! :0) Please make sure you update your side bar finish lists and email me or my GORGEOUS Partner-In-Crime Sweet Peg with your January and February tallies. Sweet Peg and I will be doing a double-bunger prize draw in the next week for January AND February ... so make sure you're up to date.

For right now, however, I'm off to get myself another cold drink of water (36 degrees and pretty humid here today!!) and get back to playing with pieces of hearts. :0) What are YOU playing with today?? Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS