Do you find your tastes in colour combos goes round and around?

Quite a while ago now I had a big attraction for reds and blues but then it seemed to disappear again for yellows and greys to take it's place.

But it appears to be back.

Without consciously meaning to I have recently been combining reds and blues again in various projects.

When I picked fabrics for my Siblings Together quilt, donated by my lovely sponsor M is for Make I was very much drawn to reds and blues and am in the process of completing this quilt (bottom left) and am very much enjoying surrounding myself in this combination. 

Maybe it started again with this. Then I was making some new pencil rolls and ordered this fabric from another sponsor (bottom right), and found it worked beautifully with some Summersville I had sitting on my desk (as you do).

And if that wasn't enough submersion into one of my first colour combo loves, I received a package of Water for Elephant fabrics from the talented Umbrella Prints designers (middle above) and before I knew it I was obsessing with reds and blues again and picked out the top fabrics for a range I want to produce for upcoming fairs and the like.

Who knows if my rekindled obsession will last into preparing for these fairs or not, but in the meantime I am rather enjoying glimpses of red and blue.

Do you have combos you keep coming back to again and again?

 Having had these fabrics on my desk all last week for my Siblings Together quilt, I have slowly been sneaking in a little playing time each day.

Earlier in the week I I had set my heart on having a go at the Castle Walls Block from the Shape  Workshop for Quilters Book by the lovely peeps at Fat Quarterly.

 Those that know my work will realise this is quite a departure of styles for me. Normally I can be seen quilting in relative simplistic styles, but this has completely converted me. 

I was hooked when i first started quilting and this is pulling me in even further.

It could be the fantastic fabrics that are pulling me in, but I am pretty sure you will start to see some more intricate piecing around these parts.

I am such a beginner at piecing blocks that I didn't even realise that the pattern was mirroring itself and when I pieced together the adjacent blocks I had a real "oh my g-d" moment at seeing the central castle emerging! I am slightly embarrassed at mentioning that, but I know you will gain delight from hearing it.

I had a slight technical hitch when I ran out of FMF, but to be quite honest I had done more than I should have done today so a natural pause has taken place, while I wait for reinforcements from the quilt's sponsor.

I am still undecided with how I am going to finish off the quilt (I'm thinking of piecing a border of some sort) and what to use for the binding. 

Any thoughts?

I had been starting to think about the quilt I want to make for the Siblings Together project and then a lovely fabric fairy came along and offered me a very generous proposition.

Kate really wanted to be involved but knew that she personally wouldn't be able to manage to make a quilt at this time and asked if she could donate me a bundle to make mine from...well, duh!

I felt like a kid in a sweetie shop...given full reign to choose whatever I fancied. After being completely overwhelmed by choice (aka that kid in that sweetie shop) I narrowed it down to 2 selections and finally decided on this one.

What do you think?

I'm still not a hundred percentage sure on the design of the quilt that I will do, but when I have these beauties in front of me I will probably have more of an idea.

A couple of these fabrics aren't here in the UK yet (ooh I can not wait for Summersville and FMF) so that gives me time to ponder and dwell, by which time I'll be itching to get going and sew all these lovelies together.

It seems like there is a lot of activity and enthusiasm going on with quilts for Siblings Together and I know Kate and myself are thrilled to be able to do our bit.

Go check out the group to see what's going on...

If you read Lynne's blog then you will know all about Siblings Together, an inititative dedicated towards promoting positive contact between siblings separated by care. 

One such initiative that Siblings Together organise is a camp where the siblings get precious time to play and just be together.

After meeting one of the volunteers of the camps, Lynne came up with the brilliant idea of us as a community providing quilts for these kids - something special, something handmade just for them as a reminder away from camp of a special time they have shared with their siblings.

These are a couple of quilts I was thinking would work for the kids, but actually I'm thinking of starting from scratch so every stitch will have them in mind.

What do you reckon? Would you like to be involved? Have you time to make a quilt? or maybe you'd like to get involved in some other way by donating fabric that someone with a bit more time could make, or perhaps a few blocks that could be made up into a quilt with some from others.

Go check out Lynne's blog for further information and also the Flickr Group that Lynne has set up. 

It feels just great to give something back.