Monday, April 16, 2018

Turks and Caicos Islands

Greetings from the beautiful islands of the Turks and Caicos! We are docked in a marina in the city of Providentiales. The marina is nothing special, the docks are pretty beat up from various hurricanes, but it makes a great base to explore this island.


Since we arrived, I've managed to finish two more tops for the Hands2Help charity Victoria's Quilts. This one went together very quickly because the leaf blocks were already hanging out in the block orphanage. The center section is four small autumn themed house panels, which I surrounded with a charm pack that matched the leaf blocks. A few dusky purple sashing pieces and some larger chunks of apple fabric in all the same colors, and it was done.  


This double four patch top has been my leaders/enders project for over a year. When I started stitching together pairs of 2.5" squares, I decided to do no color matching at all. I just sorted the squares roughly into darks and lights and paired them up in that way. Same thing when sewing together 2-patches into 4-patches, and again when adding in the larger squares: ignore the color, look only at value. The stacks of blocks finally got tall enough for me to count them and see I was pretty close to having enough for Victoria's preferred size (approximately 50"x70".) A few concentrated hours to make the final blocks and I was ready to make the top. 


I'll admit that it totally looked like scrap vomit in the block stage. I was pretty discouraged because all I could see was ugly color combos. There was some agonizing until I used my phone's black and white filter to look at the top. Hey, the dark and light diagonals show up pretty well! At least it has some structure. 


And when I stepped back to take this photo, I thought, wow, this value thing really does work. All those icky browns and strange purples mixed with lime green and bright orange turned into a classic scrap quilt. Actually, before that I thought, "Um, it's sideways."And, "I wish the sun was out." But around here, you take photos in the two minutes that the wind isn't blowing, no matter how bad the lighting or sideways the quilt.


I also finished my yellow spiral blocks for this month's RSC. I took to heart several comments that encouraged me to use dark golds to get the contrast necessary for the spiral shape to show. I'm happy with these!


I'll leave you with this photo of a local road that ends in Chalk Sound. That's me standing next to my little scooter, Allegro, squinting into the strong sun and wearing a shirt the exact same color as the water. We unloaded the scooters for the first time in a foreign country and I drove on the left side of the road for the first time in my life. All the intersections are roundabouts, which twisted my brain up a bit initially. It's an adventure! We were a bit nervous about the legality of using our own bikes here, but the Customs official didn't seem to think it was a big deal, and the police car that passed us didn't give us a second look even with our Florida license plates.

24 comments:

  1. I love the D4P! This value thing does work....lol. I am so glad to see you worked like this and to have it turn out so great. What a neat explorer you are....on the scooter.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a lovely spot you find yourself.... just gorgeous and yo are so brave scootering around..... I love the quilts you have done, and always amazed at how you get them with no pattern to follow...
    Hugz

    ReplyDelete
  3. Louise, I absolutely love your scrappy quilt. It’s perfect. It took me awhile to lear that with scrappy anything goes! What an adventure driving your scooter on the left side of the road. Looks like y’all are having fun and missing all this cold weather in the states. 38* this morning when we pulled out of Rainbow Plantation!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful quilts and how fun to travel about with your scooter to see the local sights. That water . . . sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  5. 2 fantastic finishes. What a fun way to get around with a scooter.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Congrats on your two finishes, both are full of scrappy fun. Enjoy zipping around the rest of the island.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great finishes! And you’re right about that double four patch, it’s gorgeous! Enjoy the island!

    ReplyDelete
  8. The scrappy quilt turned out so beautifully. It's hard to work on one when all of the colors are so mixed up, but you did the values so well.

    The yellow spirals are fun too with good contrast.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Louise, I've that d4p. Isn't it interesting how it goes from being ugly to being beautiful. What fun on your scooter! Beautiful water. Doris

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm behind in my blog reading (again!) and my, have you wandered since I last checked in. It sounds like you are enjoying the trip. I love the cat blocks from your last post, and all your RSC blocks. Your double 4-patch is a great scrap quilt. I know what you mean about wincing at color combos as they go together, but the totally random approach really gives a classic scrap look in the end. And I think I am renaming my orphan blocks bin the orphanage!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great scrap quilt! No need to do that black and white thing for me--I could see it worked out just right. Neat spiral blocks, too. Now, that water is such a beautiful color!!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wow, what a difference values make with those scraps. It's really delightful. The gold and white blocks are also fun. I can't wait to see how those spiral blocks hook up. Enjoy every minute of your visit!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh that last shot!!! Ahhh, I feel a bit better now, on a intermittent SNOW (ya a 4-letter word in my books, and ya I've been thinking a few others over the past few hours) showers day here! I have on a second hoodie, LOL, I am so not a winter weather person, that is the exact colour of that water, ahhh. Incredible. As is your scrap quilt with the 4-patches! I must remember that technique; heaven knows I do have some fugly patches of fabric amassed... How you put the first quilt all together with all the various parts and it looks SO together, I do not know. Lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I got so involved reading the paragraph on the scooter and the backwards roundabout to my hubby this morning that I forgot to leave a comment! I love the quilts, especially that first one. Those leaves are very cool! I need to try leaders/enders one of these days. That turquoise water where the road ends -- that just seems to be a good phrase right now! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  15. What great quilts you're making - and while traveling on your boat at the same time, too! I especially love how the Double 4 patch has turned out. I was making those out of scraps awhile back, and the scrap vomit look of them all together discouraged me so much that they are still sitting in a pile. Maybe I need to get them back out again! Love the photos and info about where you're visiting!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Love the two quilts and the spiral blocks. You've really been busy lately. Looks like fun in the islands on your scooter.

    ReplyDelete
  17. What a great leader/ender project. Color gets the credit but value does the work. I forget who said that, but it sure is true. I use the black and white photo trick a lot. Claire aka knitnkwilt

    ReplyDelete
  18. Thanks for sharing all of your quilts and your RSC blocks. At first glance, that first quilt looked a bit like a wall divider. I had to look again and read to see that it was an actual quilt. Looks real nice. It will be loved.

    ReplyDelete
  19. What an adventure. Sounds like a great way to explore the island. The gold adds nice contrast to your blocks. They look great!

    ReplyDelete
  20. I think that the best lesson I learned from scrap quilting was about the value of value in a design. It got me over a hurdle of worrying over which colors "go well" together. I think your double fours turned out beautifully. Maybe I should consider it as my next L&E now that I am so done with 1.5"squares for a while.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I love your values scrap quilt. I often make those hodge podge quilts but haven't been smart enough to actually work in the lights and darks the way you did. (Well, except when I used whites to create the same affect. (Or is it effect? GAH!)

    ReplyDelete
  22. Love all your projects, but especially the photo of you and your scooter. What an exciting life you live.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I love your double four patch and like that you didn't do matchy-matchy but used whatever fabric came to hand. Oh, the colour of that sea - breathtaking - are you staying long there or moving along soon? Because I am so behind with reading blogs you may well be somewhere quite different when you read this!!

    ReplyDelete
  24. I love your scrappy quilts, they are always so much fun to look at. But I hear ya, sometimes block by block they don't look so good. But throw them all together and tumble they around and they look wonderful!!

    ReplyDelete

Please feel free to leave a comment and I'll reply as soon as I can.