Dream Projects #4

As I said in the last post, projects I have wanted to do for awhile, as well as brand new ones, keep springing into my head. I have added at least four more projects to this list in the last little while.

Art Institute of Chicago Fusible Quilt

  • Pattern: Original
  • Fabric: Turquoise and red, mainly, but other colors for the leaves and flowers
  • Steps: need to fuse a bunch of turquoise to some piece of fabric in the ‘ticker tape’ style. I am thinking of making it similar to the Whole Cloth Quilt and using red, again, for the background.

Basketweave Baby

  • Fabric: Scrappy
  • Pattern: Fons & Porter, series 1000, episode 1005
  • Thoughts: I like the challenge of piecing this quilt and the unique piecing

Blue Gradation Quilt (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Fabric: blue 2.5×4.5 rectangles
  • Pattern: similar to FOTY 2008
  • Thoughts:

Blue Lemonade (Hunting and Gathering)

Easy Street

  • Fabric: pinks
  • Pattern: Easy Street by Bonnie Hunter
  • Thoughts: I really liked Daisy‘s version of Easy Street, which she calls Cherry Bomb (she thinks of the best names for quilts) in terms of color and feel. I don’t want to copy her, but if I do this quilt, I’d like to have the same pinky-red feel to it. One challenge about a mostly monochromatic quilt is getting enough contrast. I look forward to that challenge.

Food quilt #2  (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Pattern: Disappearing 9 patch
  • Fabric: RJR Food prints. Will use a different color for the non-food print section than I did for the Young Man’s version.
  • Thoughts: Gift for son of good friends for graduation. I have started cutting for this in a serious way. I just need to figure out alternate colors.

Food quilt #3 (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Pattern: Disappearing something, probably 4 patch or 9 patch
  • Fabric: RJR Food prints. Will use a different color for the non-food print section than I did for the Young Man’s version.
  • Thoughts: Gift for nephew for graduation

Half Moon Modern Quilt

  • Pattern: I have some ideas, but nothing definite
  • Fabric: Half Moon Modern Fabrics. I have half yard cuts, I think, plus some odds and ends and I’d like to use them together with some additional fabrics, or, at least a background.
  • Thoughts: I do think it is difficult to start with fabrics rather than a pattern.

Interlocking Triangles Quilt(s)

  • Pattern: This is an idea that I designed myself. I made two quilts and have variations on the pattern to make more.
  • Fabric: I have a few different collections of fabric I want to use. Most are rainbow colored
  • Thoughts: This is a quilt from which i get a lot of bang for my buck. The visual impact is tremendous. The easiest way to do the spiky triangles is with paper piecing. I am not that big of a fan of paper piecing (read my laments about the Spiderweb‘s paper piecing). I made Spiky Stars using templates and that was meditative and won a prize, so it is doable.

Jack’s Chain Quilt

  • Pattern: Jack’s Chain, a continuous pattern
  • Fabric: bright scrappy, consistent centers
  • Thoughts: This is one of the first quilts I saw hanging in a quilt store and thought of making, after I had learned to quilt. Making the nine patches would be a good leaders and enders endeavor.

Medium Mondo Bag

  • Pattern: From QuiltSmart. Saw Katie’s and really liked it. I also thought it would be a good use of those mini-charms, or give me an excuse to buy them.
  • Fabric: I have a number of groups of mini-charm packs I have been collecting to use for this project. I will probably go with a combination of Bonnie & Camille fabrics to start.
  • Thoughts: There is something about the stabilizer that I cannot wrap my head around, which is one of the reasons I have not started this pattern.

Music Quilt

  • pattern: Don’t know
  • Fabric: music prints and tone-on-tones
  • Thoughts: The Young Man has requested this quilt as his graduation quilt

Neutrals and Red/Scarlet Quilt

  • Pattern: Sew two ~3?x3? squares together, slice each separate fabric and insert a red strip, resew and sew the two squares to another set of squares.
  • Fabric: neutrals+white, black and whites. I have some of these. I bought them not know what to do with them.
  • Thoughts: gift

Pineapple (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Fabric: dots. Have most of the strips cut. Will be much more selective about which strips I use.
  • Pattern: Pineapple log cabin
  • Thoughts: I haven’t given up on a Pineapple quilt despite my frustration with the previous attempt. I bought a different ruler: a Creative Grids Pineapple ruler in hopes that it will work better for me.

Pink Gradation Quilt (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Fabric: pink 2.5×4.5 rectangles
  • Pattern: similar to FOTY 2008
  • Thoughts:

Scrapitude #2

  • Fabric: scrappy again, but with NO browns or blacks or super darks that look like holes; also more blues and perhaps a different background, though I do like the dots on bright white. I would make sure to skip the dots with a cream background.
  • Pattern: Scrapitude by Charlotte Hawkes
  • Thoughts: I want to try and figure out how to make the edges NOT on the bias.

Silk Colorblock quilt

  • Fabrics: silk dupioni and cotton in brights (of course)
  • Pattern: Similar to Colorblocks 2
  • Thoughts: I have made a couple of, what I call, Colorblock quilts over the years. One was the Kona Challenge in 2011, another was my 1990 Colorblocks 2 and the first one, Colorblocks, also made in about 1990. I bought the fabrics at the Marin Needlearts show about a zillion years ago and they have languished waiting for me to learn to back them so I can use them.

Spin Wheel  (Hunting and Gathering)

 

Stepping Stones #3

  • Fabric: Macaron pre-cuts from Hoffman. It isn’t started, but I have lots of pre-cuts and think they would make a really fun version of this quilt.
  • Pattern:

Windmill  (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Fabric: Scrappy. I will use a grey for the background, because if I use more of the cut fabric patches, the pattern will be lost. The pieces are too oddly shaped and I don’t want to lose the pattern in a mass of scraps.
  • Pattern: Come Quilt with Me Rotary templates

This is clearly only an irregular feature, but and thinking of all the projects above, I am kind of scared to add more in order to make it a regular feature.

Out of the Dream State:

Stepping Stones #2  – I started to make blocks for this, so it is out of the dream projects stage.

  • Fabric: Bonnie & Camille fabrics Bliss, Ruby, Vintage Modern. I wanted the contrast to be good, so I added additional fabrics to beef up the Bonnie & Camille fabrics.
  • Pattern: Stepping Stones by the Lintott girls

Revisiting the Stepping Stones

I have been a little on the cranky side lately – not cranky exactly, but a bit out of sorts. I am not sure why, so I blame work.

I have really wanted to sew and haven’t been able to settle on anything that demanded I get myself to the workroom and work on the project. As a result, I thought it would be a good idea to work on a project that would really be exciting to me. I like my other projects, but don’t want them to be #1 right at the moment. I know this means starting something new and not finishing things. TFQ reminded me that sewing/quiltmaking should be fun and not something I should do. I am taking my advice and her advice.

I dug around and pulled out two Lintott books and the two Kim Bracket books I have. I perused them to see what interested me, but was still enamoured with the Stepping Stones pattern in Layer Cakes, Jelly Rolls and Charm Quilts, pg. 72-79. I have been wanting to do this in the Bonnie and Camille fabrics (remember the test?), but wasn’t really happy with the background choices. The B&C greys are a bit depressing. I think they have some taupe or brown undertones I eschew. Bottomline: they didn’t really give me the look I wanted. I bought a solid during a binge of end of the year fabric therapy with the intention of using it as a base for the background. I still want it to be scrappy, but I should be able to use it to compare other possibilities.

One PITA is that there is a lot of cutting that has to go on before very much sewing can happen. The other PITA, which I am sure I mentioned as I worked on the first Stepping Stones quilt, is that the pattern doesn’t say that I should use light medium or dark to get the overall pattern. It actually uses the colors they used, which isn’t very helpful if the maker is using different colors. To make matters worse, the photo in the book is pretty bad and I am shocked that a great publisher like David and Charles would allow such a photo to be used in one of their books.

As I worked through those problems, I realized that I really wanted to push fabric through the machine. But I didn’t want to just sew mosaic piecing; I wanted to sew with a purpose. I wanted to sew something that would make me happy. Two goals a bit at odds with each other.

I started in anyway thinking I could always stop all the thinking I had to do to get the Stepping Stones to a stage where I could just piece. I pulled out my bin of Bonnie and Camille fabrics and started pressing and cutting and placing and looking.

Turquoise/Red Stepping Stones block in progress
Turquoise/Red Stepping Stones block in progress

An odd thing happened. I gradually moved from all Bonnie and Camille fabrics to some Bonnie and Camille fabrics and other more turquoise, scarlet and pinky red fabrics. I like the Bonnie and Camille fabrics, but the overall effect of them, for me, was not cheerful enough. They have a vintage look, which I like, but somehow the feel was too calico and not quirky enough. I think of vintage quilts (as opposed to vintage fabrics) as a bit quirky and ones I like do not have the feel of small calico prints.

I really like dark pinky reds and bright turquoises. The Bonnie and Camille fabrics have softer turquoises, tending towards light blue and a lot of orangey reds.

It is interesting how pieces evolve. I am also happy that I was able to give myself permission to use more than just the Bonnie and Camille fabrics. I know that sounds odd, but stuck in my mind was a quilt with Bonnie and Camille fabrics. Moving beyond the idea of a quilt from a whole line (or series of lines) of just Bonnie and Camille fabrics required a major brain shift. I am glad, because I am able to use some non-B&C fabrics that I really like while keeping some of the Bonnie and Camille fabrics that fit in with my new vision.

Dream Projects #3

As I said in the last post, projects I have wanted to do for awhile kept springing into my head and I really needed a place to put them. I realized that once I cleared out my head, there was more space for other stuff. Guess what happened? More new projects popped into the free space in my head.

I am still not dating these posts, I will just continue to number them. I still like the idea of pretending that time is not passing, so they will just be on the list as I enter them. I still want these posts to be abut the possibilities.

Like I said last time, some of these come from the Current Projects list (Hunting and Gathering section). I don’t know if I will keep them there or move them here. Lots to work out, so continue to stay tuned.

Art Institute of Chicago Fusible Quilt

  • Pattern: Original
  • Fabric: Turquoise and red, mainly, but other colors for the leaves and flowers
  • Steps: need to fuse a bunch of turquoise to some piece of fabric in the ‘ticker tape’ style. I am thinking of making it similar to the Whole Cloth Quilt and using red, again, for the background.

Basketweave Baby

  • Fabric: Scrappy
  • Pattern: Fons & Porter, series 1000, episode 1005
  • Thoughts: I like the challenge of piecing this quilt and the unique piecing

Blue Gradation Quilt (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Fabric: blue 2.5×4.5 rectangles
  • Pattern: similar to FOTY 2008
  • Thoughts:

Blue Lemonade (Hunting and Gathering)

Easy Street

  • Fabric: pinks
  • Pattern: Easy Street by Bonnie Hunter
  • Thoughts: I really liked Daisy‘s version of Easy Street, which she calls Cherry Bomb (she thinks of the best names for quilts) in terms of color and feel. I don’t want to copy her, but if I do this quilt, I’d like to have the same pinky-red feel to it. One challenge about a mostly monochromatic quilt is getting enough contrast. I look forward to that challenge.

Food quilt #2  (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Pattern: Disappearing 9 patch
  • Fabric: RJR Food prints. Will use a different color for the non-food print section than I did for the Young Man’s version.
  • Thoughts: Gift for son of good friends for graduation. I have started cutting for this in a serious way. I just need to figure out alternate colors.

Food quilt #3 (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Pattern: Disappearing something, probably 4 patch or 9 patch
  • Fabric: RJR Food prints. Will use a different color for the non-food print section than I did for the Young Man’s version.
  • Thoughts: Gift for nephew for graduation

Half Moon Modern Quilt

  • Pattern: I have some ideas, but nothing definite
  • Fabric: Half Moon Modern Fabrics. I have half yard cuts, I think, plus some odds and ends and I’d like to use them together with some additional fabrics, or, at least a background.
  • Thoughts: I do think it is difficult to start with fabrics rather than a pattern.

Music Quilt

  • pattern: Don’t know
  • Fabric: music prints and tone-on-tones
  • Thoughts: The Young Man has requested this quilt as his graduation quilt

Neutrals and Red/Scarlet Quilt

  • Pattern: Sew two ~3″x3″ squares together, slice each separate fabric and insert a red strip, resew and sew the two squares to another set of squares.
  • Fabric: neutrals+white, black and whites. I have some of these. I bought them not know what to do with them.
  • Thoughts: gift

Pineapple (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Fabric: dots. Have most of the strips cut. Will be much more selective about which strips I use.
  • Pattern: Pineapple log cabin
  • Thoughts: I haven’t given up on a Pineapple quilt despite my frustration with the previous attempt. I bought a different ruler: a Creative Grids Pineapple ruler in hopes that it will work better for me.

Pink Gradation Quilt (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Fabric: pink 2.5×4.5 rectangles
  • Pattern: similar to FOTY 2008
  • Thoughts:

Scrapitude #2

  • Fabric: scrappy again, but with NO browns or blacks or super darks that look like holes; also more blues and perhaps a different background, though I do like the dots on bright white. I would make sure to skip the dots with a cream background.
  • Pattern: Scrapitude by Charlotte Hawkes
  • Thoughts: I want to try and figure out how to make the edges NOT on the bias.

Silk Colorblock quilt

  • Fabrics: silk dupioni and cotton in brights (of course)
  • Pattern: Similar to Colorblocks 2
  • Thoughts: I have made a couple of, what I call, Colorblock quilts over the years. One was the Kona Challenge in 2011, another was my 1990 Colorblocks 2 and the first one, Colorblocks, also made in about 1990. I bought the fabrics at the Marin Needlearts show about a zillion years ago and they have languished waiting for me to learn to back them so I can use them.

Spin Wheel  (Hunting and Gathering)

Stepping Stones #2  (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Fabric: Bonnie & Camille fabrics Bliss, Ruby, Vintage Modern: made two test blocks, but still in the thinking stage while I decide on the background colors. I want the contrast to be good.
  • Pattern:

Stepping Stones #3

  • Fabric: Macaron pre-cuts from Hoffman. It isn’t started, but I have lots of pre-cuts and think they would make a really fun version of this quilt.
  • Pattern:

Windmill  (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Fabric: Scrappy. I will use a grey for the background, because if I use more of the cut fabric patches, the pattern will be lost. The pieces are too oddly shaped and I don’t want to lose the pattern in a mass of scraps.
  • Pattern: Come Quilt with Me Rotary templates

This is clearly not a regular feature, but it could be an irregular feature.

PIQF 2014 pt.2: Inspiration

Civil War Elegance by Linda Bergemann
Civil War Elegance by Linda Bergemann

We did get inspired by one quilt and may start a joint project based on that quilt. The quilt is called Civil War Elegance by Linda Bergmann of Elk Grove, California. As an aside, I noticed that a lot of nice quilts came out of Elk Grove. The color is not one of them, my taste, of course, but there are a lot of nice aspects of this quilt. I like the row aspect. I also like the style of fabric chosen for the border and in between the rows. I like that there is a definite, strong pattern. Again, the colors of that fabric are not to my taste. Of course, all the colors go together in the quilt very well. The scrappiness of the blocks is also very appealing. I often have a hard time getting past colors that aren’t my favorites, but the scrappy blocks drew me in a little bit and I think it is possible that this could be a very engaging quilt in different colors.

Civil War Elegance by Linda Bergemann, detail
Civil War Elegance by Linda Bergemann, detail

The blocks are interesting. A bit fussy in terms of number of pieces and size, but an interesting opportunity for fabric usage. I think it would lend itself to scraps.

We decided to do the project. We worked in EQ7 together and made the pattern, deciding on a 5″ block.

We will use a series of similar, cool greys for a scrappy background in the blocks. We discussed whether to use a consistent color in the crosses or what color scheme we will use for the pieces. We decided that we would each make 2 blocks (I will make one for each of us and TFQ will make one for each of us) a week for the next month and see how the blocks looked together. Then we will decide how to proceed.

We are on our own for the overall background. If we lay them out the same way Ms. Bergmann did, then we will be on our own for the border print between the rows. That is too far down the road to know yet.

**Copyright notice is for photos/image only; not for quilts

Dream Projects #2

When I wrote the first Dream Projects post, I really wasn’t sure this would be a regular feature. I still don’t know if it will be a regular feature. However, projects I have wanted to do for awhile keep springing into my head so I am doing another post. Also, I found some other patches for blocks and quilt tops for which I had already started cutting. So many projects are taking up space in some part of my head that I can’t fit them all. I thought I had better add them to this list so I wouldn’t forget about them again.

For now, I am not dating these posts, I will just number them. I like the idea of time not passing. It seems that if I make it too easy to see how long time has passed with these projects undone, I might get depressed and I want this post to be possibilities.

Like I said last time, some of these come from the Current Projects list (Hunting and Gathering section). I don’t know if I will keep them there or move them here. Lots to work out, so stay tuned.

Art Institute of Chicago Fusible Quilt

  • Pattern: Original
  • Fabric: Blue and red
  • Steps: need to fuse a bunch of turquoise to something

Basketweave Baby

  • Fabric: Scrappy
  • Pattern: Fons & Porter
  • Thoughts: I like the challenge of piecing this quilt

Blue Gradation Quilt (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Fabric: blue 2.5×4.5 rectangles
  • Pattern: similar to FOTY 2008
  • Thoughts:

Blue Lemonade (Hunting and Gathering)

Easy Street

  • Fabric: pinks
  • Pattern: Easy Street by Bonnie Hunter
  • Thoughts: I really liked Daisy‘s version of Easy Street, which she calls Cherry Bomb (she thinks of the best names for quilts) in terms of color and feel. I don’t want to copy her, but if I do this quilt, I’d like to have the same pinky-red feel to it. One challenge about a mostly monochromatic quilt is getting enough contrast. I look forward to that challenge.

Food quilt #2  (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Pattern: Disappearing something, probably 4 patch or 9 patch
  • Fabric: RJR Food prints. Will use a different color for the non-food print section than I did for the Young Man’s version.
  • Thoughts: Gift for son of good friends for graduation

Food quilt #3 (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Pattern: Disappearing something, probably 4 patch or 9 patch
  • Fabric: RJR Food prints. Will use a different color for the non-food print section than I did for the Young Man’s version.
  • Thoughts: Gift for nephew for graduation

Half Moon Modern Quilt

  • Pattern: I have some ideas, but nothing definite
  • Fabric: Half Moon Modern Fabrics. I have half yard cuts, I think, plus some odds and ends and I’d like to use them together with some additional fabrics, or, at least a background.
  • Thoughts: I do think it is difficult to start with fabrics rather than a pattern.

Music Quilt

  • pattern: Don’t know
  • Fabric: music prints and tone-on-tones
  • Thoughts: The Young Man has requested this quilt as his graduation quilt

Pineapple (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Fabric: dots. Have most of the strips cut. Will be much more selective about which strips I use.
  • Pattern: Pineapple log cabin
  • Thoughts: I haven’t given up on a Pineapple quilt despite my frustration with the previous attempt. I bought a different ruler: a Creative Grids Pineapple ruler in hopes that it will work better for me.

Pink Gradation Quilt (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Fabric: pink 2.5×4.5 rectangles
  • Pattern: similar to FOTY 2008
  • Thoughts:

Scrapitude #2

  • Fabric: scrappy again, but with NO browns or blacks or super darks that look like holes; also more blues and perhaps a different background, though I do like the dots on white.
  • Pattern: Scrapitude by Charlotte
  • Thoughts: I want to try and figure out how to make the edges NOT on the bias.

Silk Colorblock quilt

  • Fabrics: silk dupioni and cotton in brights (of course)
  • Pattern: Similar to Colorblocks 2
  • Thoughts: I have made a couple of, what I call, Colorblock quilts over the years. One was the Kona Challenge in 2011, another was my 1990 Colorblocks 2 and the first one, Colorblocks, also made in about 1990. I bought the fabrics at the Marin Needlearts show about a zillion years ago and they have languished waiting for me to learn to back them so I can use them.

Spin Wheel  (Hunting and Gathering)

Stepping Stones #2  (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Fabric: Bonnie & Camille fabrics Bliss, Ruby, Vintage Modern: made two test blocks, but still in the thinking stage while I decide on the background colors. I want the contrast to be good.
  • Pattern:

Stepping Stones #3

  • Fabric: Macaron pre-cuts from Hoffman. It isn’t started, but I have all the pre-cuts and think they would make a really fun version of this quilt.
  • Pattern:

Windmill  (Hunting and Gathering)

  • Fabric: Scrappy. I will use a grey for the background, because if I use more of the cut fabric patches, the pattern will be lost. The pieces are too oddly shaped and I don’t want to lose the pattern in a mass of scraps.
  • Pattern: Come Quilt with Me Rotary templates

I don’t know if this will be a regular feature, but it might be.

Dream Projects

I have an ever changing list in my head of projects I want to do. Some of them have patterns, some have fabrics. Somehow they haven’t quite gotten up to the top of the list. I decided to make a list of projects I want to make in the future and what state they are in. They may never get made, but at least I won’t forget about them if I write them down.

Some of these come from the Current Projects list (Hunting and Gathering section). I don’t know if I will keep them there or move them here. Lots to work out, so stay tuned.

Art Institute of Chicago Fusible Quilt

  • Pattern: Original
  • Fabric: Blue and red
  • Steps: need to fuse a bunch of turquoise to something

Basketweave Baby

  • Fabric: Scrappy
  • Pattern: Fons & Porter
  • Thoughts: I like the challenge of piecing this quilt

Food quilt #2

  • Pattern: Disappearing something, probably 4 patch or 9 patch
  • Fabric: RJR Food prints. Will use a different color for the non-food print section than I did for the Young Man’s version.
  • Thoughts: Gift for son of good friends for graduation

Food quilt #3

  • Pattern: Disappearing something, probably 4 patch or 9 patch
  • Fabric: RJR Food prints. Will use a different color for the non-food print section than I did for the Young Man’s version.
  • Thoughts: Gift for nephew for graduation

Music Quilt

  • pattern: Don’t know
  • Fabric: music prints and tone-on-tones
  • Thoughts: The Young Man has requested this quilt as his graduation quilt

Pineapple

  • Fabric: dots. Have most of the strips cut. Will be much more selective about which strips I use.
  • Pattern: Pineapple log cabin
  • Thoughts: I haven’t given up on a Pineapple quilt despite my frustration with the previous attempt. I bought a different ruler: a Creative Grids Pineapple ruler in hopes that it will work better for me.

Spin Wheel

Stepping Stones #2

  • Fabric: Bonnie & Camille fabrics Bliss, Ruby, Vintage Modern: made two test blocks, but still in the thinking stage while I decide on the background colors. I want the contrast to be good.
  • Pattern:

Stepping Stones #3

  • Fabric: Macaron pre-cuts from Hoffman. It isn’t started, but I have all the pre-cuts and think they would make a really fun version of this quilt.
  • Pattern:

Windmill

  • Fabric: Still hunting and gathering. I will use a grey for the background, because if I use more of the cut fabric patches, the pattern will be lost. The pieces are too oddly shaped and I don’t want to lose the pattern in a mass of scraps.
  • Pattern: Come Quilt with Me Rotary templates

I don’t know if this will be a regular feature, but it might be.

Half Moon Modern Possibilities

Sometime ago, I bought a bundle of Half Moon Modern fabrics. They are washed and pressed and awaiting inspiration. For all the reasons I have stated in the past, it is ridiculous to want to use them together, but I do anyway.

Lately, these fabrics have been on my mind. Though I want to do a difficult, time consuming project as my next start, I also want to get these fabrics out of the Fabric Closet and onto a bed or a wall.

https://www.threadbias.com/projects/summer-celebration
https://www.threadbias.com/projects/summer-celebration

Some ideas have been coming my way including this Rusty Avenger pattern, called Summer Celebration.

I like the vertical look. I also like the ribbon effect.

I would use each of the colorways in one ribbon.

The question in my mind is: do I want to just use the fabric or do I want to use the fabric in a quilt that will matter? Is it possible that a quilt using the Half moon Modern fabrics will matter regardless of the design? Or will it be another flash in the pan?

Half Moon Mod Possibility 2
Half Moon Mod Possibility 2

I also saw this pattern, Raising the Bar,  in Quilts and More, Spring 2014 magazine. I was reading in an orgy of quilt indulgence one evening while I waited for the Young Man. It is by Sheila Sinclair Snyder. I really like it for a couple of reasons:

  1. I think it shows off the fabric
  2. It isn’t difficult, but it also isn’t boring
  3. Except for the border I could easily resize it to accommodate more or less fabric
  4. I really like the border, which I think makes the quilt more interesting

The issue is that someone has already made this quilt. I don’t need to make a quilt that someone else has made. I showed the pattern to TFQ and she said that it would look great scrappy. The rectangles remind me of FOTY 2008.

This whole question makes me think about whether designing from fabric first or pattern first or block first is correct. I don’t think there is a correct answer. I seem to start from different places depending. Is there something more difficult about starting from a group of fabrics? What do you think?

Round Robin Ready?

Fabric choices for a round robin quilt.

Color Group
Color Group

As I mentioned in my last BAMQG post, my Color Group decided to throw our colors out the window and do a round robin. I am going to participate, but part of me is on the fence. My last experience with group projects left me with blocks filled with inept sewing, poor cutting, ugly fabrics and a bad taste in my mouth.

I brought this point up a bit tentatively at the group and, not wanting to insinuate anything.  Kelly and Kathleen suggested that it would be different because we know each other. They may be right as the round robin I did, back in the Dark Ages (1999), with my quilt group worked out really well. The piece I got back, Carousel, is really nice. I decided to do it, if for no other reason than to get to know my group better and, perhaps, create a small group that can meet for a long time into the future.

First things first. Fabric.

I have several groups of fabric put aside for a future project. I dug the most attractive and appealing out.

Option 1: Dots. Dots. Dots.

Dots Option
Dots Option

I love these fabrics. As you might remember, they were in my birthday box from TFQ. They have been sitting on my cutting table waiting for inspiration to strike while I plow through Sawtooth Stars. The lightning has not yet struck.

If I use these, I will need a background fabric. I think it would either have to be the Michael Miller TaDot in Stone to be in keeping with the all of those dots or a smaller dot. A stripe might work as well. These are strong fabrics and the background will have to be a real background.

Option 2: Pretty in Pink

Pretty in Pink Option
Pretty in Pink Option

I am not over the pink thing yet, despite Sparkle Pink. I also like the idea of calling a quilt ‘Pretty in Pink’. The group on the right is a group of fabrics I bought at FabricWorm/Birch, probably on my first trip to Birch. The Victorian style large print on the left is recent and I added it in to give some interesting design options to those working in the group. Besides who doesn’t need a little turquoise and a few birds in a quilt?

Option 3: Rainbow Modern

Rainbow Modern Option
Rainbow Modern Option

These have been languishing since my first trip to Birch. I have been waiting, again, for inspiration to strike. The fabrics are all probably old news and nobody likes them anymore, but I still like the group of them. This is my favorite group, actually, although some of the colors are a bit greyed. I think I would need a larger piece for background and would have to try out different fabrics to see what would work best. I would love to include one of the many dots I have, but I wouldn’t want to overshadow the other great fabrics.

Option 4: Pop Parade by Metro for P&B

P&B Pop Parade
P&B Pop Parade

I bought these fabrics via mail from Quilting Adventures after having great fun using the previous P&B line for Serendipity Puzzle. That was 2.5 years ago. This group was actually the first group of fabrics that came to mind. There are dots. There area lot of interesting design elements in the fabrics. I would need a background and I am not sure what that would be.

Of the 4 options, which is your favorite? I won’t promise to use your favorite, but I am interested in your opinions.

Next up: instructions, guidelines and suggestions.

Journals
Journals

We also need to include an instruction sheet or list of dos and don’ts. There is some information on the Indianapolis Modern Quilt Guild site about round robins, which is helpful. I think I will use one of the journals Maureen gave me for this project. I could also use one of the journals I bought as party favors for my birthday. I don’t want to just include a piece of paper. It would be nice to have a little keepsake. Emphasis on ‘little’, as it has to go in the project folder. Also, I don’t think people will write a lot.

Decisions. Decisions.

On My Mind

I was plowing through some older blog posts over the weekend trying to fill in some information for a Threadbias entry when I ran across an old On My Mind blog post. I haven’t done one of those in a while and since I have a couple of projects on my mind, I thought it would be a good opportunity to get them down on “paper”.

  1. Make three notepad covers using the Pink Chalk Notetaker pattern as gifts. I want to use fabrics I bought at Quiltology.
  2. Need to make another journal cover or two
  3. Finish blue journal (style of the Purple Journal, Red Journal, Well Done and Good Job journals)
  4. Make a bag or two from the patterns I have purchased recently.
  5. Try another version of the Bird watcher bag.
  6. Thinking about another Sparkling Cider quilt using the Half Moon Modern fabrics
  7. Repair purple turtleneck
  8. Comparison of various methods of making Flying Geese on blog
  9. Living room throw pillow covers

And, of course, continue my progress on the 26 Projects list.

What do you think?

A-B-C Challenge Sashing

Light grey sashing
Light grey sashing

This is a fabric I bought at Quiltology. I didn’t have the blocks with me, but I thought it might work. In the end, a person has make visually decisions visually. Looking at it with the blocks on the design wall, I am not so sure. I think the grey has too much beige or brown in it, but it isn’t terrible.

Grey circles sashing
Grey circles sashing

I have to make a few more blocks, but the more important thing I need to figure out is this sashing thing.

I thought the grey Half Moon Dot would work, but looking at in the photo makes me think that the dots are too large and it makes the piece look too busy. It’s too bad. I do like those dots, but not for this piece. I do have to think of something to do with the Half Moon Street Collection, though. Soon.

Large dot sashing
Large dot sashing

The dots were a good idea, though, so I looked at some other dots I had. No shortage of dots, of course.

I have to use a fabric of which I have enough (one of the bad things about stashing fabric is that you might have the perfect fabric, but not have enough of it: design challenge, I think, yes.)

I like the large dot a lot. I like it because it looks cheerful. I also like it because it showcases the blocks better than the grey does. I do worry that the white will run into the white of some of the backgrounds I used. I also worry about the colors of the dots not being the same, but I think the colors of the dots are similar enough, so that is not so much of a worry. I don’t think the Zoe Pearns Sweet Nothings dots don’t conflict too much with these large dots.

Small dot sashing
Small dot sashing

This small dot works, I think, but the dot might be too small.

Click to make the last photo larger to see how the small dots look against the blocks. The small dot works well with the Zoe Pearns Sweet Nothings in the blocks. It is also bright enough, but the white doesn’t seem to suck the life out of this piece.

What do you think?

 

Creativity and Fun

image

I saw these in a shop today and they made me smile. Of course, they were in the kids section. Kids get all the fun stuff. If I ever have that sort of shop, I’ll designate a section labeled “creative people”. Could be fabulous or a disaster. Would you be more creative if you had these crayons? I might be tempted to just look at them and not use rhem. Note to self: get over that!!! 🙂

Thoughts on Shapes

Lozenge Shape
Lozenge Shape

I really can’t figure out how my mind works. Sometimes I like the way it works, because it sends me off in a new creative direction.

I was making the Northwind block for the Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild A-B-C Challenge and got to the point that you see in the top left photo. All I had to do was put some larger triangles on the sides and I would have a nice tidy square, but this shape stopped me in my tracks.

I have been wanting to make a Lozenge quilt for awhile, but it hasn’t come up high enough on the to do list yet, but seeing the way this shape went together made me think about that future piece a bit more.

You can easily make this into a square by adding triangles. In this case, the triangles will be part of the design, but they could easily be background as well.

I could change the colors around so that the piece would be really scrappy or use 80% of a line of fabric.

The piecing isn’t difficult – few half square triangles and you are in like Flynn.

Lozenge Example
Lozenge Example

So, this is an example of a quilt made with this shape/block.It is a quick and dirty EQ7 design and I can already see some changes that I want to make, but you get the idea of what you could with this block. I like the diamond shape. It reminds me of the Stepping Stones quilt.

Renewed Jelly Roll Race

Jelly Roll Race
Jelly Roll Race

This is the piece that I started with. As you might remember, I wasn’t very happy with it. It doesn’t have enough interest to continue with it as a quilt. Still, I suffered through all of those long seams, so I didn’t want to discard it. And the fabric is nice.

Jelly Roll Diamonds
Jelly Roll Diamonds

Not sure why, but I decided to cut the piece into diamonds. I worked on that over the weekend. I now have about 158 diamonds, which I intend to sash with something and then resew together.

I also was able to use my diamond ruler again. I got good use out of it for FOTY 2010, but since then it has been languishing.

Now that all of the diamonds are cut, my next task is to figure out a sashing color. I want something that will be different enough so that the diamonds don’t bleed into the sashing.  I want them to be distinct.

I won’t be able to achieve that goal completely, but I was thinking white and the portable design wall does a good job showing how that will look. I did a FB poll on my page and on the Artquiltmaker.com FB page(are you a member??) and on Twitter. So far, people like the white, but chocolate and black have also been suggested. Not sure I have enough of a chocolate fabric to sew the whole piece together, but I definitely have enough for a test. I also have a nice piece of black from the Pure Elements line that I can try.

Stack of Jelly Roll Diamonds
Stack of Jelly Roll Diamonds

Tsukineko Ink Test

Flower Test
Flower Test

I bought some Tsukineko inks some time ago and never had the chance to use them. As time passed, I lost my inspiration and the inks languished.

Mark Lipinski did me a real favor when I was at his house and I don’t even think he knows. He asked me about my art quiltmaking in the process of the podcast. He was trying to get to know me and, instead, he changed my focus. I had gotten away from surface design and was focusing on piecing. I don’t know why, but it was my reality. By asking me Mark made me think about art quiltmaking again.

As a result of that innocent question, I have started to go back to some older art quilt projects. I finished the beading on Kissy Fish, but before I finished, I was looking for some green beads. In searching for them, I found the inks. Soon after I was talking with Nancy and another friend and suggested that we work with these inks together. I am much better at new supplies when I have another person to work with. So we got together and tried the inks.

It was really fun. I didn’t make great art, but it was really fun.

First Test
First Test

WIP Wednesday

Some of the blogs do a feature every week called WIP Wednesday where they show a work in progress. I don’t want to do that every week, but somehow this week it seems appropriate.

Original Bullseye
Original Bullseye

This is the project that started the whole Bullseye project. This has been on my mind lately, for some reason that I don’t know. I always planned to do a border with curves in it, so it would look like a curve was going all the way around the quilt. I found directions. I have a test piece and I just decided that was not the way to go.

This quilt doesn’t lend itself to the self bordering technique. I have a lot of leftover circles that I could use in some way, but I don’t know what way. Aside from slapping on some borders and calling it good, I don’t have any ideas. Do YOU have any ideas? Even a little spark would be helpful. Let me know.