Spring Chicken

Here is another shop sample that I whipped up.  It is from the book My Spring by Disa Designs.  I really love the work that Disa Designs does - her patterns are really cute across the board.

The quilt I did is the one hanging in the background.  It's cute but Mom and I agreed that it would look neat in brighter colors.  Much against her style, she asked that I do it in Jason Yenter's Bloom Modern II.

The focus print

A "closer"-up of the sample quilt

So here is what we ended up with.  Seeing the original, and then the sample...I think it looks great either way.  That, I feel, is a testament to a successful pattern design - that it will look good in different color styles. 

Stained Glass

This is a store sample I did recently where I was unenthused about the focus fabric, but I ended up being really happy with the quilt as a whole because of the go-withs.  

This is the pattern I used...simple but great for large prints! 

The focus fabrics are the yellow and black graphic prints in the squares.  I mean, they're okay, but I'm not a huge fan of yellow most of the time, so it didn't really ring my bell.  That, and the go-withs for the line were limited - just a black and white dot and a yellow solid.

I found a batik that had the bright yellow, some turquoise and pink in it and ran from there.

I think it turned out looking kind of like a bright piece of stained glass.  Not too shabby for not liking it very well at the start...now it's one of my favorites.  I guess maybe I shouldn't judge a quilt by it's focus fabric until it's all done.  

WIP Wednesday: Jewels in the Mud

I'm having total writer's block.  I was going to talk about how you can mess around with color on modern patterns to make them appeal to more traditional palettes, and how very traditional patterns can be made more modern by using strange color combinations...and I was going to say something about how those "ugly" muddy colors (to me) are kind of heinous on their own but they can make gorgeous colors glow...but I don't know how to make that all pair up to sound good and how to segway into "hey check out this sample I'm making."  I guess it's just one of those brain fart days! 

So here's what I'm working on now...a traditional pattern...

I am really fond of churn dash blocks (why, I don't know), and I really like this pattern, but those colors.  No, no, no, no, no.  Do not like.  So I decided to tweak the colors, because eff the (quilt) po-lice.  I was processing some batik shipment and I saw a bright pink batik next to a Joel Dewberry stripe that's a funky grey-blue-green, and I loved it. So several fat quarters and some stash diving later...

 ...I was on my way to getting my blocks cut.  Y'all can keep your EQ and your iPhone apps...I'll keep my crayons and (usually, but not this time) graph paper.  I tweaked the coloring and distribution enough that I needed to redo the cutting instructions, so that's why there's this. 

So then I started cutting and I was feeling pretty good about the color combos.  Right now all of the churn dashes are cut, and all but 10 of the shoo flies are cut.

I promise my ironing board cover was clean once upon a time. 

I haven't been this amped about a quilt in a while.  I mean, I have been excited about quilts of course, but I am psyched for this one.  There will be more blocks with the gray-green-bluey-taupe exteriors than the pink-coral exteriors, but I think that's what will keep the eye moving and give it places to rest. 

The top block has the Joel Dewberry stripe I referenced earlier...and the bottom block is definitely more magenta than purple, but that's the price I paid for using the flash I guess.  Three blocks down, 27 to go!

The Ugliest Quilt in the World

Several months ago, I made a quilt out of Tula Pink's Saltwater collection as a sample for the shop.  One of our more colorful characters informed us that is was "the ugliest quilt she has ever seen in her life."

Pictured: The Ugliest Quilt in the World

Frankly, I am pretty fond of the quilt..I mean...there are cephalopods (which I say just because I don't know what the actual correct plural form of Octopus is) on it.  But besides that, it really isn't an aesthetically offensive quilt, unless blues and turquoises aren't your thing.  But after that, I had an idea. What if I tried to make the ugliest quilt in the world?  How would one go about that, making an intentionally ugly quilt? That's kind of subjective, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that jazz, right? Challenge accepted. 

So it occurred to me...all those extra blocks from projects past, all those strips and segments from cutting said blocks, and all those practice blocks that just didn't work out were just sitting in a bag, all sad and lonely.  What if they all got mashed together?  I organized the pieces by colorway: brights, holiday and muted.  With all that, I had enough for three very ugly quilts.  So I set off on making a very bright and garish quilt.  I took my finished blocks and added pieces parts to then until the finished square measured 12.5" square. 

Let me just say, this is probably the most fun I have ever had making a quilt, EVER.  It felt so good to not have to fuss with color placement very much, or what looks good and what doesn't.  It gave me the freedom to just put things together that on an ordinary quilt, I never would have.  Plus, using leftover blocks, you learn real quick what color phases you've gone through over the years. (News Flash: I like orange and bright pink...shocking to no one.) 

And even though it was intended to be ugly and horrible...I really love how it turned out.  To everyone else, this may really be a loud, so-ugly-it-might-be-seizure-inducing quilt, but I am so happy with how it turned out. 

Say hello to the ugliest quilt in the world: 

A funny side note about the dino block...that was one of mom's leftover blocks from a project she made for me...when I was 3.  Just goes to show I have always had strange taste.  Dinos for life! 

Man, having a social life really cuts into my quilting time :P

Hello again! Yes, I'm back. I know it's been a while but I'm sure my readers can forgive me, right? Lately I've had an upswing in the ol' social life, and wouldn't you know it, that tends to cut into the quilting time just a wee bit. That being said, my roommate just moved out and headed back to the east coast. It's a real bummer, but I suppose it was pretty inevitable. So for close to the past month she's had a friend from VA here to visit and they took a road trip, and had to get all packed and leave. She just left on Wednesday. Plus, on a brighter note, my time is also getting tied up by a new guy in my life, which isn't a bad thing at all! He's a smart, sweet, good looking guy who fire fights and appreciates quilts. I think I'll keep him :-)

So on a related note, what have I been working on? Well, a few weeks ago my boyfriend was asking (knowing I'm an avid quilter) where he can buy a cheap bed quilt. I was waiting for him to just ask me to make one so I told him a few places and told him, "...but you know you're dating a quilter, right?" I finally was just like, "do you want me to just make you one?" We all know what the answer to that question was! I asked him what he wanted, and bless his heart he told me to pick something I liked and he'd be happy with whatever I made. But you know how it is when you make a quilt for someone; you don't think about what you want, you think about what you think they'd want, which is exactly what I did. Granted, I've been looking for an excuse to use the focus fabric I chose for months now, so I was happy I could finally use it somewhere. It's not been without its frustrations in terms of assembly (oh holy crap!) but I'm really pleased wht the colors....it's just a matter of getting them distributed well which has been, to this point, easier said than done.

Great basic quilts that are perfect for toying with color

I chose to do a quilt out of the City Quilts book, basically a quilt set on point with a bunch of multicolored snowball blocks with a square in the middle. They look almost like donuts, but the books says they were inspired by the Houston, TX roadways (what, empty?). I think I'll stick with the donut theme, thanks.

But his quilt is done up in rust, orange, brown, burgundy, ice blue and teal. When you see the focus fabric, it makes more sense than just listing the colors. The focus fabric is what you'll see in the setting triangles.

Here's the quilt I chose. I have to say, I do NOT like their version of it at all. I'm not partial to quilts using all solids (they're pretty, but not my thing) and I don't care for how they blocked the colors...but the best part about quilting is you can do whatever you want. To the right is my focus fabric. The picture doesn't do it justie, it's a really beautiful batik with teal and ice blue running through the rust.

Color choice part 1. The blue isn't as intense as shown here, and the focus piece is third from the bottom. After this and the following picture was taken, I realized I didn't pick enough fabric and had to go stask diving at mom's house for a few other pieces I didn't have at home.

And here are the others. At the top, of course, a firefighter has to have a wood print (duh) and then the bottom southwest print is going to be the border (which isn't called for in the book).

The beginning of what has got to be the most frustrating experince I've had yet in color placement. Ho-ly crap.

More blocks

The colors have moved around some since this was taken, but hey, progress.

Aaaaand assembly has begun, where I learned that I may have stretched the bejesus out of parts of the blocks, necessitating the use of nothing less than 30,000 pins. lol. Okaaay maybe not that many but good grief they don't want to go together cleanly.



Well, i was going to keep it's progress a secret from John so he would be totally shocked and awed when he saw it done, but I was too excited and showed him a picture anyway. He loves it so far, which makes me happy. My goal for today is to get the rest of the inside of the quilt top pieced, by which I mean all of the blocks, and then while he's away this weekend, get the borders put on and call Frances to quilt this thing for me. I want to have this thing done by Valentine's Day so I can give it to him then, but we'll see.

Anyway, after all the flooding that's been going on around here, I hope everyone has been safe and dry!