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!

One Bajillion Blue

I thought I had already taken pictures of, and posted this....but I didn't!  So Sam (click her name to check out her blog, Diary of a Mad Fabriholic), this one's for you!

I used one single block (I know, I had 100 to choose from and I only chose one, lol) from Tula Pink's 100 Modern Quilt Blocks

This wonderful book that I need to make more blocks from

I chose Number 77, because I thought it would be neat to make a larger block from 4 of these blocks.

I wanted to alternate lights and darks to get an optical illusion...And I needed to get rid of blue scraps.  So I chose 50 light blues, and 50 dark blues and when to town.  There are only 100 different blues here, but after all that picking, and cutting, and piecing, and pinning, and pressing, and assembling....it might as well have been one bajillion.  Hence, one bajillion blue.  

 

Right now the quilt is on display in the shop as a sample for the book.  The walls are pretty high (very tall ceiling) so from down here I know the picture isn't all that great....but you get the idea :-)  And no, your eyes aren't deceiving you....it does lack a binding. 

Portland Modern Quilt Guild BOM 2013 - "Finished"

I finally got around to finishing the block of the month for last year.  The last two blocks were a rough finish...

I did NOT do the curved seams (after 8, I kid you not, 8 attempts...thank God for applique)

 
And I miscut half of the pieces for the last block...3 hours later...

So I got the blocks laid out...

 

I decided to make the blocks 16.5" inches, so the quilt would be a little bigger.  Originally, I chose a Michael Miller Hearse print as my border, but after I got the block assembled, the hearse fabric was just "meh." 

So I opted for cheesy monster movies!

 Now it's off to Frances for quilting, and it'll sit in the binding pile until I feel like binding it.  Probably in gray.  Another one bites the dust! (except for binding...)

Modern Quilt: Terrible Twinkle

Got the first 3 quilts back from Frances...my Dino quilt from about a year ago (yeah, only just finished), the Tula Pink Salt Water quilt and the modern style stars quilt.

Here's what the stars quilt looks like all finished. I ended up naming it "Terrible Twinkle" which is a quilt name I've been wanting to use a while.  Long story, but the abridged version is that a few years ago, I was in an accident that pretty well destroyed my lower back.  A genius at Kings Dominion while I was on vacation in Virginia decided to put two people down a water slide at once...we met in the middle and the impact was 100% to my lumbar vertebrae.  I have never in my life been in more pain than in that moment, it was intense.  Well, after being pat on the head and sent home by the ER, I flew back home in incredible pain.  After 3 days the pain got worse and I gave in and went to the doctor, who aside from popping my leg back in joint (who knew?) gave me vicodin.  Let me preface this by saying...I hate taking pain killers. Hate. Vicodin does two things to me - makes me sick to my stomach in a big way, and makes my brain fly away, two sensations that I am not a big fan of.  Well, I got bored and went back to work the next day, but I hadn't taken the painkiller yet. I ended up in so much pain mom twisted my arm into taking the meds, and monitoring me to make sure I didn't get too ill.  So she put me in a spinny chair and had me roll around putting patterns away.  I was a total looney toon, and as I was putting the stuff away (in weird flippin' places) I misread a pattern called "Twinkle Twinkle" as "Terrible Twinkle."  I remember laughing myself even stupider, and interestingly, because I am apparently easily amused, I still think it's hilarious.  So now my wonky star quilt is called terrible twinkle.  Bravo, vicodin!

Freedom!!!!!! Well, kind of.

Now that the holidays are over I can go back to doing what I do best....starting too many projects at once and going forth with a "I'll finish it when I feel like it" attitude.

Right now I've got a comfort quilt that's been pushed to number 1 priority.  After having a rough few months, everything came to a head for a dear family friend when his wife an daughter got rear ended by a drunk driver going 70.

Here's my public service announcement about that... Don't drive drunk.  Seriously.  If you drive drunk, you're not only selfish and entirely moronic, but dangerous to everyone on the road.  Don't do it.

Luckily, the story has a happy ending and no one was seriously hurt, but after everything else...let's just say they need a quilt. They're outdoorsy folks so I made this for them from a pattern by Aardvark Quilts:

I was going to add a border but...after trying a few different borders...eh.  It looks better borderless. Hopefully it'll come back from the quilter soon and I can send it to them in the next month or so.  I take FOREVER to bind things.

Then...during a slow moment at the shop I got bit with an idea, another out of that Modern Quilt Blocks book and I decided to do my first truly "Modern" style quilt, by stepping out of my box and going with solids.  I'm not thrilled with solids.  I know a lot of folks love them...but I don't.  The colors are beautiful, but the lack of even one iota of texture makes them boring to me. Just, blah.  But they're getting really popular again with the Modern Quilt Movement, so I thought it was time to give that little tree a twirl.  And as you guys know, I like playing with odd color pairings so I went with ochre and yellow paired with dark and light purple.  I couldn't go 100% solid, so there are 2 complementing and subtle prints in the center of the blocks. I'm pretty satisfied with it, I have to say.