Wonky Kites Quilt

I had a lot of fun making this wonky kites quilt.  It's an easy improvised block to make, and the way the kites come together is a surprise each time.

I made this baby quilt to go with my wonky zigzag pillow.  They coordinate without exactly matching.

 

I'm trying a new free motion design with each quilt lately, and making these swirls felt really natural to me.

The striped binding is a Hope Valley print, and it inspired my combination of orange and purple.  I added pink and gray to the mix, and as you know, the colors have been on my mind ever since.  This quilt finished at 36 x 42.  You can read more about the process of making it here.

Winner and a Show

The winner of the Paper Pieces templates is #15, Hannah!  I'll send you an email.  Thanks to everyone for their comments.  I will say, as someone who has printed and cut out paper templates before, the ones you can buy are obviously easier (no cutting out) and made from thicker paper. You can use them several times.  Totally worth it for me.

The show is the first quilt show by the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild.  If you are in the area, we hope you'll stop by UMKC's quad this coming Saturday, October 1st.  There are going to be tons of great quilts to see, and we're hoping our lovely fall weather continues.  Hope to see you there!

A Return to Paper Piecing

I thought I was done with English paper piecing for a long while after my hexagon pillow, but then I saw this gorgeous project by Marg.  I hadn't seen the jewel shapes before.  Aren't they great with the hexies and diamonds?

I've had a lot of fun digging through my scraps and fussing cutting each shape.  And did you notice there are no basting stitches?  Marg also shared this magical fabric glue pen.  No basting!  I love this notion.  You can find it online, but if you're local to KC, Bernina on Metcalf has it.  Best. tool. ever.

I found the templates I needed at paperpieces.  Through a mailing mishap, they were kind enough to give me some extras, which I am going to give away.  Want to start a paper piecing project of you own?  Let me know in the comments, and I'll pick a winner Monday morning. Giveaway now closed.

Four Square Quilt

My obsession with log cabins continues.  It was only fueled by the fantastic talk Susan Beal did on the subject at our last guild meeting.  I really had fun with negative space in this one, filling it up with a squared off free motion design.

The colors seem autumnal paired with the neutral grays, making me think of foggy mornings and changing leaves, so I'm linking up to Celebrate Color which is all about the colors of fall.

 I love the backing fabric.  It is Juicy Blossom, Spots on Pewter, and it is so soft - just right for a solid back.

This quilt finished at 48 x 53.

Up Next

Basting and quilting my two baby log cabins and the wonky kites quilt.

Wonky Kites

Did you ever make a quilt to go with a pillow?

I saw this little quilt by Alexis, and thought it would be the perfect quilt to go with my wonky zigzag pillow.  I think they'll be a great pair - coordinating but not matching exactly.  I used the same fabrics, and the block is a similar type of block.  You just cover the corner though, with one strip, and you add another strip to the opposite corner.  Otherwise, the construction is the same.  Then you orient the blocks to create the wonky kite.

I'm waiting on backing materials for my log cabin quilts (yes, two of them), and now some for this one too.  Then I think I'll be done with this color combination, at least for a while.

More Log Cabins

I'm thinking of another minimalist log cabin quilt - lots of purple, orange, pink and gray.  Looking at these photos makes me see I need more orange.

Valuable Lesson

So I've heard about value and it's importance in quilt design, and I've seen the cool HST quilts that play with value.  Katie even has a tutorial on it.  I've never really thought about it much though - until now.

I was happily making oversized pinwheels in a favorite new color combo.  Isolated, they read very clearly, but something happened when I put the quilt together.  The pinwheels kind of got lost.

It's interesting to find that, even though the colors are very distinct, the yellow and gray pinwheels blend right together where their values are too similar, particularly the lighter fabrics.

I can't decide if I want to rip it apart to weed out the offenders, or try to save the design with some emphatic quilting.  It may get shelved for a while.  Anyway, lesson learned!