Improv Wonky Cross Quilt

This 40 x 50 baby quilt is the product of my blocks from guild friends in the Whatever Bee.  I made a practice wonky cross version (a maquette, if you will) a few months ago which helped me to identify the features I liked in this sort of a slice and insert block.  Like the practice quilt, I kept the blocks the same height but varied the widths.  I also added a few half blocks and stacked them in pairs, just for fun (hint: this is a great fix for a block that may end up being slightly too small).  Improv quilting is awesome like that. Here a fun tutorial by a guild member Carla on how to make this type of block, two at a time.

This type of improv block is perfect for a bee.  It gives the quilters specific instructions while allowing them some flexibility to experiment.  My friends were all kind enough to make me two blocks, so I had some extra to use on the back of the quilt.

I am donating this quilt to one of our guild's community service projects, Birthday Blessings, a local charity.  I am also submitting it to 100 Quilts For Kids.  This annual quilt drive is great because it allows you to donate locally to a children's charity of your choosing.  Just add a link to an online photo of your quilt, and you can participate.  There are prizes!  The link is open through the end of the month, so you still have time.  The post even includes ideas for simple quilts to make.

Thanks so all my friends who contributed blocks!  I know this is going to be well used by some little guy in our community.

Purple and Gray Strata Quilt

This quilt began as a pile of monochromatic strata.  I often sit down and create strata (improv, crazy pieced units) out of scraps when I need a bit of mindless sewing.  I added dark pink units around the lighter pink center rectangle, log cabin fashion.  The unit grew to include a final round of purple.
I decided to make a quilt, as the unit was too large for a pillow.  A large amount of negative space, using peppered shot cotton in charcoal, provided a nice space for some interesting quilting. I used matching aurifil thread and my walking foot to create a spiral from the center of the strata unit, outward.

I absolutely love the hand of the peppered shot cotton.  You can see a bit from the photos, how the warp and weft vary slightly from one another, since I cut the side and top borders the same way.  The warp and weft show slightly differently.  If this bothers you, pay attention to keeping the warp and weft oriented consistently in your border strips.

Shot cottons have a looser weave, in most cases, than quilting cottons, and in my experience can shift more when quilting.  As you may know, spiral quilting using a small home sewing machine requires a great deal of pushing and pulling through the machine throat and can result in a bit of distortion in a loosely woven fabric, especially if the quilt back is a quilting cotton which does not shift quite as much.

Even with some re-basting and unpicking, I ended up with some small tucks on the back of the quilt.  I have done spiral quilting on largish quilts, like the Tiny Log Cabin quilt, with no problem, so I surmise it the shot cotton made the difference.  I think straight-line in a single direction or free motion quilting would have gone over much better, but the manipulation required by spiral quilting a large quilt (60 x70) was not the best choice for the peppered shot cotton fabric.

Lesson learned, and hopefully someone will benefit from my experience.  The upside is that I get to keep this quilt!  I hope to use is as a sample for future classes on monochromatic strata piecing.

I'm linking to the Blogger's Quilt Festival for the first time.  Check out the link for so much inspiration.

Partly Cloudy

I've been back at my therapy, working with scraps to make more monochromatic strip set blocks.  The technique is the same as I used in the Therapist.  I simply limited my color palette to create this 40 x 50 toddler quilt. 

The intensity of the teal and navy is what I find so arresting about this quilt.  I wanted the colors to gradually soften into aqua on one end and gray on the other, finally fading to white.  I used the block format to keep it deliberately a bit choppy and graphic.  The blocks are quite simple to make as well and more much more manageable than making an entire column at a time.

The tight color scheme creates cohesion even though it is a very scrappy quilt.  I really enjoyed working with both my own scraps and scraps from friends. (If you want to make a scrap quilt but don't have enough variety of fabrics or have colors you lack, I suggest swapping scraps with a friend or two.  It is a fun way to discover new fabrics and work with colors you might not normally use.  Scrap packs are also readily available for purchase online. One tip I can offer is to follow quilters you admire on Instagram or Flickr.  If you like the fabrics they use in their quilts, you're sure to love a scrap bundle, should they ever decide to destash.  Guess how I know.) My friends may recognize some of their scraps here.

I used a figure eight free motion design for the quilting and simple gray Heath to bind. The back is a cute DS Quilts print you can find at JoAnn's.

Partly Cloudy is available in my shop.  FYI, I am planning to clear out the shop in the next month or two, so it's your last chance to grab anything you've had your eye on.  All the baby quilts unsold by the end of September will be donated for the 100 Quilts for Kids quilt drive.

Horizon

This quilt was inspired by a 1957 photolithograph of a music program designed by Josef Muller-Brockmann, a Swiss graphic designer, teacher, and author (you can spend hours browsing through MOMA's online archive of images, so be forewarned).  I was struck by the effect of distance he achieved with such a limited use of shapes and colors. 

This is a quilt I didn't have time to make, but it just sort of flowed out of me, which I think is always a good sign.  It's certainly a great experience, when it happens that way.  I decided to make the quilt quite small (30 x 42), as an experiment for a larger quilt in the future.  If I get to come back to this design, I will change the proportions and quilting somewhat, but overall I am happy with what I was able to create improvisationally.

The binding, a text print from Mama Said Sew, is a nod to Muller-Brockmann's frequent use of typography. I used half inch straight line quilting across the whole quilt, changing direction to emphasize the illusion of a horizon line.

The back is a kind of psychedelic ombre dot. I think it echoes the feeling of depth from the front.

I hope to carve out some time to experiment with a few more ideas inspired by mid century modern art.



Stash Additions

I've ordered a lot of fabric lately for commissioned quilts.  Somehow a few pieces for my stash always sneak into those orders.  It saves on shipping, right?  These are usually new prints I love and colors I'm low on, but I have no specific plan in mind for them.
These are from several different orders, and I think it is clear my subconscious has designed a quilt. 

Aren't they great together?  I love the City Center map print, the text from Mama Said Sew (it's so hard to find a good dark gray print), some shot cottons, Kona snow, the edgy floral from Rock 'n Romance, and a Field Study print.  I may throw in the two Chicopee prints as well.

I also have fallen prey to fabric photos on Instagram.  One photo let me know this bundle was in stock over at Sew Mama Sew, and I had to have it.  These new Liberty Lifestyle prints are more economical than other Liberty fabrics, and have you seen the frame purses Kelly made with them? I need to make something with them soon.

Yellow and Gray Pinwheel

 

I finished up the quilting on my yellow and gray pinwheel quilt just in time to take it my guild's picnic.  It looks right at home in Shea's living room.  Thanks to Lisa and Tracy for holding it up for me!  The quilt is 60 x 80.  It's such a simple pattern.  In my version, each rectangle finishes at 5 x 10 inches. The Omnigrip 6-Inch-by-24-Inch Non-Slip Quilter's Ruler is my go to tool and makes cutting these blocks a cinch.

I used three leftover blocks on the back along with all my solid gray scraps.  It is pretty scrappy, but it did feel really good not to buy any fabric for backing.

I wanted to further differentiate the gray and yellow pinwheel shapes, so I used a different design to quilt each: the chains squares and paisley from Angela's book.

I machine stitched the binding using this method I described a while back.  So quick!  I used all of my favorite gray dot for the binding and had to finish using Kona coal.

This quilt is a gift for a really terrific pediatric audiologist.  I can't wait to give it to her!