BAMQG – Page 28 – Artquiltmaker Blog

More Purple Improv

I made quite a bit of progress during the last little while using this piece as leaders and enders for the FOTY 2017. I started out with some largish chunks and grew it.

I am not a huge fan of improv piecing, as you have heard a million times. I have to admit, however, it is fairly mindless and a good way to use up random scraps.

When I come across a larger piece, I am cutting it up into some of the shapes I am Hunting and Gathering for other projects. I especially need to beef up my collection of 2″ cool colors after the En Provence quilt.

So I am still beavering away to make something large enough for a baby quilt. The pieces are much more square, but I still have work to do.

Purple Improv

This is what I am making in order to clear out some more purple scraps after finishing the Purple Strips donation top. I started with some shards that I had made for some forgotten project. I have added to the original pieces quite a bit.

Because of what I started with, this is less like the Green Thing in that it is less of a medallion style. It may end up a little like that, but we will see. I don’t yet know where it is going except that I need to add some larger chunks or strips to the piece to provide some breathing space.

Spiky 16 Patch Star n.3

I finally finished the Spiky 16 patch stars into a quilt top! This is the 3rd one of these quilts I have made. I have an idea for another one, but since I am working on scrappy strip quilts right now, they may have to wait.

It isn’t exactly 100% stellar but only because I could have arranged the blocks differently. It looks great and I have already handed it in to be quilted.

I am pleased that it went together so quickly. I was rearranging the Tutorials page and there were the directions for setting blocks on point. I took the bull by the horns and made the top. It really went together very quickly. I also found the perfect piece of Stonehenge that only needed a little piecing. Since I couldn’t finish the purple strip quilt, I was glad to have a donation top to hand in.

More Process in Purple Strip Donation Top

I finished all the blocks and began to think about the color of the plain blocks. Tim doesn’t like white backgrounds and since he will most likely quilt this top, I decided to look for something else.

Purple strip donation quilt with yellow-green

Across from purple on my Studio Color Wheel is chartreuse. I admit this is a bold choice and I was thinking about it quite a bit before I went hunting for fabric. Finally, I decided that I needed to make visual decisions visually and cut up some fabric.

I like the boldness of the color combination, but something wasn’t quite right.

I was just about to sew it together when Tim saw the photo and suggested grey. Purple is hard for me to work with, because it really darkens my workroom to a depressing state. Adding grey made me think it would just get worse. I knew the yellow-green was the right color for the purple, so I found a couple of greys and tried it.

I chose the greys based on fabrics I didn’t think I would use for something else. These were both in that category because they have a taupe cast too them, which is not my preference for grey. I prefer the cooler white-greys.

Purple strip donation quilt with grey solid

Immediately, I knew that the grey solid (#1) was a much better choice. It will be suitable for a boy and isn’t too depressing.

I have begun sewing the plain blocks to the strip blocks.

I saved the green for another day.

Purple Improv Donation Top in Process

As I said the other day, I still have a lot of purple scraps. I also found some large purple shards in my purple scrap bin. I immediately pulled these out and have decided to use them for another improv donation top like the Green Thing. I can’t say I’ll make a companion quilt to each strip quilt I make, but I have a lot of scraps and this seems like a good way to use them up.

I know these shards probably started out as potential journal covers. I don’t know why I didn’t finish them, but now they can go to a good home.

The triangular shard is really strange. I wonder what I was thinking when I made it. Of course, I have to make it into a square or rectangle, so I can use it. I do like it. If I can use lighter purples and lavenders around the triangle, I can preserve the triangle quality of the piece.

I have already added to the smaller piece shown above the triangular shard, using it as a leader as I was getting towards the end of the strip blockmaking.

The last shard is good sized as well. The three pieces make a nice start to a donation top. They are all purple and that is good, but I hope the shards go together well enough to make something cohesive.

I do know that I am finding all this purple on my design wall to be oppressive and dark. Perhaps that is my issue with the darker purples? I know I felt like this when I was working on the purple bullseye. I do know that I have a good start to the purple donation improv top and that pleases me.

New Donation Blocks

I worked the other night while DH was out on clearing out my purple scrap bin. This resulted in a new set of blocks for BAM’s community quilting project.

There are a couple of duplicates as I had some long strips that resulted in two blocks.

There are also a lot of light scraps – lavender and very light purple. I was surprised at the variation in color. I don’t think I am a strictly dark purple lover.

I also made 6 more blocks than I did for the Green Strip quilt. I was on a roll and had the blocks in process before I realized how far along I was. It will be a slightly larger quilt. I haven’t decided what color to put with it for the plain blocks (I am using the same design as the Green Strip quilt). Chartreuse is across from purple on the color wheel I use.

I don’t feel like I used up enough of the purple scraps. The bin is definitely more empty, but still not empty enough. I even sorted out some super small pieces that would be much better as pet bed filling. Still I need to make more headway on purple scraps. Another similar quilt? Should I make this one larger?

February 2019 Donation Blocks

It is a little early to post a complete list of donation blocks for February. I am dong it anyway. I have been doing quilt a bit of gift sewing, which I can’t show for a few weeks, so here we are.

Swirly Red donation block - yes, another — Swirly Red donation block – yes, another

It was easier while I was working on my secret project to make donation blocks rather than work on the back of the City Sampler, thus I used the 2.5 inch squares as my leaders and enders. I’ll finish up the city Sampler back today.

Not a ton, but some progress. I have more ends to use up, so I may work on that next.

BAM Meeting 2/16

A couple of things came up at the guild meeting which I wanted to share.

First, Another of the tops I made and donated was finished and shown. Cheryl finished the Stripes donation top that I made at QuiltCon last year. She gave me some nice compliments on it, which made me feel better about it. I may try that stripes technique without actually making the stripes. I know I can’t vary the stripes when I do’t make them myself, but making the stripes is super tedious.

Peggy's HST donation quilt — Peggy’s HST donation quilt

Peggy, as usual, was prolific in her quiltmaking. She made the above donation quilt from scraps she had saved generated by a previous pattern. Each of the non-white triangles consist of made fabric. I think the randomness of the layout could be done with HSTs and would make a fun donation quilt. Once I am done with the Bias Rectangles, perhaps I will play around with this concept.

Finally, we have a guild baby. His name is Sam and he is about a month old now. His mom, Velvet Pincushion, brought him and his grandma with her to the guild. The new little family will be moving soon, so we were thrilled to get a chance to meet him. I am excited to see that VP is still stitching even with a new baby.

She brought the Color My Quilt quilt she worked on before Sam was born. Progress has halted, but she made good progress before Sam was born. I don’t know if we’ll see the quilt before they move. It is more block based than some of the others. My shard is on the bottom left in between the Friendship Star and the very bottom left hand star.

Improv Block Donation Top

Remember I said I went over to Tim’s the other to meet with a group from BAM and traded donation quilts with him?

I made a back for the fun and cheerful quilt I took from him. I started with pink fabrics, but then realized I should use orange. The quilt top has other colors, but came across as mostly orange to me, so orange it was.

The color will be great for a boy, but not the flowers unless the boy is open minded and doesn’t mind a few flowers.

I also added a small border to the top. Somehow it didn’t look finished to me, so I added a border. A slightly larger quilt is always better IMO.

The blocks remind me of the Tina Michalik class BAM had at Always Quilting a few years ago. It is a fun quilt and the texture of the piecing is really nice. I think the border frames it. I do wonder if I just made it un-modern by adding the border. C’est la vie.

The Friday color and creativity posts will return soon!

Finished: Green Thing Top & Back

I finished the Green Thing Top and Back in time to take it to BAM today.

I am worried about someone quilting it as there are a lot of small pieces. I tried to press seams open. There was less matching of points, so it made sense.

I don’t know that I’ll do this type of thing again. There are some benefits: I can see part of the bottom of my green scraps drawer and there is no matching of seams. Still, though, the end of the process wasn’t as leaders and enders friendly as I would have liked. I am going to try to make a few 8.5 inch improv blocks and see what someone else will do with them. That should get rid of scraps, too.

The back went together pretty easily. I used some fabrics that had been hanging around awhile. I always liked that green bubble dot print, but I never found a project in which to use it, so off it goes to make way for newer fabrics.

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