Tag: Project-Quilt

Posts about the piecing, applique’ of quilts. Don’t use for completed quilts or non-quilt projects.

EPP Growing

Half Hexie Cluster
Half Hexie Cluster

My English Paper Piecing half hexie stars are growing into a giant cluster.

I forgot to rotate the photo. What I think of as the bottom is the line of stars with the dark green and Philip Jacobs flower print on the diagonal on the left.

I have some diamonds that will make the border straight. I don’t know what color I will make them, but I would like to decide and make a few to get the feel of how the piece will look. There will be no black stars, so, perhaps, black? I hoping for a look like those 1930s quilts which just have a spark of black. I’ll have to try it out and see how it will look.

I recently finished adding a whole big section, or what I thought was a whole big section and it really turned out to be about four blocks. I thought it was a larger section when I was doing it, because of the twisting of the stars that needs to take place to get them together. I think I will add one star at a time from now on.

My biggest problem is the background stars. I need to make more and keep forgetting to cut the bright white dot fabrics until I am sitting and doing it.

Design Wall Monday

Design Wall 11/3/2014
Design Wall 11/3/2014

My design wall is shockingly similar to the last time.

Fewer octagons.

Similar black and grey donation blocks.

If you zoom in, you can see the beginnings of the Modified Garden of Eden blocks I started after we went to PIQF. You have to zoom in, because all you can see are some grey triangles that are similar in color to my design wall.

I finished filling in the space for the FOTY 2014 blocks, which you will hear more about later this week.

Red and turquoise four patches are pretty much the same. I am in desperate need of some turquoise squares, which is kind of shocking since there is no shortage of turquoise in this place.

I really should do a What’s on the Design Floor, because all of my half baked projects are on the floor right now. I really have to get those octagons and the Russian Rubix out of my life.

Linking up with Judy for Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

PIQF Inspired Project

Cross & Squares
Cross & Squares

A few days ago I talked about a project that TFQ are trying out. I think I am behind, because I didn’t get to sew anything until this past weekend.

First of all, I know some of you are thinking “what the heck, dude, don’t you have about a bajillion projects in process?” Well, yes, I have a few on my Current Projects list.  I just really like doing a one-on-one project (also group projects like Scrapitude) with (an)other quiltmaker. Also, a few blocks isn’t really a project, is it??? Mostly, I am a social animal and like to have some human contact, especially if I can talk about quiltmaking in the geeky, detailed process-oriented way that my brain loves.

Second, I looked up the pattern and found a block called Garden of Eden that I could modify in EQ7. EQ provides such an easy and quick way to look at sizes of pieces. We were able to look at the rotary cutting directions for individual pieces in order to decide what finished size to make the blocks.

Colorful Octagons
Colorful Octagons

Next, you are probably wondering, after my long dissertation on Color Stories, what my color story will be.

I don’t know exactly, but to put us on the same page, TFQ and I talked about colors of the octagons I am using for the Russian Rubix and whether those were the sorts of colors. Yes, they are the sorts of colors, but I will also use different fabrics and make it scrappy.

For the background, we will be using different cool, light greys. Again, they will be the same in each block, but, possibly different between blocks. The four squares in each block will be the same the same color, but not necessarily the same fabric.

I am not sure about the cross in the middle. I am not sure if I will use analagous colors or complimentary colors or what.

You can play along using the PIQF Crosses Rotary Cutting-5in pattern (5 inches) I created in EQ7.

Throwback Thursday: Playmat (#TBT)

A few weeks ago, Sandi, of Quilt Cabana Patterns, posted a playmat she made. It reminded me of Throwback Thursday (#TBT) and how Quiltin’ Jenny always posts something from her pre-blogging days. I wasn’t very productive in pre-blogging days, but I do have quilts that only show up on Artquiltmaker.com about which I have never written.

Playmat
Playmat

The Playmat is one of those quilts.I made this quilt in about 1997 or 1998.

The Playmat was one of the first projects I worked on when I was a new mom. I hadn’t been sewing much, was only marginally connected online (remember this was in the dark ages with no Twitter or podcasts or blogs) via the QuiltNet listserv.

I don’t remember why I decided I needed to make a playmat, but I really used it to lay out on the floor so the Y.M. (previously the Tiny Bubba) could lay on it. Later, he sat on it, but as soon as he started crawling, we used it briefly in the stroller, but he would throw it off and out, which became annoying.

I made this quilt very quickly and used a pillowcase technique to avoid binding it, then quilted it myself.  I notice now that the edge is all bias. Not sure what I was thinking, but the piecing is much more interesting (if the color combo doesn’t hurt your eyes) on point than a straight set.

The back is a nice cute bears in King Arthur garb print. I know I didn’t want to cut it up and I used it for a quilt for Friend Julie‘s younger son as well. I’ll try and add that photo to this post.

I linked up with Jenny over at Quiltin' Jenny
I linked up with Jenny over at Quiltin’ Jenny

EPP Stars Go Together

image
EPP Stars (back)

I have been working on my Half Hexie English Paper Pieced Stars since August of 2012. I really wanted to see if I could actually take out the paper templates and use them again. I sewed four stars together and went from there.

I would have felt a lot better if TFQ were sitting with me supporting me (egging me on). She wasn’t and I needed a stiff upper lip.

image
EPP Stars with Papers

I did it. I took out the papers and the piece is fine. I was kind of shocked at how easy it was and how well it worked. It is tempting to take them all out, but I know I can only take out those that are surrounded on all sides by another piece.

I should have been, but I was a little surprised by how well the ‘free’ pieces kept their shape.

I don’t know how many stars I have completed, but I may pull out the box in which I keep them and start sewing them together. I would at least get an idea of how many more I need. I could also start putting a border on, once I decide what fabric to use for a border.
image

image

FOTY 2014 – Early July

FOTY 2014 - Early July
FOTY 2014 – Early July

Here is another batch of rectangles for my FOTY 2014 piece.

Early July is a bit of a lie because all of these patches were cut in June. I picked the title based on the publish date and next year nobody will remember or care.

In between my travels, I did a load of blacks and greys. The colors you see are from projects I have been working on.

These are not in the same kind of color order that I normally use, but I was out of town for many days in June. You’ll see some of the fabrics I used in recent projects as well as a couple of loads of the Great Unwashed experiencing a bracing cleanliness for the first time. 😉

FOTY 2013 Better Progress

FOTY 2013 Mid-June Progress
FOTY 2013 Mid-June Progress

I know many of you liked the progress I was making on FOTY 2013. I didn’t like it, so I talked to Maureen and her son and started over.

This project is killing me and I have to get it done. I have to get it done for my own piece of mind. I also want to get it done, but the other layout was not achieving the goal I wanted to achieve. I was having a hard time gradating the colors horizontally and thought that I would need too much background.

I also didn’t want to do the same thing as FOTY 2012 despite the success of that quilt. I don’t want to do the same thing over and over.

Maureen and Andy suggested starting in the middle. I went home and started, which is what you see in the picture, and I feel like the process is going a lot better.

 

FOTY 2013 Progress

As you can see I making some progress on this piece.

I have about a thousand more photos of this piece and it doesn’t seem to be working. If you click on each photo in turn, you can see the minute changes. It doesn’t matter what I move around, the piece is not working.

I knew I had to go back to the regular format, but I wasn’t sure how. I had a chat with Maureen and her son about it last week and they gave me an idea. Stay tuned!

Pointillist Palette #4

I don’t really even remember when I finished the last Pointillist Palette quilt. The late 1990s? It had some reproduction fabrics in it by Jinny Beyer, maybe? there are 3 quilts in the series and I think I had planned 6. I don’t know if #5 or #6 will ever be made as the bloom is somewhat off the rose after all of the these, but I am more interested in finishing #4 now that I have found some blocks.

Pointillist Palette #4 Blocks
Pointillist Palette #4 Blocks

Fortunately, the fabrics have held up well and are somewhat timeless.

This quilt in the series is called night and the black and white fabrics in it are supposed to represent that. I took apart a back of #2 or #3 so I could use the fabrics in this quilt. TFQ thought I was insane and I probably was since I didn’t actually finish the quilt…yet.

Vintage Tuesday: A.G. Quilt

House Block quilt
House Block quilt

This is the first quilt I made on my Janome 9000 in about 1995.

I moved up to the 9k from a Singer 201 that I bought at a White Elephant sale for about $30 including the table. The Singer 201 got me started in quiltmaking, but I outgrew it after about 3 years. The one thing I really wanted to do was machine applique’. The Singer 201 did not have a zigzag stitch.

I was so excited to do machine applique’. I drew out a picture that became the center and stitched it out. I didn’t know anything about stitch density. I used Mettler quilting thread for the stitches. and the satin stitch was really thick.

I was really pleased with the center block when I made it. I can do much better now, but it really showed that a much better machine helped me take a huge leap forward in my quiltmaking. The new machine allowed me to spread my creative wings.

FOTY 2014 – Early May

FOTY 2014 - early May
FOTY 2014 – early May

Lately I have been plowing through a lot of washed fabric. Most of it is blues and greens, which is good for my Blue[berry] Lemonade project and means that the FOTY 2014 will have a lot of blues and greens like the previous versions in the series.

I am a little more excited about cutting for FOTY 2014 now that FOTY 2012 is done. I am really pleased with how FOTY 2012 came out and now I am hoping future versions come out even better.

FOTY 2013? Yes, I will get to it soon.

My Round Robin

Round Robin after 1st Round
Round Robin after 1st Round

I was able to see my round robin start on Saturday at the BAMQG meeting. It was fun to see it, though not much has been done.

Poor Kelly moved after we started the project. My RR got stuck in a box by accident when she had some problems with the move. My piece has only had one person work on it. While it is cheerful and the work done so far looks really good, when compared to the fabulous work another group did on their projects, my piece looked kind of sad.

HOWEVER!

The other group has done 6 rounds and mine has only gone through one round so the potential is definitely there. Also, we only have 4 people in our group. Looking at the piece in photos really makes me realize how bright and cheerful it is.

Round Robin potential for Round 2
Round Robin potential for Round 2

Kathleen is next on the list to work on my piece.  She and I pulled out my piece and talked about what to do on it. At the moment the piece is very vertical. We were thinking that it needed some more horizontal, so we explored some ways of making it more horizontal. One thought was to make the edge a little smaller. In the photo you can see that we folded the edges under so that we could see how the piece would look with squares of color on the edges instead of rectangles.

We also talked about connecting the liked colored edge squares (or rectangles) with lines of the same colors, possibly weaving more than one under the other. You can see that some of the various colors on the bottom right are also on the top left. I am a fan of that idea, but I am not working on it, so who knows.

Kathleen said she might draw something to try and work out a design. I was wondering if I could use EQ7 to import the picture and then draw around it to show what I meant. I don’t know if it will work, but can try it and see.

The other thing I was wondering was if I should see if there are other people who want to work on it – perhaps non BAMQG people? We’ll see what fabulosity Kelly and Kathleen conjure up. 😉

Related Round Robin Posts

Vintage Tuesday: Blood & Oil

Blood & Oil: The Peace Quilt, 1990
Blood & Oil: The Peace Quilt, 1990

March was an odd month, as I know I keep saying, so I am pressed for content. As a result, I decided to show some older quilts.

I have a couple of quilts that have to do with war. As a mother of a boy, I am concerned about how easily our recent presidents seem to engage in war. I don’t see my son as expendable.

This quilt was made before the Young Man was even a dream in my eye.

This quilt was made as a gut reaction to the First Gulf War. I was sitting home alone watching CNN’s coverage of bombs falling on Baghdad, Iraq. After living in Austria, I know that people everywhere have moms and jobs they go to and children who need to be taken to music lessons and soccer camps. The type of war we have now does not spare civilians and that is of great concern to me. It is a reaction to war itself – the death, the devastation, the violence and makes no comment on the justification for that particular war or any others. It is also not a judgement of those soldiers who choose the military as their career choice. The military does a lot of good for a lot of people and I applaud those who choose that path.

The background uses a technique by Mary Mashuta called ‘pushed neutrals’. The idea is to use several different fabrics in a similar range of hues to make a background instead of using one fabric for the background. This idea has lodged itself firmly in my brain and sometimes comes out these days as mosaic quilting.

This quilt probably has the most organized and intentional use of mosaic quilting of any I have made. It reminds me that I can use it as a design option. It also reminds me of low volume quilts which are such a craze right now. They use the same idea for the whole quilt rather than just the background.

Although the subject matter is difficult, I think this is one of the best quilts I have ever made. It was shown at the San Francisco Quilters Guild show in 1990, with much controversy. It was on display at the law firm of McKenna & Cuneo, LLP from 1997-2000.

I think I will need to take a better, higher resolution photo of this piece at some point.

Fabric of the Year 2014

FOTY 2014 - First Patches
FOTY 2014 – First Patches

This has never happened before. FOTY 2013 has not even had its chance on the design wall and I am already cutting for FOTY 2014. That is, apparently, the way it goes sometimes.

I like this group, though the greys are a bit of a downer, and think that many of the prints would be considered very modern.

The FOTY 2014 patches are cut 3″x5″. The reason for this size is that I have been trying to achieve a certain size of rectangle in a couple of projects (one was FOTY 2008) . I kept forgetting to factor in the seam allowance, so the rectangles, once sewn, were too small. They worked fine in the quilt, but the look was a little small for what I wanted.

This slightly larger size will also showcase more of the pattern on the fabric.

Tale of Two Cities Start

Tale of Two Cities Fabrics
Tale of Two Cities Fabrics

This project has been on my mind since December when Friend Julie suggested it. I am finally making a wobbly start. The start is that I have started to choose the colors.

Julie bought me the book as a gift and after some discussions with her, I decided I would be inspired by the city around me. This, in my mind, fits into the ‘City Sampler” theme that Tula Pink encourages also.

In the winter, the sky is very blue here and, though cold, I enjoy the strong light and clear colors. It should be no surprise that turquoise factors into my choices. I just can’t help myself.

Another appeal of this project is the block element. I miss making blocks on a regular basis like I did for the A-B-C Challenge and the Star Sampler. This project will help me satisfy that craving and, hopefully, will not annoy me.

Finally, shortly after Julie and I talked about the project, Kelly brought it up as a BAMQG small group project. This means I can have fun with Julie and participate more in BAMQG.

I was having trouble getting started. I have been distracted by life and picking a few fabrics (I am sure I will need more) really helps me to get the process out of my head and started.