Leftovers Ala Gwen
Last year I made a baby quilt for a friend consisting of half-square triangles in shades of grey, blue, and green. I made a lot of HST's and then just used a portion of them to make the baby quilt. I had quilt a few left over and decided to make a twin-size quilt with them.
Front of quilt, measures 81"x65"
My favorite design element of this quilt is one that was inspired by a quilt Gwen Marston showed us when she visited our guild in February 2014. Her quilt had an inner border that used the same type of blocks as the rest of the quilt, just in soft neutral shades instead of the brights in the rest of the quilt. I decided to do the same with white and off-white HST's. I love how it turned out.
I named this quilt Leftovers Ala Gwen because most of the blocks were leftovers from another quilt, and the layout was inspired by a favorite Gwen Marston quilt. I hesitated to use the word leftovers next to my quilt heroine's name, but I decided leftovers don't have to be just lukewarm meatloaf or some other blob. Sometimes leftovers can be surprisingly delicious if they are well prepared and maybe paired with something fresh. So that's how I'm choosing to think of leftovers in this instance. The quilt measures about 81"x65", a generous twin.
Back of quilt.
On the back of this quilt I did some piecing of letters. Once again I wanted to show what could be done with the Simple Shapes Alphabet (pattern coming soon). Can't Stop Won't Stop came to mind as a fun phrase, a rap reference that has made its way into the lexicon. I don't know why it needed to be on a quilt, except that I can't stop putting words on quilts. Or quilting in general. Can't stop, won't stop until I'm too old to physically cut and sew fabric. Quilting is my life-long obsession, I feel certain. If it turns out that I stop quilting for some reason other than just physical incapability (ie I lose interest) I will be truly shocked. As things stand now, I always have ideas, I always want to make more. I can't imagine life being any different.
Shot Cotton baby quilt
Susan got a wedding quilt and I decided to also make her a baby quilt! Why does Susan get two quilts when many people in my life have yet to receive one from me? I don't know. Maybe I miss her, or feel guilty about not visiting her more? Most likely her big life events just happened to fall at a time when I had an open quilting schedule.
Front of quilt. Measures 49"x35"
Back of quilt
Again, I wanted to make something simple for her, in line with her taste for all things clean and minimal. I started with big stripes in soft tones. Then a friend at Chicago Modern Quilt Guild told me about making a quilt using shot cottons and wool batting, and how the quilt was so soft and had such a nice hand. Typically I don't give a lot of thought to the hand of softness of the quilts I make, but in this instance it seemed like making a baby quilt extra soft would be a great idea. I had a gorgeous stack of shot cottons that I had purchased at a great price on Craftsy. I loved this stack so much that I decided to use it as it was, not changing the order of the colors at all. I paired the colors up as they came off the stack, cut them into pies and crusts, and sewed them into drunkards path blocks. I decided to add borders, and the phrase "Hello, world" to the bottom of the quilt. I wanted to make examples of the letters I had sketched out for a pattern (Simple Shapes Alphabet, hopefully coming out soon), and I thought it was a cute expression to welcome a new person into the world. I did not know at the time that this is a famous reference to computer programming. Even though I did watch Halt and Catch Fire. But I digress. By now I had come to think of the original front as the back, and this more colorful patchwork as the front. Of course Susan can use it in whatever way she prefers.
On the design wall...
In progress...
piecing the letters
such a pretty spot to nap.
My helper got tired arms.
quilting detail.
I sent this to Nikki Maroon for some very simple, open quilting. After it was bound I added a label made from a piece of vintage embroidered linen. I hope it's getting plenty of use by sweet baby Nico.
The cutest!
UPDATE: Nico is the most adorable butterball and he looks perfect in his stripes on his quilt. This picture made my heart leap.
Wedding Quilt for Susan and Alex
My friend Susan has been extremely dear and important to me since high school. She left the midwest for beautiful Portland, Oregon several years ago so I don't see her nearly often enough. She has always had impeccable taste, so when she got married, I wanted to give myself the challenge of making a quilt she could love and that would look great in her gorgeous Portland bungalow.
Susan had expressed admiration for the work of the Hopewell Studios. I took direct inspiration from their quilts, but tried to put myself in there too. I had a few goals for the making of this quilt. I wanted to shop strictly from my stash. I started out strong in this regard, but ended up buying some additional neutral solids. I also wanted to work ruler-free for this quilt. I almost accomplished that, but did need to do a bit of measuring to successfully piece the mitered corners. And I threw in a few orphan blocks that were originally constructed using rulers. Everything else was improv with no rulers!
Improv in progress.
Working out the composition on the design wall.
I began quilting this on my domestic Juki, with a mix of straight lines and curved lines. I wasn't thrilled with how the quilting looked, and I didn't enjoy shoving this big quilt through my machine. I decided to add some big hand quilting. I always love the look of big-stitch hand quilting, and sometimes use it to (hopefully) compensate for the shortcomings of my machine quilting skills.
Quilting and binding detail.
Quilting detail.
As always, I would change a few things if I could, but overall I'm happy with how this quilt turned out. I know it's already getting a lot of good use in Portland. Susan said it was the perfect weight for summer, which makes me happy.
Back of quilt
Exit on the Left
This year's guild challenge for International Quilt Festival was to take the traditional friendship star block and make it modern. I submitted a quilt and it was accepted to the show again, which was fun.
My idea was to take a large-scale print and cut it in a way that created a new look. I was inspired by this quilt I spotted on Pinterest. The image comes from the Australian fabric company Umbrella Prints. I loved how the large-scale print was chopped up and used in an unexpected way.
The large scale print I decided to use was the gorgeous Ghost Wing by Anna Maria Horner. I started with the mint fabric, and bought the dark grey for the back. Halfway through the process I realized I loved the dark fabric even more than the mint and decided to make it the front. I made the mint into a mirror image of the front, so the quilt is completely reversible.
Nikki Maroon quilted this for me and I adore what she did.
Modern Hexie Table Runner
During our vacation out West last summer, my aunt and uncle hosted us for a couple of days in their beautiful Colorado home. I wanted to thank them with a handmade gift. I decided on a table runner because it would be quick but also useful.
I wanted to try a technique made popular by Nicole of Modern Handcraft. Instead of sewing the hexies to each other, you tack them down with fabric-friendly glue, then sew lines through all the points, on the diagonal. It's a kind of cheater's applique that ends up looking amazing in its own right.
I made the hexies from a charm pack of a fabric line called Barcelona, so they all played together perfectly. Then I pieced the background with strips from my stash.
My aunt and uncle were very appreciative of their gift, and I will always be grateful to them for showing us their corner of the gorgeous state of Colorado.
