…from a recent very productive quilt retreat!
This string quilt by Rena was a very successful design, I thought:
Here’s the back of the string quilt, and she also made this cute Halloween quilt top:
Mary made a string quilt, too, this one all in purple:
And Jerri finished a large Bonnie Hunter quilt with a zillion pieces:
I worked on half rectangle triangles, which turned out to be a lot more work than half square triangles:
And a good time was had by all!
What have you been up to?
My modern guild is having a challenge to produce quilts for display when the traditional guild has its next show in the fall. The guidelines are: no more than 36″ on any side, and using some Riley Blake solids whose colors were extracted from a landscape photo chosen by the guild. The quilts aren’t due for several months yet, but I had a brainstorm and produced mine already. Here we go:
The quilt is faced rather than bound
And here is a detail. In case you haven’t caught on, this is the one that was stained by basting spray. However, that came out just fine with dry cleaning.
Name: Blue Ridge
March 2018
Finished size: 30″ x 17″
Fabrics: Riley Blake solids
Quilted by: me
Or ricrac, or rick rack, whatever. I found a lot of spellings when I was trying to decide!
This fun way to piece curves was part of a class I taught this past weekend, and it was so cute in the blocks the students made that I just had to do a tutorial.
We were piecing quarter circles as part of my quilt YOW, which you’ve already seen:
So here is a partially assembled block with one curved seam left to go:
Select rickrack and lay it along the edge of the convex piece. Probably would work with the concave piece, too, but I haven’t tried that:
Sew the rickrack down with the usual 1/4 inch seam
Now turn the raw edge and attached rickrack to the back along the 1/4 inch seam and press. Here’s the front:
And here’s the back:
Lay the convex piece on top of the concave piece and line up the edges.
Flip over and try to line up the raw edges all along the seam on the back.
Applique the convex piece to the concave piece by stitching in the ditch. I used silver metallic thread just for fun, but matching thread works well, of course. And here’s the finished block.
Sort of modern-retro. Go try it!
I’ve been thinking about what inspires my quilt designs, and the first thing that came to mind was the beautiful or fun or amazing quilts I see at shows, guild meetings, retreats, wherever. Here are a few of my favorite quilts for inspiration.
I love the variety of bright colors and the tiny pieces in this one:
Quilt made by Jerri from TINY pieces of Liberty of London fabric
And this is a favorite because of the bright colors and eccentric design:
Cinco de Mayo, made by Renny Jaeger; pattern by Karen K Stone
This unusual design appeals to me:
Rena was given a circle cutter at the last retreat, and she went wild!
Pamela Wiley’s excellent workmanship and eye-popping designs make her quilts among my favorites:
Outside In by Pamela Wiley
I like the use of color in this next one, as well as the movement generated by the curved piecing and curved quilting:
In the Marsh #2, by Carol Bryer Fallert-Gentry
And this one reminds me of Maine, where we lived for a while:
Coves and Islands by Carol Anne Grotian
What inspires your designs?
This quilt was started as a practice piece for a quilt I want to make using this “one block wonder” technique. Finally it is finished and bound!
Floral Fantasy, a “one block wonder” quilt
Here is the fabric from which these one block wonders were cut. As you can see, it was pretty lively to begin with.
Flower Fiesta by Jane Sassaman
The border for the above quilt is from a different Jane Sassaman fabric.
Here’s the quilt for which this was practice. It is back in a box waiting its turn.
Next week I’ll show some more of what pushed its way in front of that quilt.
Meanwhile, if you want to try a one block wonder, here’s a link to the book. And the fabric or both quilts is designed by Jane Sassaman, whose website is here.
Recently I taught Seminole Patchwork at Studio Stitch in Greensboro. The strips were successfully made…
and one place mat per student assembled, basted, quilted, and ready for binding!
I particularly liked this one made with Mode Grunge fabric.
AND the Gypsy Wife top is finished. I am truly done with that project. Off to the quilter it goes.
Hope you had a successful September, too!
Since somebody has to be in charge of guild programs, and this year I’m “it” for my modern guild, I’ve been publishing some ideas for guild programs and challenges. Hopefully, if you are in charge of programs and challenges for your guild, you can use some of these.
The familiar “cat” tessellation
Nobody volunteered to do the program this month, so I read up on tessellations, starting with this post my friend Jean did for my blog a couple of years ago. I found a couple of great books on tessellations, one by Jinny Byer (yes, that Jinny Byer!). They are:
Designing Tessellations: The Secrets of Interlocking Patterns, by Jinny Byer
Introduction to Tessellations, by Dale Seymour and Jill Britton
And if you decide to develop a program on tessellations for your guild, feel free to e-mail me. You can have my “class outline” and list of exercises if you want.
Wonky house drawn with Electric Quilt 7
The challenge for next month is to make a 12-1/2 inch (so it will finish 12 inches) wonky house block. I made up a couple of blocks to illustrate the idea and drew a couple of additional ones for people to take home for inspiration.
Another wonky house drawing for inspiration
I cut the pieces for this house freehand, with scissors, to make it really wonky
This one was made with fused fabric, using techniques I learned several years ago from Laura Wasilowski
We’ll vote on whether to have a “dirty Santa” swap or a drawing where one person gets all the blocks to make a quilt. Seems like most of our members are really into the swap thing, so I’m betting that’s what happens!
Here’s the sample for my next class at Studio Stitch in Greensboro. I taught Trees All Around last year and there was a request to repeat it this year. I thought it made more sense to teach something the-same-but-different, so I chose this cute pattern from the same designer, Quilted Garden.
Snowmen All Around, my class sample from a pattern by Quilted Garden
And here’s a picture of Trees All Around (my class sample), also by Quilted Garden.
“Trees All Around”, class sample made from the pattern by Quilted Garden Designs
Here’s a closeup of one of the snowmen. I had just a little bit left of the “jeweled” trim I put on a friend’s wedding veil earlier this year, so this little snowman has a fancy hat!
Detail of my class sample for Snowmen All Around
The class will be Saturday, October 28, at Studio Stitch in Greensboro (NC, USA). If you’re in the area, come join us!
Quiltfest, in Jonesborough, Tennessee, is accompanied by a little quilt show of things done by the teachers and the shop owners. Naturally, I took a few pictures 🙂 Here are some of my favorites:
Clam Shell, a Judy Niemeyer pattern made by Louise Amos
Detail shot. This quit was at least queen size, and the little HST squares finish less than an inch!
Cinco de Mayo, made by Renny Jaeger; pattern by Karen K Stone
Quilt by Shannon Shirley. The blocks are TINY and the baskets have tiny chain-stitched handles. See detail view below
Detail of quilt by Shannon Shirley
Lobster Stew, by Nancy Mahoney
Quiltfest is 3 days of classes and other programs held in Jonesborough, TN every July. So, who’s coming to Quiltfest with me next year?
Finished the smallest size (41″ x 35″) Lombard Street pattern and I’m about to send it to Studio Stitch, where I’ll be teaching the class. The triangles are all dots, though not polka dots!
I quilted this on my home machine, just following the zigzags in the background, and it worked just fine.
And the backing is a fun fabric I found on the sale rack at Studio Stitch last time I taught there! Win!
I’m teaching this as an introduction to modern paper piecing, of which it’s a great example. Paper piecing makes it easy to get all those nice sharp points, and the arrangement of blocks makes people wonder, “How did she DO that???” It’s always fun to keep people guessing 🙂
