Monday, June 29, 2015

Party Hat Optional - The Quilt



Party Hat Optional

a Toran Quilt

53" wide x 73" long




Quilted by Chris Ballard




I've had the backing fabrics stashed for so long . . .
this was the PERFECT quilt for them!




Detail of backing fabrics . . .




Detail of string inset in back . . .


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CLICK HERE to read the whole story of this quilt on my blog.

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THANK YOU, Sujata for sharing your designs and inspiration with us!


Quiltidvajulie


Monday, June 22, 2015

Rail Fence by Barb

One of the beauties of designing patterns is to see different interpretations of your designs. As I posted earlier on my blog, it was impossible to make different versions of each quilt in the book. Now that the book is out, I get to see many versions, some suggested in the book and others completely new being shown around the blogland.

Here is the one made by Barb Vedder of Fun with Barb. You can read about her process on her blog. I personally love this quilt, its layout and the colors.. It is so graphic with all that movement. It makes me want to try this version. 
Speaking of which...
Earlier someone had mentioned about starting a sew along for this pattern. I think if any, this pattern would be great to work with. If there was no deadline, would you be interested in making one? If so, start one this summer and please post it here. I too might just make another one for fun.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Cowboy Fireworks from Peppermint Pinwheels

The final roommate quilt is finished. My son's other roommate always enjoyed the quilts he took to college. In fact, he appropriated one for televised football games.

As a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan, a blue and silver quilt seemed most appropriate.
CowboyFireworks

I used the Peppermint Pinwheels pattern but changed the centers. Instead of rectangles I used some five-pointed stars. This site about Betsy Ross has directions for cutting perfect stars. But I chose to make mine slightly off-kilter. It's more congruent with the free-hand cutting of the pinwheels.

Cowboy Fireworks Quilting Detail

I'm telling the recipient these represent fireworks after a Cowboys victory. Hopefully he will wrap up in it every day.

Cowboy Fireworks Quilting Detail 2

Quilt Details
Size: 68" x 85"
Pattern: Peppermint Pinwheels from Cultural Fusion Quilts
Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose 100% cotton
Thread: Sulky Blendable 30/3 variegated cotton
Quilting: Free-hand channels

Thanks, Sujata, for a delightfully fun pattern.

Ann

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Windmills or Winter ???

This coming weekend I will be going on a quilting retreat and plan to work on another quilt, the Windmills, from Sujata's book.  My plan is to use blues and grays which I have already cut into squares.  

I decided to try a couple of practice blocks and reached into my scraps box for the larger cuts.  There was not a lot of choice regarding color so I went with what I had, even piecing some of the scraps to make a big enough square.  My two practice blocks are  the ones on the right in the medallion below.

I thought they were so cute that I made the two on the left from stash.  As you can see I am in the process of putting on scrappy borders.  The HSTs are leftovers from another quilt.
I will call this finished when I complete the outer border which you can see at top right.
There was never a plan to make a girly baby quilt.  See what can happen when you are having fun?!


These are my practice blocks and real blocks in some of the colors I will be using.  
They are not yet arranged or sewn together.
As you can see I decided to go with the "Winter" design.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Rail Fence Memorial Quilt

I have been asked again and again to post about the winter work I did for a memorial commission quilt. First of all, let me say that when working on a memorial quilt, you are entrusted with clothing and other very personal items that need special care and consideration.

This quilt was one of those where the image of the person passed was watching me all day, every day. Consequently, I felt that the design of this quilt was partly determined by the young man speaking to me through this image.



Through the design process, I realized the quality of many of the personal items were less than appropriate for inclusion into the quilt. Sometimes, this happens. I had very good communications with the family and continued by adding Sujata's version of Rail Fence blocks to surround the "Poker Table" of this quilt.



Rail Fence blocks are very interesting and almost give you a sense of peace and contentment I felt. The blocks go together well and with some careful interpretation you can go other new and exciting places. The "Poker Table" had to be a multi-color abstract because the whole large green traditional background did not do the memorial aspect justice and respect.


Playing cards were scanned from original playing cards and transferred to 100% cotton and when this is done, you must ask your professional that the ink used is water resistant.


The center piece was made off the cuff, with only the outside edge of the poker table measured. The inside layout included the dark blue and black areas of polyester shorts and you can see that the white area of the only t-shirt is too much and needed additional thought.


I chose to measure the area below the image and designed an earth centered woodsy approach with leaves, stems and rocks. I used fusible paper on two sides to glue down the design and onto the white t-shirt. It meant massive fussy cutting and then massive outlined seam sewing around each edge. This had to include a space for the "Royal Flush" set of playing cards.


You can see the black rick rack around the outside edge of the white t-shirt was then appliqued with over 500 french knots.


When it came to sewing the whole border and center piece together I called on my machine quilter Jennifer Watson of Quiltasdesired.ca who has this awesome large table to lay this border top out so that I could tack it down and get the centerpiece exactly centered on the top. Thank you Jennifer.


I took this photo when hand sewing the binding onto the quilt.




Thank goodness I had extra helper this day to hold the very large quilt up. This concludes my way of putting this lovely quilt together and I hope you enjoyed reading about my process. Thank you Sujata for this new version of Rail Fence.

For more on this quilt go to www.goodearthquilting.blogspot.com


Happy Quilting everyone,

Carli