Kaffe meets Jinny and Friends top done

Close-up of some of the blocks that I made, all prints are Kaffe Collective and the reads as solid are a mix of Jinny Beyer and other fabrics that coordinate with the prints.  This quilt has 25 blocks and I only had to remake one (don't switch machines when making blocks, its a disaster in the making.

 

 Kaffe meets Jinny and Friends finished and ready for sending off to the quilter

Kaffe Flame is the backing - was lucky enough to find it at Quilted Threads in the Sale Room - bought the lot of it for 50% off...I even attempted to match the flames when I pieced the back. 

 

The binding is prepared and the quilt at 80x80 should be perfect for my bed in my trailer.  This quilt makes my heart sing.  I am planning on making another one but I have Winter on my list next.  My winter will be made.

I bought 2 layer cakes of this fabric and am going to make "Winter" out of this  - thinking yellow/gold as the contrast, but need to see what I can find in a Layer cake or some yardage.

 



Tweaking the Color Scheme

I have added in two more blocks made with Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I think this is going to help a lot. Between the added texture and the introduction of the turquoise there is much more interest. In fact, looking at the blocks, I think now the color scheme may move to predominately turquoise and purple And away from the two darkest blocks shown here.

Singin' the Blues

I started Peppermint Pinwheels, using a subdued color scheme in blues and purples. Now I'm thinking it looks kind of dead. Rethinking things. Any suggestions from the Peanut Gallery?

Update on Rail Fence #2 Plus a New Project

Rail Fence #2 is nearing completion. It still needs tweaking and I will probably remove the top left block and replace it with another. That leaves just two blocks until completion. Maybe an hour's work. I still haven't decided on a setting for the blocks, but that shouldn't take too long.

I just couldn't wait to start Peppermint Pinwheels until I was completely finished with Rail Fence #2. I have Julie to blame for that! I am following her lead and Sujata's in keeping one fabric constant throughout. That will be the black and white Architextures print. The purple dot fabric will change with each block, although remaining in the blue/purple/violet range. What? No orange? Yes, it will be a challenge for me. Hope I'm up for it.

Almost there

Just more or less "thrown" these blocks

up on the wall for a quick appraisal so no trimming or threads removed here.

Having played around with setting I quite like this one BUT

I feel there are three blocks there that may not make it!

Please excuse the rough and ready photo

this board is leaning up against the fixed design wall with the top half of High Flyer hidden under

the old sheet as grand-daughter is coming later I needed to hide it.

The light salmon pink a bit too much "in your face" the bottom turquoise (middle) 

possibly a little too bright and

the dark green second down on right possibly too dark although

this could be due to the light here presently as you can see on my previous post

the patterned fabric in the dark green block is actually quilt bright.

Having said that I don't want this to be all mid tone and there will be

quilting highly visible on the solids. a few threads below.

I'm going to be hunting out  a couple more during the week.

Hopefully back during the week with the top sewn up!

Happy Accident

The nine blocks for the top of my

reversible kitchen table topper are finished!

I started these during Sujata's St. Louis workshop . . .

This photo shows the nine block top panel 

and the four block back panel 

laying side by side on our driveway.

I need to enlarge both of these before quilting

but I'm going to wait a bit before moving forward.

I love the interactions between colors, textures, and shapes.

And I can't wait to stitch the final nine rail fence blocks

for our younger son's new bed quilt named Midtown Vibe.

Quiltdivajulie

Rail Fence #1 and #2

Our guild was fortunate to have Sujata speak at the August meeting last Friday night. Her presentation, with scenes from India as well as the quilts that grace the pages of her book, "Cultural Fusion," was received with enthusiasm by members. The icing on the cake was the Rail Fence workshop the next day. I was an early follower of Sujata, and had already made one Rail Fence quilt top earlier this year. When I made this first Rail Fence, I was in the middle of something else that needed to be finished for our guild show this spring. But the Rail Fence was calling my name, so I took just enough time to make this smaller version.

Here is Rail Fence #2 so far. I asked Sujata to select fabric combinations for two of the blocks so that I will have a little bit of her in my finished quilt. Her selections are the top row, middle block and the second row, right block.For some reason, I can't get the color in the left block, middle row to photograph correctly, It is nowhere as light as it appears in the photo. The green fabric is almost a lime green. This quilt will be larger than #1. I am also cutting the blocks with a gentler curve than Rail Fence #1. After hearing Sujata's presentation came the understanding that the idea is to show the human hand in the making of the quilt, not necessarily to make something uber-wonky. Although the technique certainly lends itself to wonky and the ones I have seen that are much curvier are also very cool.

I feel to happy to have had the opportunity to meet Sujata and to learn from her - a sentiment that has been voiced to me by many guild members since Friday evening!

what a difference a day makes!

After standing back and looking for a day, I worked out what was wrong with this quilt top! And it was so simple to fix... I unpicked one light pink block that was glaring at me and replaced it with a pretty peach/brown one. It seems to all blend together a bit better now, and I'm much happier too! 

Quilt Top Stats:

Sujata's rail fence design

Fabrics used included Anna Maria Horner, Kaffe, Denyse Schmidt 

and assorted others from my pre- modern stash.

My colour scheme was a selection of blues combined with brown 

with the brown values ranging from peach, orange, brown, and cranberry. 

Finished quilt top size - it's big -  2m x 1.75m!

Linda from kokaquilts

Further down the track …...

Okay, after all the encouragement from you on my Rail Fence blocks

I am now on a roll and can't wait to have them all

finished and into a 12 block quilt. Once this quilt

is  together I shall be onto a second one!

I love tulips so had to include this fabric

More tropicana here

A little more subdued

Way over the top with this one!

This was cut with a real

exaggerated curve in comparison to the others but I'll see how it looks in the mix

when the last four blocks are finished this coming week. 

I decided to keep the solids dulled down a little so the patterned fabric

is more prominent.

 Thanks to Lynne for your advice on making my photos larger - done!

The next Rail Fence will be different again (yes, I am making more) and

 have a few ideas simmering away.

Thanks Sujata for this Quilt Along!

Maureen at Mystic Quilter

it's a bit colourful Linda! {a picture post}

I've been making more blocks using Sujata's rail fence design
My main focus was to try & combine my Anna Maria Horner fabrics with anything & everything! 

There's certainly been a bit of trial & error happening here in the sewing room 
I started out with a couple of 'safe' combinations...

then I cut into a few favourite AMH fabrics... 

I ended up rummaging deep into my pre-modern stash to make up some of my combinations...

And as promised, here's a few photos of all 20 blocks...

Yep I agree, it is a bit colourful! 
And a fusion of sorts I guess, the old with the new, plaids with prints
Finished quilt top size - it's big -  2m x 1.75m!

Here's the link back to kokaquilts to see more! 

Kai's Quilt made by Laurie Buck

The class I taught in Ithaca and the meeting Gwen Marston would not have been possible without this friend from Ithaca, New York.

Our workshop was based on free-form blocks. Soon after the workshop Laurie was going to visit her grandson in Seattle and she decided to use Two of the free-form blocks - Rail Fence and Peppermint Pinwheels and make this baby quilt.

This is what I am hoping for my book to do. As I have said in the book, free-form blocks are like a building blocks, an idea to explore more. I can see not only the patterns in the book to be made into many different ways but the idea of free-form blocks also being applied in many ways both for art quilters as well and improve quilters.

Lauri decided to applique her grandson's name in the back of the quilt and finished it with hand quilting with Perle cotton thread.

Here is a close up of her quilting.

I am sure this quilt is going to be loved!

Thanks Laurie for sharing your quilt and the idea of endless possibilities.

One request for all of you who - if you purchased the book on Amazon, if you haven't already, would you consider writing a review?
Thanks!

I am off to St. Louis tomorrow. May be I will see you there?

Choices for Rail Fence QAL - the wrong choice!

Well I had worked out three possible scenarios for

fabrics for the first Rail Fence and decided to use some

of my Tropical fabrics which I felt would look good with

co-ordinating solids - I don't normally use solids - and wished I hadn't!!

I should have taken more note of the comment

from
Linda at Koka Quilts

anyway here are the first - and - last three blocks using the solids

individually I don't mind them and especially love the lime green one
but I just plain do not like them together (below), however with a border around each one they will make quite nice cushions for chairs on the deck in Summer!

so  back to decisions on the other fabrics on my table,and begin again.
A new addition in the mail yesterday

now these I like!! They would look good with more fabrics just seen on a site,
perhaps they could creep into the new Rail Fence - hopefully next week.

Maureen

Update on Kaffe meets Jinny and friends...

Update:  I have completed sewing together the curved strip sets for all but 2 of the 25 blocks I had cut out.  Next step is cutting the units and making blocks.  I am loving all the fabrics in this quilt but am thinking 30 blocks are needed.  I will be hunting down 5 more Kaffe Collective prints in the blue/green/aqua colors to help balance out the quilt.  I have plenty of tone on tone fats to coordinate with them.  Lots going on at home but hope to sew tonight.  Love seeing everyone's quilts coming along.

No Ugly Flowers is Finished!

No Ugly Flowers

Created using Sujata's Peppermint Pinwheels design

50" x 66"

Quilted by Chris Ballard

I used several leftover pieces from previous backs

to create a gloriously scrappy back.

You can see more photos on my blog (CLICK HERE)

I've also added photos to 

the Cultural Fusion groups

on Facebook and Flickr.

Quiltdivajulie

I'm really enjoying making these blocks, very addictive! Here's what has worked for me so far -
Love the free form style, but I found precision matters especially when using plain fabrics. My joining seam lines stood out a bit... maybe the plain fabric is too much contrast? maybe I'm not as precise as I could be? Pressing helped, and using two prints was great!
It's more pleasing to my eye if there is some connection between the two prints in each block, like one little bit of colour repeated. After making a few blocks, I'm now almost decided on having "brown" as my background colour in each block. {This will be interesting, it's not a colour I use much}
And it's definitely time for me to be a bit braver, and make those lengthwise slices just a bit wonkier!

Linda @ kokaquilts

And So It Begins . . .

I've wanted to start a free form rail fence for months now . . . 

And I finally have!

First up is Indigo.

I'm playing along with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

so I pulled fabrics for the January - July colors, too.

Since I don't usually work with gray / grey,

this seemed like a perfect opportunity to challenge myself.

Here are the blocks for July and August.

This is going to be FUN!!

Quiltdivajulie

rail fence... small beginnings

Hi, I'm Linda stopping by from kokaquilts today. Sujata's book Cultural Fusion is a new favourite of mine! There are quite a few quilts in it that appeal to me, and the irregular piecing is an interesting & creative process that I'm keen to explore a bit more. Karyn here seems to be enjoying her book too, she's made two quilts from it already!

So, I've been tossing up about joining in with the rail-fence-quiltalong! Love this quilt... and, while I'm juggling a few balls in the air, I figure I may as well throw in another and experiment!

Going now to sort a few fabrics and then I'll give this free form curvy cutting a go

... I'll be back soon to share more! 

And so it begins....

Cheryl here from Westfield, NY (grape country) which is about as far west as you can get in the state. I live with one husband, two cats, and one dog. We live on 73 acres, overlooking Lake Erie, in a wonderful little house that my husband built. 

So I've made my first block. It was fun, fast and I'm quite pleased with it. It's maybe a bit more angular than I wanted, so for my next block I will try for a more gentle curve. I don't really have an idea of where I'm headed with this, so I'll take the advice in the book and just make a few and see what happens.

I'm sewing on my Made in Japan, Singer knock off, made in the 50's....just like me. My cat Binx likes to hangout while I'm sewing. He showed up almost two years ago near Halloween. Just like in the movie "Hocus Pocus", I have turned him into a fat, lazy, house cat. He likes to be outside at night....not something I like, but a deal is a deal. 

Thanks for letting me join in! I've never posted on Blogger before, so I'm learning. 

Kaffe meets Jinny and a few more

To introduce myself, my name is Sharon, and I am addicted to these Rail Fence Blocks and love, love, love Sujata Shah's book Cultural Fusion.   My quilt was started at a class taught by Lynne Tyler at the wonderful Quilted Threads in Henniker NH.  I decided to use my collection of Kaffe Collective fat quarters and a group of semi-solids I purchased a couple of years ago at Quilted Threads Fat Quarter Sale.  There are a number of Jinny Beyer fabrics and others that just go wonderfully with the KC fabrics.  I am working on 25 blocks but may make 30 before I am finished.  I want this quilt to go on my bed, just not sure if it will be my bed at home or my trailer (weekend place).  Will post more once I make the next set of blocks.  I am up to 10 finished.   The first 4 were made on my Janome Magnolia, the next 3 on my Singer 221 (White) and the last 3 on my Singer 301A.