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. 

Blue Boy Rail Fence

I'm making a quilt for a friend's baby boy, due in the fall. Since I love the Rail Fence so much, I'm making my third Rail Fence quilt from Sujata's book.

I went through my stash to find fabrics that seemed to have been neglected over the years. I wanted mostly blue and whites, but I wanted some with a bit of color, too. I'm very aware of contrasting prints, linear versus rounded, busy versus calm, organized versus scattered.

As well as the gentle curves on the strips on the left and right edges of this photo, I really like using strips with a more pronounced curve, then I cut the strips to give me blocks with extreme curves, and both thick and thin areas.

This is an example of a block made with a very subtle curve. You can hardly tell the block has curves in it.

This is an example of a block made with strips cut at an extreme curve. Not only can you tell the smaller squares have curves, but I arrange them to emphasize the thick and thin areas the blocks create.

These three photos from my first Rail Fence quilt (below) show how I move pieces around until I get the look I want. Five of the sixteen squares change places. Three on the bottom row change places, as well as two in the upper right corner.

Version One. The bottom left corner is too heavy.

Version Two. I like the bottom right, but that upper right corner is too heavy now.

Version Three. I moved two pieces in the upper right corner. Now I'm happy.

Here are all twelve blocks on the design wall. I haven't sewn them together yet, but I think this is the final layout. The blocks are 16" square, so this will be a good sized quilt. I don't think it needs a border, but I'll see. Quilts have a way of telling you what they want, and this one may not be done talking.