Warning: There's pink in this quilt too

Not sure why there's been so much pink in my quilting life lately. At least this one isn't a baby quilt. It's an old UFO. Four applique blocks have been finished for 10 years now. The plan had been to do six, but I decided that after 10 years of no progress, another block was probably not going to happen.

For seven years, I've kept this magazine with the blocks because I liked this pieced sashing.

But it didn't work. The scale was too big and it was too busy for the applique. But the print fabric looked good. Even my husband agreed.

I had only a yard of the border fabric. Also years old so no hope of getting more. Not that I would have. I prefer the results of making do, which pushes you creatively. I extended the sashing into the border to jazz things up a bit. And the border width was determined by the amount of fabric available.

For awhile I considered adding the sashing fabric around the edge either as part of the top or as very wide binding, but it was too much.

Instead I'm going with regular size binding in a not-quite pink shade. My husband suggested the fabric, and it is the perfect choice. You can see it on the right in the picture above. I'm surprised sometimes by how helpful he can be and how willing he is to give his opinion.

Below is a picture of the whole quilt. The colors are more accurate in the picture above. We are into that time of year where it is perpetually gray skies, and it will be awhile before I can get a better shot.

55 x 55 inches. 
Applique from the book 'Prairie Flower' by Barbara Brackman.

Now, I need to find my next project.

I love it when a plan comes together

Loved this fabric when I saw it at my local quilt shop.

Came up with a plan fairly quickly. Based on the height of the houses.

Some house design research.

Sketches. Lots of pondering. Life. Work. Etc. And then finally a start.

12 1/2 unfinished quilt center in progress.

The story of a very bossy quilt

Once upon a time (a couple months ago) I found this white dotted fabric and brought it home to keep some of my stash company. The fabric kept begging to become a baby quilt. A churn dash quilt of six-inch blocks to be exact. I pulled some fabrics from my stash, but I needed at least another orange and something to balance the brown with blue spots. And I didn't need to make this baby quilt. I needed to make a gray and yellow one.

I tried to ignore this pile of fabric, but the begging grew louder. The only solution was a trip to the quilt shop, which I was pleasantly surprised to find has expanded into the space next to it! I bought more fabric, not all of which will be used because this is to be a baby quilt after all, not a king. I was a little low on orange fabric anyway so this should all work out.

With the fabric all washed and ironed, I started making the parts of the churn dash blocks so I could arrange them on the wall and see which layout it wanted to be. 

Option 1: Checkerboard

Option 2: Rows

Option 3: Medallion style

Option 4: An X 

Option 5: Four patches

Four patches it was. But a disagreement had developed between the brown with blue dotted fabric and the other fabrics so a butterscotch fabric was substituted.

The butterscotch was better, but not a perfect fit so one orange and one blue-green block were substituted.

The fabric has stopped speaking to me, but I know that if I don't get these blocks sewn together soon the begging will resume. I wish the yellow and gray fabric would speak to me. I need to get that baby quilt started before that baby arrives next month.

Blogging the process

The top was done during my blogging break.


Pandora, 63 x 63.

I have pictures of the process so I thought I should share them. I was inspired by Victoria's post. Planned to make a couple blocks from scraps for fun, but then I got carried away rummaging through the scrap box for the next block.

Arranged triangles until I liked the look of the block. Didn't sew the corner triangles on because I wasn't sure about them. Thought I'd make a few blocks or so before deciding.

After making a few blocks and liking how they fit together without the triangles, I made more.

And more.

Until I got to the point where it was either make more or eliminate some blocks to get the right number for a top. If I'd added the triangles at the beginning, I might have ended up with a different setting.

I opted for eliminating a few of the early blocks as they were a bit poofed up in the middle. I ended up trimming my sewn units a bit before putting them together, and this helped with the poofiness, but didn't always work well for point matching. This won't be a show quilt so I can live with it despite my usual tendencies toward anal retentiveness. I'm learning to let go.  

Then I tried pastel setting triangles, but didn't like that too much. I thought white would be too stark, but in the end that was the best choice.

For the border I didn't want to just slap a single fabric on four sides. Plus everything for the top came from the scrap bin except for some of the white, and I wanted to continue that if possible. And the more I took out of the scrap bin, the more likely I'd be to get the lid back on.

I'd been playing around with the leftover triangles and really liked this arrangement. Thought I'd make a table runner or something. It's these little tangents that contribute to my UFO collection. But I needed these traingles for the border so no table runner. I also had to cannibalize the leftover blocks to get enough triangles for the border so those went to good use and not into the orphan block box. The scrap bin can be closed now. ... Barely.

Inspiration under foot

I just got back from two weeks in Baltimore for work. Besides a suitcase of dirty laundry, I also brought home the determination to make a quilt inspired by the carpet squares from the United terminal at BWI. Over the last few years, as I walk down the hall to or from a plane, I think, "That could be a quilt pattern." This time, I was determined to follow through. (Sorry no carpet picture.)

The carpet pattern consists of plain squares alternating with squares containing a single stripe. The striped squares have the stripes either toward the top or to the right side of the block. I figured my plain squares would be a print, and I found two 1-yard cuts of different scale leaf prints in similar colors. Then I pulled blues and lavendars from my stash that went with the main fabrics, making sure I had darks, mediums and lights, and a variety of scale and pattern in fabrics that would read as "solid." Some of these fabrics are from the '90s!

After making up several striped blocks, I played around with the arrangement of the two fabrics for the plain squares: alternating in rows, on a diagonal, random. I also tried all of one fabric or the other, but I needed to use both prints to make the top a decent size. The diagonal arrangement won, and I decided against using the two main fabrics in some of the striped blocks.

When the center was arranged on the design wall, I had the idea of creating a border by extending the stripe all the way around the outer edge of the top. Corner blocks made, and once I sew all the blocks together I should have a 60 x 66 top. Could have been a little bigger, but due to a nighttime cutting incident, I ran out of one of the leaf prints early.

This was a quick top to make, and maybe I should write up instructions?

The process

I usually forget to take pictures along the way. This time I didn't! So here's a look at the process of making what will some day become a table topper from this Nancy Crow fabric I had for years and years and finally cut into.

I cut the striped fabric so I could mitre it around a black center square.
I wanted the center unpieced so a vase wouldn't wobble if placed in the center.
The leftover mitred pieces look good made into corner triangles.

Seeing how it looks with more black on the outside. Good.
But the center square is too straight.
How about a wavy black line around the edge?

Using the Ricky Timms method, I layered the black fabric right side up
under the center square so the fabrics overlap a bit.

Then I cut gentle curves through both layers and removed the extra fabric.
Flip the black on top of the tulip fabric and slowly sew the two pieces together.
No need for pins. Go slow and align the fabrics as they reach the needle.

Ta da! A gentle curve that matches the feel of the tulip fabric.

I repeated this again to add the corner triangles.
Now all I have to do is quilt and bind it.

Decisions, decisions

Option 1? String border with monkey wrench cornerstones and inner and outer border of squares.

Option 2? Checkerboard three, maybe four, squares deep.

Or maybe both with Option 2 for the inner border and Option 1 after that?

I thought the checkerboard would be too much, but my husband likes it, and it's starting to grow on me. I was thinking this would be a quick quilt, saved from the UFO pile, but once the center was done, then edged in squares, it seemed to need more, and I've got plenty of leftover bits to use up, so it won't be quick.

And, what is up with my brain these days? I typed "boarder" so many times in this post. No rooms to rent here. I've been consistently typing "their" instead of "there" for weeks now. Sent an email out with "roll" instead of "role" once and got asked if I was hungry. ... Always.

Traditional modern quilting

The block that started it all. More photos below.

Before the long stretch of work travel, I read these posts about modern quilting. I had been thinking about modern quilting some before reading the posts. Seems to me that the current modern look is very much like old, traditional quilts yet I have the feeling the modern quilter doesn't want to have anything to do with traditional quilters. I find myself caught in the middle.

My mother quilted, starting in the mid-'70s, but I was never that interested until in my (early!) 30s when I was looking for a present for her and I wandered into a quilt shop. I was captivated by the fabric and the quilts and took a class. I've been quilting for more than a dozen years now.

I took lots of classes, learning as much as I could about different techniques so that I could make what I wanted the way I wanted. I've followed patterns, more so in the beginning, but I prefer to make up my own designs and pick my own fabric, which is the best part.

I look at the current modern stuff and it reminds me of my beginning quilting: simple designs, lots of white. I like it, but I don't want to make it. Nor do I want to make a Dear Jane quilt. And that's why I feel caught in the middle. Caught between too simple and too complicated. Current modern and traditional. Trying to find my own style by taking a little from this and a little from that, appreciating it all, but not feeling obligated to be one thing or the other.

I started this blog to document the things I was doing (so I could remember when, how, why) and so I'm taking the process pledge and will try to be more articulate about my choices.

Here goes:

Picking fabrics one block at a time.

That block at the start of this post started it all. I was working on the Sue Ross BOM and had ordered some Aboriginal fabric from Material Obsession. The fabric and the pattern came together in my head and I made one block. Liked it, and decided a bigger quilt was in order.

Normally my fabric selection process is to pull a bunch of fabrics, decide what goes together and use that pile. This time I made one block, and decided the background and corner squares would be the constants through all the blocks, and every block should have some Aboriginal fabric in it. Then I chose the fabrics for each block, pulling from my stash as I went, and not paying attention to how all the fabrics look together in a pile. They do seem to look OK piled together, but I'm not sure I would have pulled this particular pile of fabric if I had used my usual selection process.

Tools of the trade include a remote.

I make my half-square triangles bigger and trim them down. I'm a little anal retentive about accuracy.

Here's where I'm at: Six blocks made. Enough cornerstone fabric for 11 blocks. Enough background for 10. Wanting to make a much bigger quilt. Thinking of setting the blocks solid instead of the original vision for sashing.

So off to the quilt shop to see if I can find more of that background and cornerstone fabric.