Quilt Reveal: Sweet Ombre Butterfly

 I finished another quilt for the Project Quilting theme of Ombre.  I didn't think I had any ombre fabric and was thinking about creating my own, but I was hesitant to dig out so much fabric. I then thought about just skipping this challenge.

But then I remembered that the fabric I stole from the Glitter quilt for the Al-Buraq quilt was an ombre. So I stole some more. I love that I can make this quilt with only two pieces, and it was very quick and easy to make.

I woke up early and turned on the computer to get started on the day. I queued up some videos to watch while I had breakfast, but Zoey reminded me that I needed to get up and make the quilt.

So I made the quilt and was able to finish the quilt before noon, way before the deadline of 1 pm eastern, thinking I had plenty of time to upload the photos and post it on the blog and submit it for the challenge.

So I made my breakfast and started uploading the photos. And watch the videos I had queued up.

Zoey went outside so she couldn't remind me that I needed to submit the entry to the challenge. oops. Missed the challenge deadline because I lost track of time.

Quilt Reveal: Pink and Other Colors

Announcing the first finished quilt of the year, at least here on the High Road. It is a part of Project Quilting challenge, which means it had to be made in a week. I have already told you the inspiration of this quilt in another post.

I started with a pink scrap and added more pink scraps for the stack. I soon realized that I don't use a lot of pink, so I was very liberal in what I considered to be pink, and included reds and purples.

 

The end result looks more purple than pink, but there is pink in there, and maybe when you are looking for the pink you will see that there are lots of other colors in there to meet the challenge guidelines, which is to use at least five different colors.

 

I have been trying to use darker and busier fabrics in my selection of low volume backgrounds, and this quilt gave me the perfect opportunity to do that since most of my "pink" stack were pretty dark. My usual for a challenge like this would have to use a lot of bright colors, like in the Postage Stamp quilt, but the fact that my "other colors" are in the low volume sections makes me very happy.

I decided to make it a bars quilt, and resisted the temptation to make it a checkerboard. The end result was a trapezoid shape and it was tempting to leave it that shape, but I decided to trim it into a rectangle. It is the noon deadline that makes it look like it is not a rectangle.

 

2021: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 53

So much for weekly challenges, I am already late in posting my 15 Minutes to Stitch Report.  There was a flurry of quilting activity the last week of the year. Besides making and finishing Get Well Wishes for the World, I also posted a lot of year-end reports.

15 minute days this week --5 out of 5

15 minute days this year -- 300 out of 365 days

Success rate  = 82%

 

I finished at 84% in 2020.

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Weeks 1 and 2

This year, I would like to have noticeably more finishes than starts, and starting a new quilt is probably not the best way to get that result. But the Project Quilting challenge is posted, and since it forces you to finish a quilt in a week, it won't be counter-productive to that goal. As you saw at the top of this post, I finished the Pink and Other Colors this week.

15 minute days this week --9 out of 9

15 minute days this year -- 9 out of 9 days

Success rate  = 100%

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

Oh Scrap! 

Needle and Thread Thursday

Drunkard Path Quilting Closeups

I am still figuring out what fabric to use for the binding of the Drunkard's Path quilt, but  Kyle and Cynthia have asked me to show the quilting of the Drunkard's Path quilt. I am happy to oblige since it will show why took me so long to do it all. 

 The quilt is composed of "rings" around a center circle, shown above. In this circle, I put ovals inside each quarter circle with a sort of ribbon candy design inside each oval.  There is a grid in the center. And outside the oval are fingers. have no idea what to call any of these quilting designs since I just doodled but hopefully the descriptions, along with the picture will make sense.

In this picture, the dark pink on the bottom is the center circle.  I put some zig zag quilting around the dark areas on both sides and surrounded the center circle with petal shapes. I continued the petal shapes all the way up the light areas.

Going out further from the center circle past the light ring is a ring of dark area.  There is a light semicircle that juts into the dark area.  I put a fan shapes in there.  In the dark area, I tried to make these S shape quilting. This was hard to do. It requires a lot of concentration as to which direction you are supposed to be going while figuring out which space needs to be filled.  It wasn't very successful in all the areas, but it is a dark area so I didn't worry too much about going the right way. This ring is the first ring I quilted, and I did each semicircle individually for the most part although I did add some overlap to blend them.

I tried to do all the dark blue areas first, then dark purple to avoid too many thread changes, but once I finished the purple, I decided to just do all the dark areas with the dark purple. Hopefully it adds some consistency to the rings.

This is the first light ring I quilted, and I decided to quilt them in one big section instead of individual blocks to treat it as a big ring. I outlined the dark areas on each side and made these big leaves. In hindsight, I should have treated each half separately - just do one side of the stem and come back to do the other side, but by the time I thought to do that, I had gone so far, I decided to keep doing it that way to be consistent.

Then there is another dark "ring".  It is only in the corners and doesn't go all the way around the quilt.  I quilted these chains on them. I enjoyed making these. I like the design and the area to quilt is much smaller and it is in the corner so it is easy to maneuver.

The final "ring" is the light corner.  I separated this into rows and doodled a design in each row. Each of the corners has these rows, but they don't have the same quilting in each row.  These rows don't go all the way up to the corner  The final quilting has more of those chains going to the corners.  I wanted to make sure I was sewing up towards the corners to keep the fabric smooth.

I trimmed the quilt to the block size for a tutorial I will prepare for you, but as you can see, it is coming up a little bit short and you can see the batting in the corner. The tutorial will show how to fix that.

I will show you the whole quilt after it is bound.

Quilt Reveal: Adinkra

My latest finish is Adinkra.

I took it outside to photograph since the sun is shining, but the pictures still came out dark and I had to correct them with the photo editor.  They are pretty close though.

I thoroughly enjoyed making this quilt. It was fun to make the blocks once a month. The blocks were easy to applique and the anticipation for the next block was fun.

The economy blocks had a problem with the size, but that made it easier because the sharp points were guaranteed.

As you can see in the picture above, even the join I had to make in the border worked well. The top of the head seamed nicely with the body on the next piece.

The doodle quilting was freeing and went on smoothly.  The fabric is busy enough that the flaws, if any, are easy to ignore.

Even the binding went on well, with four sharp miters in the corners.

Quilt stats:
size:  44" x 44".
pattern: 2016 BOM by Debby Kravotil. Thank you so much Debby!
fabric: variety of African fabrics, most of which are metallic
quilting: free motion echo stitching around motifs, doodle stitching throughout border and remaining blocks
what I learned:

• Expanding the definition of what "matches". This quilt has lots of combinations I wouldn't have thought to use together, but my limited selection of fabrics made me stretch, and I think the result is fabulous.
• I really enjoy combining applique with piecing. The applique and the quilting were my favorite parts.
• When I first learned about free motion quilting, I thought it looked like doodling on fabric, but then I learned rules about not crossing lines, and saw lots of videos about proper quilting designs, and breaking the quilt into sections and choosing a different design for each section and lost the fact that I could truly doodle.  I truly doodled on this quilt and it was exhilarating!

I plan to make up a label that explains all the symbols on the quilt.

Linked to:
WIP Linkup at Silly Mama Quilts

Improv Quilt Reveal

Sherri Lynn Wood's book The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters: A Guide to Creating, Quilting, and Living Courageously is available for pre-order on Amazon.  It officially comes out March 17, 2015.  What this means is that I can now reveal the improv quilt I made earlier this year. Forgive the photo heavy post. I've had a lot of time to take pictures of this quilt!

As I said earlier, I was one of the testers of one of the patterns in this book.  My quilt didn't make it in the book unfortunately, but I appreciated the opportunity to participate. This quilt was all about rhythm.  The score of this quilt is rhythm. I kept my palette very simple with just black and white. I wanted an accent color. I was debating between red and green, but my daughter recommended purple, and so I went with that. I think it was the best choice.

We were to make striped fabric by cutting the fabric into strips free form and then make a quilt out of it.  I deliberately kept my strips from being too straight, not that I would have been able to cut straight lines without a ruler.

I cut the strips in half so I could get variety in mixing and matching.  Then, I sewed them together into stripes of five fabrics.  I made some deliberately dark, some deliberately light, and some medium. I think I had five or six rows.

 I cut them into squares.

 Then I cut them in half to make half square triangles.

I mixed and matched the HSTs so that the would meet at an angle and look like L's.  I sewed them together and stacked them up.

I tried to keep it improv, so I didn't do too much arranging, but I did put them on the design floor to see how it looked. Also since I used the floor in a room that did not have the sewing machine, I was able to keep it improv and free form. I sewed blocks together to make rows.  Sometimes I would have to add more fabric to get the blocks to fit together since they turned out to be different sizes.

After I had all the rows together, I had to try to make the rows fit.  This meant I added more fabric where there were empty spaces.  I wanted a bigger quilt, so I tried to add more than trim away to get them to become the right size.

Zeus helped make sure the quilt didn't escape while I was working on it.

After all the rows were joined, I had to add nips and tucks where the quilt was lumpy.  I did this several times, putting the quilt on the floor to make sure it was as flat as it could be.

Squaring up the quilt was the hardest part, since there wasn't a single line that was straight that I could use. But I folded the quilt and cut to the smallest space, but sometimes I added more fabric to help make the difference.  I quilted it with straight lines using a squiggly stitch my machine provided.

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Shasta Matova

As you can see, most of the quilt is composed of half square triangles that were joined at an angle to form a box shape.  There is one nine patch, and two blocks that were joined straight together instead of being made into a box shape.  I did this deliberately for an added improv touch.

I like almost everything about this quilt. It isn't conventionally pretty, but I like it.  The dark spot on the bottom right (second to bottom row) where the nine patch and the maverick block run together bothers me sometimes, but they do add to the improv look of it.

1 Improv Quilt

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Shasta Matova

My sister and I took a couple of my quilts to photograph on some construction equipment.  Now I can finally show these to you. Which one is your favorite quilt walk photo?

2 Improv Quilt

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Shasta Matova

3 Improv Quilt

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Shasta Matova

4 Improv Quilt

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Shasta Matova

5 Improv Quilt

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Shasta Matova

6 Improv Quilt

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Shasta Matova

7 Improv Quilt

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Shasta Matova

8 Improv Quilt

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Shasta Matova

9 Improv Quilt

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Shasta Matova

10 Improv Quilt

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Shasta Matova

11 Improv Quilt

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Shasta Matova

12 Improv Quilt

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Shasta Matova

I hope you enjoyed seeing this quilt reveal. I have waited anxiously to show it to you.

A Quilt for Lily

I've made a quilt and been frustrated about my inability to show it to you, since I lost the cord that attaches the camera to the computer.  I thought there was a way to use the card reader on my computer, but the card didn't fit in the slots.  This morning, I tried again, and there is a card reader that works, it just looks like it is bigger than the card.

So, at long last, I can show you a quilt for Lily.

First the background story.  Last year, the first weekend in June, 2011, I went to the National Quilt Society quilt show in Columbus, Ohio and took a photograph of a small quilt that looked very intriguing to me. Well, I actually took lots and lots of photographs, but this story is about this photo.

I showed it to a friend of mine who has a granddaughter named Lily, and she said "make that for me."  Well, there was no way I could even make anything exactly like that, and I wouldn't want to break any copyright laws legally or morally, but I figured I could make something inspired by it.  Unfortunately, this request happened during our busy time at work and somehow this little quilt took a year and a month to make.


I liked the original technique of cutting through layers for the background, but decided to keep it simple for my quilt.  I took a jelly roll and put the strips together for a background.  Then I traced the flower from this photograph and cut out some fabric with fusible attached to it.  Then I zig zagged it down.  Yes, I know that even after tracing, my lily doesn't look like the original.  Even when I try, I am not good at copying.

I chose a different font and a different location for the name.

This little bud is such a wonderful feature.

I didn't take the stem all the way to the binding so the flower is floating on the surface.  I used Timtex as a batting because this is a wall hanging and I wanted it to hang straight on the wall. This made it difficult to free motion quilt, but I had fun choosing different straight line quilting designs.  The backing fabric is folded to the front.  I did stitch it down. This quilt seemed too formal to just use fusible web, and I didn't want to use up any more fusible web.  I added a false back to hide my stitches, so I wound up having to use extra fusible anyway.

I added an extra layer of batting for the flower to give it more interest.  I gave it to my friend and they loved it.  It matches the room since it is purple and yellow.  I only today realized I don't have a photo of the whole quilt showing all the binding, but the binding is right underneath the photo so you aren't missing much.

Overall, I am really happy with it. The flower itself isn't as good as the original quilt, but I really like the rest of it, so it balances out. The quilt is 12" x 12", and was finished the end of July 2012.

I haven't stopped quilting, so there are more pictures to show on another post.

Finally a Finish!

I did some emergency gardening this weekend - I know I am way past the frost free date, but I had to pull out the weeds before the backyard became a real jungle, and needed to plant something to replace the weeds. This put me behind in my quilt making. I am so dedicated to my blog that I took the day off work yesterday just to show you a finished quilt. That and a few other excuses I concocted: construction detour, having to dress up, long drive, rather work extra hours today, etc. As you recall, the quilt is made up of trash - the center is a pinwheel block that was made with the pinwheels going the wrong way from the still unfinished Lilibeth Garden's quilt. The purple are leftover hsts from the finished Purple Parfait quilt. I didn't even measure them to make sure they were all the same size. I did put back into the bag any that didn't fit well with each other. The bag looks just as full now as it did when I started - I'm telling you, they are multiplying. The other fabrics in the quilt practically jumped on my lap wanting to be used for this quilt. By telling you how easy everything was last time, I think I jinxed the quilt. Adding the border fabric made the backing slightly too small for the quilt. I decided I would rather trim the border to make it fit instead of trying to piece the backing. The batting is a polyester which is slippery and puffy. I had thought about doing some straight line quilting, but thought a free motion design would be hide any nonmatching points. Or at least not call attention to them. But every time I tried the free motion quilting, the machine would not make any stitches! After three times, I decided that straight lines was the way to go. Even though it would make it very obvious that I cannot sew straight lines. My mother saw the quilt before it was bound and wondered if I was making a pillow case. I told her I was making a wall quilt, like the one on the wall, pointing to the pear one I received from the Four Season swap. She said it needed a dark purple border between the green and the lighter purples, like the one on the wall. I'm not sure she was saying that because she thought it needed something darker or because she thought a wall quilt was supposed to be bigger. I wasn't about to undo my quilting to add the dark, but I thought adding a dark wasn't a bad idea, so I added it to the binding. Just to prove to people that I can't sew straight lines, in case they didn't get it from the quilting. I am happy with it. It isn't too bad for things that were destined to become garbage.