I Don't Want Another Red Quilt Sampler
Top picture is the finished quilt, 2nd picture shows the 12" block that I made which won the contest.
Each year at the Kuna Quilt Show they have a Challenge Block Contest. A fabric is selected and people get a piece 9” X 11” then make a 12” block to enter the contest…any block they want and using their own fabric to make the block big enough. During the quilt show people vote for the block they like the best. The winner gets their block back and chooses 11 more blocks and then is expected to make a quilt out of the blocks by the next quilt show. In 2008, my block won 1st Place. It was the Snail’s Trail block. It had 256 pieces in the 12” block. I did it by paper piecing. I chose blocks that would work as a Sampler quilt trying to balance color and have an even amount of pieced and appliqué blocks.
I liked a quilt that I saw in Diana Leone’s Sampler Book, which had no pattern, so this is my version of that sampler quilt. The challenge fabric was the red fabric, but I didn’t want the quilt to end up being a red quilt…hence the name. “
Charlotte's Own
I made this “dragger” quilt for my new granddaughter from a panel I bought. It is calendar for the year 2008 called Love Is. Since Charlotte was due to be born on the 20th of December I took the chance that she would come on time (she came on the 22nd) and added wide borders with log cabin blocks in the corners to make the quilt larger enough for her. Even though the panel was from a new line of fabric I had the floral and all other pieces that almost matched perfectly to finish off the quilt. I quilted hearts in the log cabin blocks, a big meander in the borders and echo quilted designs in the calendar itself, adding a gold star around the 22nd of December for her.
This is the quilt that she can drag around, use as a saddle on the dogs, pee and puke on...and Mommy can't say anything. Each child needs one of those.
Discovery is Another Word for Innovation
This is one of Ricky Tim’s Convergence quilts. I made a challenge for myself…I took a large print, a batik, a ditsy calico and a funky texture and put them into one of his small quilts. The large print was a map of Asia with all sorts of animals superimposed on the maps, the batik had both the red and turquoise and gold colors that were in the large print, the calico was the red and the texture was grasses and reeds in gray. I disliked the way the red calico became dominant once the fabrics were all cut, so I fussy cut some of the compasses out from the large print, adding spires for suns to the background and raw edge appliquéd them over the largest of the calico pieces. I added triangle flags to the right border out of the batik but it was mostly lost in the large print. Overall quilting echoed the shapes of the sun in the body of the quilt. I echoed squiggly lines in the flags, leaving the background unquilted.
I did two more of his Blended Convergence quilts with some hand dyed fabric and forgot to take pictures of them before they "went away". I wasn't too fond of them.
I may do another one of these someday, but need to find a much bigger print to make it work better.
Dos Equis
I made this from a block exchange we did at one of our retreats in Fairbanks, AK. I added more blocks and used a setting from the book Designing Quilts, A Value of Value. As soon as my husband saw it, he saw X’s and said it should be called Dos Equis…the name stuck. I gave it to my brother and he loves it, too. This is a great scrap quilt or stash reducer.
Delectable Mountain 27x27
I used this pattern for a border once and loved it. One day when I was messing around with the block I came up with this setting that gives the illusion of a circle. I think the block strips are only finished ¾” wide. I may try this one out in a larger version out of scraps someday…it was an easy and quick quilt to make.
I would have to buy a lot of lights for the background as my stash tends to be more mediums than anything else...we'll see what happens
Circle Play Quilts
The last year that we were in Alaska packing to move to the lower 48, I found out that Reynola Pachisich, who wrote "Circle Play" was going to teach a class at our guild. So while I was packing up my sewing room I was also cutting out fabric for Circle Play quilts. I bought the book and cut out circles from a printed batik fabric called Coral Reef which was in reds and purples, one from a fabric called Islands which had sailboats, tiki huts and waterfalls, and another set from fabric that I purchased while in Hawaii. During the class I worked on the Coral Reef fabric, then during travels that winter I worked on the other fabrics...setting up a design wall wherever I could (one time in a campground shower house!). I split the Hawaiian fabrics into two quilts, one with bright colors and the other more muted, natural colors.
Even thought I had books on color, I never really understood about color until I took this class. My quilts have been much more vibrant after this class as I finally realized the relationship in color, scale, texture and value. I use fabrics together now that I never would have in the years prior to this class.
Coral Reef
Vacation Paradise
Hot Flashes
Hawaiian Naturals
Hawaiian Brights
Labels: circle play
Cathedral Window 9x9
This mini quilt was made the 1st year after we retired. I wanted some type of hand work that I could do in the evenings and on the road( I had already knitted a couple dozen scarves and was going batty). I found a used book on Cathedral Windows and got the bug! After making a half dozen blocks I realized that I didn’t like the hand work, but had worked too hard to just toss it. So I made a total of 9 blocks to make a more pleasing arrangement of “windows” and called it good. I still love the look of this quilt, but hate making it. This one finished at 9” square. Hand work is just not my cup of tea.
Labels: cathedral window
