Crystalized Citrus: A Blogger’s Quilt Festival Entry

Posted on September 26, 2016September 26, 2016 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilt Shows, Quilting Community / 6 Comments

Crystalized Citrus is my second entry into The Blogger’s Quilt Festival hosted by Amy’s Creative Side. I hope you will all set aside some time this week to look at all of the amazing inspiration provided by the festival entries- there is some amazing work on display!

Crystalized Citrus

I originally created this quilt for this year’s Hoffman Challenge which required the use of this digitally printed butterfly fabric. I enjoy transforming distinctively patterned fabric into something completely unexpected, so I was excited to transform the butterfly wings to the flesh of citrus fruit.

The center of each fruit is improvisationally pieced before being set into the surrounding “skin.” The entire fruit is then hand appliquéd to the background. I used matchstick quilting in a range of coordinating colors to ground the pieces on the white background.

For more about this quilt you can check out the original Crystalized Citrus post.

Columbus Skyline: A Blogger’s Quilt Festival Entry

Posted on September 26, 2016September 26, 2016 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilt Shows, Quilting Community / 2 Comments

Every year The Blogger’s Quilt Festival hosted by Amy’s Creative Side brings tremendous inspiration to us all- I love seeing so much lovely work collected in one place! I am thrilled to submit “Columbus Skyline” as an entry into the appliqué category of the festival.

This project began when I was asked to create a “Row by Row” pattern for a local quilt shop. The theme for the year was “Home Sweet Home” so we embraced the unique skyline of Columbus, Ohio to develop a design specific to our area. (For more information on the design process, I hope you will take a look at the original Columbus Skyline post.)

Columbus Skyline

Hand stitched needle turn appliqué is used to create the city skyline. I selected bright colors to reflect the vibrant community within the city. This small quilt is finished with borders that provided a space to quilt in both the shop and city names. The quilting is done in thread to match each building so the design is reflected on the back of the quilt.

Hills and Valleys: 2016 Riley Blake Challenge Quilt

Posted on July 6, 2016July 6, 2016 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilt Shows, Quilting, Quilting Community / 6 Comments

This year’s Modern Quilt Guild / Riley Blake fabric challenge was one of the best challenges I have ever participated in, and I am very excited about the resulting quilt!

The print that was selected for the challenge fabric has almost endless possibilities since it contains so many different designs. I had the fabric draped around the studio for a long time before I decided what direction I wanted to go with it. I still wasn’t entirely certain what I was doing when I ordered the solids to coordinate. Emerald green has been very appealing to me lately, and I decided to draw my color scheme from it.

I enjoy taking linear prints and cutting / reassembling them into a star formation, and I started out thinking that was where this project would lead. In an effort to step out of my star-shaped box, I decided to consider other options that could produce a similar effect with the pattern of the print. I drew the fabric print to scale in AutoCad and started to experiment. Ultimately I landed on this design based on a traditional clamshell configuration. I thought that the greens I had selected would create the illusion of abstract rolling hills, and the black and white print would look like giant flowers bursting forth from the landscape.

I developed and printed templates for each shape using AutoCad. Since I had already planned the design with the fabric in mind, I was able to print the templates with guidelines that matched the print. Cutting was super easy this way!

The clamshells are machine pieced to one another. I used the templates to mark the start, center, and end of each seam which helped me to accurately position and pin each seam. The top row of clamshells is hand appliquéd to the light blue background fabric.

The quilting was the most fun part of the process. Solid fabrics give so much room for play, and I loved the idea of creating movement in this piece. Each “hill” has a different texture from those directly around it, and the quilting thread matches each section. This is also my first project to incorporate hand sashiko stitch quilting. The large stitches in contrasting thread helps to draw your eye around the quilt.

I was excited to submit this quilt to the challenge, and I was absolutely ecstatic to find out that it received second place! If you would like to see the other fantastic quilts that placed in this year’s challenge, you can find them on this Modern Quilt Guild blog post.

Quilt Stats

Title: Hills and Valleys

Size: 41″x43″

Techniques: Machine piecing, Hand Applique

Quilting: Freemotion and Ruler work on an A-1 Longarm machine, hand sashiko accent stitching

Fabric: Riley Blake black and white sashing print and Riley Blake solids

Batting: Hobbs 80/20 cotton blend

Thread: Pieced and appliquéd with coordinating Gutermann Mara 100 thread. Quilted with five colors of 50wt Aurifil cotton thread. Sashiko stitching done with dark grey Aurifil Floss.

Binding: Faced with Riley Blake fabric

Goal #3 is Finished!

This and That: March Edition

Posted on March 27, 2016 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Quilt Shows, Quilting, Quilting Community, Works In Progress (WIP) / 2 Comments

There has been so much happening in my quilt-y world lately, but not everything needs its own post, so I’m combining a bunch of cool stuff into a single post!

Quilt Shows

I had a wonderful time at QuiltCon and it was just as exciting to have my quilt returned to me the following week.

The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts hanging at QuiltCon

Next up in quilt shows: I have THREE quilts heading to the American Quilter’s Society Show in Paducah this Spring! I was stunned and thrilled to receive three positive notifications, and I am eagerly awaiting the show.

Quilts that are heading to AQS Paducah

The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts will continue its show tour in the Large Wall Quilt: Modern category, and will be joined by both Can You See (m)E Now? in the Small Wall Quilt: Pictorial category and Rainbow Rotary in the Miniature category. Even more exciting than having my quilts in the show is seeing that these, as well as several other quilts in the modern aesthetic are being accepted into the show in categories stretching well beyond the modern category. It is fabulous to see wonderful, long established shows, embrace the differences in the quilt world.

The Collection Quilt Class

The Collection Quilt block of the month classes I have been teaching at Sew to Speak in Columbus, Ohio have been going well, and it is so much fun to work through this delightful quilt with such a wonderful group of women. I have been making a version of this quilt that is perfect for a princess loving little girl. The first month’s block features this cute frog print.

Section One of the Collection Quilt

Block two is especially fun due to the opportunities to incorporate lots of fussy cutting!

Section Two of The Collection Quilt

If you are in the Columbus area, and would like to join the class, we would love to have you! There is still plenty of time to learn the technique and come out of the class with a fantastic quilt. Please contact Sew to Speak to get signed up!

Quilting Bee

I am in my first block bee this year with The Columbus Modern Quilters. I signed up for the six month version since this is my first time, and I never know exactly where or how busy I’ll be in a year.

In January our queen selected the Wanta Fanta block, and I was thrilled by how quickly it went together.

January Bee Blocks

This month we are making the same block for another queen, and I am even more excited to see how both of these quilts go together.

March Bee Blocks

February was my month, and everyone made a filmstrip block that I will be incorporating into a border of a medallion quilt. I just love the blocks that everyone brought- Aren’t they awesome?! I have the free pattern available on Craftsy if you are interested in making some filmstrip blocks of your own.

Filmstrip Bee Blocks

A Win

Have you been participating in One Monthly Goal hosted by Red Letter Quilts? It is great for me to be able to set a single goal for the month, because my quarterly lists are ridiculous- they help me keep an overview of large goals, but all of those goals are never getting finished in a single quarter 😉

My February goal came with an added bonus: when names were drawn from the completion link-up, mine was selected!

This lovely bundle of fabric arrived a few days ago, and I can’t thank Heidi of Red Letter Quilts enough for hosting this event every month and supplying lovely fabric for a prize!

Block Hop

Last year I had a great time participating in the New Blogger’s Block Hop, so when the opportunity arose to participate in another New Block Blog Hop, I jumped at the chance. Paintbrush Studios sent out fabric to each blogger in the Ocean Sunrise Palette which was curated by our wonderful hosts.

You’ll want to mark your calendars for March 28-30 to stop by and see all of the wonderful new block patterns that are being given to you by more than three dozen bloggers! What makes this project even better is that all of the blocks created for this blog hop are collected by our hosts to make into some gorgeous charity quilts.

Publication

For the first time I have a quilt design making an appearance in the pattern section of a magazine. If you’re interested in making this Italicized Hashtag Quilt, make sure you check it out in Generation Q. I’ll be writing more about this quilt soon!

Spring Issue of Generation Q Magazine

The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts

Posted on January 4, 2016January 4, 2016 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilt Shows, Quilting / 11 Comments

I want to start 2016 off on a high note, so I decided the perfect first post of the year would be to share the quilt that will be heading to QuiltCon.

“The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts” is based on a Mini Quilt that I designed last summer, and is constructed in a similar manner.

Violet Calm Mini Quilt

The central circle is created by assembling rectangles with strips of the white background fabric between the pieces. Once this initial construction is complete, I cut the circle out of the assembled fabrics. I used extra wide backing fabric for both the front and back of the quilt. A circle with a 1/2″ smaller radius is cut from the quilt front, allowing for the seam allowance required to machine piece the circle in the quilt top.

I used matchstick quilting in colors matching the fabrics the stitching passes through to draw the centralized design out to the edges of the quilt. Most of the quilting is horizontal, but one section of vertical quilting add energy to the piece.

I really love the way the quilting looks, but this technique did result in thousands of thread tails to bury- I’m pretty sure that took longer than the actual quilting!

The binding is made of bias strips comprised of violet fabrics that are used in the central circle. In the next couple of days I will be adding a hanging sleeve and label so it can head off to Pasadena!

I’m linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts. Please stop by to see all of the lovely work being shared!

Quilt Stats

Title: The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts

Size: 63.25″ x 66″

Techniques: Machine Piecing

Quilting: Matchstick quilting done with a walking foot on a domestic Bernina 1008

Fabric: Quilt shop quality prints in shades of violet and magenta, extra wide white cotton

Batting: Warm and White Cotton batting

Thread: Pieced with white Gutermann Mara 100. Quilted with 50wt cotton Aurifil in colors to coordinate with the fabrics they are stitching through

Binding: Scrappy Violet fabrics, cut on the bias in 2″ wide strips, machine stitched to the front, hand stitched to the back

Goal #24 is finished!