Columbus Cityscape Block of the Month: Thurber House

Posted on October 1, 2018 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Columbus Cityscape Quilt, Quilting, Works In Progress (WIP) / Leave a comment

At one time Thurber House was home to author and cartoonist James Thurber, and it is now a prominent literary center in the city of Columbus. Throughout the year, the center brings authors to the city and offers workshops to encourage the art of writing in community members of all ages. There are rumors that this house is haunted, so it is a perfect choice for October!

The angles and details of this building are fabulous. I wish that I could have included all the details, but to do that this block would have to be enormous. The smallest details of this block finish at 1/8″ wide.

This pattern is available from Dabble and Stitch in Columbus, Ohio. If you have already purchased the pattern, you can access the extra templates here. You will need the password included in the pattern instructions to access this page.

I will be demonstrating the construction of a portion of this block Sunday, October 14th at 1pm at Dabble and Stitch.

Columbus Cityscape Block of the Month: History Center

Posted on September 1, 2018September 1, 2018 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Columbus Cityscape Quilt, Quilting, Works In Progress (WIP) / 2 Comments

The Ohio History Connection is situated between the Ohio State Fairgrounds and a heavily trafficked section of interstate. This positioning has made the building a significant landmark in the city of Columbus.

The main building appears to rise up from the surrounding landscape and forms a wonderfully symmetrical building with a strong visual perspective.

I have been having fun selecting a few specialty fabrics for some of the buildings, and the banner on the history center was a perfect opportunity for some fussy cutting. The banner on the building has an image of a mastodon skeleton, but mastodon fabric is really hard to come by, so we took some artistic liberty and substituted some really cute dinosaur fabric instead. At least they are both (unfortunately) extinct!

I will be doing a demonstration of a portion of this block at Dabble and Stitch tomorrow, Sunday, September 2 at 1pm!

House Mini Challenge

Posted on August 31, 2018September 17, 2018 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilting / 4 Comments

At the beginning of August, Curated Quilts Magazine issued a mini quilt challenge with a specific color palette and the theme of “House.” I’m am very drawn to architectural details, so I decided to create this mini that focuses in on the dormer of a house.

The biggest challenge for me was the provided color palette. The image below is the palette provided by Curated Quilts. I love that each color scheme they provide echos the overall theme of the challenge. If you have followed me for long, you probably know that brown is not a color I tend to willingly incorporate. However, to make this design work, I needed to use the entire color scheme. (The only reason I even had that brown dot print was because a friend dared me to buy it a few months ago!)

I decided to use three point perspective to draft the design for this quilt. Most perspective drawings use one or two point perspective, which results in a realistic looking drawing. I think three point perspective tends to give a more wonky, whimsical feel to the drawing, and I liked the way that aesthetic pairs with the given color palette. I use AutoCad LT to draft the overall design. You can see each of the points surrounding the finished drawing, and I left a few construction lines to help show how the design came together.

The quilt top was created using foundation paper piecing. Once the overall design is complete, I break down the sections of the block that will be used to piece the block. Since paper piecing requires the fabric to be pieced on the non-printed side of the template, all of the template pieces are mirrored so the finished block faces the correct direction.

The quilting on this mini was a first for me- I used Aurifil Monofilament to quilt the entire quilt. I had never quilted with monofilament, and I had only done very limited sewing with it. The Aurifil monofilament worked beautifully for this application. It was amazing to be able to move across the quilt without having to change thread color! It went through my domestic machine really well. I reduced the top tension slightly and used a smaller micro-tex needle than I usually quilt with.

I tend to use lots of colors of thread in each piece, and I don’t think that will change much, but I do like how the monofilament thread allows the focus of the quilting to be on the texture rather than the color. This is something that I will want to explore further. The back of the quilt really shows off that texture!

Facings finish the edges so that the design of the quilt top isn’t interrupted by a binding border.

Quilt Stats

Title: Upward Perspective

Size: 15-1/2″ x 15-1/2″

Techniques: Foundation Paper Piecing

Quilting: Machine echo quilting using a walking foot on a Bernina 1008 domestic

Fabric: Assorted cotton prints and solids and Essex Linen in the palette provided by Curated Quilts

Batting: Hobbs Tuscany Wool

Thread: Quilted with clear Aurifil Monofilament

Binding: Faced with fabric matching the quilt backing

Synthesized Slivers

Posted on May 26, 2018 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Fabric, Finished Quilts, Quilt Shows, Quilting, Quilting Community / 5 Comments

A few weeks ago, I came across a call for entries for the Modern Mini Quilt Challenge hosted by Quilt Expo. It has been awhile since I have done a mini quilt, and I was feeling the need for a relatively quick finish, so I jumped in. One of my friends has been giving me a hard time about my extreme dislike of brown fabric, so I decided this would be a good challenge to incorporate my least favorite color.

My initial fabric pull centered around a stack of quilter’s denim made by Art Gallery Fabrics. I had received the fat quarter bundle during QuiltCon 2017, and I had been waiting for the perfect project to come up. I love the utilitarian texture the fabric has and the value shifts between fabrics were seamless. I did add a few other fabrics in to serve as accent pieces. These included a bright green solid, metallic linen, and a silk/cotton blend.

I started the quilt by constructing small blocks in a variety of sizes using background fabrics in a range of colors and values. The slivers of accent fabrics finish at 1/8″ wide. I used a ruler to cut the slits in straight lines, but only actually measured to square up each block after the slivers were added.

At this point, my friend saw the progress and informed me that tan is most definitely NOT Brown, even though I still insist that it is ;). In keeping with the challenge, I went out and purchased a small cut of chocolate brown Kona. There wasn’t a speck of true brown in any of my stash!

After constructing a few more blocks, I started putting everything together. I think this is the most challenging part of the process, but this top came together, and only required a couple partial seams.

Monty is my cat that ~~demands~~ likes to be held constantly. I was taking photos right after he had woken up from his first afternoon nap, and he really wanted my attention! If you manage to look past the cat, you can see the back of the quilt top. I made sure to press all of the sliver seam allowances toward the background to make the slivers recede a bit.

This is a small quilt so I quickly pin basted it and selected six colors of Aurifil to match the background fabrics.

I wanted to accentuate the angles that are incorporated into the design, so I used echo quilting to highlight the design of each block.

The back is the same bright green accent color used on the front of the quilt. I like how the different thread colors add value shifts to the back of the quilt. I didn’t want to frame the quilt in with a binding, so the edges are finished with facings to match the backing fabric.

I am so glad that I made this quilt, and even I think the brown actually works in it!

Quilt Stats

Title: Synthesized Slivers

Size: 22″ x 19″

Techniques: Machine Piecing, Improvisational Piecing

Quilting: Echo quilting using a walking foot on a Bernina 1008 domestic

Fabric: Art Gallery Quilter’s Denim, Kona Cotton, Metallic Blend, Silk/Cotton Blend

Batting: Hobbs Tuscany Wool

Thread: Quilted with 50wt cotton Aurifil in six colors

Binding: Faced with Kona Cotton matching the quilt backing

Zenith

Posted on May 11, 2018May 11, 2018 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Art, Finished Quilts, Quilting / 10 Comments

Each year the Central Ohio Modern Quilt Guild issues a color challenge. For the past two years the challenge has been the same: Combine the Pantone and Kona colors of the year into a single sewn object. My project for last year’s challenge was an improv quilt inspired by the Franklin Park Conservatory. The quilt I made for this year’s color challenge is also improv, but it is more structured this time around.

In 2018 the Pantone color of the year is Ultraviolet and the Kona color is Tiger Lily. Among our group this combination had both lovers and haters.

I could definitely see the potential, and wanted to embrace the violets while pushing the piece toward warmer tones. The beginning of my fabric pull looked like this.

Around the time this challenge was issued, the Columbus Museum of Art was hosting a special exhibit which included this oil painting, The Bay of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, by Georges Lacombe which was painted around 1902-1904. The color range in this painting was exactly what I had imagined when I saw the challenge colors.

The quilt top was constructed using structured improv- I measured and used rulers, but the placement of each piece of fabric was determined on the fly. About 2/3 of the quilt went together quickly, but the lower left corner was problematic.

After over a month of struggling with it, I finally came to terms with the fact that I just didn’t have the right pink fabrics to complete the top. (How could I possibly be lacking pink of all colors!) Once I added more pink solids to the palette, the top was easy to finish.

Since the quilting is done on a 120 degree angle, and the piece isn’t particularly large, I decided it would be easier to do the quilting with a walking foot on my domestic machine. It is almost matchstick quilted. The machine stitching is randomly spaced from 1/8″ to 1/2.” Once the machine quilting was finished, I added large stitch hand quilting in the larger gaps between the machine stitching. It was important to me that the quilting stitches add personality to the quilt, so I used a range of thread colors and weights. By the time the quilting was finished I had incorporated 50wt, 40wt, 28wt, and 12wt thread into the quilt.

The majority of the fabrics used in the quilt are solids, but there are a few prints worked into the design. One of those prints, a Tula Pink stripe, was perfect for a bias binding. I combined this print with some yellow solids to finish off the quilt.

Quilt Stats

Title: Zenith

Size: 53″ x 69″

Techniques: Machine Piecing, Structured Improvisational Piecing

Quilting: Almost-Matchstick machine quilting on a Bernina 1008 domestic, large stitch hand quilting

Fabric: Assorted quilt shop quality, 100% cotton solid and print fabrics, and backing of wide-back Tula Pink Print

Batting: Hobbs Tuscany Wool

Thread: Quilted with 50wt, 40wt, 28wt, and 12wt cotton Aurifil

Binding: Tula Pink stripes and yellow solids, cut on the bias at 2″ wide, machine stitched to the front, hand finished

This quilt is entered in the Pantone Color of the Year Challenge at Bryan House Quilts and No Hats in the House. Click the links to check out all of the fabulous entries! My country of residence in the United States.