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.

National Backwards Day!

Posted on January 31, 2018 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilting, Works In Progress (WIP) / 3 Comments

Today, January 31 is National Backwards Day! I decided to celebrate by taking a closer look at the back of some quilts and quilt tops.

The backs of quilt tops hardly ever get the glory that they deserve. Here are some hand appliquéd circles . . .

And some machine pieced circles . . .

I love when the quilting transfers the design of the quilt to the back of the project.

Sometimes the design isn’t completely transferred to the back of the quilt, but you can get a general idea of the quilt front.

Occasionally I do simple, light quilting . . .

But more often it’s heavy quilting that shows on the back of my quilts . . . (these two mini quilts are the same design)

Recently I even tried out using doubled batting, which really made the quilting design pop on the back of the quilt (as well as the front).

I frequently love the backs of quilts as much as the front!

Scatter

Posted on January 9, 2018 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilting / 7 Comments

The same afternoon that I made the 9 Patch Circle Quilt, I also created Scatter. I wanted to explore the visual effect of all-over organic placement of the circles compared to the more regimented placement seen in the 9 Patch Circle Quilt.

This is another “sketch” quilt, so prior to quilting the circles are held in place only through the use of Wonder Under fusible web.

The quilting plays the starring role in this mini quilt. It is a good thing that the quilt is small- even at this side I had an hour of active stitching time! I selected a very dark 50wt thread to define the edges of the circles. It reminds me of dark ink on paper painted with bright dots.

For the background quilting, I wanted to define the space with a strong organic design that would echo the primary circles without overshadowing them. Using white thread on the white background fabric to do the same stitching technique fit this need and it catches the light nicely, not to mention it feels amazing to touch!

The edges are finished with a simple facing. I love that the back creates a neutral version of the design!

Quilt Stats:

Title: Scatter

Size: 18″ x 18″

Techniques: Fused Applique

Quilting: Free motion quilting using an A-1 Longarm

Fabric: Assorted solids on a Kona Snow background with Kona Snow backing

Batting: Hobbs 80/20

Thread: Quilted with a variety of 50wt Aurifil

Binding: Facings to match the quilt background and backing

9 Patch Circles

Posted on January 3, 2018January 3, 2018 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilting / 6 Comments

I love using colorful thread. There is a good chance that you have gathered that if you have seen much of my work. I also have a tendency to use it the most in matchstick quilting. In the last few weeks I had been contemplating how I could infuse a quilt with colorful thread in an abstract way without using straight lines. Ultimately the idea of circles took over.

This mini quilt is mostly a sketch to explore a quilting technique, so I kept the construction process as simple as possible. Prior to quilting the circles were all held in place with Wonder Under fusible web and the small size (15″ square) made it really easy to throw on the longarm to quilt.

The quilting thread matches the fabrics and then infuses color into the adjoining fabric. The color of the outermost section of the concentric circle flows out into the background through the quilting. I stuck with 50wt thread for this because I wanted to make a lot of lines over a small area, and didn’t want too much thread build up. I decided to emphasize the grid configuration of the circles and juxtapose the dominant curves of the circles with some straight lines. Some simple, white matchstick quilting between the rows and columns of dots accomplishes this goal. The quilting on this took about an hour, but most of that was thread changes

The quilt is finished with a simple facing that matches the backing fabric. I love using a solid backing on a quilt with lots of thread colors to show off all of that work.