Resonance: A 100 Day Quilt Project

Posted on May 22, 2018 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in 100 Day Project, Finished Quilts, Quilting / 10 Comments

My 100 Day Quilt project was a success, and I want to thank everyone who followed the progress on Instagram! Resonance is the ultimate result. It was named in reference to the quilting stitches which echo out from a central point. If you would like to know more about the start of the project, check out the first post about the 100 Day Circle Quilt Project.

Constructing the blocks for the quilt took the most time- 89 days. Most blocks had two-three concentric circles, but several included multiple circles set near each other. Here are a couple of examples:

The next two days were spent trimming the blocks to their finished size.

Laying the quilt out was a bit tricky. Since it was too large for my design wall, I cleared out the kitchen and arranged the blocks on the floor. This photo was taken with my phone touching the ceiling, and I still couldn’t get far enough away to capture the entire quilt design.

After a couple more days, the quilt top was finished.

There were 13 different colors of thread used to quilt the project. A different thread was used for each fabric. This extended the color beyond the edge of each circle, and ensured that the back, as well as the front of the quilt, would show each color change. I knew that I would want lots of lines of stitching around each circle, so I decided to use 50wt thread so I could do lots of stitching without excessive thread build up.

Here is the quilt loaded and basted on the longarm.

The quilting process took quite a long time. I quilted each circle from the inside out to prevent bunching in the fabric, so there were a lot of thread changes.

Once the circles were quilted, I did large scale bubble quilting in the background.

There were more than a million quilting stitches in this project. I’m pretty sure that is a personal record!

The binding is mostly white, with some sporadic shots of color.

I love the way the back of the quilt looks!

To cap it off, Aurifil asked to use this quilt in their booth at Spring Market this past weekend! This is my first quilt to be included at a Quilt Market, so I was very excited!

Photo courtesy of Sylvia of Flying Parrot Quilts

Photo courtesy of Aurifil

Quilt Stats

Title: Resonance

Size: 79″ x 79″

Techniques: Hand Applique, Machine Piecing

Quilting: Free motion quilting with an A-1 Longarm machine

Fabric: Assorted solids and white-on-white prints

Batting: Hobbs Tuscany Wool

Thread: Quilted with 50wt cotton Aurifil in 13 colors

Binding: White Kona Cotton with colorful inserts, cut on the bias at 2″ wide, machine stitched to the front, hand finished

Raise the Roof

Posted on February 19, 2018February 19, 2018 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Publication, Quilting / 3 Comments

I made a pretty quilt! I very rarely make a quilt that I would call “pretty”- typically I describe my work with terms like graphic, clean, dynamic, or vivid. Raise the Roof is an exception to this trend.

Inspiration for Raise the Roof came from the architecture of the Horticulture Building on the grounds of the Ohio State Fair. The low volume background of the blocks echos the design of the rafters of the building, and the central stars are an abstract representation of the over-sized ceiling fans.

The pink, violet, and orange blocks appear to spin around the focal blocks in blue and orange.

Value plays a huge role in the design of the quilt blocks. The colors in the low volume background triangles have the same placement in each block segment, but the brightly colored star tips change depending on the block placement. Intentional placement of a dark and light version of each color on every point creates a three dimensional look.

After creating a few sample blocks, I decided to submit the design to Modern Patchwork. I was thrilled to have it accepted, and quickly finished the top. For the quilting design, I chose an all-over organic free motion design with a botanical flavor.

The juxtaposition of the organic quilting lines on the regimented, foundation paper pieced quilt top reminds me of the relationship between the beautiful floral displays against the architecture of the building. To make the quilting stand out even more, I used double batting for the first time. The top layer is a yummy Hobbs Tuscany Wool, and the bottom layer is Hobbs 80/20.

To top it all off, this quilt made the cover of the magazine! This is a first for me, and I am over the moon!

You can get your very own copy of the March/April Modern patchwork here!

Quilt Stats

Title: Raise the Roof

Size: 59″ x 59″

Techniques: Foundation Paper Piecing, Traditional Piecing

Quilting: Hand guided, mixed motif free motion quilting done on an A-1 Elite Longarm

Fabric: Assorted quilt shop quality, 100% cotton fabrics, and backing of wide-back Kona Cotton

Batting: Hobbs Tuscany Wool and Hobbs 80/20

Thread: Pieced using light grey Gutermann Mara 100, Quilted with 50wt cotton Aurifil

Binding: Cotton and Steel grey and silver dot bias binding, machine stitched to the front, hand finished on the back.

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.