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

Diamond Placemat

Posted on July 14, 2018 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Aurifil, Finished Quilts, Quilting, Quilting Community / 3 Comments

The charity that the Central Ohio Modern Quilt Guild is working with this year is Meals on Wheels. We are making placemats that are distributed to recipients along with their meals to brighten things up. Our Charity Chair has been issuing challenges this year to encourage participation and encourage members to use these projects to stretch their quilting skills. This placemat is from one of these challenges.

We were each given a line drawing of a traditional quilt block that we reinterpreted into a placemat. I received a block called “Diamond Quilt Block.”

My reinterpretation is fairly straightforward. I stretched the traditionally square block into a rectangle, but then I had some fun with the quilting. I matched the quilting thread to the pink, green, and white sections of the block, and extended the stitching out to the edges of the block. Each stitching line pivots to create a triangular form.

The pink and green stitching is done in 28wt thread and the white is 12wt, but the bobbins thread is always 50wt thread in the color matching the top thread. This still allows the design to show up nicely, even on the tone on tone print that I used on the back of the placemat.

I have several bias bindings that I keep made up and ready to go for small projects, and I chose this one because it enhances the energy of the diagonal quilting lines.

The labels for our guild quilts are Spoonflower Prints with our guild name and Logo. We each sign the label so the recipients know who made their placemat.

I won’t be writing a full pattern for this project, but if you would like to make your own, you can download the templates below. This file is templates only, and the template on the final page needs to be assembled prior to cutting your fabric.

Diamond Placemat Templates

Placemat Stats

Title: Diamond Placemat

Size: 12″ x 18″

Techniques: Machine Piecing

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

Fabric: Kona Cotton Solids on the front, print backing and binding

Batting: Warm and White

Thread: Quilted with 50wt, 28wt, and 12wt cotton Aurifil in pink, green, and white

Binding: Striped bias binding, cut 2″ wide, machine stitched to the front and hand finished on the back

Beautiful Ohio Row by Row

Posted on June 20, 2018 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilting, Quilting Community / 1 Comment

The international shop hop, Row by Row, starts tomorrow! This is the third year I have designed the row for one of my local quilt shops, Dabble and Stitch, which is located in Columbus, Ohio. The patterns for all blocks in the Row by Row are available for free at participating shops, and kits are for sale if you would like to use the same fabrics as the sample blocks. This year’s theme is “Sew Musical.”

The official state song for Ohio is “Beautiful Ohio,” and this song is the starting point for the row. I located the sheet music for the song, and placed a circle over each note for the signature phrase. When these notes are connected they formed the shape of the rolling hills of central Ohio.

Simple foundation paper piecing is used to construct the main portion of the block, and the circles and wording are added with applique. I chose to use needle turn applique, but I included additional lines on the templates for raw edge applique, so each person can choose which process to use.

“Sew Musical” was a particularly challenging theme since music is experienced mostly through your sense of hearing and quilting is a visual and tactile medium. The quilting stitches provided an opportunity to add much needed movement to the block. A spiral of quilting emanates from each circle, and once the spirals intersect, echo stitching completes the machine quilting. To add a different rhythmic feel to the piece, large stitch hand quilting is added between lines of machine stitching. Several colors of thread in 12wt and 28wt were used to complete the project.

Facings finish the edges of the sample block. Since this block captures just a single phrase of the song, I wanted to allow the lines of the design to continue without a visual frame.

Quilt Stats

Title: Beautiful Ohio

Size: 9″ x 36″

Techniques: Foundation Paper Piecing, Needle Turn Applique

Quilting: Machine echo quilting using a walking foot on a Bernina 1008 domestic and large stitch hand quilting

Fabric: Assorted cotton prints and solids

Batting: Hobbs Tuscany Wool

Thread: Quilted with 50wt, 28wt, and 12wt cotton Aurifil in multiple colors

Binding: Faced with print matching the quilt backing

Bonus!

Here are the blocks I have designed in previous in previous years. Both patterns are still available through Dabble and Stitch.

2016 Theme: Home Sweet Home

Columbus Skyline

2017 Theme: On the Go!

Lane Avenue Bridge

Give and Take

Posted on June 15, 2018 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilting / 1 Comment

Curated Quilts magazine issues a mini quilt challenge for each issue, and I love to see all of the amazing submissions. Until now I have never contributed an entry, but I enjoyed making Synthesized Slivers so much, I was eager to participate in another challenge.

Curated quilts provided a theme of Connections/Improv and a color palette which included cream, yellow, mustard yellow, navy, moss green, and grey. We could use as many or as few of these colors as we liked, and I ended up using all of the colors except for cream. Navy, grey, and mustard yellow are represented in the fabrics, and the quilting done in navy, grey, moss green, and yellow.

With the theme of connections in mind, I wanted to use roughly equal amounts of grey and navy fabrics with gear-like wedges intersecting where they meet. When cogs come together, they set off a series of reactions that is greater than either component on its own.

The quilting is dense matchstick stitching that both echos the pieced designs and integrates additional curves. The majority of the navy and grey sections are quilted in coordinating 50wt thread. For areas that needed extra emphasis I used 12wt green and 40wt yellow thread.

Quilt Stats

Title: Give and Take

Size: 12″ x 12″

Techniques: Machine Piecing, Improvisational Piecing

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

Fabric: Assorted solids and one print by Carolyn Friedlander

Batting: Hobbs Tuscany Wool

Thread: Quilted with 50wt, 40wt, and 12wt cotton Aurifil in four colors

Binding: Faced with navy solid matching the quilt backing

Synthesized Slivers

Posted on May 26, 2018 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Fabric, Finished Quilts, Quilt Shows, Quilting, Quilting Community / 6 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