Violet Calm: Mini Quilt #24

This quilt continues the color series I have been working on within Mini Quilt Mania. While other quilts in this series have the color distributed across the piece, the violet circle in this quilt creates a single focal point. Having a central focus gives this quilt a sense of calm and serenity.

For the violet circle, I first pieced together several violet fabrics spaced with white strips into a roughly square shape. From this section I cut a circle. Then I cut a circle with a 1/2″ smaller radius from the white background fabric. The smaller opening provided the seam allowance necessary to piece the violet circle into place.

I struggled to determine the quilting pattern for this project. There are so many possibilities! Ultimately, I landed on juxtaposing the circular focal shape with straight line matchstick quilting. The white bars within the focal shape remain un-quilted and extend to the edges of the piece. The quilting lines going through the violet areas of the quilt are shades of violet and magenta that most closely match the fabric they intersect. One section of violet stitching runs perpendicular to the rest of the stitching to break up the overall pattern.

The binding for this quilt is created using a variety of scraps from the fabrics used to create the violet circle.

Quilt Stats

Title: Violet Calm

Size: 20″x20″

Techniques: Machine Piecing

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

Fabric: Assorted Violet Prints and Batiks, White Kona Cotton

Batting: Warm and White Cotton Batting

Thread: Pieced with white Gutermann Mara 100. Quilted with Connecting Threads 50wt Essential Cotton in Magenta and Grape, Variegated violet 50wt Wonderfil Cotton Quilting Thread, white cotton machine quilting thread

Binding: Scrappy binding using fabrics pieced into the quilt top

What was new?

Machine piecing a circle into a solid background fabric

Quilt 24 / 50

Goal #1 is finished!

Cotton and Steel Quilted Purse

Posted on July 4, 2015July 5, 2015 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Bags and Pouches, Quilting, Sewing / 1 Comment

This week I managed another finish for my Second Quarter Finish Along. This purse was pretty far along already, so it really didn’t take too long to finish, and I am thrilled with the result.

I had made a similar quilted bag last summer and have been carrying it ever since. I liked the design pretty well, but I did make a few modifications this time around. The new bag is slightly wider and deeper, although the height is the same. Depending on how things would shift within the previous purse, it could be difficult to remove larger items such as my wallet, so the size change has helped immensely. The last time around, I made the exterior pockets almost exactly the same size as the base bag, which meant that it was sometime a bit tight getting my keys or phone into those pockets. This time I allowed for more ease, and it seams to be working well- nothing is falling out, but is much more easily accessible. The interior pocket of the new bag is also sewn in so that there is an additional pocket created behind the zippered pouch.

All of the fabrics are Cotton and Steel. I could hardly wait to get my hands on this Viewfinders fabric from Melody Miller’s Playful line, and I paired it with the Hotcross Buns print from Rashida Coleman-Hale’s Mochi line. The interior pocket is made of a Kimberly Kight Homebody print and lined with a red print from the Cotton and Steel Basics line. I found this fantastic trim at a quilt show to finish off the exterior pockets, but it had been cut and packaged, so I’m not sure who designed it. Does anyone recognize it? I love that it incorporates so many colors that are in the viewfinder print.

The quilting design is concentric circles which were randomly placed around a large fabric sandwich. Once the quilting was done, I then cut out the individual pieces for the purse. The main sides of the purse, the exterior pockets and the bottom of the bag are all quilted using Warm and White cotton batting. The handles are strengthened with woven iron on interfacing, and the top of the purse and interior pockets are lined, but have no additional support. The top and bottom edges of the bag are finished with bias tape which helps the bag keep its shape.

I have been carrying this bag for a few days now, and I am really loving it. There may be more bags like this in my sewing future!

Goal #15 is Finished!

Yellow Rays: Mini Quilt #23

Posted on June 27, 2015 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Mini Quilt Mania 2015, Quilting / 13 Comments

This mini quilt, the second in my color series, has been a long time in the making. I started this baby in the midst of a crazy work schedule, and eventually had to ask myself what I wanted from this piece. Was it to be done? Or was I going for awesome? Neither of these answers would necessarily be wrong, but I had to aim for the latter on this project.

Since I’ve been patterning and sewing like a crazy person to get through this summer theatre season at work, I have been doing a lot of projects where “finished” is the major goal- opening night comes whether or not we are completely ready. (This isn’t to say that things aren’t well made- we just can’t expect “perfect” when we are moving at this kind of pace) It was kind of nice to cut myself a little slack on deadlines for this project and make something that is really well thought out and constructed.

The segments of yellow were strip pieced first and then slashed diagonally and spaced with a piece of white Kona cotton between them and to the side. I am trying to use this series of quilts to explore various methods of activating negative space in the quilt composition.

Green Grass, the first quilt in this color series, was quilted using free motion quilting with a mix of green and white thread. For this quilt, I thought it would be interesting to move away from organic quilting and try some different linear patterns with my walking foot.

Quilt Stats

Title: Yellow Rays

Size: 20″x20″

Techniques: Machine piecing

Quilting: Linear quilting with a walking foot on a Bernina 1008

Fabric: Assorted yellow prints and white Kona Cotton

Batting: Warm and White cotton batting

Thread: Pieced using white Gutermann Mara 100, Quilted with white machine quilting thread and 50 wt cotton Aurifil in yellow

Binding: Scrappy yellow prints also used in the quilt top, cut on the bias in 2″ wide strips, machine stitched to the front, hand stitched to the back

What was new?

Exploration of linear quilting designs to activate negative space using a walking foot

Quilt 23 / 50

Goal #9 is Finished!