Hippy Dippy Dotty collage

 In May our guild hosted a fun workshop with Carol Morrissey to learn her Hippy Dippy Dotty collage method. I had great fun making my own small version....

This is the pile of fabric and die cut circles that went into my quilt

It was fun to play with color and design for a day and I love my finished project. I straight line quilted it on my domestic machine, added a faced binding and hung it in my dining room. It's 23"x19".  It was fun to see how different everyone's quilts turned out!

Collab with Chris

Everyone knows I love a good collaboration. Recently I had an opportunity to make a quilt with my friend Chris....

I spent several days helping Chris sort out the clutter in her sewing space. It was fun finding things Chris had started and making a plan for future quilting projects. In the bottom of one bin of assorted fabrics and blocks, I found the improv blocks Chris had made during our workshop with Debbie Jeske in 2018. I couldn't bear to see them all unassembled, and, as Chris had no plan for them, I tucked them in my bag, took them home and set to work puzzling them together.

The final quilt is fun, Chris's signature rainbow color palette and my assembly. I especially love the black and white stripe she added to some of her blocks. It adds a bit of zing!

This was a fun, unexpected project!
 

Spot On

Time for some catching up! Back in January my pal Debbie was cleaning out her stash and gifted me a beautiful stack of improv hourglass blocks she had made last year. 

I had a wonderful time assembling them into a quilt top, adding a scrap or two of my own alone the way to make things fit. As I assembled it, I began adding appliqué dots here and there, because, why not? The Modern Quilt Guild has recently embraced Maximalism as an element of modern quilting and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get on board. 

I attached the spots with hand stitching (blanket stitch with #8 perle cotton). If you look closely, you can see that I stitched some ghost circles into the background as well.

My friend Martha popped it onto her longarm and added free motion loops and circles I finished it off with big stitched binding. Such a fun collaboration with friends! I love the quilt, which finished at 46"x54".

You can read Debbie's account of our fun collaboration here. 

Pantone Quilt Challenge, 2024

 Well, I sure didn't mean to step away from my blog for months and months, but here we are! I have no excuses really and lots to share with you so let's get to it, shall we?

My most recent quilt finish is Seasons in the Sun, my entry for the Pantone Quilt Challenge this year. In case this challenge is new to you, Pantone chooses a color of the year ever year, this year it is Peach Fuzz. Not really a favorite color of mine, but when you combine it with shades of teal and aqua anything works, right?

Finished quilt 34"x34"

Seasons in the Sun is 34" square and uses my own Funky Dresden technique. I've been revisiting this technique quite a bit lately, tweaking it and having a great time with variations. I added faced bindings and quilted it in a diamond grid with my walking foot.

Elizabeth Ray and Sarah Ruiz are heading up the challenge this year, so I have included my entry. You can see all of the entries as they are uploaded here. There are lots of great sponsors and fun prizes. Elizabeth and Sarah have made this tons of fun. Do hop over and check out their blogs and all of the fun entries.

Puff Quilt

A few months ago, my daughter asked if I had seen the new puff quilts popping up here and there and I laughed! Does anyone else remember making these in the 1970s? yup. me too.

I checked out the tutorial from Lo & Behold Stitchery and started collecting fabrics in Ally's favorite shades of pink. Many months, including 2 weekend retreats later, the puff quilt was finished.

I must say, I found these instructions to be a bit tedious. Not difficult at all, but physically way more tedious than the way we made them years ago. That said, I followed the instructions and the finished quilt is lovely. Ally is happy with it, as is Miss Georgia, our newest Grand-puppy!

Also, it will be the only one I ever make. You can bet on that!

 

Panel challenge

 A couple of months ago our guild issued a quilt panel challenge. You could choose a panel from the guild's community service stash or use one you already had...... and do something modern  with it. I'm not a huge quilt panel person to be honest. So I grabbed this one from the community service fabric and set to work.

The panel is called The Dress, by Laura Heine. I looked at it for a long time and finally came up with a plan.

I sliced both pictures into 2 inch columns, identically. Turned one set upside down, then alternated the slices creating a funky reversible version of the original photo. Added some more of the panel as borders and some fabric from my stash, and this is where it landed...

once quilted and bound, this is the perfect size for either a wheelchair/lap quilt for the nursing home or a baby in the foster care program. I kind of love it! 

Quilts unscripted 2023

 It's been a minute since I shared the blocks I've been making for my improv bee, Quilts Unscripted. 

January blocks were inspired by architecture in gray tones for Isabelle. I loved making these and used photos from recent visits to New York City as inspiration.

My first block was inspired by the Oculus....

and my second block was inspired by One World Trade Center

February blocks for Sarah were done in her chosen color palette (which I love) using tiny squares, organic curves and strips. 

March block for Emily was actually one large slab, inspired by a photo of pottery she provided in her designated color palette. Just like every month, this prompt stretched me!

April was my month to choose a prompt. I'll be sharing more about that and the resulting blocks very soon.

May was fun! Charles challenged us to choose our own adventure. We each chose a book genre (mine is romance) colors from 10 different palettes, and 2 improv blocks from his list. I used pinks/reds and greens to create a meadow of flowers from checkerboard and drunkards path blocks. This big slab is 17”x18". 

In  June, Chris had us drawing inspiration from ancient Pueblo pottery with a very specific color palette. One of my blocks is shared here, with it's inspiration photo....

In July, we made blocks for E.A. One in solids and one in blenders! She is making classroom quilts for her students. Here is my blender block...

Guess who is up again for August? Me! I just sent out my prompt and I can't wait to see what my beemates do with it. Stay tuned!