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!

Triangles everywhere, all at once

 I just realized I left you hanging. I never shared my completed Improv Triangle Sewalong quilt.... although I did share some of my process here. Well it's finished! Introducing, Triangles everywhere, all at once...

The improv triangle units were made using the process Nicholas Ball spells out in his book, Inspiring Improv. I used fabric I had painted with my gel plate and acrylic paints for the triangles and assorted teal, aqua and orange solids from my stash.

When it came time to quilt, I went a little bananas! It is all walking foot quilted on my domestic machine (a Janome 6600). I stitched giant triangles and then echo stitched them, using several shades of aqua thread. There are also some hand stitched triangles in there which are hard to see here. It was loads of fun!

Pantone Quilt Challenge 2023

I love participating in the Pantone color of the year quilt challenge and have made a quilt just about every year since I learned about it! This year the color of the year is Viva Magenta. Sarah and Elizabeth hosted a challenge and I am happy to share my finished quilt.

My intention was to simply make a wonky square in a square quilt and call it good enough. ahhhh intentions! When I got this pieced together I knew it wasn't done. First of all my "wonky" blocks were not wonky enough! It looked like I had tried unsuccessfully to be precise. UGH!

My friends on retreat encouraged (ok, they were pretty forceful about it! HA!) me to cut it up. Why not? I fearlessly sliced it in 30 degree angle strips, scrambled them up and sewed together, but it wasn't enough. So I sliced again and inserted a new color to the mix! Although the crowd was chanting for lime green, I stuck with my trusty aqua and was happy with my choice. 

I cut these angled strips into rectangles which became square blocks, which eventually became a nine patch! Clear as mud? To me too haha but I'm quite happy with my final quilt. I'm calling it Shattered Magenta.

The main fabric is Kona Pomegranate which is my favorite choice for Viva Magenta. I added additional pinks and oranges from my stash, as well as the aqua. I quilted it in an angled grid on my domestic machine and finished it off with faced binding.  The final quilt is 32" square. Off I go to add it to the link up! (added: I didn't read all of the words and failed to note in my linkup that my quilt is 32"x32" and I am in the USA!)