Shiver

Shiver

Roughly 70'' x 70''

Uh, so I finished this quilt months and months ago. It was just hard to be motivated to take a picture of it. You know, with that long Prairie winter we had it didn't really feel like the tropical waters of the quilt. And I did mention that I live in the middle of the Prairies, right?

Shiver is done though and I am happy to share it with the world!

Did you know a group of sharks is called a Shiver? Things you learn. And things that you learn when someone makes a random comment on instagram and suddenly you are making more shark blocks than you could have imagined. 

The quilting emphasizes the oceanic inspiration with its waves repeated across the quilt. I stitched in the ditch to outline the sharks and quilted the waves on my home machine. The thread colour changes as you move down the quilt, to match the gradation of the fabrics. Some were Wonderfil threads, some Aurifil, whichever colour works (especially because I find them interchangeable in my machine). We will not mention the amount of threads I had to bury to make all this happen.

This was totally one of those quilts that is just for fun. It was all about play, play, play. Sometimes it turns into something your son begs to sleep under while insisting you call him Great White Niki Shark and sometimes things get cut apart and put in the scrap bin. This time it worked and it is awesome. 

Ripples - A New Start

I literally woke up with this idea.

We all know I am a morning person, rising to practice Morning Make. I've never confessed that it is still tough to actually get out of bed. So I take a few minutes to breathe and think about what I want to do as soon as my feet hit the ground. If I haven't prepped my Morning Make the night before I decide what mood I am in that day in those few minutes. Sewing? Sketching? Writing?

A few weekends ago I had the pleasure of participating in The Creative Jam in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Wonderful people, the ocean, and a phenomenal creative spirit. It was an incredible weekend. Total bonus for me was my morning walks. The rain and fog held off each morning and the ocean was still. I could watch herons, seals, boats, and the fog roll in like a quilt being pulled over a sleeping baby. 

The morning after I got home I woke up with this idea. Ripples. 

Two rough 4'' squares layered right sides up. One light blue, one dark blue, value being relative. A wavy cut with my good scissors. Sewing opposites together. Square up to 3.5'' x 4''. Repeat and repeat, a meditation. 

How could I not, with this as inspiration?

Names For Snow Quilt Top

Yup, still winter.

At least that means that when I finished this winter inspired quilt the other day I had ample opportunity to take a shot of it in the snow.

It started with a stack of neutral solids fabrics and a beloved pair of Japanese tailor's scissors. I became so enamoured with the process of improv half square triangles and only using my scissors that I kept going and going. I actually have more blocks, but this was the size of quilt I wanted in the end. 

I think the bunnies might like it too...

It would be lovely to get it quilted before the snow totally disappears. Knowing Calgary and the winter we've had, that is about a month away! But I need the quilting pattern to percolate a bit. I've got a couple of ideas but nothing is settled yet. I'd like to move beyond cliche snowflakes.

This is technically the second in a series of quilts inspired by my Alberta landscapes. Actually, more like third, although I only consider this one to be a study and not the full quilt planned. Mountain Meadows would be the first. That one dictated the size of this quilt and the subsequent ones. They are improvised so I can't be exact, but close is good enough.

PS As of last week I am sold out of my Japanese scissors but Knifewear still had a few pairs.

Mighty Lucky Quilting Club Second Quilt Top - A Single Fabric

Woah! What an amazing response to my last post. It seems I am not alone in these thoughts. It has me percolating a few ideas to help us all out. Mainly, in ways to use our stashes more. And in maybe some not so predictable ways.

That thinking reminded me that I never shared a particular quilt top. One quilt top - one fabric. That's right, just one fabric. 

I started this about 2 years ago, as part of the Mighty Lucky Quilting Club. In preparing for my month of the club I made up a whole bunch of samples to show different ways to use a single fabric in a quilt block. While I did finish one quilt for the club and then a pillow, the rest of the blocks sat there. But then I decided to play with one of them a bit more. And play and play and play.

You can still purchase the 2016 Mighty Lucky Quilting Club challenges. But now they come as a print on demand book. 

What a great way to pull out a cherished fabric from your stash and play. We all have some that we bought a lot of, maybe for a backing, but is just sitting there. Look for the possibilities. 

This became my own personal round robin. What other ways could I manipulate this fabric into another look? I just kept going. Fussy cutting stripes, improv curves, triangles, slashing things apart. I just kept going. That last round is a variation on the blocks used to make the center. It ends up at about 78'' square in size. 

The fabric is Tick Tock Stripe in Mint from Chipper by Tula Pink.

I bought more fabric 3 times after the first fat quarter. The last time I was smart enough to buy extra so I could make a bias binding when all is done. All in all, I would say I used about 8 meters, but that is just me going off my memory and does include the leftover scraps and the binding set aside. 

Any ideas on how to quilt it? I am very open to suggestions on this.