Braided Rug Quilt Coming Along

There are a lot of different reasons folks make scrap quilts. And many for why they don’t! I go over a lot of them in my presentations and classes. I can say that one of the key reasons to make a scrap quilt is to clean up/use up scraps. There comes a point where the pile/bin/basket is too much and to avoid throwing them out you have to find a way to use them up while making yourself happy with the process.

That’s exactly what happened with these blocks. I have 3 more to make to get the quilt to where I want it to be. Have I used all the fabric yet? Nope. Am I sick of making these blocks? Yup.

Now I could just stop, set everything aside, and come back in a year or so. I do that a lot and have no problem doing so. But that itch to clean up/use up those scraps was strong. Very strong. So I did the math on what was required to get where I want to go. That is, after changing my mind. I’m so close now that I am excited by the finish.

Besides, my new studio is so very nearly ready and it will be great to go in there just a little bit lighter on the scraps.

Theodora - A Modern Tree of Life Quilt

Theodora

50” x 50”

It wasn’t her greatest desire, moving West. She had a comfortable life in a respectable home. Growing up in town, in a house her father purchased, not built, meant that Theordora had no notion of what it might really be like to move to the Wild West. But she was in love and her husband wanted to go. At least she wouldn’t have to be a farmer. That’s what she told herself, at least. Her husband was a gentleman and would be working for the government. In the city, not the farm. That notion was small comfort when she arrived in Calgary. It was still rather wild for her tastes. They found a small house, she joined the church, and soon made friends with the other women brought by their husbands. It was one of these friends that introduced her to quilting. Needlework, she knew, but quilting was a new skill and a handy one when the long winter nights settled in. She could piece her little triangles while her husband read and it almost made it worthwhile, the homesickness.

Theodora is a modern interpretation of a Tree of Life quilt I found in the Heritage Park quilt collection. I’m making up the story here, but the original quilt inspired both it and the quilt here. A few years ago I was asked to teach at Heritage Park’s Festival of Quilts. My idea was to look at quilts in their own collection and create a modern version of it for student’s to play with.

I took the original quilt, wrote a modern pattern that uses only half square triangles and squares for simple patchwork construction, then had some fun playing. This is one version I made, drawing from the original colours but scaling up the size of the block.

Theodora takes blocks I made as samples for that class 3 years ago - made into a finished quilt top earlier this year - and finishes it up. My daughter’s pentathlon coach and his wife are expecting their first baby. With a woodland themed nursery and a love of Heritage Park this seemed like the perfect gift for them.

To tone down the greens of the front I added a contrasting backing with fabrics hiding in my stash. They provide a bright contrast in colour, making this truly a double sided quilt. I love doing that, especially for baby quilts, so there are more options for use. Continuing the woodland theme I quilted it with a woodgrain free motion pattern on a rented long arm machine. While I often recommend olive green as a magical blending colour for quilting, this time it was perfectly on the nose.

To make the binding I hunted through my stash for the perfect green. Normally I like a contrasting binding but that didn’t seem like the right move here. With so many greens - shades, tints, low volumes, perfect hues, limes, emeralds - in the quilt itself, any green can indeed be perfect. The perfect green ended up being the only green I had enough of in my stash. So I am calling it perfect. I did a common 2.5” inch double fold binding, hand stitched on the back.

And I can’t let you go without a bonus treat from the photo shoot. To capture this quilt I stole away to the area just outside Heritage Park. There is a little wooded area next to a wetland. It’s at a confluence of a parking lot and a couple of busy roads, next to the main reservoir for the city. It may look like I am in the middle of the forest, but I am actually in the middle of the city. And just as I was hanging up the quilt on a line strung between two trees a friendly visitor joined me. She was calm with me being in her space so I thanked her, took my pictures quickly and left in the opposite direction to avoid bothering her further.

Sunshine for Days - A Bold Star Quilt

Bold, full of sunshine and memories.

This quilt top began its life as a leftover stack of fabric squares. On our big trip to Egypt and Turkey last year I travelled with a stack of 6.5” squares. I made a block each day to reflect our travels - a trip diary of sorts. That turned into this quilt. The scraps from making all those blocks then turned into this quilt. Of course, I cut far more fabric than I needed and carried it around with for the entire month. When I got home and finished those other quilts I was left with a stack of pre-cut squares.

You know me, nothing it going to waste! I pulled them out and played until I landed on making HSTs with the non-yellows plus yellows. That gave me nearly enough to make 4 stars. I did have to augment with a bit of stash for all colours, but not much. My goal was to use the leftovers and that’s it.

I made the HSTs and sorted out a layout early in the winter. Then the blocks got put aside (all numbered and ready for assembly). A few weeks ago I needed some no-brainer sewing. After consulting my big list of quilts under construction I decided to turn these into a quilt top. I did, then I realized it was too small for me. It came in, with only the leftover squares, at 44” square. A good little baby quilt. The problem, however, is that I have no need of another little baby quilt. So I debated my options.

1. Accept it’s size.

2. Make a border of some sort.

3. Make more blocks.

Truth be told, I am incapable of making small quilts with no reason. It is very, very difficult for me to stay small. When pressed or shockingly motivated I can stop at a small size, but it is not my norm. Option 1 was out.

Borders… oh borders. Any fabric I used on a conventional border was only going to take away from the stars. I did debate a yellow patchwork border, two rounds of squares all around. The yellow and feature fabrics, however, are pretty close in value. I felt that the stars would too get lost this way. Besides, when do you ever see me use a border? Option 2 is out.

That leaves me making more blocks. This is almost always the best option. You can see that it worked well too. With HSTs finishing at 6” this was easy and relatively quick sewing. I did have a lot of the fabrics from last year still so it was easy shopping. My yellow supply, however, was very slim so I did spend some cash to fill in the gaps (and fill up my yellow bin again). Luckily I was able to get some of the same fabrics so it really doesn’t look like I have two separate sections.

She is done for now. I am debating adding that patchwork border too. Maybe just one round of yellow squares all the way around? Yes, I am suggesting that despite what I said just two paragraphs above. We’ll see. For now, I have some sunshiny memories sewn into this quilt and that makes me happy.

Much Needed Play with Ravel by e bond

Before there was such a thing as an influencer we had celebrity endorsements. When real people started to become more popular through blogs we simply called them bloggers. As a quilt blogger it was quite common to receive or at least be offered fabric. The catch being, of course, that you would make something to promote the fabric. Ideally, you would do that to coincide with either fabric purchasing for stores or the launch itself in stores.

Many times I was offered fabric. The first few times you get super excited and jump at the chance. Free fabric and exposure?! Sign me up. Then we realized that we were giving away free labour and not really getting paid by the fabric companies to use us as promotion. Not really a fair deal for the time invested. On top of that I was positively AWFUL at actually making something with all the shared fabric in a reasonable time frame. I was, frankly, a crappy promotional partner. So working with me to promote a fabric line was a bad deal for both parties.

On top of all that, I always found it very difficult to work with a single fabric collection. It felt stifling, creatively, and was always a challenge because of one common issue with fabric collections: the majority of the fabrics are the same value. This means it is hard to get contrast in your designs. As a result, many designs made with a single fabric collection, without the addition of other fabrics or neutrals, can fall flat.

So, no matter how much I’ve loved a collection, I rarely buy a single line of fabric. Instead, I pick favourites or the most interesting or simply what I need at the time.

I could not resist, however, when I saw e bond’s Ravel collection. I love everything about it! The colour, the text, the graphic nature, the graffiti... and while I've never met e, her online presence is inspiring and real. I've had it for a couple of months and just started playing with it. Not only did I buy the whole collection, I'm using it all together. Who am I?

Yes, a good chunk of the fabric falls in the same value family, but there are enough contrasts with the lights and the darks as well as the texture of the prints that things seem to be working so far. I couldn’t resist though, I did add in a few solids for fun and respite.

I have no real plan for the quilt. I’m just playing. Life has been quite heavy of late and none of my current projects were giving me the joy I needed from my quilting. I’d sat with the fabrics and obsessed over coming up with something just right. That was taking all fun out of it so I decided to just grab some fabric and cut. I defaulted to my comfort of improv curves, primarily, but other things come up here and there and I let them happen.

Normally, when I make an improv quilt that is block based, I make all the blocks and then figure out a layout. This time around I am enjoying adding and subtracting and playing with composition as I go. Not so much planning each block as an individual unit, but seeing how a few blocks might talk to each other. A conversation. As it grows I am really embracing the chaos it brings. It’s a wild thing. In a way, it reminds me of a spot under a bridge with layers of graffiti marking the lives of people who’ve been there.