Sunday, October 8, 2017

A Wedding Quilt . . . .

My niece and nephew were married at the end of July in 2016.
Such a beautiful couple and yes I am biased.


I promised a wedding quilt,
and then life got in the way.

Fast forward to August 2017. 
(I know 13 months late!)

(I apologize for the upcoming photos, not the best lighting!)

I had pulled all the fabrics for this quilt last year.
Their palette is navy blues, greys, and whites.
Not my usual, but I have found I do my best work
when challenged!
It's great to be pushed out of your comfort zone.
 

I call this quilt 2468.
I cut tons of squares,
2.5", 4.5", 6.5" and 8.5"
I threw all the big squares up on my design wall first.
Then started filling in with the smaller ones.

I also added rectangles 2.5" on one side to fill in and add interest.
 

I worked in sections adding in the smaller pieces
and piecing them together building on each square.

I loved the puzzling together of this top.
This could be a great way to teach kids math in a fun way.
All multiples of 2. 

I added white borders.
I was able to show this top at my guild meeting yesterday,
and the lighting is much better so you can get a good
idea of the true colors.
I plan to quilt this one with simple lines
so as not to distract from the graphic design.
So here we are, now 15 months past the wedding 
and I still need to quilt this and send it on it's way.
In the mean time, this beautiful couple 
have made me a great aunt!

Sweet little Theo born September 24th.


And yes, now I am behind in my family quilts again!
Haha!  Wouldn't have it any other way.

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Blogger's Quilt Festival :: Fall 2017

So it's that time of year again . . .

This year the prizes are drawn randomly for all entries,
and all the quilts are on one page.

Love it!

Here is my entry for the festival.
Meandering


I started this quilt about two and a half years ago.
The block is from Lady Harvatine,
 

I was having a sewing day with my queeps 
in NYC . . .  
I grabbed the pattern and the fabric and started making blocks.
And . . . . I got about this far.


Then it sat in a box for two years
while I worked on other things.

 Fast forward to last June
and another sewing day in the city with my sewing buddies.

I churned out more blocks and put this top together.


I wanted to make it bigger and decided to add borders,
but to have the curves spill over into them.

I drafted new pattern pieces so I could achieve this look.

My Meandering quilt hung in
my quilt show at the Darien Library this past summer,
and it was very well received.


So well in fact, the library bought it.
They especially loved the dictionary print I used for the background.
 
It hangs permanently on the second floor.
Now that is very exciting for me!


Thanks so much to Amy for the 
And bringing it back to its roots.
Hope you all enjoy perusing the fabulous quilts.


Saturday, January 7, 2017

#wanderingquilt and my center . . . .

I was fortunate this past fall to be asked to join
a group of quilters who want to do
a round robin quilt project.

I have been intrigued by these group quilts, 
and the collaboration that goes into them,
so I jumped at the chance to be included!

Here is the premise:
Each quilter makes a center,
creates a theme, and a layout.
Puts together a journal to travel with it,
so that each person can record notes, 
thoughts, etc when the work on the quilt. 

There are ten of us.


We will each get to work on each others
quilts, and at the end of October 
we will receive our  quilt top back!
I,  of course, have decide on a 
mermaid/sea theme.
So that needs a mariner's compass for the center!


I couldn't find any patterns I liked,
so I decided I would draft my own center.

pattern as a base for the circle.

I taped the four arcs together o make a circle,
Just as I altered that pattern for my Circle Star Quilt.

Then I flipped it over and started drafting the mariner's compass.

I used a protractor to make sure my angles were correct.

I wanted it to be a fuller, simpler compass,
many I have seen have just too many points for me.

This made 8 triangle parts that needed to be pieced.
I picked two opposites that looked the best,
and traced them four times each.
noting the colors that should be in each part.

Each triangle has three different foundation pieced parts
that were then sewn together.

I laid it out hoping it would look they way I wanted to.


And Yay!  I loved it.
I trimmed it up and added the corner pieces.

Now it's all ready to be shipped off at the end of the month!
Follow our group on Instagram
I can't wait to see how everyone 
adds to each of the quilts.
Happy New Year!
May 2017 be all you need it to be.