farfalle… again!

Posted on April 18, 2013

Thank you so much for all your sweet comments about my recent quilt! It’s so much fun to find the perfect location to photograph a finished quilt. I enjoyed reading your comments and while I wish I could respond individually to each of you, I’m afraid that if I did so, there might not be any time left for making quilts! But I really hope you know that I read and appreciate each and every one, and as a small token of my appreciation, I thought I’d select one person from among those who commented to receive a selection of the leftover gray prints I used in that quilt. Carly, commenter #22, that’s you!

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If you’ve been reading for a while, you might remember my Flying Farfalle quilt, which I made using small scraps of Anna Maria Horner’s Little Folks. It’s a fun and quick quilt to make, and uses up (and showcases!) tiny little scraps. Nova recently made a gorgeous one using Liberty of London scraps and after seeing it, I couldn’t get the idea of remaking that quilt out of my mind. My low volume prints were still out, and I had a bunch of brightly colored scraps left over from my Marcelle plus quilt, so it seemed a perfect match.

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You can find an image of this block, called the Exquisite block, in Gwen Marston’s Liberated Quiltmaking II book. I don’t think (I can’t remember, and to be honest, I can’t bear the thought of getting off the couch to run upstairs to check!) there are specific instructions for making the block, but Jacquie and Katie also devote a portion of their book, Quilting Modern, to the stitch and flip technique, which you could use to make these blocks. I couldn’t remember what size blocks I made originally, so I went with 5″ x 7″ rectangles for this one (which look to be a bit larger than those in the Flying Farfalle quilt).

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I like how different both versions are. I think I’ll always be drawn to the stark white which really makes those triangle pieces pop, but now I also quite like the fact that this one uses so many additional fabrics – more to admire when you’re laying under it!

(book links are Amazon affiliate links)

Posted in Fabric, Finished Quilts, Posts about Quilts, Quilts, [search] Liberated Quilts | Tagged , , , , , | 13 Comments

love triangle – a quilt in shades of gray

Posted on April 15, 2013

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As named because why yes, I do love these triangles!

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This quilt is completely inspired by this quilt I pinned many months ago. I collected gray fabrics for a while, unsure of what pattern to use, and in the end I decided simple was better. But rather than patchwork squares, I decided to switch it up a bit by going with triangles – a bit harder to piece, but always a fun design.

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After my last post, I thought I’d try to redeem myself with some better quilt photos. We had come across these fun wooden pyramids a while back and this spot immediately went on my list as a ‘someday quilt photo location’. How fun to realize that I had the perfect quilt to photograph there!

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I kept the quilting simple, with straight lines on either side of each seam. I always like the way it looks, and I love those little stars that are created where the points meet (I’d show you a photo, but oops, I forgot to get one!)

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I auditioned many solids for the binding, and loved this plum color the best. There are two Michael Miller Cotton Couture solids in jewel and orchid as well as a little bit of a similarly colored Lizzy House jewel print. I kind of liked the idea of making up the binding in shades of plum, just as the quilt was made up of shades of gray (maybe that’s over-thinking it?) Anyway…

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I originally thought I might make the backing out of some fun solid or print, but after finding a nice gray and white polka dot print in my stash (you can see a little peek of it in the photo above), and discovering that I had just the right amount, I decided it was meant to be. And I’m so glad it worked out that way, because I love that the majority of the quilt is made up of just gray and white with only that little bit of color in the binding.

A previous post about this quilt can be found here.

Posted in Fabric, Posts about Quilts, Quilts, [search] Other Quilts | Tagged , , , , , | 45 Comments

4 (of) hearts – an umbrella prints improv quilt

Posted on April 11, 2013

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I’m thrilled to have finished this quilt! I was hoping to get some good photos, but lately I’m having a harder and harder time finding time for quilt photos. While in the past we could drive around until I found the perfect spot, unfortunately Max doesn’t find driving around aimlessly to be fun. So these photos are not what I was hoping for, but I’m posting them anyway, since the forecast for the next week shows lots of rain!

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But back to the quilt! As I mentioned previously, I started this quilt with a couple Trimmings packs from Umbrella Prints. I love their unique hand printed fabrics, and wanted to make a quilt to show off these fun little bits. As I contemplated designs, I knew I wanted to make four large blocks. I started making them, then realized that the shapes would lend themselves to making a quilt along the lines of Jacquie & Katie’s Tunnel Vision quilt (from their wonderful book, Quilting Modern*).

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I surrounded the blocks with this lovely Robert Kaufman Essex yarn dyed linen in black, and I really love the way it looks. The yarn dyed linen is really great to work with, and also has a really lovely feel.

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The backing is made up largely of this great print from Lizzy House’s Constellations line. I had purchased it to use as a backing, though at the time didn’t have a quilt in mind, so it was a happy coincidence that the stars in this print pick up most of the colors I used on the front.

You might think that Max is expressing his love for quilts in the photo above, but in reality this was him telling us he had had enough of the quilt photography. (And when I say ‘telling’, I really mean whining. Be glad this is a photo and not a video!)

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I really liked the way Jacquie and Katie’s Tunnel Vision quilt was quilted, so I did something similar (they used double lines for all quilting lines, while I decided to alternate a double/single quilting line). I used Aurifil 50 wt in white, and since the black is a yarn dyed fabric, the white actually blends in quite well. I used Quilter’s Dream Request, which is their lowest loft, and gives this quilt such a nice drapey feeling. The photo above gives you a good idea of the texture of this one. [By the way, since I'm asked often, Quilter's Dream cotton batting is my favorite batting - I alternate between the Request and the Select, which is a midloft batting.]

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I’m thinking this one will be for sale in a couple months – my local fabric shop, Nido, is hosting an Artists Pop Up series, starting this month, and I’m pleased to have been asked to be the artist for June. If you live in the area, or perhaps if you’re here for the Vermont Quilt Festival, I hope you’ll stop by!

(*Amazon affiliate link)

 

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