black and white in color

Posted on October 3, 2013

Thank you, thank you for all the great comments on my In Flight quilt! For those who asked, yes, there is a pattern coming, and I’ll be sure to let you know when/where you can find it once I know. What I didn’t tell you last time is that I actually made not one, but two quilts for Lotta’s upcoming lines for Windham Fabrics. Yes, lines! In addition to her beautiful and colorful Mormor collection, she also designed a great black and white collection, Sylvia.

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(photo courtesy of Laura, Windham Fabrics)

I wasn’t quite sure which direction to go with this second quilt. For a long time I thought I should go all black, white and gray with this one, and I even started sewing up a couple blocks that way, but it wasn’t feeling right. Then I thought it might be fun to sort of combine the two collections, using solids in shades complementing the Mormor collection to highlight the black and white prints. (Interestingly enough, in Lotta’s description (did you read it? It’s here, if not) she talks about how this black and white collection plays well with her Mormor collection, so I’m glad I decided to combine the two!)

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The color blocked background was actually inspired by the backing of the In Flight quilt – I really liked the fabric line in rainbow order and thought it might be interesting to use that idea for the background of this quilt. But not in strict rainbow order – more of a loose flowing rainbow background.

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You’ll recognize the design as a remake of my Edges and Angles quilt, and while I wasn’t originally going to use a similar color blocked background, I’m really glad that I decided to do so. I love the different shades of each color and I love that I was able to incorporate a little piece of the Mormor collection in each section. And I think those black and white prints really stand out against the colorful background.

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The backing was a bit rushed (that pesky deadline!), so it’s, um, mostly gray. But it does show off the quilting – I decided to draw out one large tumbler shape and I quilted straight lines echoing that shape. And the binding is a nice charcoal gray, a no brainer really, since each black and white prints is outlined with the same color.

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I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly looking forward to February. I will definitely be adding prints from these two lines to my stash!

p.s. thanks, Mom, for the quilt name!

Posted in [search] Other Quilts, Fabric, Posts about Quilts, Quilts | Tagged , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

in flight

Posted on October 1, 2013

inflight
(photo courtesy of Laura at Windham Fabrics)

So, I mentioned that I had been doing a bit of sewing recently, right? I’ve been waiting to be able to show you what it is I was working on. I recently got the go ahead and I’m excited to show you this quilt, In Flight, which is made out of Lotta Jansdotter’s fourth line for Windham Fabrics (available early next year, I believe).

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Her latest line is called Mormor, and I’m totally smitten. In fact, it might be my favorite of her collections so far. There are lovely hot pinks, some pretty corals, wonderful grays and even a few purples, which so many stashes seem to be lacking. You can read more about Lotta’s inspiration for the line here.

mormor

I was so anxious to get sewing with it (and there was a deadline looming!) that I completely forgot until after the fact to snap a photo of these beauties, so this quick shot will have to suffice. I’m quite certain that there will be lots of (better!) photos of the full line as we get closer to Quilt Market.

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(yay for quilts!)

But back to the quilt! I had such fun making this one, not only because I love the line, but also because as it turns out, I kinda love flying geese! I decided to play a bit more with them and make a little something along the lines of my Flying Geese Gone Wild wall hanging. The wall hanging utilized a limited color palette, but here I wanted to play up those great colors, adding in quite a few colorful solids and combining them into fun pairs to make up the flying geese units.

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Don’t those colors just make you happy?

And here’s the back –

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Pretty pretty Mormor rainbow!

A big thank you to the wonderful people at Windham for giving me the opportunity to sew with this beautiful new collection!

Posted in [search] Liberated Quilts, Fabric, Posts about Quilts, Quilts | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 35 Comments

making piles…

Posted on September 26, 2013

For a second there both kids were taking nice long naps in the afternoon and I had my hands free to do a bit of sewing. As expected, that didn’t last long, and now one child (ahem, Hazel) has decided not to nap at all. So now instead of sewing, I’ve been doing a bit of fabric piling. Pulling out fabrics and making bundles for possible quilts has always been one of my favorite things. It really doesn’t matter that most don’t actually become quilts – it’s fun to just combine and recombine the fabrics.

Usually I start with a favorite print, or a certain color scheme – pulling first from my prints and then adding in solids, but this time I decided to start with the solids instead, then add in prints afterwards. I don’t know if I have a preference, though it seems to me that it might have been a bit faster to start with the solids. It seems I had an easier time deciding on colors with the absence of patterns.

Who knows.

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In any case, this is one of two new bundles currently residing on my sewing table – this one loosely inspired by Fall, though again, more like really early Fall before the colors are really rich (or I suppose it could be a Spring bundle too!)

It’s got some peach, coral, amber, light green and a touch of gold and yellow.

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My second stack has more of those rich warm colors – a range of hues from light pink to darker purple along with some nice amber and mustard colors. And interestingly enough, all these bundles include some peachy solids and prints – apparently something I’m really liking lately!

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And lastly, a stack I’ve shown you previously, but which has remained stacked, so is still a contender. I’d still love to see a quilt made out of this lovely pile.

So which stack should become a quilt?

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