steal this quilt

Violet Craft wrote a humble and poignant blog post a few days ago in which, among other things, she acknowledged the incredible size of her task to pick a winner from the entries submitted in the flickr photo pool. I don't envy her.

I tried hard not to pay much attention to what others were working on until after I had my own quilt done, because I didn't want to be influenced by anyone else's work. Since then, I've spent a decent amount of time pouring over all of the photos in the flickr group and leaving messages on all of the ones that moved me for one reason or another. I empathize with Violet very much, so I thought I'd try to ride a mile on her donkey, so to speak, and pick a winner of my own. I based my choice 100% on my personal taste and style by asking myself the following two questions:

1. do I wish I made that? 
2. do I want to steal that? 

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present -- my winner (created by flickr user theglasdiva):



I love absolutely everything about this quilt.  The design is perfect. The integration of solids is perfect. The quilt has a wintery feel despite the springy cheerfulness of the fabrics, and there is such terrific movement in this design that my eyes never stop. Even so, it's very zen.

In short, I wish I'd made it and I want to steal it. I want it. I will take it and hide with it for years in an underground cave, and then after I lose it in a game of riddles, I will follow a pair of tricksy hobbitses through the gates of Mordor only to jump into the fire of Mount Doom to be with it forever. My precious.

There were a lot of great projects submitted, and based on what I've seen on Instagram, there are many more still in progress [deadlines suck].  I created a flickr gallery with some of the others that caught my eye.

Do you have a favorite?  Who's your winner?

madrona road

happy fall! happy winter! happy new year!

When I attended my local modern quilt guild's holiday party in December, I was excited to snag a bundle of 6 Madrona Road fat quarters so that I could join in the latest MQG challenge. Participants were encouraged to create a quilt (or quilted item) using this new range from Portland designer Violet Craft. I absolutely love Violet's first collection, Peacock Lane, which I've been hoarding collecting and fondling dreaming about using for some time. 

Madrona Road is offered in a couple of colorways. My guild got the blue/grey/yellow stack. The colors are soft and spa-like - different from my usual pull toward jewel tones and bright, fruit-punch rainbows. Here are the fabrics that were in my bundle: 

I knew I wanted to either design my own quilt or use a "method" instead of a pattern. I had settled on a simple, offset coin pattern that would feel like bricks as kind of a play on the "road" part of the range name. But when I got to ironing and really looking at the fabrics, this one struck me.  

I just really love that herringbone - or is it a chevron? who knows. Either way, it compelled me to go in a different direction. I got out the graph paper and resolved to reinterpret this fabric design as a quilt. It worked, and the swearing was almost zero. Once I got the hang of cutting on the 45-degree line on my mat, the herringbone inset came together quickly. 

My original intent was to use a charcoal solid as the background color on the front, but everything I had access to at that moment wasn't right. It was either too light or too purple. I consulted with a gang of quilty friends and we tried white and linen and a yarn-dyed linen blend. They were "fine," which everyone knows is code for "meh."  Ultimately I settled on this not-quite-navy blue solid, and I'm "really pleased" with the end result, which everyone knows is code for "YOU GUYS THIS IS SO GOOD, RIGHT?!"

I pieced a back that echoes the front with a panel of the inspiration print and a medium grey solid background. 

I machine-quilted it, echoing the front panel herringbone and extending the straight lines out to the edges of the quilt. 

On the back it creates a quilted herringbone in the negative space, which makes me happy. 

For the binding I used a coordinating print that I picked up at my LQS. I like how it reads a solid from afar and really plays well with both the not-quite-navy on the front and the grey on the back. 

Overall I'm once again totally geeked that my graph paper design translated to a finished quilt so smoothly and perfectly. The novelty of that never wears off. 

Another member of my guild commented that she felt liberated to try new things because she had been given the fabric rather than purchasing it herself. I tend to agree that there's a certain sense of freedom and decisiveness that comes with these MQG challenge projects. Having a deadline helps (not that I've come close to meeting it in the past).  It's not lost on me that my Peacock Lane stash is still sitting there waiting to be exhumed from the depths of my fabric closet, while this Madrona Road bundle only glanced the cutting table way-station for a hot second.  

Can't wait to see everyone else's challenge quilt! With the deadline fast approaching, there are sure to be a flurry of finishes this week. 

Quilt Trail: This Friday 6-9PM

To the good people in the Indianapolis area :

This Friday is First Friday, and the Indy Modern Quilt Guild is hosting an installation of modern quilts on the cultural trail. Here's a sneaky peek from last night's trial run:

Quilts -- including five of mine -- will hang along Mass Ave, east of College Ave, from 6-9PM, and several guild members (including moi) will be on hand for Q&A (and maniacal policing. let's be honest.). If you make it downtown, be sure to swing into Crimson Tate at 845 Mass Ave for ice cream and giggles.

lost and found

pardon me, but I seem to have misplaced something. have you seen my mojo? i left it lying around somewhere back in April and can't remember where I put it.

let's see... is this it?


hmmm. no. this?


not quite. how about...


I've been having too much fun this summer and have been away from my studio since...April. No desire. No mojo for creating stuff other than s'mores (I WISH. burn ban!). 


oh, wait. THERE it is! 




it's a spark. we'll see if it catches flame. Until then...

wee woodland baby quilt

I finished up this simple charm squares quilt a few weeks ago.


And while it may seem like the whole rounded corners thing is something I should start attending meetings for, let me assure you: you're right.


The same is probably true for straight line quilting. For this little quilt I used a simple grid pattern that looks extra awesome on the light back with a darker teal quilting thread.


I picked up two charm packs of Wee Woodland by Keiki last summer in Summer 2010 in Shipshewana, IN. I pretty immediately sewed the top together, and then stuck it up on my design wall. Where it sat. Forever.


And then one day I was spray basting and found the quilt top folded over a hanger in my fabric closet. I thought, "what the heck," and pieced together the quilt back using one subtle print from the collection, a bit of solid, and a few straggling charm squares that didn't make it onto the front.


Overall, this quilt whipped up in a jif (despite the fact that it took me nearly two years to finish it!). I love the extra bit of fancy that the rounded corners add, plus it's a good excuse to stay sharp on the finer points of making continuous bias binding.

big finish

As a follow up to my last post I wanted to quickly show some photos of my finished Friday Night Brights Redux. Even though I've made this quilt once before, there was still a nice sense of accomplishment and excitement when I pulled it out of the washer (does everyone say "washer" or is that an indiana thing? or did I inherit it from me Pennsylvania parentals? hmm.).

We had a VERY unseasonably warm and beautiful March in Indiana, with trees bursting into bloom weeks ahead of "schedule." Sunday (two weeks ago) was, in short, totes amazeballs. It was warm, not hot. Breezy, not windy. Sunny, with a few clouds. So at 6:45 PM at the height of "the golden hour" we packed up and headed to the best place I could think of to photograph my FNB Redux quilt. The local high school football stadium.

We started outside, not wanting to gate crash.


The light. was. perfect.


And then we found an open gate and ventured inside. First, the tunnel, with back light. And a sun flare bonus!


[at this point, I would just like to acknowledge that this talk about being cautious to enter is a total lie. we went there to gate crash. and gate crash we did.]

Jeff likes to pride himself on being able to completely disappear behind the quilts that he's holding up. Sometimes it works.




Sometimes it doesn't. But I'm not complaining.


This is the one he's most proud of, because he's 6'2 and the quilt is 44" tall (x 38 wide, fyi). Anyway, we meandered onto the field for a couple of final shots as we were losing daylight.


This one caught the last rays of real light. 


As mentioned previously, I backed this one in a print from Laurie Wisbrun's Modern Whimsy range for Robert Kaufman fabrics. As a bonus, the aqua in this print matches perfectly with one of the colors in the Kona Brights charm pack I used on the front. And it looks great with the binding print, Bright Stripe from Ann Kelle's Remix range.


The FNB Redux quilt is now safely stationed in its new role as "store sample" at Crimson Tate, where you'll be able to purchase copies of the pattern starting in a week or so. I'm happy to report she's settling in and making herself at home.

scenes

um. hi.  so much has happened, so I'll start at the beginning.quilt class. here are the highlights.

There were 7 students in the class, and for 5 of them this was their first. quilt. ever.


So there were a lot of demos. "Now I'll show you how to use a rotary cutter."


And now you try.


The quilt shop is perfect for classes with several cutting/ironing stations.


And now, they sew.




There are 168 HSTs in this quilt that you have to keep in perfect order until they're all assembled. If you don't laugh, you'll cry. We laughed.


There was homework. (for me, too!)


And then we pieced. And then we sandwiched. Some of us used pins, and some of us (me) used spray.


You can never use too many pins


I quilted with an echo pattern. On the back, I used a circle print from Laurie Wisbrun's Modern Whimsy range. Don't you think these circles look just like those reinforcement stickers you use w your three-ring-binders? (More importantly, does anyone use binders now that we have Pinterest?) Anyway, I love this fabric.


The final class was reserved for binding. Bias-cut binding. Continuous bias-cut binding. New quilters. Fun times. We got silly. But not so silly that we didn't ooh and aah AGAIN over how perfect this Remix stripe is. Loves it, we do.


And then we got down to business. There may have been some seam-ripping.


and also some seam-ripping. Elaine reinterpreted the design in black+white+red.


And THEN we had some big finishes.

FIRST QUILT EVER #1!


FIRST QUILT EVER #2!


FIRST QUILT (top) EVER #3!


I'm still feeling like a proud mama bear.