Dreamlines 2023 Quilt!

Here it is! My Dreamlines 2023 completed quilt.

I decided to echo the designs of the quilt blocks with my quilting. I thought about stitching flowers in the large yellow diamonds or doing some free motion interlocking rectangles in some of the larger rectangular blocks. This is such an angular quilt that flowers didn’t feel right and it’s already so busy I thought a busy quilting design would end up as a distraction.

The backing came out of my stash. It has so many of the colors of the quilt…and I got flowers included in this quilt after all! I used a scrap of the piecing as the label on this quilt and on another one too. All I had left was a small strip of the blue and yellow peaks!

Thanks to Brenda Gael Smith for this fun year long project!

Dreamlines 2023 Quilt Top

Brenda Gael Smith is the host and creator of the free online #dreamlinesproject. Each month she has designed an improv linear strip block in two different sizes for folks who registered with her. I chose the larger format.

October’s strip is the last one for the 2023 project. Next month Brenda is going to offer ideas for putting the strips altogether. But I went ahead and created my own layout. I’ve made improv quilts which were a nightmare to sew together, but this wasn’t one of those! The pieces really went together rather well, with very few gaps.

Wherever possible, I used scraps from the pieced blocks to fill in gaps between the strips. There are only 3 filler strips that weren’t part of the original blocks. The quilt is a tad wonky…not entirely a true rectangle. I could probably block it into a true shape by steam pressing the quilt top, but I didn’t make as a show quilt, so I’ll probably leave it as is.

I’m going to shop my stash to see if I can find a back. But I’m not sure that will be successful since I don’t often by multiple yards of a fabric! And I need to decide how I want to quilt it. At the moment I don’t really have an ideas about how to do the quilting. I’m going to think on it for a while, and probably will go to Brenda’s website Serendipity Patchwork and her Instagram @brendagaelsmith to see how she’s done the quilting on other projects.

"Hello!" Strip Baby Quilt

I’ve been waiting for just the right baby for this Moda© fabric named “Corner of 5th and Fun” designed by Sandy Gervais. It’s not a current fabric, but there is still some of the fabric line available if you look. I had a border print and two coordinating fabrics in my stash, but only used two of the fabrics in this quilt.

I cut the border print into strips, taking out some of the sky between them. That gave me 3 inch wide strips of slightly cream background fabric I could use in the quilt.

That 3 inch strip of background determined the size of my pinwheel blocks. I used a variety of color- coordinating scraps in my stash to create the 14 little three inch finished pinwheels blocks.

This is a strip quilt, created with 7 sections—two borders, 3 panels pieces and two sets of pinwheels.

I mixed quilting techniques, using my walking foot on most of the sections and free motion quilting on the three panel sections. I liked the kites in the long-arm quilting design what was used on my “Post-Cuts” quilt, so decided to put kites in the free motion quilting in the sky of the village panels. I practiced the kites drawing them by hand first and then looked at the professional long-arm kites. My kites were stitched slightly differently and that’s what I stuck with. My theory is that is always best to stitch free motion designs you can draw rather than try to copy someone else’s! Everyone’s motor skills are different and you need to go with what you body can do.

Here is one of my kites.

My doodled free motion kite design

The backing can out of my stash of mushroom fabrics. It was printed 10 years ago. I think that makes it a modern vintage fabric! I love the stripes on the stems of these mushrooms, and that the back picks up the idea of mushrooms seen in the border print.

Vintage mushroom fabric backing

This new baby is part of an extended family which has still has baby quilts I made over 40 years ago! Hopefully the new generation will enjoy their quilts just as long!

Gnome and Rainbow Strip Quilt

This is a fun quilt I made for a child who loves forest animals, happy gnomes and rainbows.

It’s an fast and easy quilt to make. It could easily be a weekend project.

I cut 2 1/2 inch strips WOF (width of fabric) from my stash Kona ® Cotton fabric. I added prints where I needed additional colors. I actually think that makes the quilt much for interesting.

The gnome fabric is a Spoonflower print “Gnome Sweet Gnome” by Lisa Kubenez. I fussy cut the strips to get as many as I could from the yard of fabric (5 strips) which meant trimming off bits of the design. But I cut the center strip slightly wider to include the full motif. I wanted to see the entire design at least once in the quilt.

The quilting is primarily straight walking foot quilting across the strips. I added decorative quilting in the top and bottom strips of the quilt and in the red patches I used to lengthen the gnome fabric to match the length of the other strips.

The quilt has gone to it’s new home and is already a much beloved item!

An Idea for Using Donated Fabrics for Charity Quilts

Our quilt guild has an active charity quilt program.  We make lots of quilts for children as well as some for veterans, seniors and even dog shelters.  We are blessed to get lots of donated fabric from a variety of sources.

This year our Charity Coordinator has decided to try something new.  We have been assembling kits using 10 inch squares, 5 inch squares, 5 inch strips x width of fabric or whatever is available width-wise, and 2.5 inch strips.  Several different small groups of members have spent some pleasant summer mornings hanging out and cutting up fabric using these guidelines and assembling kits to be distributed in the Guild this Fall.

Last time I went, my friend passed me a stack of 9 pre-printed cut and sew jumper patterns. JUST the bodice piece and printed sewing instructions, not the skirt! "See what you can do with these," she said. Hmmm.

Bodice of Cranston's VIP "Candy Cane Girl's Jumper"

I found I was able to cut a 9 x 5 inch block from the front bodice,  5 inch squares from the back bodice and a few 2.5 inch squares which will get used for something else.  I still had 2 panels left to cut when it was time to head home. So I took the set home to make sure it all stayed together.

I really enjoyed working with this navy blue, red and green pattern.  I've seen lots of light blue holiday quilts (think snowmen) but navy blue is unusual. I liked this fabric so much that I decided to go ahead and make a quilt.

The 9 x 5 inch blocks didn't meet our criteria so I needed to create a design.  I thought about adding a strip of fabric to make the blocks 10 inches but life is short!  I decided to put them in horizontal strips with an assortment of 5 inch squares I already had. I supplemented those by cutting some squares more from my own scrap stash. 

There is one 9 x 5 inch block in each wide strip and then assorted 5 inch squares to make the strip the desired width. In between the wide strips there is a solid color bright red 2.5 inch strip. Those bright red strips are eye catching and as a bonus, they also eliminate the need for perfect piecing!

I really like the quilt top.  Despite it's dark color, it's going to be a bright and happy quilt!

Yes, with a bit of imagination and ingenuity you can make a beautiful quilt from even unlikely fabric donations!  If you have fabric you aren't sure how to use, give this a try!  It's a lot of fun!

Quick Charity Quilts using Strips

Variation of Modern Textiles' Strip Quilt, approx 42 x 50 inches

The quilt guild I belong to, Proper Bostonian Quilters, makes dozens of quilts for charity every year. Quilts of all sizes and shapes are collected but quilts for toddlers and preschool children are especially welcome.

I was so excited when I saw the free tutorial and pattern for the Strip Quilt on Modern Textiles website. It's perfect for a small quilt that works up quickly. I especially love the way the wide strips can feature a special fabric. (The pattern has options for a variety of sizes. I made the crib quilt).

The pattern calls for 5 1/2 inch wide strips. I added 2 1/2 inch strips of solid colors to widen 38 x 50 inch pattern to that takes full advantage of a 42 inch backing.  3 extra strip seems perfect.  (The quilt above has 4 solid strips because the patterned strips were cut 5" wide).

I chose to do linear quilting and used some of the fancier quilting stitches on my machine. But free motion quilting would also be great.

Here's a another Strip quilt I recently made using a fabrics from a single collection. Sewing quilts using this pattern is such a happy activity! I really had fun.

Lavender Floral Strip Quilt Variation, approx 42 x 50 inches