Low Volume Sixteen Patch Quilt

Seems like most quilters have a few quilt stories about sewing during the Covid-19 epidemic. This quilt is one of mine! (If you are interested in Covid-19 sewing, see my post from June 11, 2020 about a quilt made with scraps from sewing face masks).

I saw this pattern, “Chamomile” by Allison Jensen, woodberryway.com, on a Facebook live sale. It looked so cute, so I popped into my shopping cart.

I had a low volume* 2 1/2 inch strip roll and knew this was the perfect pattern for this fabric. I had yardage of a few others which I added, cutting them into strips too. I got right to work and sewed the 16 patch units, and the little 9 patch cornerstones. Then I looked at all those 1 1/2 inch strips of fabric which needed to be sewn together to create the sashing. And the wind went right out of my sails. Wooft.

I just could not get myself to sew all those fussy little strips together after sewing face masks. I packed all the fabrics and the blocks I’d completed into a project box and buried at the bottom of my stack of projects. I didn’t take it to the attic….it stayed out where I could be reminded of its existence.

Well, it took me almost a year, but I did finally get back to it. And really, the sewing wasn’t all that fussy. On the other hand, we’re not sewing face masks anymore!

So here it is. It is really a sweet quilt. There is a pink and cream striped fabric on the back which I picked up for a song at fabric sale our guild had recently.

A done deal? Um, no. The pattern calls yardage in fat quarters or fat eighths and I had a 2 1/2 inch roll. Somehow my quilt match failed me and I have still another 20 identical 16 patch blocks that still need to be made into a quilt. I don’t have enough of the soft teal or peach solid fabrics left to make another quilt that is just the same. But why would I want to do that anyway?

So, I have my eye out for a striped fabric in a different colorway that might create a similar look with less work. I am curious to see what, and when, that will happen!

I also had some strip sets that were off-cuts from the sashing strips on this quilt that were too short to use anywhere in this quilt. Look back to see my post from April 28, 2022 of the doll quilt I made using these strips and a swatch of fabric from spoonflower.com.

*Low volume fabrics have white or pastel backgrounds with very light printed surface designs.

"Triple Barnstar" Quilt top, a Work-in-Progress

Here’s the quilt top I’m working on. It is a pattern by Amy Gibson of Stitchery Dickory Dock and called “Triple Barnstar”. (Look carefully and you’ll see that there is a star, in a star in a star). I think this is going to become the quilt I use during the Fall.

The pattern is for a throw or a queen size quilt. I started to make the throw but discovered it really covered the top of my bed, so I’m going to add on a scrappy border of the feature fabrics I have left over and call it a queen.

Despite the fact that I’ve been working on this quilt on and off all summer, it really does come together quickly. I like this quilt but it really doesn’t show off the star design very well.

If I make it again, I think it would be fun to use bold solid colored fabrics. One color for each star, and another for the designs between the star points of the largest star and the center square. While white or off-white would be the obvious choice for the background of that quilt, I think using that a low volume print as I did uin this quilt, would be fun.

Here is a photo of the two inner stars and center square so you can see more of the detail in the fabrics.

I’m off to go sew on the outer borders! This is a big quilt, so it will be a while before it’s done!

Bear Paw Modern Low Volume Quilt: "Bears in the Meadow"

Here's my completed "Bears in the Meadow" low volume quilt with a modern setting using the classic Bears Paw block. I love how the bear paws are wandering to and fro off the margins of the quilt!

Along with swirls and several tiny hearts, there are 16 bears done with free motion quilting. (See my last post).  I initially thought I'd only stitch 5 or 6 bears into the quilting but I had so much fun that there are 16! You have to really look hard to find them! Even my count might not be accurate!

The quilt backing is a flower print with a large block of bear fabric in the middle. So, it's bears all round!!

I did try to get a photo of the quilt in a meadow but because the quilt is so large, that turned out to be rather difficult. Here is my best shot, taken from the top of the slide in my neighborhood playground!

in dappled sunlight in the park.

This quilt is so me!  It's a keeper!

"Floral Latte"--Low Volume Plus Sign Quilt Top

Here is my "Floral Latte", low volume plus sign quilt design, finished top.

"Disruption" in pattern to create more interest has been my theme this fall. In this quilt the disruption is in the 3rd vertical column of block from the left. All the blocks in the horizontal rows are the same block. But in the 3 vertical row, it's the opposite block.

I also added the narrow orchid strip and a plain border just on the left side of the quilt.

I tried out lots of various layouts on my design wall--but this is the layout that I found the most interesting and the most pleasing!

I left the background in the photo this time--I like how the autumn color in the trees and the leaves on the ground compliment this quilt!

And speaking of compliments...a shout out to my friend Suzanne for giving me the inspiration for this quilt's name!  Thanks!

Low Volume Floral Plus Sign Quilt--ready to Sew

As November comes to Massachusetts, the trees have dropped their brilliant yellow and red leaves, daylight is gone by late afternoon and the landscape is now shades of gray and brown.

So I wasn't surprised when I found myself digging down to the bottom of one of the bins in my stash, looking for the "Sew Chic" stack of 10 inch square florals that I purchased from Keepsake Quilting a couple years ago.  This collection has lots of large print flowers and a few of smaller scale.

My friend Janet loves to make quilts with multiple shades of the same or similar colors as the background. I'm going to follow her lead with this quilt and use a Kona® Cotton Solids "Sand Castle" stack of 10 inch squares, which was also in my stash.

This quilt is a stretch for me. I rarely use large scale florals and almost never use shades of tan. I'm much to likely to gravitate to tints of yellow than beige and brown.

I'm designing a plus sign quilt. More than half the blocks will be mostly negative space using the various background colors. 

The fabrics are all cut and ready to sew--floral sunshine therapy for gray days!

Working on the "Snow Melt" Quilt

The irony that I was working on my "Snow Melt" quilt on a day when it was snowing (again!) was not lost on me!  But the the silk screened of crocus card that I made years ago, tucked into my ruler stand, added a hopeful feeling to the day!

Here are a couple of pictures of the quilt top and back.  I can't decide which I like better!  It was very windy the day I took these photos. The only place I could keep the fabric still was draped over the deck railing facing the wind.  

"Snow Melt" Quilt top

"Snow Melt" quilt back

Part of the quilting I'm doing on this project is grid work.  I've used an pastel sea green thread for most of the stitching. At the moment I'm adding diagonal quilting with yellow thread--sun beams!

My diagonal yellow stitching extends over 1/3 of the quilt.  I used painter's tape to mark the first line of diagonal quilting. Additional lines of quilting are stitched using the marking lines on my walking foot, following the first line of diagonal stitching.  The painter's tape works really well. It doesn't leave any sticky residue.  However I wouldn't put the tape on a quilt and leave it there for more than a day. I've read that masking tape will leave a residue of glue on the fabric so make sure you use only use painter's tape.

Here's a photo of diagonal quilting using painter's tape as a marking line on the "Early Birds" quilt that I just completed.

Painter's tape on the "Early Birds" quilt, ready for quilting a long diagonal line

I'll keep you posted on my progress!

"Early Birds" Low Volume Fabrics in a Modern Flying Geese Quilt

I put my "Snow Melt" quilt aside to work on a sample quilt for a class I teach at my local quilt (and yarn) shop, JP Knit & Stitch.   I had seen the Cloud 9 "YoYogi Park" fabrics designed by Heather Moore of Skinny la Minx in the shop and thought it would be fun to use them in the quilt. Genevieve, the shop owner, agreed.  

I chose the grey and white "Peeking Birds" first, then the deep teal and light aqua fabrics from the same line.  Genevieve wanted yellow in the quilt so I added the yellow from Carolyn Freidlander's "Doe" line from RobertKaufman.com.  She picked the bright orange and white floral fabric ("Nobi" from Alexander Henry) for the back!

All of the fabrics on the front of the quilt meet the criteria for Low Volume Fabrics.  (See my post from 3/19/2015).  This quilt has a lot of negative space.  I'd made a quilt using this design once before and that time chose two light solids in the negative space. It's an entirely different quilt using all low volume fabrics. 

I like both quilts. Each has a unique character.  

I usually try to put a solid in a quilt with a lot of print fabrics to give the eye a place to rest. Up close this quilt is busy.  At a distance, the flying geese blocks read as solids while the pattern in negative space in the background seems much more dominant. That's really interesting. 

I really enjoyed making this quilt.  I had recently listened to Abby Glassenberg's great podcast with Heather Moore.  Heather lives in Cape Town, South Africa.  It's unlikely I'd ever meet her or go to her shop, but it was fun to hear Heather talk about designing fabrics.  The Internet really can make Half-a-world-away feel like Right-next-door!

There are still a couple places in my class, Beyond Beginner Quilting, at JP Knit & Stitch if you'd like to join us!  The class starts Saturday, May 2, 2015. 

Low Volume Fabrics in a Quilt--WIP

After a winter with unusually heavy snowfall, Massachusetts is just starting The Long Melt.  (Can Mud Season be far behind)?  While some years, March here does seem like the beginning of spring, this year the landscape reminds me of low volume quilting fabrics:  Mostly white with a bit of color.

Low volume designs of snow and shrubs in my front yard:

After watching part of Cheryl Arkison's class, "Quilting with Low Volume Fabrics" on CreativeLive, and looking again at her book, A Month of Sundays,  I decided to try making a quilt with just low volume fabrics.  A low volume quilt perfectly echoes the world outside my window.

What are low volume fabrics?  Cheryl describes them as white or light colored fabrics with a colored design OR a colored fabric with a white design. "Low Volume".  It's a term created by, and only used by, quilters. Unlike most other design and color terms, this one isn't used in the art world.

I also think of low volume fabrics as light colored fabrics with some design and which are especially well suited for backgrounds in quilts.  These fabrics have color, but it's understated. 

Making a whole quilt with low volume fabrics is a challenge. You need to pay attention to value so the quilt isn't flat looking. Cheryl uses the "X Plus Block" in her class.  I didn't want both an X and a plus sign in my blocks. So I modified the pattern, keeping the plus sign but changing out the X for a small fold-over triangle which will create a secondary pattern of small diamonds in the negative space of the joined blocks. 

Above are four of my blocks. I've laid them out on a snowbank.  They have the pale blues, green and lavenders of the snow and it's shadows and then the light yellow block, like the March sun, whispering of warmer, brighter days to come.