Book Review: Savor Each Stitch by Carolyn Friedlander

 When I purchased a copy of Savor Each Stitch--Studio Quilting and Mindful Design a couple of weeks ago I didn't know Carolyn Friedlander's name.  But I have been intrigued by her fabric for the past year.  I had  been wondering who was designing fabrics with graph paper in the background and fabric that has a blue print look.  

In the first chapter, "Finding your Passion" Carolyn discussing her path from architecture school to fabric design and quilting.  As soon as I read that, I totally got that these intriguing fabrics were hers!  Not only did I have a collection of them in my stash, I had just made 2 quilts using her fabrics!

A quick look through my stash found these fabrics from her 2 lines, Architextures and Botanics. 

Carolyn Friedlander fabrics from the Architexture and Botanics collections

I really appreciate her low volume fabrics and love her fine linear designs. 

Like many modern quilters, Carolyn sees patterns in her neighborhood (Florida orange grove country) and turns them into quilts.  She has quilts in this book based on the orange groves,  lattice work and even a screen door. 

She is interested in design and color.  She had made multiples of each quilt in the book to compare how using various fabrics, texture and colors change the look of the quilt. 

Her quilts range the gamut--hand appliqué, piecing and foundation piecing. (The book includes a take out sheet with templates). Carolyn did a workshop at Gather Here, a quilt shop in Cambridge Massachusetts, this past June.  Many of the quilts in the book are on display on the shop's wall.  You can see them on her blog post about that workshop.  I particularly like her Bulls Eye quilts and the small quartet of aqua blue crazy quilt blocks.

I read the whole book.  While I liked her quilts, my initial thought was that there was no way I was going to make any of them. And then I headed off to my stash to find fabrics to make the hand appliquéd Bull's Eye quilt!  It's a WIP at the moment…more about it in a future post.

Savor Each Stitch may not be the book you grab when you are looking for a pattern for a quick quilt but if you are interested in design and color, you'll be fascinated by Carolyn Freidlander's book.  She is an excellent writer and takes you with her on her explorations of line, contrast, scale, color, emphasis, volume and texture.  I loved reading her book!

Oh…those monolithic looking brown objects on the cover?  When I looked a the book cover on-line they totally puzzled me. What are they??  They are (really) old ironing boards. I'm no spring chicken but I've never seen a wooden ironing board frame.  Now I know how kids feel when they see a dial phone!  

Wall Hanging--Girls Jumping Rope WIP

The dogs are all at Day School today so the cat and I have the house to ourselves.  My tasks for the day were to sandwich and pin paste 2 quilts tops. 

I got distracted. 

The African Village quilt was such a big hit with my dog trainers that I got a commission to make another.  I usually only want to make one copy of a quilt.  But I wanted to make the African Village Quilt with the diamond variation.  So this time I was happy to make another.  The 2 other trainers who aren't getting a quilt looked crestfallen.  I want to do something about for all of them because they have all been so great!

I decided to predominantly use real African batiks in my Diamond African Village.  It turns out that while the fabrics are all designed in Africa, a lot of the production occurs in Holland.  I went online and looked around.  I finally decided to purchase my fabrics from the Tambo Collection on Etsy.com.  I found a great selection of fabrics and also the appliqué pattern shown above.

The pattern for the girls jumping rope is called  "Jumpers", copyright 2007 by Jeffie Johnson. It is distributed by Sew Fabulous. I fell in love with the pattern when I saw it. 

One of the 4 dog trainers I work with has 4 daughters.  I figured there has been a lot of jumping rope at his home over the years!  So I decided to make it for him.  

I cut it out yesterday and used Heat-n-Bond  lite to fuse the pieces to the background fabric.  

I struggle with reversing designs.  I thought that since I was attaching the bonding material to the back of the fabric I was all set.  Not so.  My appliqué design is a mirror image of the pattern I purchased!   Oops.   

But I decided that it doesn't matter.  The picture is just as cute and I didn't want to waste any of these special fabrics re-doing it. 

Here's what I've done so far.  It's still a WIP. The jump rope is quilting, using the #8 utilitarian stitch on my Bernina, with the width narrowed to 3.  With the Sulky 12 wt variegated thread, it makes a fine jump rope!

I still need to come up with something for the fourth trainer who's particularly fond of my dog Taffy.

African Village Quilt--Completed.

Here's my completed African Village Quilt.  It measures 40 x 57 inches. 

African Village Quilt

I recently took Jacquie Gering's Craftsy course, "Creative Quilting with your Walking Foot."  She had some great tips and suggestions about using the walking foot for quilting.  I used echoing in, radiating designs and straight quilting using a variety of specialty stitches on my domestic sewing machine. It was lots of fun to use her techniques.  

The echoing in stitching is in the setting triangles in the upper strip of diamonds. 

Here is a detail of radiating quilting on a roof. 

Radiating quilting done with walking foot on the hut roof,  Free motion quilting used to create grasses and heat swirls. 

I used Jacquie's suggestion of using the Bernina specialty stitch #4, the serpentine stitch, to make the current in the river blocks. She said that this stitch is intended for use in garment construction making lingerie which needs to stretch!  Doesn't it make a lovely river current?

Bernina Stitch #4 to make the waves in the river blocks.  Free motion quilting to make the stream pebbles and swirls around the women.

I also used the serpentine stitch to make the smoke coming out of the chimney in the central hut. 

Central hut showing serpentine stitch for smoke.  Also note the straight stitching done on the focus fabric blocks adjacent to the block and on the hut walls.

There are also lots of straight stitching using the walking foot throughout the quilting. 

Straight stitching with the walking foot and 2 decorative stitches in the outer quilt border.

You'll also see free motion quilting on this quilt.  I used it to make heat currents, pebbles and grasses and other vegetation. 

This quilt was a lot of fun to make and to quilt.  

Note 2021: For those of you returning to the post, the free pattern no longer is available. I wrote it so long along that the files weren’t intact and no longer secure.

Thanks to everyone who did use the old pattern to make a quilt! I hope you enjoyed the process.

African Village Step 6--making the back and label

NOTE 2021: The PDF patterns for this quilt are no longer available so the links to them have been deleted. I’ve left the other instructions in case you still have the original patterns.

The top of the African Village Quilt is done!   Great job.  Now it's time to make the back. 

Back of the African Village quilt

I had left over triangles from the setting blocks and corner blocks from the diamond strips on the front of the quilt.  I also had some triangles which I cut for the quilt and then decided that I liked other fabric better.  So I decided to make a strip back for my quilt. 

You will need a backing that measures at least 48 x 65 inches.  This will give you a 3 1/2-4 inch overhang.  If you plan to send it out to a long-arm quilter you may need it a bit larger.

I used fabrics for the strips that are in the quilt top and I varied the width of the solid color strips  to make the back more interesting.  I also made a few more half square triangles for the strips.  You'll note in the photo above that the half square triangle strips were extended with a piece of background fabric.   If you wanted to, you could just use a couple left over half square triangles and make the strip long enough with other fabrics. 

However you do it, it's all good! 

I really like this back.  It could stand on it's own as a quilt in its own right!

Once you finish the backing, layer sandwich your quilt with top, quilt batting and the bottom. I used a cotton baby quilt batting which measured 46 x 60 inches.

Quilt as desired or send it out to your favorite quilter!   Add a binding once it is all quilted.

And finally make a label.  Here is my label before I wrote on it. I used some selvages from the fabric in the quilt along with a strip from my focus fabric.  It adds a bit more information about the quilt and it's fun!

Selvage label for the quilt

Next post…my finished quilt!

Please leave me a comment to let me know how you are doing! 

African Village Quilt Step 5

Completed Top African Village Quilt

NOTE 2021: The PDF patterns for this quilt are no longer available so the links to them have been deleted. I’ve left the other instructions in case you still have the original patterns.

We will be able to finish the quilt top today. 

One last bit of cutting to do first. 

For the blocks on either side of the African Hut blocks:

Cut 4 squares of your Focus Fabric 9.5 x 9.5 inches.

Now you should have all the components of the quilt completed.  So let's assemble the rest the quilt.

The quilt is assembled in strips.  Starting at the top here are the strips with the African Huts and Focus fabric. 

1. Sew the African Hut 2 B (door facing right)  to one of the 9.5 inch squares of Focus Fabric. Then sew African Hut 1 B (door facing left)  to the other side of the 9.5 inch Focus Fabric square.

2. For the middle strip, sew a 9.5 inch square of Focus Fabric to each side of African Hut 3.

3. For the bottom row sew African Hut 1 A (door facing right) to a 9.5 inch square of Focus Fabric.  Then sew African Hut 2 A (door facing left) to the other side.  Now you have all the strips completed. 

4.  Sew them together in this order:   Top Hut strip, first diamond strip, Middle Hut Strip, 2nd diamond strip, Bottom Hut strip.  Great!  The center of your quilt will all the blocks is done.

Borders

For the Inner Border:

Step A:

Lay your quilt top on a flat surface.  Measure the middle of the quilt from top to bottom.  Then measure from side to side in the middle of the quilt and ADD 5 inches to this measurement. 

Add the length and width of the quilt and multiple by 2 to get the total length of fabric you need for the first border.  Divide this number by 40 to get the number of WOF (wide of fabric) strips you need to cut.  

Cut:

2.5 wide inch strips x WOF  for your first border.  I needed to cut 4.  
Sew this 4 strips together end to end, either with a bias seam or a straight seam, whichever you prefer. 

Sew the first border on to your quilt top.

For the Outer Border:

 Repeat Step A and measure your quilt top again with the first set of borders attached. 

Cut:

5.5 inch wide strips x WOF to obtain the length you need.  (I needed 4 strips).  Sew the 5.5 inch strips together.

Sew the 2nd border to the quilt top. 

Congratulations!  Your African Village Quilt top is complete!

I will blog about the backing for the quilt on Friday, August 15, 2014.

Did you have fun making this quilt top?  Please leave me a comment! Thanks!  I can't wait to hear how you did. 

African Village Quilt Step 4

NOTE 2021: The PDF patterns for this quilt are no longer available so the links to them have been deleted. I’ve left the other instructions in case you still have the original patterns.

We are in week 2 and up to Step 4 of the African Village Quilt!   You have sewn all the paper pieced huts for the quilt.  The rest of the quilt will all be rotary cut pieces with regular 1/4 inch piecing.

Today we are going the make the 2 diamond panels in the quilt. 

If you have a directional ethnic fabric like the one I am using, you will probably want to fussy cut the diamond shaped pieces.   

For the Diamonds:

Cut 6  Diamond pieces.   These are squares set on point.   If you fussy cut them like I did, that will mean all 4 edges of your square will be on the bias.  I highly recommend that you starch your fabric before your cut and again after you cut the pieces out to avoid warping when you sew the pieces together. 

The diamonds are 6 7/8 x 6 7/8 square.  

For the setting triangles:

All the setting triangles and the corner triangles have bias edges, so make sure you starch these fabrics and handle them carefully too.

For 8 setting triangles:

Cut (2) squares 10 1/4 x 10 1/4 inches.  Then cut each square again diagonally both ways. One square will give you 4 setting triangles. You need a total of 8 for the quilt.

Setting triangles cut

For the corner triangles:

For 8 corner triangles:

Cut (4) squares 5 3/8 x 5 3/8 inches.  Then cut each squrre diagonally 1 way to give you 2 corner triangles.

Corner Triangles cut  (these triangles are smaller than the setting triangle above) 

Sewing Instructions:

First sew the setting triangles to the on-point squares.  You will do this in sections.  See photo below.

1. Sew a setting triangle to the lower right side of your first diamond. Start sewing from the squared edge.  The point of the triangle will extend beyond the edge of the diamond. 

2. Sew a setting triangle to the upper left side of the middle diamond and then another one to the lower right side of the middle diamond.

3. Sew a setting triangle to the upper left side of the 3rd diamond.

4.  Attach the corner triangles on each end. It helps if you fold the setting triangle in half to mark the middle of the long side of the piece. Match that fold to the middle of you diamond piece.

Sewing the triangles to the diamonds

That's Step 4!  

Design Variation Option:

I used squares of the focus fabric between my African Village Quilt.  But it would also look great if you want to used diamond blocks instead of the squares.  Here's what it will look like:

African Village quilt Variation with all Diamond blocks

If you wish to use diamond blocks:

1.  Cut 4 more 6 7/8 x 6 7/8 inch squares set on point

2.  Cut 16 corner triangles from (8) 5 3/8 x 5 3/8 inch squares

Sew 2 corner triangles on opposites sides of each diamond.  Press.  Then sew the remaining 2 corner triangles to each diamond.

I'll post the next step on Wednesday, August 13, 2014.  

Please post a comment!  I'd love to hear how you are doing!

African Village Quilt Step 3

African Village Hut 3

We are up to Step 3 of my African Village Quilt.  Here is the 3rd hut.  It is a little more complex to paper piece than Hut 1 and Hut 2 but it's really not hard to sew.

The two corners of the roof extend beyond the hut walls and are on separate pattern pieces.  I recommend that before you cut out these 2 pieces (D and E of the pattern)  that you draw an arrow on the pattern to indicate which way is up.  That will just make it a bit easier to know which way they attach to the roof when you are sewing all the pieces together.

Here is a photo of D and E ready to be attached to the hut roof.

Pieces D and E of the Hut 3 Pattern ready to be attached to the roof

NOTE 2021: The PDF patterns for this quilt are no longer available so the links to them have been deleted. I’ve left the other instructions in case you still have the original patterns.

This is the final hut needed for the Village and it is the last of the paper pieced blocks for this quilt.  

Next Monday, August 11, 2014, I'll post Step 4 for my African Village Quilt.  We'll be sewing the 2 diamond strips then. 

Please do leave me a comment. I'd love to know what you are doing if you are sewing along with me. Thanks!

African Village Quilt Step 2

NOTE 2021: The PDF patterns for this quilt are no longer available so the links to them have been deleted. I’ve left the other instructions in case you still have the original patterns.

Here are the next two African Huts for my African Village Quilt.  Once again, the 2 huts are the same design but the doors face slightly different directions.  The doorway on the hut on the left looks different but that due to the pattern of the fabric. The door really is just a rectangle.

This design is slightly harder to make than Hut 1 due to the slight narrowing of the hut walls as they go upward. Make sure when you are cutting fabric for those background wedges that you check to make sure you have enough fabric to cover the top of the pattern piece when you flip to over after sewing the seam.  It's such a small angle change so it shouldn't a problem.

I'll post the pattern for Hut 2 on Friday, August 8, 2014.  The rest of the pattern will follow next week so you have lots of time if you need to find fabric and for sewing the first 4 blocks of this quilt.   

Please post a comment to let me know if you are making this quilt and any comments you have about this pattern.  Thanks!

African Village Quilt Step 1

The dog trainers I work with are all of African American descent.  One of them collects ethnic art work and she also adores babies. Every time a baby comes in to the training center with a parent (and dog), my trainer lights up.  So when I found this un-named pattern, house brand ethnic fabric at Jo-ann's Fabric and Craft Store I knew I had to make an African Village quilt for her.  

Jo-ann's Fabric and Craft Store Ethnic print

Isn't this fabric delightful?

I decided I wanted to have a village and a river since some of the women are carrying water jugs on their heads. 

Here is the design I created on my computer with the program EQ7 (Electric Quilt 7).  I scanned and imported the ethnic print fabric and the batik I'm using for the river. The other fabrics are in EQ7's stock fabric library and are close approximations of what I plan to use.

African Village Quilt Design 41 x 58 inches

NOTE 2021: The PDF patterns for this quilt are no longer available so the links to them have been deleted. I’ve left the other instructions in case you still have the original patterns.

I'm working on this quilt this week and will post new blocks and PDF patterns for them on Wednesday, August 6 and Friday, August 8.

Here are links to the PDF paper piecing patterns for African Hut 1 A and 1 B.  The huts are the same but the door face slightly different directions.  Print out 2 copies of step B, one for each hut.  The 1/4 inch seams are very faint on these PDF files.  Make sure you allow for the 1/4 inch seams around the outer edge of each section.  The unfinished block measures 9.5 x 9.5 inches and will finish at 9 inches square.

This is a great quilt for using your scraps.  If you wish to purchase fabric, here is the estimated yardage.

3/4 yard of the Focus ethnic print fabric

1/2 yard inner red border 

1 yard outer orange border

1 yard tan background fabric for the paper pieced hut blocks

1/2 yard various yellow or similar color for thatched roofs

5 Fat Quarters (Fat Eights should do if you have them) or scraps for the 5 hut walls if you want the all the huts to be different

1 1/4 yards various greens, I recommend getting 1/2 yard pieces if you get more than 1 green

1/4 yard for blue in the river

1/4 yard for the brown in the river section

1 3/4 yards backing IF you have a full usable 42+ inch width and don't mind tight margins OR    2 2/3 yards if you wish to piece the backing if you need wider margins for quilting

Binding 1/2 yard

Let me know if you plan to make this quilt too so I set up a link or place to share your work. I hope you'll join me!

Portholes Quilt Completed

Here's my completed Portholes quilt.  As expected, the quilting on this piece was a challenge.  
I Googled "ripples in water" and found photos of perfectly symmetrical circular ripples and then wavy broken ripples.  Clearly the perfect ones where either taken in a controlled environment or on a mill pond.  The latter where taken outdoors where there was a breeze.

Initially I tried to quilt perfect concentric circles, first with my walking foot and then with free motion quilting.  Neither method produced a perfect circle so I ripped them out attempts.  Fortunately for me, sailboats need wind to move so the irregular circles were actually more appropriate for this quilt.  I rather like the rippled circles around the boats.

I tried doing concentric circles again around the sun after I had done all the other quilting. This time I marked the circles out with dots using tailor's chalk.  Then, with the speed of my sewing machine turned down, and using free motion quilting, I slowly went around the sun twice.  It was much better than my first 2 attempts, but still not perfect.

Here's the back of the quilt.  Looks like a very busy regatta!

Back of Porthole Quilt

This quilt is going to my brother who is a sailor.  Every time I give him a quilt, he asks, "May I take it to the boat?"  And my answer is always an emphatic "No!"  because my usual batting is cotton.  This time I used 100% polyester batting--much more boat worthy.

However, that doesn't mean that I still am not worried about the quilt being on the boat.  What if it blows overboard?  With that in mind, I sewed a ribbon loop on each top corner of the quilt and I put a carabiner into one of the loops.  Now he can run a line through the carabiner attached to either ribbon loop to secure the quilt to the boat.  (Or that's my hope)!.

Ribbon loop with carabiner

This isn't a perfect quilt.  But it was a lot of fun to make and I know it will be used and enjoyed.

Portholes: Using Reverse Circles in a quilt design

I had a really interesting time doing the concentric hexagon quilting on my Modern Hexagon Quilt.  So I've been wanting to try concentric quilting again, this time with concentric circles.   I thought, what better than to make a water theme quilt?

In my stash I found a very traditional fabric collection, "Gone Sailing" by Wilmington Prints.  The sailboats on the cream print fabric are spaced widely enough to easily fussy cut it.  I decided to make it Modern by putting in the sailboats into a quilt top with lots of Negative Space using Cheryl Arkinson's Reverse Circle technique.  She has a great course, "Inset Circles and Applique by Machine" on Craftsy which explains how to do Reverse Circle which I highly recommend.  You may also learn how to use her Reverse Circles technique in her chapter in the new book, Essential Guild to Modern Quilt Making published by Lucky Spools. 

I've used Cheryl's Reverse Circle on several projects.  This time I found that the block with the double circles finished about 1/4 inch smaller than the original cut and it  slightly irregular.  I had cut 10.5 inch square unfinished blocks for this quilt.  But they ended up 10 inches square after I squared up the blocks with the circles.  Next time I'll cut the blocks with the Revere Circles larger than needed! 

The fabric I chose for the quilt top is Robert Kaufman's "Quilter's Linen".  This is great fabric--cotton with a linen like print on it.  One note of caution:  It seems to be a fairly loose weave and ravels easily.  

I made 4 Reverse Circles in the quilt top for sailboats and a double reverse circle for the sun.  

Porthole Quilt top with Reverse Circles

Here's the back of a boat reverse circle.

Back side of  single Reverse Circle

The sun block is made with 2 different fabrics.  The yellow fabric with the gulls and bubbles came from a bandana that Whitney, Taffy's groomer, put on her after a "day of beauty".  (This shop cuts up fabric to make bandanas).  I really liked the fabric in this particular bandana.  I immediately took it off Taffy, ran it through the wash, and then added to my stash!

Double Reverse Circle Sun

Back side of a Reverse Circle embedded in a larger Reverse Circle

The quilt is sandwiched and basted.  I am off to my sewing room to try quilting multiple concentric circles! 

On the Move!

The SleepingDogQuilts Blog is Under Construction!

I've moved over to the Squarespace web platform from Blogger and will be using a new, simpler URL. The bones of this new site are here but I'm still working on adding back all the information that was available here on Blogger.

The Squarespace platform will be cleaner, load faster, be more mobile friendly and has lots of room for me to grow SleepingDogQuilts. 

One of the new features on the site is a Gallery of my quilts.  I'm in the process of posting photos of some the quilts I have made.  It won't be my total collection but there should be a fun selection for you to look at.

Here is the new URL.  Leave me a message and let me know how you like the new space!

SleepingDogQuilts.com

Hope you enjoy the new look! 

Modern Log Cabin WIP update

Detail of blocks. They aren't sewn together yet.

My Modern Improv Pieced Log Cabin quilt is coming along.  I've decided I like it busy, without any white sashing between the blocks.

All the blocks so far

I started out systematically writing down the sizes of the strips and how I was sewing the pieces together.  I initially thought I would make 2 different log cabin blocks and alternate them.  Not exactly improv…

But by the time I got to my 3rd block I was having so much fun that the blocks really turned totally improv.  I'm working from a design roll of 2.5 inch strips so the pieces are square rather than irregular. Each of the Log Cabin blocks is unique. However each block intentionally includes one 2.5 x 2.5 inch yellow square.  It's a nod to the tradition of using a red central block which some folks say is representative of the hearth in the home.

It really does feel liberating to just sew strips together without a specific plan.  I do audition each new piece to make sure it goes with the other strips in the block, but with this collection of happy colors, it's almost impossible to make a mistake.

14 more Log Cabin blocks to go!

Modern Log Cabin WIP

I picked up 2 yards of Michael Miller's Happy Town fabric this weekend.   I love all the bright colors.  The design reminds me of the building blocks we loved to play with when we were children.

Happy Time by Michael Miller Fabrics

I have a Kona Cotton New Bright design roll that I used part of for my Jumbled Spools Quilt.  The colors of the design roll are a great match for the "Happy Time" fabric.

I want to see the "Happy Town" design in the quilt so I cut 10.5 x 10.5 inch squares for half the blocks in the quilt.  The alternating blocks will be improv pieced Modern Log Cabin blocks.   I want to echo the striped elements in the fabric so I'm making strips of stripes which I plan to incorporate into the Log Cabin blocks.

This quilt is so busy that I think it might be a good idea to add some white.  It could be sashing strips intersperced randomly between some of the blocks or maybe just incorporated into the Log Cabin blocks.

Here 4 blocks laid out 2 different ways:
                                                                                 

Auditioning white sashing--I don't think this works.                                              

 

Without the white sashing strips. 

I think I need to make some more blocks and then will decide what looks best.  Suggestions are welcome…please leave a comment if you have an idea. 

Modern Hexagon Quilt finished!

Modern Hexagon Quilt

My Modern Hexagon Quilt is done!  It was so much fun to make.  The challenge of this quilt was working with all the negative space in this 48.5 x 59 inch quilt.

Originally thought I would quilt concentric hexagons around the two single hexagons in the quilt.  I was going to let the hexagon relax into a circle as it got further away from the index hexagon, like waves in a pond.

Beginning to quilt around a hexagon

But I found that it was fairly easy to continue quilting in a hexagon pattern when I marked the quilt with dress-maker's chalk and I wasn't sure how it would look if it morphed into a circle.  (You can see the markings in the photo above). 

Using the bar on my walking foot to keep the quilting lines the same width

I ended up quilting from the lower single hexagon all the way across the entire quilt.  The hexagon shape decayed a bit the further I got from the starting hexagon but I was able to maintain reasonably well across the whole quilt.

I couldn't wait to start quilting around the 2nd hexagon in the upper part of the quilt to see how the lines intersected.   I put in about 7 rows of quilting and it quickly became clear that it just wan't going to work.  The quilting lines were running off-kitler to each other and not crossing the way I hoped they would.  It looked really awful.   I ripped it all out without taking a photo.   Sorry--it would have been interesting to share what it looked like.

However, I did leave in a single row of quilting around the second hexagon.  I think that works. 

Here's a close-up of the quilting.  I went around each of the hexagons, rather than quilting over them.  That was a challenge in itself because I had to pick up the parallel quilting line on the far side of the hexagon after I had detoured around it.  Some are better than others, but mostly it worked.

Finally, here is the back with the Lotus Drop flowers.

Modern Hexagon Quilt Back

I'm still intrigued by the idea of intersecting lines of concentric quilting.   I think it might work if I quilt in circles and make sure to start quilting each circle separately, moving outward until the lines start to intersect.   A project for another week!

Hue--Let's talk blue

As I mentioned in my post the other day, I finally understand what "hue" means after reading Kari Vojtechovsky's workshop "Principles of Color: a design workshop" in the new book,  Essential Guide to Modern Quilt Making.

I've understood hue to mean a color.  But what does that mean?  I always used the word as "that's a nice hue" related to the gradation of a color. That's the first definition in the dictionary.

 Kari defines hue in technical terms as "the location of a color in the color spectrum"  of visible light.  That's the second definition in the dictionary.

Brilliant.  Green is the green in the rainbow.  Red is the red in the rainbow. Violet is the violet in the rainbow.  That is really clear.  She goes on the say that even with all the possible variants of a color, the color's hue is always its pure form as seen in the light spectrum (rainbow).

Kari states she likes to use the light-based color wheel of cyan, yellow and magenta.  But my stash worked out better using a color in the pigment-based color wheel (red, blue, yellow).

So, let's think about blue.
Of all the fabrics in my stash, I felt that this blue was the truest of the blues. So this blue is my Blue Hue.

Hue: Blue

Kari goes on to discuss how the saturation, the "degree of purity," of a color can be changed.

Add black to the hue and you get a "shade".  Believe it or not, the color to the far right is the same blue fabric shown above.  The middle and right fabrics are darker.  It's clear in the fabric on the right that black was added to make that very dark blue, but harder to see in this photo with the middle fabric.
(All these photos were taken outdoors, a couple minutes apart).

The Hue Blue on the far left, with 2 shades of blue

Add white to the hue and you get a "tint".

The Hue Blue on the far left, with 2 tints of blue

Add grey to the hue and you get a "tone."  That was a new concept for me.  I always thought about adding either black or white to a color to get gradation. I never considered adding a mix of black and white…although I know I did it when I was a child and mixing paints.  If black made my paint color too dark, I added white.  It's the same idea.

The fabric colors in the photo below look much brighter than they really are. You can tell the far right color has grey added to the hue but it's not as apparent with the two middle colors.  In actuality, all three of the colors to the right look greyish.

It's interesting that the Blue Hue fabric looks much darker and richer next to the fabrics where the hue has had grey added to it.

The Hue Blue on the far left with 3 tones of blue

So, that's hue in a nutshell.  If the color is found in a real rainbow, that's a hue, in this case, blue.  If you add light or dark to a color, the hue is still blue but the saturation has been altered.

The Hue Blue is upper middle, the two tints are lower middle. The greyed tones are the far left and the black shades are far right.

Kari has so much great information about color in her workshop.  It's a lot of fun and really worth reading.

Book Review: Lucky Spool's Essential Guild to Modern Quilt Making

Yesterday the UPS deliveryman dropped a gem of a book on my front porch!  Lucky Spool's Essential Guild to Modern Quilt Making complied by Susanne Woods a great reading and a great resource for anyone making Modern Quilts.

Each of the chapters in this book is a "workshop" in Modern Quilting.  The teachers are active, and well known, in the Modern quilting world. The workshops are based the class each of these master quilters is asked to teach most often. 

The first workshop is "The Principles of Color" written by Kari Vojyechovsky.  It is an excellent discussion of the use of color in quilts.  I finally understand what  "hue" is. (I'll discuss hue in a post later this week).  Subsequent chapters include workshops on "Working with Solids" by Alissa Haight Carlton and "Working with Prints" by Dan Rose.

Jacquie Gering has a workshop on "The Alternative Grid".   Of particular interest for readers in Massachusetts/New England:  Among the quilts she has included in her lesson is a bold quilt that is difficult to look at.  Jacquie crated this quilt, named "Aftermath", following the Marathon Bombings in Boston.

Much to my delight, Cheryl Arkison has a workshop on "Circles and Curves".   I took her class on Craftsy which is excellent.  I am so happy to now have the instructions for making her Reverse Circles in a book!   I used her technique to create the inset circle in my "Diamond in the Woods" quilt. 

Penny Layman has a great workshop on "Paper Piecing".  On this hot summer day, I was tickled to see her snow cone pattern.  And I know her stiletto shoe design is going to be a bit hit with readers!  (The templates for her designs are included at the back of the book).

There is an interesting workshop on "Large-Scale Piecing" by Heather Jones.  Learn to make a full size quilt with just a single block or a few large blocks.

Angela Walters has a workshop on "Modern Quilting"--how to do the quilting on modern quilts. She has instructions for some quilting designs which are very do-able and will give great results. 

Finally Heather Grant's workshop is a "Study of Modern Quilts".  It is a "show" of 50 Modern Quilts.  Each quilt has a comment from the quilter.  You'll feel like you've been to see an exhibit at a museum after you've read this chapter. 

I am so excited about this book.  Run to your local shop or on-line store and get yourself a copy.  You'll be glad you did!

"Sending Greetings" Quilt Design: building quilting skills

I've been thinking about a quilt design which could be used in a class to build skills for intermediate quilters.  I expect this class will have students who have made a simple quilt or two but still don't have a lot of experience.  I'm still thinking about the definition of an "intermediate" quilter so this is a work in process.

Thinking about "next step" piecing skills I decided sewing seams on the bias and working with triangles seemed to fit the bill.  I sat down at my computer using EQ7 (Electric Quilt 7) and started experimenting with some of the blocks from the program's block library.

I wanted the quilt to be in the Modern Quilt genre and amenable to using a variety bold, bright modern prints and/or solids.

Here's what I came up with.

I like the negative space and the bold asymmetric diamond in this design. I think it might be fun to use some text fabrics with this pattern, either inside the envelope flap or as the background of the quilt. I think the background would also be beautiful using a quilting linen.

This pattern uses half square triangles, flying geese, fold over triangles on the large flying bird block which EQ7 calls Flying Goose and corner setting triangles in the "envelope" flap around the series of small flying geese. In addition to working on piecing skills, the students will have to think about color and contrast to make this design shine.

It can be quilted with a simple grid but there is also lots of negative space to which could be used to practice free motion quilting.

If you have thoughts about this pattern or suggestions for "intermediate" skills for quilters please send me a comment.  I'd love to hear what you think.

Matching the design when piecing fabrics for quilt backs

2 Sections of the Lotus Drop fabric have been sewn together to make a strip long enough for a quilt back.

My Lotus Pond fabrics made by Cloud 9 Fabrics arrived in the mail yesterday.  They are so beautiful.  I immediately stopped the project I was doing and starting working on the quilt back for my Modern Hexagon quilt. One thing led to another and by the end of the day, I had made backs for 3 quilts.

Detail of hexagon quilt top with the 3 backing fabrics

Completed backing

I found I needed to match the designs in the fabrics for all three of the quilt backs so thought I would share with you how I did that.

Step One:  To attach two strips together to make a longer piece, make a fold in the piece of fabric that will be added the first section of the fabric.  Use the fold line to exactly match the designs on both pieces of the fabric.

Fabric to be added is folded and placed on top of the 1st section, exactly matching the design

Step 2:   Lay your ruler on the fold so that the 1/4 line of the ruler is along the fold line and the ruler extends beyond the fold 1/4 inch.  Hold the ruler in this position and use it as the line to cut the first section of fabric.

Ruler with 1/4 mark over the fold of the piece being added and the ruler extending 1/4 inch over the first section of fabric.

Step 3:  Take the 2nd piece of fabric that you folded in Step 1 and turn it with the wrong side of the fabric facing up.  Open up the fold and mark it with chalk or soluble marker if you have difficulty seeing the fold line.  Place the 1/4 inch inch line of the ruler on the fold line.  (I drew blue chalk line on the fold so you can see it in the photograph).  The edge of the ruler extends 1/4 inch above the fold on the side closest to the raw edge of the fabric.  Cut along this line.

Cut 1/4 inch above the fold line on the side closer to the raw edge of the fabric

Step 4:  Place the two pieces of fabric, right sides together and sew them together with a 1/4 inch seam. Press the seam.  You may find you get a better match if you press the seam in one direction and a less good match if pressed the other direction. Press the seam in the direction that gives the result!

Here is the result:

Here is the same trio of poppies on an uncut section of the original fabric:

It takes a bit of practice to get a great result.  But it so rewarding when the design matches perfectly! 

I recommend that you practice matching designs with a couple pieces of scrap fabric once or twice before you cut into the fabrics for your quilt.  I find I still check and recheck to make sure I have it right before I cut!  

Modern Half Square Triangle Quilt--Diamond in the Forest

Here's my Modern Half Square Triangle, "Diamond in the Forest."   My plan was to make a Random Half Square Triangle (HST) quilt.  It turns out that I am too much of a control freak to go random!

The loss of randomness started with the initial piecing.

• I couldn't bring myself to put the pieces in a paper bag which would have insured the HSTs were really random.   Instead I intentionally picked fabrics which complemented each other for the HSTs.

When I put the HSTs on the design wall any attempt at randomness ended.

•  As I put the blocks on the design wall, I made sure that the fabrics in adjacent blocks weren't the same.
•  Then my eye caught the beginning of a pattern in the blocks…and I went for it.  Good-bye Random HST quilt!  Can you see the diamond shape slightly left of middle in the lower half of the blocks on the design wall?   Just one block on the right side needs to be turned to close the diamond.  This photo is fuzzy… it was a quick snap in case a dog ran by and the blocks flew off the design wall. Yes… it has happened. Not good!

Here's a detail of that focus diamond in the finished top.

The inspiration for this project came from a quilt made by Kali Zirkle which was posted on the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Facebook page on Happy Huesday.  Kali's quilt was made with Kona Cotton solid fabrics and her quilt is a Random HST quilt.

The actual planning for this quilt started when I found the "Sweet as Honey" fabric with the cut tree stumps.  It is an Art Gallery Fabric and was designed by Bonnie Christine.  I found in the shop at J.P. Knit & Stitch.   I collected yellow, brown, tan and grey fabrics to complement it.  My intention was to make the quilt with just those 4 colors.

Art Gallery Fabrics "Sweet as Honey"

However, one afternoon I had a DYI home improvement show on in the background while I was sewing.  I wasn't really paying attention to it so I don't know what the show was nor the cable channel airing it. I looked up to see one of the finished rooms. The walls were painted a soft orange yellow with turquoise and white throw pillows on the two setting areas on either side of the fireplace.

The proverbial lightbulb over my head flashed on.  This quilt would be so much more interesting with a couple of accent colors.  I added a bit of turquoise, yellow green and bright green.  That was just what this quilt needed.

I put the block with the reverse circle in the quilt to echo round tree stumps in the "Sweet as Honey" fabric.  The background fabric of that block is Kona Cotton Cheddar yellow!  For those of you who have been following my blog for a while…yes, cheddar yellow fabric has finally made it into one of my quilts!

This quilt which started out in one direction morphed into something different in the process of sewing it.  Could that be called Random Designing?