Splash! Pattern testing for Sunday Morning Quilts

I met the amazing Amanda Jean at a Minnesota quilting retreat in 2010.  Prior to meeting her I may have been a tiny bit intimidated by her.  I mean, you've seen how prolific her quilting is, right?  But in person?  Absolutely delightful! I even enjoyed jogging with her for heaven's sake!  

(Amanda in action at the retreat...with matching pedicure, none-the-less!)

Fast forward to last spring when she emailed me to share a little bit about a "secret" project in the works and to ask if I be interested in pattern-testing for her upcoming book.  Would I?  Of course!  (Someone who can talk me into jogging should have no trouble convincing me to quilt!)  So she sent along the pattern for "Splash", a quilt she made in lovely aqua and orange and a few of her own green scraps as a jumping off point.

Amanda's "Splash"

My favorite fabric from Amanda's scraps.  How can you not LOVE those froggies???

I dug through my stash and pulled out everything from lime green to turquoise for the background and purple for the accent.  I began with the purple focus block.

Inspired by the name "Splash", I wanted it to look like the focus block literally splashed into the quilt, scattering little bits of purple through out.  As a result, my quilt top took on a fairly different look from her high-contrast original.  

It was fun to take Amanda's idea and turn it into something all my own, all the while following her pattern.  I found her slab-making technique to be a great way to turn scraps into quilts...easy, organic, flexible and practical!  Pieces small and large could be easily worked into the top and it felt like play!  Try a little of this, add a little of that, work a favorite scrap in here, cut a funky angle there....

 

....then cut to the given measurements and sew those babies up.  Voila!

The approach turns an improvisational process into a beautiful finished product.  I was so pleased with this top that it was hard to not to share it with anyone before the book was published.  (Ok, I maybe sent Amanda an e-mail every now and then asking her if she'd seen the fun quilt top I'd finished as I had to tell somebody!)  So glad to finally get to share it here!  Ah....now if I could just get it quilted.

Do you have a favorite project from Sunday Morning Quilts?

Don't you want your own signed copy of Sunday Morning Quilts?

"Good Measure": A Finished Quilt and a Giveaway!

I love it when a project evolves organically, revealing itself to you a little bit at a time.  I started this quilt as a thank you gift for a dear family friend last fall with nothing more than a block idea and a color scheme.  I sewed block after block, unsure of the final layout.  I thought about adding a border, in part to easily make it larger (let's be honest!) but also to frame the blocks somehow.

Then after a trip to the Met a few months ago, I just knew I wanted the blocks to spill out into the borders.  It's funny because no specific piece of art evoked this.  It was more like seeing all those other uses of color and space sparked an image in my brain of what this quilt was meant to be.  I kept imagining the colors pouring across the quilt like water and overflowing the edges.

Then, as I was quilting it up, I kept wondering what I should title the quilt.  Something to do with water?  Something with fullness, wholeness or abundance?  After several days of wondering, the phrase "running over" came into my mind.  I knew it was a phrase from scripture and hunted it down.

"Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again."

Luke 6:38

A scripture about generosity pouring blessings back into the heart and life of the giver?  Loved it!  It captured exactly what I'd like to wish for this dear friend! 

(A peek at the back, because I LOVE this fabric.  It's from Jennifer Sampou's "Fiesta" line.)

And now that the process is complete, might you be interested in using these few leftover blocks?  

 

Let me know and I'll gladly send them away! If more than one person is interested in the blocks, I'll draw a winner Monday morning.  Let me know if you only want one set or both.  If the winner only wants one, I'll draw for a second winner!     (The quilt blocks have been claimed by Sarah!  They'll be on their way soon!)

And I'd love to know....do you have a favorite serendipitous creative moment?  

Peppermint Strip Block Tutorial

It's my month over at Two's Company and I decided I want to make a Christmas quilt of peppermint stick blocks.  I came up with a way that will keep from having to sew two bias edges together, thereby minimizing the stretch and distortion along the seam.  This method also keeps the majority of the outside edges of the block on grain, again minimizing distortion.  So here's the tutorial!

First, choose the fabrics you are going to use.  For the bee, I requested really RED reds, true whites and red-and-white prints.  I don't want fabrics with other contrasting colors, like this...

 

(Love this fabric...but too many other colors for this quilt.)

I chose white for my background, but feel free to use a red, red-on-white or white-on-red print for the background and then contrast it with the opposite for the stripes.  Here's the fabric I selected for the stripes in my Peppermint Stick strip.  

Cutting on the grain, cut a strip from your background fabric 35-45" long and a little wider than your desired width, anything between 3"-6" unfinished.

I cut my strip 35" x 6.5", giving myself ample width to trim it down to 5.5" once I am done.

Line up the long edge of your strip with the 45-degree line on your ruler...

...and cut diagonally across your strip.

Decide how wide you want your background stripes to be.  In this case, I chose to make them 5" wide.  Place your ruler-line for that measurement (in this case, my 5" measurement line) along the just-cut diagonal edge of your strip.  Cut your along the edge of the ruler.

Repeat until the entire strip is cut into diagonal pieces.

Measure the diagonally-cut edge.  In this case, it is 9.25".

Decide on how wide you want your inserted stripes to be.  I chose 2.5".  The length of your stripes is determined by adding the length of your diagonally-cut edge of background fabric and the desired width of your stripe.  Cutting on the grain, I cut stripes that were 12" long (9.25"+2.5"+.25" extra) and 2.5" wide.

Here's the fabric laid out how I planned to sew them together.

Line up the edge of one stripe with the with the background strip, with the corner of your stripe barely extending beyond the wide angle of your diagonally cut background fabric (not the narrow pointy edge).

It should look like this when you are ready to sew the seam.  (Yes, right sides are together...the white on white just shows through the back on this fabric.)

Sew the seam.  Press seam allowances to the dark side and trim the stripe to match the edge of your background fabric along the wide angled edge.  (Again, not the narrow pointy edge.)  It should look like this once it is trimmed.

Repeat with the next background piece and stripe.

Sew these pieces together, now lining up the pointy edge of one background piece to the wide-angled edge of the stripe piece below it.  The pointy corner should overlap just slightly so that your .25" seam will go right in the little v-shaped notch.

Repeat until all your pieces are connected into one long strip.  Press all seam allowances to the dark side.

Trim the strip to the desired width.  I trimmed it down to 5.5" wide.  

You're Peppermint Stick block is done!

For your signature block for the back, please cut a 2.5"x6.5" piece of plain white fabric (no white on white prints as fabric ink doesn't penetrate this and will smear or come off in the wash).  Cut two 2.5" squares.

Sew corner to cover on both the squares, going the same direction on both.

Trim the outside corners down to .25" same allowance and press toward the red.

Add your signature in black permanent fabric ink and include this signature block with your Peppermint Stick strip block.

Thank you lovely Two's Company ladies!  I can't wait to get these back in July and start sewing my first ever Christmas quilt.  Yeah!

Blue and White for Two's Company

I really loved making this block!  While I was working on it, I kept thinking, "Man this is a satisfying block!"  I like the bear claws block, love blue and white, and really love the fun blue snakeskin fabric I found while making the aqua confetti quilt!!!

I think all the variety of blues in everyone's bee blocks are going to look great together.  (Check them out here.)  Hooray for the first blue and white quilt in our bee!  Hope you like it, Mary.

Quilt Top Finished

I finished this quilt top in just the nick of time to show at our NYC Metro Mod Guild meeting last Saturday.  Hooray for a "deadline" to give me the extra push I needed to get it finished!

In making this quilt, I hung a temporary design wall for the first time.  The only space big enough was my entryway.

It created a little chaos to have it there, but it was so helpful to be able to see the whole thing at once from a distance.  Now I love seeing the finished quilt top hanging there every time I walk down my hallway.

Do you use a design wall?  Where does it hang?  Any great temp design wall suggestions?

Baby Quilt for Margarets Hope Chest

The first quilt I ever finished found its home with Margarets Hope Chest this month.

It had been waiting in my hope chest for the arrival of a sweet child for, well, years.  When we adopted a little girl this past November, she was quickly inundated with more quilts and blankets than I ever imagined.  When I saw MHC's recent project gathering quilts to be given to mothers who participate in a prenatal class, I knew this quilt was supposed to go there.  As I lovingly wrap my wee babe in one of the blankets made by someone who loves her, it makes me happy to think of a quilt I made being lovingly wrapped around another baby far away by her mother.  And if the project encourages mothers to take a prenatal class too?  All the better!  Here's to happy and healthy babies!

Margarets Hope Chest has many fantastic projects going on this year.  If you'd like to help, check out their blog.  For March and April, their requested project is string blocks for three quilts.  How easy breezy is that?  You can get all the info here.

What's your favorite place to donate a quilt?

A few bee blocks

I haven't been posting my bee blocks for the past few months here, but thought they'd be fun to share.  

Here are the last few for Two's Company....

...blue and brown for Jessica's boy...

...scrappy snowballs for Helen...

...and a circle of geese for Mary.

And the last blocks for One Block Over....

...framed birds for Carla.

I loved playing with the colors in the bird blocks and finding fun details to add, like the accenting the splash of red in the blue block of using my black and white city print.  I delighted in making them!

Are you sewing anything for someone else right now?

A Quilt for Basics

Victoria over at Bumblebeans, Inc. is doing an amazing quilt drive for Basics, a non-profit organization here in NYC that helps homeless families.  Her initial interest in finding a good home for a few of her extra quilts ultimately grew into an effort to gather a total of 700 quilts, one for each of the families in Basics' transitional housing program.

Over 300 quilts have been distributed already and I've been lucky enough to be there for two different quilt distribution days.  It is amazing to see how touched families and individuals are to receive their very own quilt, lovingly handmade by someone they don't know.

Finally, I'm adding one of my quilts to the effort!  This little Irish Chain quilt was sent on its way to Basics last week. 

Here's the pieced back.  I loved that fun cherry print!

It's a quilt I started years ago when I first started quilting but only recently finished quilting it.  I loved having an excuse to play with new quilting ideas and to practice some of the old stand-bys.  Certainly learned a few things, like how much I appreciate my open toe free-motion foot!

Do you have a quilt you could finish up and send?  One more family could be cheered by your creativity and warmed by your quilt.  Check out the donation details here.  Hope to see a quilt from you at the next donation day too! 

September Bee Blocks

I love once my bee blocks are finished for the month and sitting out where I get to admire them for a little bit before they go in the mail. 

It's so fun to see how something dreamed up by another quilter turns out!

Here's the block for Linda for One Block Over...

And a better pic of the block for Bonnie for Two's Company....

 

 

Are you part of an online bee?  What's your favorite bee to follow? 

Flow of Inspiration

The flow of inspiration in a creative project interests me as much as the finished product.  

For example..

 These fabrics came home with me from the scrap bins at Victoria's retreat this spring. 

Inspired by LeeAnn's beautiful zig-zag quilt, I started my own variation on the theme. 

 

But the next time I got out the fabric, this little piece just screamed to be fussy cut...

 

...and I found myself tired of the red/brown/gold color scheme.  

I remembered all the unique color combinations I saw at the retreat (like the red, cheddar and PINK in Karen's quilt or the light blue HST's in Victoria's WIP).  

I thought of the combination of old and new colors in these quilts from the Empire Quilters April meeting with Roberta Horton and Mary Mushuta.  (Dusty paisley with a light lime green anyone?  Why not add some deep indigo and Kaffe reds?)

  

(Photo courtesy of Helen.)

So, I dug out my scraps to see what possible new directions I might be able to go.  

Maybe some black and white striped fabric (which I bet were scraps from Karen!)?  Sure!  Love it.   

How about fuschia and turquoise too?  Why not?

 Don't know where she'll go next...but I love the way a little inspiration from somewhere else can send something I'm working on in a whole new direction.  

Any surprise inspirations in your creative process lately?