Fire and Ice & Mini-Kreuzung

Making a mini quilt for friends is the best! I took part in the mini quilt swap organised by The Modern Quilt Guild two times and exchanged quilts at QuiltCon, and it was such a nice thing to do. Both times I was lucky enough to receive absolute stunning mini quilts that hang in my sewing studio. 

This mini swap was a bit different since my friend Marla of penny lane quilts and I wanted to make a mini quilt for each other and organised our own little swap. 

This is the mini I made for Marla. I picked oranges and turquoise fabrics and added a lot of texture with Essex linen and shot cottons. I loved the play with value and colour and my other quilty friend Juli of Zahada Mod mentioned that it was a great design choice to put warm and cool colours together. 

And I haven't thought of colour temperature before. But Juli is right, it's such an interesting play between cool and warm, so I named the quilt 'Fire and Ice'. Very suitable I think. 

I quilted in simple straight lines, mostly 1/4 inch apart, sometimes smaller. I picked three different colours matching the fabric colour. All thread is 50wt Aurifil thread. 

And I made a faced binding using Audrey's tutorial again. I'm so happy how crisp the edges are. Fire and Ice is 21.5" (54cm) square. 

Now look what my friend Marla made me: 

I absolutely love this quilt! It's a mini version of Marla's large quilt 'At the Junction' which I adore and I had asked Marla to make me a mini that is similar to that one. Never would I imagined to receive a mini version of her multi award winning quilt! 

'At the Junction' placed first in the Modern category at the American Quilter’s Society (AQS) Quiltweek show in Grand Rapids. It also placed first in the Modern Category at the AQS Fall Paducah show and had placed “4th Overall”. 

Marla's large quilt was also exhibited at QuiltCon 2019 in Nashville, TN, where I couldn't attend. So I'm even happier to have the mini version at home now. 

Marla named her quilt 'Mini-Kreuzung' which I love, junction means Kreuzung in German. Mini-Kreuzung is about 22x28" (56 x 71cm) and will get a special place in my sewing studio. As soon as I can buy a suitable timber rod I'll hang it up and show you my corner of the sewing studio with all the other mini quilts I received from quilty friends. 

It was a lot of fun to unpack our quilts in an online meeting, that almost was as much fun as meeting up in person. 

I am so grateful for Marla's generosity and her beautiful quilt, which I will cherish for ever. 

Vega

The Pantone Quilt Challenge has become somewhat of a tradition for me. The first time I took part was 2017 with my mini quilt with Greenery. The following year 2018 I made Purple Haze in featuring the colour Ultra Violet. And 2019 it was Fade To Grey using Living Coral as main colour.

I was very excited as the Pantone colour for 2020 was announced: Classic Blue. I immediately had several colour combinations in my head and started piecing the first blocks in May 2020 even before the challenge was announced. And in the end the challenge unfortunately didn't happen - but I still had my own challenge.  

And today I can show you Vega! We are having a hefty cold spell with a lot of snow and that was just the perfect photo opportunity. 

I used Kona Regatta as main featured colour, as this was the closest to the Pantone classic blue and mixed it with different shade of blues and two oranges and white as accent colours. 

The first blocks started with pieced strips in horizontal and vertical orientation. I love the process of finding the overall layout and creating something visually pleasing. 

The balance of value plays a key role in this design. Different shades of blue, from very dark to light blue and to the white, need to be balanced in order to create an interesting look. 

Vega has a faced binding, my preferred choice for wall hanging quilts. I can highly recommend the tutorial by Audrey of Cotton and Bourbon, the edges are very crisp. 

I quilted horizontal straight lines in five different colours, all matching the fabrics. It's such a nice play between the fabrics and the thread. 

For the back I used the remaining Kona Regatta and some left over strips. I like the back, too. Vega has a hanging sleeve already since she is decorating my sewing studio since a couple of days. 

The back shows off the different thread colours very nicely. 

I think Vega is my new favourite quilt. I case you're wondering where the name comes from, here is a bit of an explanation:

'Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. 

Vega is relatively close at only 25 light-years from the Sun, and is one of the most luminous stars in the Sun's neighborhood. It is the fifth-brightest star in the night sky, and the second-brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere.'

I though that Vega is a very suitable name for this quilt. She definitely shines, especially in the low winter sun and in  the bright snow. 

Vega finishes at 54 x 56" (138 x 142cm).

Olive 'n Orange

I've always wanted to make a quilt with olive green and orange. I don't really have a favourite colour I always use in my quilts. But I do have favourite colour combinations and that might be a new love affair. 

I started by piecing small blocks together using my solid scraps and mixed different shades of olive green with oranges, white and light grey. I always try to balance a design with a variance of value and texture. 

I was aiming for a mini quilt with an approximate size of 25" square. I made several small improv blocks, some in a log cabin style, others kind of free style. 

I piece blocks together as I go when they are a good fit. Sometimes this is in rows, mostly I piece in sections so that the design appears intuitive and not following a grid.

This is actually my favourite part of designing a quilt. Piecing blocks and see how they fir together. 

I'm very pleased with the overall design and the colour and value play. 

I quilted straight lines in light grey 40wt Aurifil thread, 1/4" apart. I wanted the quilting to take a step back and not be prominent over the actual design. 

The thread did exactly that. 

Once again I faced the quilt following Audrey's tutorial. I love how very square the edges are. 

I followed other tutorials in the past and the edges were always quite round. I really prefer this crisp look and can highly recommend this tutorial! 

This was a very enjoyable little project. I give you another close look at the texture: 

It's only the dark green that is a shot cotton. I like to keep it simple and not have too many focal points. 

Olive 'n Orange is definitely a new favourite! 

Define Gravity

After I made my Pantone Quilt with imrov log cabin blocks I was in the swing of it and wanted to see how far I can go with modernising a traditional quilt block.

I used only two colours, black and white, and pieced blocks. I loved how graphic and bold this looked and kept going.

I have a thing for disguising where a block begins and where it ends, and I think in this quilt I perfected that piecing technique. That's why the quilt is called Define Gravity:
gravity, noun; the force that attracts a body towards the centre of the earth, or towards any other physical body having mass.
How perfectly suited.

I knew I just wanted to quilt straight lines and used black and white thread in three different thicknesses.

I used Aurifil in 50wt, 40wt and 28wt and I love how this turned out. Even though black thread on white fabric is tricky because it always looks as if the thread tension isn't correct (the little knot in the batting is still a little visible on the white fabric). The quilting is 1/4" apart from each other.

Nevertheless I love how the quilting turned out. Even though black thread on black fabric is almost invisible, I wanted to achieve a play between the black and white fabric and the colours of the thread.

I made a faced binding once again and put the quilt up on a black building facade. It's actually our coal mining museum, which has a really cool new extension.

Define Gravity is approx. 36" square.
And here it is, a small quilt attached to a large piece of coal.

What shade are you? Blog Hop 2018 - Four

I am so excited to be part in the RJR Fabrics 'What shade are you?' blog hop today. I have admired these beautiful cotton supreme solids and quilts made from them for a long time.
And I was always wondering how can I be considered to take part? Well, in my case I was not approached by RJR Fabrics themselves, I just wrote them an email. So, if you would like to be considered, just ask.

I had a hard time selecting colours. Because when I think of what shade I am then I don't really have an answer. I like a lot of colours and shades, there is no particular colour I use in all my quilts or I have a favour for. 
What I noticed recently is that I am drawn to soft tones rather than very bright colours. So I selected three main colours: blue, red and green and picked soft tones and different values of the same colour.

I have finally settled on these beauties:
Jadeite
Nile Green
Seafoam
Optical White
Rosewood
Rose Colored Glasses
Guava
Charlotte
Fairy Princess
Iceberg
Notting Hill
Proud as a Peacock
Mermaid

I knew I wanted to make an improvisationally pieced project. Following the principle from a mini quilt I made earlier this year I grouped the different values of the three main colours together and started to piece strips. 

 I was aiming for a light centre to the quilt and wanted the darker values radiate from there.

There was a lot of editing and rearranging on the design wall until I've settled on a final design.

I really like the contrast of subtle colour and value change horizontally and rather drastic vertically. I think it lets the eyes moving and it creates a lot of interest. I also turned direction of strips or have them in a smaller scale. I like to make rules and then intentionally break them.

I quilted more or less horizontal straight lines that vary in direction and density.

The more I quilted the better I liked it, the space between quilting lines vary from 0" to 1.5" and I also used eight different coloured thread.

I used faced binding and I really like the way it looks. I had the feeling that a normal binding would distract from the actual look of the quilt.

I like the crisp edges and the way the quilting seams just run to the very end of the quilt.

I used all remaining fabrics for the back and applied the same design principle here: light centre and radiating values towards the edges. The faced binding at the back though is a little too big for my taste. I followed a tutorial but I might reapply the binding and make it smaller since the back of the quilt is also really nice.

The dense quilting is very visible at the large solids areas and despite the density of the quilting lines the quilt is still very soft.

This is such a nice texture, it almost is too cuddly to hang the quilt up but that's what I'm planning to do.

I am very happy how this quilt turned out. Using only solids, and 13 of them, was a challenge for me but the improv method I started with the mini quilt turned out beautifully in a bigger scale. The mini quilt was called 'Three' so the continuation of it is 'Four' and so the name was a logical decision.
'Four' finishes at 55 x 62".

Thank you so much RJR Fabrics, for the opportunity and the generous fabric supply!

Here's the link to the RJR Blog 'Quilt with Love' where you can see all of the beautiful quilts made from their cotton supreme solids. 

Connected

I have admired all the mini quilts that have been submitted to be included in the Curated Quilts Magazine ever since that magazine was created by Amy Ellis and Christine Ricks at the end of 2017.
For their upcoming fifth issue in autumn 2018 the topic for the featured mini quilts is 'Connections/ Improv' with a beautiful autumn colour palette.

How could I resist?

And that's my mini quilt 'Connected'.
If you think, hm, that kind of looks familiar then you're right! It's the same improv piecing technique I used in the mini quilt I made for the MQG mini swap. This is further to explore as I really need to make a big version of it!

I randomly quilted in straight, diagonal lines and I think this adds such a nice texture to the quilt.

It's the second time that I used a faced binding and I really like it. Especially on such a small quilt. 'Connected' is only 15 x 15" big and it's the smallest quilt I've made so far.

I used three different colours of 50wt and 40wt Aurifil thread, two beige tones and one light grey.

I hope it gets accepted, but anyhow, if you don't know the Curated Quilts Magazine you should check it out. I bought the first tow issues at QuiltCon in February and I absolutely love that magazine!

Linking to Curated Quilts where you can see all entries!

QuiP #8 - Splinter

Remember this quilt?

Porcupine Playground Front + Back

The back of my 'Porcupine Playground' quilt just never ceased to amaze me. I knew that someday I would have to revisit this design and make an actual front out of the back I initially designed. So the upcoming QuiltCon submission was a good opportunity to do so.

My plan was to achieve high visual impact with contrasting colours. So I opted for black and white solids, mixed with the ever so amazing cross hatched fabrics by Carolyn Friedlander and the same orange solid I used in 'Porcupine Playground'.

For the back of 'Porcupine Playground' I used left over half-triangles for the off-centered vertical strip. I now improvised the piecing for that dividing strip. I used this tutorial by Debbie of 'A Quilter's Table' to make 'improv spikes'. First back ones.

Then white ones.  My aim was to use a lot of negative space beside that vertical strip of spikes and have indistinct edges, so basically you don't see where the black fabric ends and where the white fabric starts.

I repeated the idea of having little orange areas in the quilt as focal points to add a little interest.

Whereas the back of my 'Porcupine Playground' quilt was to use up scraps and left over fabrics there was a lot of editing and careful arrangement of colour and fabric placement this time round.

I quilted straight lines with white Aurifil 40wt thread first and wanted to quilt with black thread as well, but that didn't go according to plan. I don't know of you have ever tried to sew with black thread on white fabric, but it just doesn't look good.

I spent an entire weekend trying to figure this out. I thought it's my thread tension (which was a bit off) but it seems as though a lot of people had similar difficulties. Apparently the loop from the bobbin thread is so visible on the white fabric that it just looks odd.

So I used dark grey thread instead, and I was so happy that I did. Black thread on black fabric is invisible. Not so the dark grey, it created a such nice texture. Exactly what I wanted.

I used a lot of orange solids for the back. The different coloured thread looks so good on it!
And I applied the binding again by hand. Three evenings. That seems to be the standard time frame for my size of quilts. This one is rather big though with 60 x 84" (1.52 x 2.33m).

I just finished it in time for the QuiltCon submissions. Fingers crossed that it gets accepted!
Stay tuned for the full reveal of  'Splinter'.