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).

Fade To Grey - Pantone Quilt Challenge 2019

Here is my last minute entry for the Pantone Quilt Challenge 2019: Fade To Grey

I am really in love with this quilt for many reasons. Firstly I wasn't that fond of the colour. Coral, hm. But hey, it's a challenge and you gotta make that work.

After selecting coral solids and combining them with some prints the colour grew on me. I also added a lot of texture with linen and shot cottons, which worked really well.

I also had the idea of having the coral colour fading to grey. That was a play with volume and different colour shades to achieve this ombre effect I very much enjoyed doing.

I wasn't sure if improv log cabin blocks were the right choice for a challenge but it suited the idea of reflecting a coral reef so much that I went with it. Because not only did I get inspired by the colour coral but I also wanted to highlight that our coral reefs are dying. And when they do they turn grey, this sad process is called bleaching and is effecting a large percentage of our coral reefs due to pollution and the temperature rise of our oceans.

The quilting is another reason why I love this quilt so much. I thought long about doing straight lines, but in whatever direction I imagined the lines to be it just wasn't the right thing to do. I started free motion quilting improv geometric shapes all over and that worked so well. The thread colour also changes towards the top, where it's first light grey and then white.

The back is simple but follows the same principle, coral at the bottom, light grey at the top.

The quilting with different thread colours is very evident at the back and it looks good here, too. I did a faced binding to just focus on the quilt itself.

We went to an former steel production plant Jahrhunderthalle in my hometown to take photos. The rusty panels and old walls gave the quilt such a great backdrop.

And how suitable is the art installation of American artist Olu Oguibe installed for the Ruhrtriennale in 2018, you can read more about it here.

Quilt stats:
Name: Fade To Grey
Size: 50 x 55" (127 x 140cm)
Category: large quilts, international
Country: Germany

Linking this to Rebecca and Sarah, thanks you so much for organising the challenge again this year! 

Purpel Haze is at QuiltCon!

I am so excited to have another quilt in this most prestigious show that is QuiltCon that's happening right now. I am unfortunately not in Nashville this year, but that gives me the opportunity to finally show proper photos of Purple Haze including the back, which I also like very much:

So when you're at QuiltCon make sure you ask those lovely ladies with the white gloves to turn Purple Haze around for you!

I really like this fresh colour combination and that Aurifil thread in light lilac and 50wt was just the perfect choice.

So here it is again in all it's beauty. This quilt has challenged me in so may ways, there are so many reasons I am extremely proud that hopefully a lot of quilters get to see it in real life.

There are so many interesting details in this quilt, that truly makes me want to explore curves further.

You can read about the blocking progress here, and the initial post where I was taking part in the Pantone Quilt Challenge 2018 with the quilt top only and won 1st prize of the international entries here. 

And here is Purple Haze hanging at QuiltCon in Nashville. 

Such a pity I wasn't there myself. But I'm going to QuiltCon in 2019, that's for sure!

Is it worth it to block a quilt?

And will it actually work?
That question was in my head for about three months. I was debating with myself whether to leave the quilt as distorted as it was and just live with it or try to go the extra mile and block it. 
 

After my 'Purple Haze' quilt won 1st place in the international entries of the 'quilt top only category' in this year's Pantone Quilt Challenge I was very eager to start quilting it. I noticed some fabric shifting during the process but did not expect the outcome of it to be that bad!

In the space of 15.5" the quilt was out of shape for almost 1". That continued to be about 4.5" by the end of the quilt (see first photo above, quilt folded in half). I'd never have such a distorted quilt. I asked the quilting community for some advice as to why this happened.

Curved blocks apparently are a bit tricky and are prone for fabric shifting during the quilting process. I didn't know that, that's the first curved quilt I've made. And on top of it I opted for diagonal straight quilting lines... bad combination.

Deadlines are always a good motivator. As I've seen that the Bloggers Quilt Festival is due I just decided to give blocking a go. I've watched a good few tutorials and people used their carpet for blocking quilts. Since we only have timber floors I used my recently purchased insulation boards as base to pin the quilt into. By coincident the boards have a lovely lilac colour that suited the quilt very well. The boards are actually to become my new design wall, I still need some flannel to cover them.

But first the question: do I bind before or after the blocking process? And what will happen with my quilt when I wash it without the binding? I have heard that people blocked their quilts with and without the binding and had equally good results. Since my quilt was so badly distorted I decided to wash the quilt without the binding but sewed along all edges to secure the quilting stitches beforehand.

I washed the quilt in the washing machine for a bout 10 minutes at a very gentle cycle and only put the spin on for about 30sec. I was so afraid that the quilting would rip apart but it was all good. Some people put the quilt in the bathtub, I guess that works as well.

It actually wasn't that difficult to pull the quilt into shape. I used the perfect 90degree angle of the boards as a guide and started pinning the quilt in place. I marked the boards with tape to indicate the shape the quilt should have and left the quilt in place for 1.5 days to dry out.

I'm so happy now with this quilt! I just applied the binding today and will make this a last minute entry into the Bloggers Quilt Festival.

Unfortunately we have terrible rainy weather here today so I could only take indoor photos. I'm planning  to take better photos outside and will do another blog post soon. But here it is, nice and square! 

The result is better than expected. The quilt still is not perfectly square but I am totally happy with the way it turned out.

Before I blocked the quilt I had asked some quilty friends: so what happens with that blocked quilt when I wash it again? Will it loose it's shape again? Do I need to pull it into shape every time I wash it? Most people only block their quilts when it's a wall hanging quilt or to be issued for a show and basically never to be washed again, so no one really could answer that. If you have some experience with that please leave a comment!

I think I'll hang 'Purple Haze' up for a bit and enjoy these happy colours and I guess time will tell how the shape behaves after washing again.

So was it worth it to block the quilt? Definitely yes! Did it work? Surprisingly yes! Will I do it again? Well, I hope this doesn't happen that often but yes, I would definitely block a quilt again and next time I'm not waiting three months to do it!

I'm linking to the Bloggers Quilt Festival hosted by Amy Ellis. Go and see some amazing quilts!
Also linking to Finish up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

Pantone Quilt Challenge 2018 - Purple Haze (a finished quilt top)

I am so happy to take part in this year's Pantone Quilt Challenge again and that the category 'Quilt Top Only' exists as entry.  Our recent move kept me so busy that I wasn't able to finish a whole quilt in time.

So this year's Pantone colour of the year is Ultraviolet. I had some problems finding matching colours but in the end I was very happy with my choices of Kona Bright Peri as equivalent to Ultraviolet, Kona Corsage as light violet, Kona white and Kona Tangerine as a pop of bright orange. As often I mixed it with the beautiful Carolyn Friedlander cross hatch fabrics. I can't help myself, I just love them.

I also seem to have the suitable Pantone cup for every quilt challenge I do, this one is an espresso cup and it even has some milky foam and coffee in it!

I wanted to do something bright and cheery for this quilt and opted do to improv curves. That was the first time I did improv curves and they were a bit scary but after a few blocks I really enjoyed the whole process!

I was looking for an alternative layout other than having all blocks in one direction or forming circles. So I came up with this design:

As often my husband came up with the name for the quilt: Purple Haze. Very suitable I think.

I love this quilt top so much already and can't wait to finish the quilt. The whole colour scheme, the sewing technique and the quilt layout itself is so outside my comfort zone and unlike anything I did before. But that's what a challenge is for, right?

Quilt stats:
Name - Purple Haze
Category - Quilt Top Only
Size - 1.50x150m/ 59x59"
Country - Germany

Linking to Bryan House Quilts and No Hats in the House and thanking Rebecca and Sarah for hosting the challenge again this year!

UPDATE: Purple Haze has won 1st place in the 'Quilt top only' Global category!!!
Wow, I'm very happy and honored!
See here all the amazing winners.

Pantone Quilt 2017 - Nature's Neutral

This is my first time taking part in the Pantone Quilt Challenge and I'm quite excited about it!

My first idea was a string quilt with very bright greens, yellows and blues. But then, one morning I looked at my Pantone mug and changed my mind.

I quickly sketched a block design which is inspired by this very iconic Pantone look:
A solid colour with the Pantone colour number in black in a white box below.

That was so much better than a string block!  

For the black colour numbers I picked four different graphic black and white fabrics. I paired each green with a different b/w fabric. 

To support this very graphic quilt design I wanted to quilt simple straight lines. My sewing machine gave me some head aches though as the fabric shifted so much and distorted the blocks that I decided to quilt it on the longarm.

I opted for a light grey thread colour similar to the solid background and quilted densely 1/4" apart. For the batting I used Quilters Dream Poly, which was in my goodie bag I got at QuiltCon. I normally use cotton batting or a cotton blend, but for this quilt I didn't want any crinkles so I gave the Poly batting a try. The quilt lays nice and flat so the little advertising in the QuiltCon goodie bag actually worked! I think I might use that again for similar purposes.

Since the topic of this year's Pantone colour is 'Greenery' I at least used some very floral fabric for the back. And you know what? For the very first time ever I hand sewed my binding! I have always sewed it with the machine, I guess it needed Katie Pedersen and Marla Varner who kindly showed me at my recent workshop at Katie's lovely Seattle studio how to do hand binding. So thank you, you two!! And surprisingly I loved it! Took me two hours for approx. 100" but that can only get better I suppose!

My husband recently spotted this awesome new graffiti at a tram station close to our home. I attached double sided tape to the back of the quilt and stuck it to the wall. Worked really well!

I am entering this mini quilt into the Pantone Quilt Challenge, link to vote here.
Voting opens May 29 2017.

Quilt stats:
Name: Nature's Neutral
Size: 29 x 21.5"
Solid fabrics: Kona Solids in Peridot, Basil, Chartreuse, Grass Green and Silver
Binding fabric: Black/White cross hatch Architextures by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufmann