Newest

One more finish for 2015 - a Seahawks fleece throw. Fleece was marked down after Thanksgiving. It's backed with a lime green. Most fleece throws are shown as just tied together at the fringe edges, but I saw some a few years ago that were quilted on a long arm. I made 3 of them 4 or 5 years ago. You just load the backing fleece along the selvage ends and float the top layer. It can be quilted very loosely so it goes quick, but even the minimal amount of quilting gives it more stability than none at all. I quilted spirals with feather-like appendages. Unfortunately, since the navy blue was on top, I couldn't see where I'd been, so there are places where I ran over previous lines. And the fringe is shorter on one side than the others. But none of that really matters. It's cozy.

I've got fleece enough to make one more, and this time I'm going to put the lime on top so I can tell what I"m doing.

Go Hawks!

My Oldest UFO

Started Jan. 1, 1986, finished Dec. 29, 2015. Just made it under the wire for less than 30 years! Of course I wasn't working on it most of that time. I remember clearly the New Year's Day that I started cutting the pieces for this - I was home in Wasco, and Mom and Dad were in Pasadena to see the Rose Bowl parade. I watched the parade on TV, and traced and cut out patches at a card table. Yes, this predates rotary cutters, and I made templates out of plastic, traced around them and cut the fabric with scissors. How the quilting world has changed! I was influenced by a class taken with Roberta Horton, who had made it her mission to expand quilting beyond the little calicoes that made up most quilts at the time. We did little exercises to see how mixing in larger prints, stripes and plaids (some cut off-grain!) made blocks more interesting. It seems so obvious now, but was eye-opening then. And it wasn't done just in the name of being more artsy or wonky; Roberta had researched antique scrap quilts and observed how making do with what they had led to more visually intriguing quilts.

I used some small prints, of course, but also larger prints, woodblocks, novelty fabrics, stripes, plaids and checks. 

This is mostly hand-quilted, mainly outlining the patches, plus a few diagonals, and straight lines in the sashing. When I got it out last winter to see what was needed to finish it, there were 2 blocks left to quilt, most of the sashing, plus the border. The border was too intimidating, so I gave myself permission to machine quilt that if I would just finish hand-quilting the rest. I got those 2 blocks and some sashing done then before putting it away again until this December. 

The backing is the same printed plaid as the sashing, but in a brushed cotton version. That, plus the polyester batting and the minimal hand quilting, make it very soft and cozy. 

Countdown

It's time for all those end of year countdowns and recaps of what we accomplished during the year. I just need to catch up on some completed projects from the past couple of months. (I may have more before Friday, as I have a couple of things that are thisclose to being finished.)

This little quilt had been hanging around for several years waiting to be quilted. I don't even remember why I pieced it; I think it may have just been to practice quilting on. So that's what I did. Tried out several designs that I have admired in photos or classes. Long swirls, pebbles, fills between lines, wavy cross-hatching...

It's about 18 x 28 inches.

Linking to Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Through the Window

Staring through the window is how I got the inspiration for this quilt design. I was trying to come up with something strong, graphic yet simple, and had been looking at lots of pictures of modern quilts but nothing felt quite right. Then one day I was idly staring out the window with blinds in an open position, closed my eyes, and the after image was of sections of bright strips against a dark background. Aha! this could be something. I sketched and calculated sizes, and came up with this.

It's 3 sets of 5 strips, going from light to medium green. (Kona Cactus, Lime and Grass Green) The background is Kona Nightfall. Draping it over the picnic table on a sunny day was the best way to get a picture. 

The quilting is mostly wavy lines in the background, interspersed with a few spirals along the outside edges. And down the middle there are some circles with fish tails inside. I got that idea from looking at New Zealand Maori tattoo designs, along with one of the designs used in the green strips, which was called whale's teeth, if I remember correctly. 

The back picks up some of the colors, but in a different mood. Yellow cherries scattered across blue and white. 

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Friday.

Bluebird Squares

Finally have something finished to share. I've had two quilts done except for binding since June, and now the smaller of the two is bound. This is adapted from a design in Emily Cier's book, Color, Block & Quilt.  The pieced blocks were replaced with the print, and I had already cut squares from that print which were smaller than her quilt. So I added more blocks to make up the difference. Let's see, I also made the outside border a different color and slightly larger.

Draped over a chair, on a gorgeous fall day.

On the hammock. The squares were quilted with concentric squares, the sashing with a zigzag. 

And the back.

I used up the remainder of the tree/bird print, plus a coordinating zigzag print, and assorted other prints. 

End of May

Time for one more finished quilt in May! This one got put on the back burner several times, as I worked on higher-priority items. I was looking at the pile of hand-dyed fabric on my sewing table and thinking that I should really do something with at least some of it. Especially if I want to dye more this summer. I sorted through them for awhile, and then did this. It started with the center strip, which was my first attempt at shibori. As shibori, it was a failure: the colors mostly bled into each other except for the orange, which just made blotches. But when I looked at it as if it were an abstract painting, I liked it. I pulled other fabrics to go with it, all hand-dyed by me except for the dark teal at the ends and 2 small strips near the center which is a Kona solid.

For the quilting, I did squares on the diagonal, and filled every other row with echoed blossoms, and different line designs. 

Linking to Crazy Mom Quils for Finish It Up Friday. 

For Mom

A couple of weeks ago, Mom asked if I could make her a little quilt to warm up her knees while sitting in the chair. She has a couple of lap quilts, but she wanted something smaller. I guess so it wouldn't flap all over. I rummaged through the stash, and did this quickie:

It's 27 x 36 inches, just 4 big rectangles of an interesting print, sashed with a starry print that really set off the print's colors. It's quilting in swirls in the sashing and swirly blossoms in the print. 

The back is purple-y flannels, both for warmth and to keep it from sliding off. I didn't quite get it done in time for Mother's Day, but it was mailed the day after, and she's now using it.

April Showers

Not much rain this April, but I was in mind of warmer rains, and sunny waters, when choosing the fabrics for this quilt.

The pattern was in Quilty magazine a while back (Tunisia, Sept/Oct 2013). I wanted it wider than the original, so I cut the strips at 2 1/2" instead of 2". It ended up 66" wide by about 76" long. 

A sideways view. 

The back. I was able to use some pieces of large scale prints. The fabrics on the back, the binding and some of the fabrics in the top are mostly 15 or more years old. Some of the top fabrics are newer though. 

Folded to show the striped green and purple binding. This was a Nancy Crow design. I think there are 2 more prints by her in the top. Wish she was still producing prints!

Jul Hunderna

A Swedish name for this quilt that sounds nicer than Christmas Dogs. I found this novelty fabric a few years ago, and thought it was so fun with various dogs sledding, decorating the dog house, building snowmen, etc. But then what to do with it? I found this quilt layout in a book by Emily Cier, Color, Block & Quilt. It was intended for related pieced blocks of various sizes, but I thought it would work well for a novelty print. It's cut into the appropriate sizes and framed in various red prints. The green column behind them is a Heidi Stoll-Weber print of a hand-dye, and the beige sides are from Stonehenge.

Close-up of the dog print.

Santa Quilt Finished

Actually finished the binding on this one over a week ago, but I've been too busy with other things to take photos or blog it. It has multiple red and white fabrics in the coin columns, to look like candy canes. And separated by a navy print with 2" high Santas scattered on it, along with some small globes and holly. It's quilted in edge to edge echoed swirls, done in muted gold thread (not shiny or metallic). The less-dense quilting makes it feel soft and cozy even before being washed.

I took another Christmasy one off the frame this morning, ready for trimming and binding. 

Leverage

This was supposed to be a 2014 quilt, but my fingers and eyes got too tired to finish the binding. So it will be a fast start to 2015. This was made using the Cantilevers pattern by Jessica Levitt. When I first saw her quilt in a magazine, I loved it. When it was released as a pattern, I had to have it, even though most of the time I never get around to making quilts from patterns.

I made mine twin-size, plus a little extra on the sides. So really it's a smallish double.

Quilting: spiraled squares in the background, wavy lines in the bars. It was quick and fun to quilt.

The backing is a brushed cotton plaid I've had forever - well over 20 years at least. I think I was going to make a shirt or shirt dress from it, but was too intimidated to match all the plaid lines. But it makes a cozy quilt back, and also inspired the color scheme. 

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts for a first Friday finish.