Seeing Squares

Finished this at last. The pattern is Seeing Squares, by Empty Bobbin Studios. The pattern is very clear and easy to follow, but I got very bored doing all the cutting and sewing of small units before any blocks went together. As a result, I put it away several times (over a few years) before finally committing to getting it done this fall. And at the end, I put on a solid border, interspersed with a few four patches, rather than do another set of blocks.

The color scheme was chosen to coordinate with the backing fabric. Probably not my favorite combination of colors, but I wanted to use up the fabric. The quilting was done the same way Angela Walters did the quilt in the pattern. It was pretty easy and quick to do, until my thread started shredding and breaking every couple of passes. That extended the time as well. 

Dyed Quilt

Finally, another quilt finished! This was made with hand-dyed fabrics (from previous years, not this summer's ice dyes). And quilted as a mandala or medallion. I found it very tricky to do different patterns in a circle. But it looks ok if you don't examine the quilting lines too closely :). The border quilting came out nicely though. I did angled ferns there.

Space Race

Finished this one just in time for May. Space Race was a pattern in an issue of Quiltmaker magazine from 1983. I had to adapt the pattern a little for rotary cutting with rulers - this pre-dated all that, and printed templates that were intended to be traced, cut out, and then traced around on the fabric and pieces individually cut out! Hard to believe sometimes how far we've come. Anyway, I measured all the templates and then cut them from strips. I had to make a few adjustments due to odd angles, but it mostly worked out.

The pattern called for all solids, but I substituted a few prints that matched values and the theme. And two of the rockets have flags representing the dual citizenship of my niece and her sons, the intended recipient.

Linking to Finish It Up Friday, which motivates me to actually finish and photograph some things.

Prismatic Echoes

In January, I was stumped as to what to work on next. I have tons of fabric, much of it in piles that 'go together' as well as stacks of patterns, magazines and books that have designs I'd like to make. But I wasn't making the connection between any of the fabric stacks and any of the patterns. Unable to make a decision, and stressed about not making a decision, one day I saw a picture of this quilt kit and thought, maybe I should just make a kit and be able to sew without having to make decisions.

That was a good plan, although of course it didn't turn out as simple as that. There was a lot of cutting before even getting to the sewing part, and then there were actually a lot of choices about what color to put where. After finishing the top, it got put aside for a bit while I made a quilt for my mom.

After quilting, binding and washing, I took it into the shop to show them, and incidentally take a few pictures on their clean floor with decent lighting.

Quilting on the darker portions is a loose fern design.

On the lighter sections, I quilted some straight lines to echo, and then filled in the gap with wishbones.

Prismatic Echoes is a free pattern from Robert Kaufman; it was the inspiration for this kit of Blueberry Park fabrics I got from my local quilt shop Circa 15 Fabric Studio. It's just now celebrating its one year anniversary, although I only discovered it last fall. It's a gorgeous shop, featuring all the modern fabrics and designs that are sometimes so hard to find locally.

Linking to Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Spring Darts

Mom has moved into an assisted living mini-apartment. The full-size bed quilts are too large for her hospital type bed, and although she has some lap quilts, I decided to make her a long, narrow quilt for the bed. I put together some prints with a spring flavor and then chose a solid to complement them.

This is a very easy pattern: just 1 square and 2 triangles of the print and the solid for each block. I used a triangle ruler that lets you cut the triangles from the same width strip as the squares, and was able to get the pieces for 4 blocks from each 4 1/2 " strip. 

I'm taking Christina Cameli's Wild Quilting class on Craftsy, and experimented with some of the designs on this. 

Lawn Chair Quilt

This was a pattern at Moda's Bake Shop a few years ago that I thought I'd like to make some day. Mine is in a dark green solid (I think it was Kona Pesto, but it may have been Spruce) and browns from my stash. Brown is not one of my favorite fabric colors, but I have still collected some. I pulled a selection that worked with the green and still had some visual interest, and cut 2 1/2 inch strips from each one.

It's quilted in a topographic style. That's basically loosely-echoing wavy lines with an occasional bump or valley to indicate a change in terrain. It's quick and easy to do. 

Star Sampler

This came out of a block round robin with our group at Safeco some years back. We each picked a block or type of block, color scheme, etc., made one block to start it off and then passed it around the group to do more blocks. I had asked for any kind of 12" star, in bright colors on blue backgrounds. Including the block I made to start, I ended up with 8 blocks which can be challenging to set together. With the on-point set, navy sashing, and gold stars, it looks fairly patriotic, so I thought it might be a good one for the Quilts of Valor program. However, although it meets the size criterion, I just recently noticed that they request no metallics and there are quite a few fabrics in this with small amounts of gold or silver metallic accents. I guess I will have to ask the local representative if it will be OK.

Linking to Finish it up Friday. 

Repeat

Well, the Seahawks didn't repeat going to the Super Bowl, but I still made another quilted fleece throw. It's just the same as the first one I made, but a little better. I put the solid lime fleece on top, so it was easier to see where I was quilting. And the fringed edges are more or less the same all the way around (the first one has much shorter fringe on one end).