I thought it would be fun to see some modern quilts at the LA County Fair, so I thought I’d enter one. It’s not really a show quilt BUT, it is definitely different than any other quilts at the fair. We usually go to either the LA or Orange County Fairs every year. My primary goal is usually to get a turkey leg (Hehe) but, this year I wanted to grab a picture of my quilt hanging.

Remember this quilt top? Well, it got quilted, bound and named “Gossip Girls”. It was then dropped off a few weeks ago as a submission to the fair.

Here it is on display at the LA County Fair:

The funny thing is, my ONLY intention was to have a modern quilt at the fair but, it looks like she has a little ribbon pinned to her!

Next year, I’m going to see if we can get the LAMQG to enter a whole bunch of quilts. Maybe we can get our own section. . . Hmm. . . I think we should get MQG’s all across the world to enter quilts in their County or Local Fairs!

How fun!

After many months of very little quilting, I’ve been cranking out quite a few quilt tops that have been floating around in my head. This is one of them. I’m so happy to be back to quilting too! This one is called Stairway to Heaven. Now, I don’t even know if I fully believe in a heaven but, if there is one then I’d imagine the journey to be something like this quilt. Each step while beautiful in itself is just one color looking at the next colorful step. Even the big step in the middle could represent the big challenges that we all face. but, when you step back and look at the whole thing then it is a beautiful symphony of colors. OK. I may making more of this than I should! But, I like the name nonetheless!

So, when I showed this at the LAMQG meeting this month, I mentioned that I was sure this was a specific style of a Log Cabin. I decided to do a little research. And guess what, this happens to be a rectangular version of just a plain ‘ole Basic Log Cabin block. Who woulda thunk? Of course, this is a massive version at around 53″ x 60″! The balance of the light on one side and the color on another side is what is important in the Basic Log Cabin Block design. Traditionally it is not just one block in a quilt like this one but, it is combined with a series of other similar blocks and the contrast in colors on both sides can be used to create many interesting designs.

A not so great picture of "Stairway to Heaven" Quilt top

A few days ago I was in the bookstore and ran across this awesome book by Susan Beal called Modern Log Cabin Quilting. Perfect Timing. I had seen this book on the internet but, hadn’t gotten a chance to flip through it yet. Now, in a seemingly futile effort to keep the secret (or not so secret) hoarder in me at bay I don’t buy too many books but for those of you that don’t have this issue this is a good book to look at. I was fascinated by the history that it told and the fresh modern projects that are great even for beginners!

Off to do the quilting! (I’m definitely thinking very linear quilting with white on the white side and maybe some contrasting colors on the colorful side!)

. . . that I think I really love! Now, to decide how to quilt it. . . any ideas?

This is a project that was finished last year – like six months ago – that I never posted! It was made for the LAMQG Mini Quilt Swap. It was a random swap so everyone that brought a mini quilt pulled a wrapped package from the table. My little quilt was pulled by Kelli and guess who’s quilt I pulled? Yep, Kelli’s! It is super cute and I’ll post it soon.

Of course I used the Six Minute Circle method developed by Dale Fleming and this quilt was inspired by a Marimekko fabric.

And, it was named by the most “awesomest” quilt namer in all the wide world – my girlfriend Courtney again! (Thanks Courtney!) She said ‘Jagged Little Pill’ and I think it’s perfect!

And here’s my poor attempt at a label. It is actually pieced and I like that but, I didn’t give myself enough time to write the info before it was quilted so it’s not the neatest. Oh well. It’s labeled for once!

I love looking at quilting in new and fresh ways. Oftentimes “new and fresh” refers to looking at traditional and established methods and making them your own. I’ve been thinking a lot about designing whole cloth quilts. I’m a little hesitant in calling this a “whole cloth quilt” because most whole cloth quilts are such intricate works of art. I’ve even thought about referring to this as a Plain Quilt a name the Amish use for a whole cloth or almost whole cloth quilt. The word “plain” is quite the misnomer though. There was little to no piecing in Plain Quilts BUT, the stitching though clean and simple was beautiful and often quite intricate.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with the term a whole cloth quilt is simply a quilt made from two pieces of “whole cloth” basted together and then quilted. The highlight of the quilt is of course the actual quilting stitches as there isn’t any piecing. So, for my version of a whole cloth quilt, I started to think of some creative, clean, modern machine quilting patterns.

I’ve been very obsessed with the herringbone pattern lately, sketching many herringbone quilt patterns in my sketchbook and decided to go with a herringbone quilting design for this quilt. I so love how it came out. It is very simple but, very classic and clean. And the rich colors just make the design pop.

I designed this quilt with a specific friend in mind. Liz of Lady Harvatine fame (and one of the most awesome and inventive quilters I know) is having a little Baby Harvatine and I wanted to make something special for her and her little one. Luckily, we knew what her colors would be since the blocks we made for her for the Bricolage & Butter Bee will eventually be a quilt for a guest bed that would go in the babies room. Yippee! So, I set out to find the perfect fabric for this quilt. I figured she would receive a whole slew of quilts (which she did) and thought that she was the perfect candidate for a unique quilt style – that she likely wouldn’t get from anyone else. I auditioned a number of fabrics, including some luscious dupioni silk. In the end, I settled on a  two pieces of linen for the front and the back – very similar in color and texture to the fabrics in her quilt. And a simple cotton binding – again with two fabrics from her quilt.

The front of the quilt is a turquoise blue and the back is a yellow gold color. I don’t know the brand, they are just linen’s that I purchased at Michael Levine’s Fabrics in downtown Los Angeles. I did pre-wash all the fabric since I knew the linen would shrink quite a bit.

Of course, since the highlight of the quilt would be the quilting, I had to decide on the thread that would be used. I chose to use a Yellow/Gold Gutermann Variegated Cotton thread. I love the effect. It adds a subtle character to the quilt that you don’t even much notice until you look at the stitching.

The contrast of the thread with the turquoise on the front was perfect.

The beauty of this quilt is in the texture and color and this was difficult to capture in pictures.

I chose to make the backing yellow even though it was just a complementary color on Liz’s quilt. I love how the quilting lines created texture and depth.

I like how the binding frames the quilt and adds another subtle detail. It is a 1″ binding which works well with a simple quilt like this. It includes two fabrics from Liz’s original quilt. I can’t remember the line the green comes from (if you recognize it let me know!) and the red is a Shot Cotton.

Let me know what you think about it. I’d love to see what others interpretation of a modern whole cloth  or “plain” quilt would look like.

At long last, 270 5.5″ HST later – here is the quilt top for my sweetie. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to photograph the whole top – but, I’ll wait until I’m finished the quilting to figure that out. The quilt is massive though – he asked for a king sized but, I could only find batting for a queen sized quilt – thankfully!

This is a side view of the Blue Maize Quilt the blue zig-zag stripe is actually at the top of the quilt. It is 18 rows high. It is made with 15 yellow fabrics – most of them are various shades of yellow Kona cottons but, there is one linen fabric and 3 pieces that are yellow prints just to give it a little interest. There are five  shades of Kona blues that comprise the blue zig zag area. It will be backed in Kona Snow and I believe I’ll bind it in Snow as well.

A detail view. Excuse all the wrinkles and strings! :

Once again, the quilt is turned around to better show it. It’s actually upside down in this shot to show the blue zig-zag area.

I originally planned to have a 6″ square final block size. I started out with 7″ squares but, once the HST’s were finally cut out they were too skewed and small to cut down to a 6.5″ square, so I had to trim them down to 6″. Of course once 6″ blocks are sewn together, you end up with a 5.5″ final block. Oh well. More reason for this to be a Queen size versus the original request of a King size quilt. But, look at this yummy pile of trimmings. I was a little skeptical at all the yellows and the blues but, my fears were quickly assuaged as this pile was built up.

I can’t wait until this baby is all finished!

Does having the fabric cut out count as a WIP (Work In Progress)? I hope so because I don’t even have the quilt laid out yet. But, I’ve been dreaming about a pixel quilt for a long time. Here are my fabrics – 20 Kona Cottons. I can’t wait! Have a good week everyone!

Does anyone else have this problem? You make a quilt as a gift for a friend or family member and then fall in love with it SO much that it is almost painful to give away? Well, this was my experience with the Huckleberry Modern Baby Quilt. Luckily I was strong and was able to give it to it’s intended recipients, the absolutely adorable Baby Jack and his wonderful parents tonight!

It is something about the massive circle in circle and the colors. I just love this blue! It’s Kona Robin’s Egg.

I wont even try to name all the fabrics that were used in this quilt but, the “inspiration” fabric was “A is for Alligator” by Jillian Phillips for Hoffman Fabrics. I am not usually a big fan of novelty fabrics but, some of them are just perfect for baby quilts and gifts and Jillian Phillips nailed this one.

The little animals on this fabric are c-uuuuuu-ute! A square elephant and a square faced lion? Are you serious? And look at the little kangaroo! The inchworm and the chipmunk are equally adorable. But, I think the panda bear may be my favorite though.

This quilt was made for friends of mine. The dad is a musician, hence the Michael Miller “Groovy Guitar” fabric. The rest of the fabrics were picked for the mom to love!

Of course it’s a baby gift so it gets Bibs, Burps, and a Ball!

Oh, and I had some onesies left over from another gift so I appliqued a guitar on the front of one.

(My balls lately have been a little bit more wonky than I’d like. I’ve used the Purl Bee Beach Ball pattern for awhile but, I’m thinking maybe I’ve used the same paper pattern too many times and have trimmed down the edges a bit thus resulting in a more wonky ball than originally. Maybe it’s time for me to come up with my own pattern!)

I’m SO in love with the bib and burp cloth too. For a minute, I was really trying to justify at least keeping them and just giving the quilt away maybe with the ball. But, I figured Jack could use them a little bit more than I could. (Sniff. . .) Once again, I had to take a deep breath and reach deep inside for the strength to give these away as well. (Wiping away a tear. . .)

The Bibs and Burp Cloths are both backed in the flannel “A is for Alligator” fabric.

There’s only one thing that is comforting in a situation like this and that is to know that these particular friends will love and appreciate this just as much as I do.

So, I had to name this quilt the “Huckleberry”. This was the dad’s idea of a great baby name but, I see that mom has prevailed with awesome strong affirming name of Jack. But, for better or worse, the name Huckleberry is going to stick with this quilt.

The circle in circle was pieced with the Dale Fleming’s 6-Minute Circle method. It took a few more minutes than six since this was such a large circle. It also took a lot of tape to make the freezer paper the proper width and a whole bunch of crawling around on the floor. But, all in all, it was a fairly straightforward process.

I quilted this with concentric circles in the blue area. And the big patchwork circle in the middle is stippled.

The back is a random selection of patchwork rectangles from”leftover fabric from the quilt front separated by strips of the Kona Robin’s Egg. The finished size of this quilt is: 43 x 44″. I love how you can see the quilting lines on the back of the quilt too!

You can’t have a gift without a card, can you? This one is pretty simple. Just a printed blue circle in a black circle which mimics the quilt design.

And, of course here it is all bundled up and ready to be delivered.

Goodbye precious quilt. Goodbye. (I need some support here. Please tell me I’m not the only one with this problem. . .)

So, I’m still exploring what I call Measured Improv. If you’ve read some of my earlier blog entries, you will remember that this is what I termed my approach to Improvisational Piecing.

I now introduce you to “Up In the Air”, my most current exploration:

The inspiration for this quilt was a block created by Kelli for my month in the Bricolage and Butter Bee. I am in love with all of the blocks that I received for this bee, they are all BEAUTIFUL! I challenged the group to make blocks out of a interesting assortment of solid fabrics and received some of the most awesome, unusual blocks back. (Hopefully, I’ll share them all with you soon.)   But, on one of Kelli’s blocks, there was something about her use of the two greens with a pop of the pink and a smidgen of grey that inspired me to create this quilt. Actually, it was just the left two-thirds of the block that inspired me! Here it is:

This kind of Improv Piecing for me was very tedious. The piecing itself wasn’t difficult but, it was the “pause and make a decision” step that made it tedious. In an attempt to add dimension and interest in the quilt I tried not to make any two “blocks” alike. (I use the term block loosely. I think of this quilt in term of panels instead of blocks. There are six panels in this quilt. But, each panel was pieced in sections which I’m now referring to as blocks.) In any case, it became increasingly difficult to create interest and variety in each of the blocks. So each subsequent block seemed to take a bit longer mainly in just deciding what to do next.

The name “Up In The Air” came to me after hearing several people who saw this quilt say that it reminded them of looking down at fields from up in an airplane. (Plus, I think I had just seen the movie “Up In The Air” so I think the phrase was in my head. Haha!) I wavered between this name and “Window Seat” but, “Up In The Air” won out!

This quilt is 48x 67 in. The Kona Cotton colors used were: Ash, Medium Grey, Charcoal, Coal, Grass Green, Chartreuse, and Pomegranate.

Here is a detail view of the top of the quilt front:

The back was pieced with leftover fabric from the front – large big blocks of color all taken from the front. I love how the scale of color really affects the look and feel of a piece. Larger chunks of color look so much brighter or darker than little slivers of that same color. It almost doesn’t look like the same colors as the front.

I almost didn’t want to quilt this for fear that it would detract from the design of the quilt. So, I decided to quilt it lightly. The quilting lines are random semi-straight horizontal lines.

Here’s another detail view of the back of the quilt:

And another that shows a more complete view of the back:

I loved working on this quilt, and I love the final effect but, after being buried in greys I was so ready to dive into using a lot of color for my next project! Let me know what you think about it. I know it’s a little different but, I guess this is what happens when you challenge yourself outside of your norm!

Before I even finished The Big Log in the original colors of Black and White, I started to think about what variations could be made to make the look and feel of the quilt completely different. Though I love black and white quilts for babies I thought that in this case the Black and White was too stark of a contrast for a baby. It just wasn’t playful enough. I’ve also been thinking a lot about monotone quilts as well so I decided to try my hand at a monotone lavender quilt. Once again, these are Kona Cottons in the shades of Pansy and Petunia.

The backing once again is a contrasting Kona Cotton this time in Coral. To unify the front and the back, I decided to include a small piece of the Coral backing fabric in the binding. I really like the random yet cohesive affect it has on the quilt. It is just a small touch but it makes the front of the quilt a lot more interesting, I think. The free motion quilting is a simple large meandering.