Alannah and Aaron's Wedding Quilt

Alannah and Aaron's Wedding Quilt

On a quick local vacation at the end of summer, I found some a great bird fabric in Mount Vernon.  Then I got some coordinating fabric in Annacortes and lots of great coordinating fabrics in Coopville.

I fussy cut the birds, framed them in some muddied down solids, then improv pieced log cabin-ish strips around to get the blocks up to 12.5 inch squares.

The blocks were looking a little heavy, so I made more with less of the coordinating fabrics and more of the background.


I played around with the layout.  I didn't want the blocks to line up, so I sashed them on two sides.  The top or bottom got 3 inches of sashing, and the left or right got 4 inches of sashing.  The sashing was pieced with bits of the coordinating fabric to keep it from looking too empty.

I'm so happy with the way it ended up.

 

The back started with the strips of left over solids, then I scattered the left-over blocks, then I sewed together strips of the coordinating fabric and worked them between the solids.  The blocks weren't showing up so I framed them in what little solids I had left.

Here's some details.

I'm off to Hamilton for the wedding next weekend.  Alannah and Aaron should get years of use out of this quilt from "Uncle" Paul.

I also made a quilt for the bride's mother who fosters baby boys till their adoption.

 The back is Ikea fabric with a little applique for colour.

Small projects

Portrait challenge

The August challenge at the VMQG was to do a portrait.

I had started a face quilt years ago, so I pulled it out and added a back that has my hair style and it became my portrait.

 

Neither side really looks like me, so I really just used the challenge to finish a UFO.  Just have to bind it and it's done.

Circles - Beach Balls

I decided to tackle circles and first made a beach ball block that's now a beach quilt that's ready for quilting.

I pieced the triangles together to get stripey octagons and hexagons, then used my compass cutter thingy to cut them into circles.  I didn't use the centre of the block as the centre of the circle so that's why I think they look like balls.

I made the back look like a towel I had when I was in elementary school.  Yes, the wrinkles are built in.

Circles in Circles

Then I tried circles in circles.  I had seen several quilts so here's my inspirations:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/latifahsaafir/5772048865
http://www.flickr.com/photos/peppermintpinwheels/5789125060
http://www.funquilts.com/gallery/patterns/patterns.html  (the Roundabout quilt)

Here's what I came up with.

 Hmmmm.  Same background colour, but off two different bolts.  Make sure you have enough on hand before starting a quilt!

 The back used the other half of the big blue circle.  Below is a close up of the random sort of straight line quilting I did on the yellow background.  I still have to do something in the blue circles then bind it all in orange.

Here's my tips for circles:
Cut the hole with a 1/2 inch smaller radius than the radius of the circle.  Set your seam guide (that thing that screws into the flat table of your sewing machine exactly 1/4 inch back from your needle and be consistent with your 1/4 inch seam.  Use your squirt bottle or lots of steam when you iron the seams and you should get it nice and flat.  I iron the seams open for an really flat look, so I do clip the seams every 1 1/4 inch.

Bottled Rainbows

I organized a "Bottled Rainbows" challenge for the VMQG, so of course, I had to make a couple to show the technique.  Then I made a couple more.  Then more.

Bottled Rainbows blocks for June VMQG Challenge, a photo by myredbike on Flickr.

Here's my batch of blocks.  These are so fun to do and are great to get you playing with colours and focusing on the over-all shade of a piece of fabric rather than focusing on the pattern.
Here's it put together and being shown off at the VMQG meeting.

Paul's Bottled Rainbows quilt, a photo by myredbike on Flickr.

And here's the back.  I just used blocks of colour from the front to make a cool Mondrian style back.

Mondrian-inspired back of Paul's Bottled Rainbows quilt, a photo by myredbike on Flickr.

Thanks, myredbike for taking pictures of me with the weirdest mouth action.  What's up with that?

At the Maker Fair

The VMQG had a booth at the Maker Fair that was held in Vancouver early in the summer.

Here's the booth with a couple of challenge quilts hung way up high, the demo table, a design wall where people rearranged hst blocks and a rack of quilts to oooo and aaaah over.

Several of us did 45 minute demos right through the day and people really seemed to enjoy us piecing and quilting.  I was working on my Bottled Rainbow challenge blocks and others did paper piecing, hand quilting, strip piecing...

vmqg maker faire 8, a photo by crafty_dame on Flickr.

We were very low tech compared to the computer booths, robots, remote cars, walking vehicles, led lights and all the other mad technologies that were being displayed.

I've been a little lazy

I've been a little lazy blogging, but not quilting!

Back in August, I entered 3 quilts in the Ladner Car and Quilt Show.

This mod mosaic one is the one the guild members made the blocks as one of the monthly challenges and I put together and quilted.  I am now an award winning quilter!

It won the people's choice for Modern/Contemporary Quilt.  The Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild was very pleased that a collaborative effort won a prize.  They were also a little surprized! since they didn't know I had entered it in the show.