Trunk Show Part 4 - First Steps into Modern

Wonky Squares Quilts

I'm in a community band.  When I mentioned that I quilt, three of my band mates said they always wanted to make a quilt, so, we started a little quilt group and met at my place when ever we could and each made two quilts.  We started with a Wonky Square quilt and each made blocks in our own colour palate, and level of wonkiness.

Here's mine

I was thinking about avocado and harvest gold appliances when I chose the fabrics.  Each block started with a slightly skew rectangle and was then built out in rings with different widths of the same colour.  At the end I squared up the blocks with white and used my 12.5 inch square ruler to cut it to size.  When I laid it out, the blocks were too close together, so I added in a 2 inch sashing of the background colour and got a nice overall wonky feel.  I quilted it in small overlapping rectangles on my oldest sewing machine - the one mom and dad got just after they were married.

Kenzie's quilt was all yellow-orange and purple-blue.

Her blocks ended up more square and she "engaged the edge" by cutting some blocks in half and putting them around the quilt as if her quilt is just a small part of a larger pattern.  She used batics as well as prints.  She didn't use any sashing, and with these blocks, you really didn't need to get the intersections to match up, since it's all white around each block.  This is a really good beginner quilt since there's really no corners and seems to match up.

Lawanda's quilt is jagged blue, green and brown.

These blocks were trickier to square up since there's big areas of white triangles around most of the blocks.

Hisayo's quilt is pink and light green

Half of her centres are black and half are maroon and two are green.  It took her forever to figure out how to lay it out such that she was happy with it.  Some people just can't embrace wonkiness! 

Here's all of the quilts together

Before we quilted them, we made a kids sized disappearing 9 patch quilt and practiced our quilting skills on them, then went back to the big ones.

Lawanda and I gave our quilts away to friends with babies.  Kenzie kept hers for her own baby boy who was born soon after the quilt was made.  We all used the same red sailors and yellow puppies and light blue boats fabrics.  I did 3 stacked coins strips across the back of mine and appliqued a P for Preston.

Trunk Show Part 3 - Still Pre-Modern

Here's some more traditional quilts that I made in the late 80s early 90s.

Irish Chains

The big green one on the back is a triple Irish chain that my mother and aunt hand quilted on a big frame in Chilliwack.  My aunt and oma have made thick satin quilts for all the girls for their weddings which were filled with a thick batting of carded wool.  The quilting in that kind of quilt is quite wide spread and contains hearts and diamonds in the borders.  Mom and Dad have one that got them through the Saskatchewan winters when they first married.  I had mom and aunty Martha just follow the dark green squares and do diagonal lines across the quilt.  This one got stolen from a house I was renting.  The police figured they wrapped all the stuff they took in it so it looked like they were just heading down the street to the laundry-mat or something.

The blue single Irish chain was for a good friend Michael who shared the house I was living in.  I think his mother has it now.  Single Irish chain quilts are easy to do.  Just make a bunch of 9 patches that look like the 5 face of a dice, then alternate them with solid squares the same size as the whole 9 patch. 

Stack and Whack

I always wanted to do a stack and whack, but I really hated this one once I got this far.  So I gave it to a friend, Vince, who said he loved it and would finish it.  I think the feature fabric wasn't the best for this technique.  I think I got it because the repeat was very close so I wouldn't have to buy a lot to get 8 repeats for the pinwheels.  And I don't like the yellows or the green.  Makes me wonder why I even started it.

Workshops

Now that I've facilitated some workshops, I guess I should somehow let people know.  So, here's a page of workshops I have given and some I'm ready to give.  All are a day long and there's enough time to produce at least 4 blocks using the techniques taught. 

Oh Frasson's Mod Mosaic Technique

 

This block is more of a technique than a pattern.  Using scraps, or strips of coordinating fabric you put together blocks of various sizes. 

Gees Bend Style Quilt

 

This block is also more of a technique than a pattern.  Big blocks are made then cut in quarters and re-assembled.  If you use pieced sashing, you get an all-over pattern.

Stack and Cut Technique for a Ripples Quilt

 

Libbie's Quilt Finished!, a photo by Quilt Circle on Flickr.

This technique involves stacking several fabrics, then cutting it with gentle curves.  Next you put the pieces back together alternating the fabrics.  With straight angled cuts you get a "Hop Skip and Jump" style quilt.  With curved cuts you get a ripple effect.

Paul's Pennants and Sailboats

This one uses a paper template to cut the triangles, then a nifty technique for insetting them into the background fabric with very little waste.  If you want pennants, you connect them with a thin strip, if you want boats, you make the triangles into sails and add a hull.  I used strips of 30's reproduction fabrics for this one.

 
Here's photos from Sanja's flicker stream of my next and bigger version of the quilt
http://www.flickr.com/photos/artisania/
I used strips of 40's reproduction fabrics for this one.  You could also use a single fabric for each triangle, or sew together charm packs for blockier triangles.  Solids would make them look more like the signal flags that are used on big boats.

Paul's Christmas Tree Christmas Tree Skirt

 

With 8 big triangles and some thin strips for garland, you end up with a forest of Christmas trees around your Christmas tree.

Pickup Sticks

 

This technique is all about inserting one inch strips into a block.