Lots of new quilt tops

Over the last month I've made lots of quilt tops, but haven't really got backs ready for them.  Here's a mostly picture post of what I've been working on.

Eggs

This egg quilt was inspired by a quilt on flicker that was inspired by a rug in a home decor catalogue.  I made rectangular blocks using one fat quarter of the Malka Dubrawsky print and some matching Kona yellow  and grey linen look print.

Low Volume

Then I tried a low volume version with a pastel lilac feature print and some linen and textured woven cotton and a coordinating Kona blue.  I'm not as pleased with it as the egg one, but once I sew the blocks together, I might like it more.   The egg blocks are 8 x 13 and the low volume are 12.5 x 9.5.  I think the long narrow ones are more dynamic than the more square ones.

 

Gees Bend Jeans

I finished off* my Gees Bend inspired jeans quilt.  I found my old black jeans and used them to make the last two blocks.  Over all, the complexity looks nice, but somehow it seems like a lot of unwashed jeans.  I used a rough cream coloured linen as the light fabric and that seems to add to the dingy dirty look.  I think I'll call this one "dirty hippies".

* by finished of, I mean I got the top done and have now lost interest.

Water

I selected a group of Japanese water prints for this Ringle and Kerr pattern called Stacks.  The prints are very watery with Koy fish, reeds, clouds and ginko leaves.  However when I cut them up, the prints lost their oomph.  I added the large squares of fabric along one side and set them off with wide background strips and I really love the asymmetry of the layout.  Now what to do for the back?

Sunny Side

 With my Gem 5 and Gem 10 rulers I made a huge sun for the back of the wonky star quilt

The rulers make it easy for everything to fit together easily.  The only tricky part was getting the sky blue cut so that it fit in easily.  The only Y seam was putting together the pentagon shape of the 5 identical triangles.  You can see them between each of the outside points.  Everything else, even the background blue was all straight seams.

 Here's the wonky star top that will be on the other side of the big sun.

Mustard and Blue

And here's a simple 7x7 grid of 2 inch squares with a few missing.  I'll make the back identical but will make the background colour Kona curry.  It's a lovely mustard colour that goes with everything.  I'll use the same civil war reproduction fabrics for the squares.  Maybe I'll set the little squares closer together and off set them on the quilt - like in a corner.  I hope the blue fabric doesn't look so two toned once I get it quilted.  I guess the direction of the weave is affecting the picture.

Gear

We did a "baggie of scraps" exchange/challenge at the last guild meeting.  I ended up with two baggies, so I started with the "extra" bag and had enough to make a big gear.  The gear is 17 inches across, so I think I'll make it into a cushion cover and piece together a striped binding for it.  Now that the piecing is done, I'm ready to move on.  ... must...finish...projects....

 My second bag of scraps is all muted oranges browns yellows and some greens.  No big ideas yet.