How to avoid Y Seams - uanduqal Part 2

Those of you who are hoping to not work with Y seams - I just wrote a post on The Root Connection

And, I have made some progress.. Wouldn't you agree?

Have a warm weekend! I would be definitely in the sewing room where there are plenty of quilts and fabric stash padding the walls if I were still on the east coast.

Happy quilting!
Sujata
 

Unconventional and Unexpected Challenge

Inspired by Sujata Shah, I am creating a new quilt out of my grandmas lovely but damaged quilt.

Quilt top - this used to be a tied quilt, but was badly damaged, so years ago I removed the ties with the intention of repairing it.  Now I have a plan!

 I ripped apart the blocks on a long car trip, and now to play! 

Detail showing damage.

Below are several inspiring quilts from Unconventional and Unexpected, giving me ideas for a layout. 

Not sure which layout I'll use yet, I love them all!

Three version

I've done 3 versions and I'm really struggling to like any of them. 

I upsized the block so made my cuts 5 1/2 for the square, 5 1/2 x 3 for rectangle and 3x3 for corner stones.  Plus, one of my goals for 2019 is to work smaller so I only made them table topper/wall hanging size.

I tried improv-style quarter square triangles, half-square triangles and then just solid fabric corner stones.

My third version flips the string piecing to the center squares with solid fabric on the sides.

The second option also included more focused fabric selection for the center squares (all a shade of caramel).

My quilting mojo seems to be missing right now - I'm sorta in a funk about quilting in general - so I'm not surprised that I'm struggling.

For now, although I had 2 more ideas for this, I think I'll go back to U&U and find another quilt idea to play with.

I must say, I'm really enjoying watching all of you and your creations!  There was one on IG that I really liked - I think it also had red in it.

Overlapping Octagon - how to draft your own pattern

Last night I decided it was finally time to give this quilt a go. There are other things happening simultaneously in the dining room so I may not be as fast as some of you are working. More I saw the images on instagram and your posts on here, I wanted toss whatever is required off to the side and dip my feet in as well.

I really want that scrappy, unplanned look, where octagon corners are mysteriously do appearing and disappearing act. So original quilt was pieced was the way to go. Yes, with Y seams.

This is all I have made so far. One block - not even! I am not sure if the colors are my favorite but it was good to try a sample of the block.

Here is how to draft your own paper pattern. Sorry for the poor quality of this picture.

• Draw a rectangle 2" X 4" with 2" X 2" squares on either end. 
• Draw diagonal lines from corner to corner withing both squares.
• The shape with darker line is the pattern needed for the octagon. 

I also cut 4" X 11" paper from the phone book. Basically split the pages vertically in halves.

Use these as paper foundation piece for your scraps and string. You want to start laying first piece of scrap right side up. Then place the next piece right side down. sew the seam. Press open the second piece. Continue with third and fourth.

 Place the template to see if you have enough length to trim the shape..

I cleaned up the edges before trimming the shape.

Using this template, add 1/4" seam allowance when rimming the string pieced



Here is the example of adding 1/4" seam allowance. 

I chose to make my blocks larger as I really want to make many quilts from this book.

Here is the difference in size of the templates between 8" and 12" finished block.

I think I made the smart decision. Too many Y seams at short distance to consider before choosing the final size of the block.

I hope this helps.

Happy Quilting!

"Cross"/Four Patch for UANDUQAL

I changed my mind yet again on the quilt for the QAL,

and went with my original choice, see the post title above.

Page 80 of

Roderick Kiracofe's book.

This was the first one I marked out and I'm just posting four

of the blocks here.

I'm going with my usual brights - shown below - but also mixing in

a few more subdued fabrics to tone things down!

Happy Quilting

Maureen

Overlapping Octagons

My "Overlapping Octagons" is progressing, but nowhere near completion. Here are the units I've made so far, randomly placed on the design wall.

Overlapping Octagons: Try-out on the design wall with 4.5" red (the new neutral) centres.

I thought I would use as many of my 19th century reproduction fabrics as possible to make space in my sewing room. Unfortunately most of the "reds" look more like brown, so I shall be adding brighter reds to the mix.There was not much blue, and that has nearly all been used now.

I started by planning to use neutral squares; changed my mind to using red ones; changed back to planning neutral and went for it. I forgot to take a photo, but 4.5" neutral squares, surrounded by dark blue strips were so boring! I decided to go back to the red plan and to add neutral and green as well as orange to the strings.The neutral squares went into the hourglass blocks, and strings; cut smaller they are much less ugly/boring..

Although I planned to cut everything freehand, that hasn't been the case. Only the hourglass blocks and some of the strings have been cut freehand, a lot of the strings are actually strips left over from other projects. I didn't dare cut the squares freehand; 4.5" is definitely still out of my comfort zone!

At present I've no idea how large I'm going to make this, and how I'm going to finish it. I'm enjoying using up scraps like this: really satisfying!

Happy sewing

Marly.

Lattice Quilt Top

Lattice Quilt 64" x 64"

Originally inspired by Sujata's Lattice Quilt in Cultural Fusion Quilts, page 55.

The final inspiration came from Roderick's Lattice Quilt in 

Unconventional and Unexpected, page 34.

Story at niftyquilts blog.

RED is my new neutral

Making a start on this today. I'm joining in with Sujata @therootconnection making a quilt from the book #unconventionalandunexpected. Sujata has kindly drafted patterns and instructions for the 'overlapping octagons' quilt, but I have altered mine a little . . . couldn't bear the thought of making 2" quarter square triangles!

I'm using scrappy bits of Amy Butler fabrics and then I tried a few options for the bigger blocks. I almost went with a variety of plaids, but then suddenly I tossed in a red solid . . . and it looked great, so I'm teaming up the prints with assorted red fabrics from my stash.

I wondered about how to get the octagon effect to show more, things seemed a little lost with the four quarter square triangle blocks, so I made up a couple of simple HST blocks too.

I'm not too sure yet where this is going yet, it's all quite mix-and-don't-match right now. However, I'm enjoying making this quilt in a contemporary colour way, it's much brighter than the vintage version. And I guess it fits the brief for both the uanduqal and the recent adhoc: improvquilts challenge too.

• 
  

• Linda from kokaquilts

dipping my toes in

I'm following along with Sujata from therootconnection and the #UANDUQAL with great interest. For my first venture into the quirkiness of these delightful scrappy quilts, I've chosen to make a flying geese quilt. It's inspired by one from Roderick Kiracofe's book, Unconventional and Unexpected pg.60 a cotton 'flying geese' quilt. 

I decided to revisit an earlier WiP and started out with a bunch of already made flying geese blocks, half the work done already! Of course I sifted and sorted a bit, rejected quite a few blocks, and made up a few more to fit in with my colour palette. Improv is a wee challenge for me, and working without a pattern, but hopefully working around these blocks gives me confidence to branch out more and maybe try Sujata's 'overlapping octagons' later on. All ready now for basting & quilting. 

Happy sewing , Linda from kokaquilts

U and U QAL: fabric choice for Overlapping Octagons

I've decided to join in The Unconventional and Unexpected Quilt A-Long . I have admired Sujata Shah's work since I bought her book,  "Cultural Fusion Quilts". The inspiration for this QAL comes from the book "The Unconventional and Unexpected", by Roderick Kiracofe

I decided to join after much deliberation. After all, "Do I really need another project?" "Yes", I answered myself, "You have to move on and this will be a new challenge."

My fabric choice is this:
 

blue and neutrals: a bulging bucket of blues and the right hand pile in the box. My supply of neutrals is very low,and in need of urgent replenishment.

with a few splashes of:

orange: starting with the scraps on the left.

Yesterday I started sewing blue strip scraps together along the short ends as leaders and enders in another project. These will be chopped and sewn together with others to make the string rectangles in the Overlapping Octagons. I shall be ordering more neutrals/ low volume during next week.

My plan is to cut the fabric freehand with the rotary cutter, although I shall be piecing the strings on phone book pages to keep them stable, as I can't manage to cut on the grain freehand, and would like to avoid wobbles and bubbles!

I'm already enjoying this project and look forward to sharing progress here.

Happy Sewing

Marly.

Blue scraps

As I have quite a few scraps in my blue scrap bin, my quilt will be made from them.  I love a blue and white quilt (with a few scraps of red thrown in of course)  I also like Sujata's suggestion of using the squares as background (white or off white) so that will be a possibility for my quilt.

I'm going to start out by making a couple of different sized blocks and see where that takes me, I will need to draw out a bit of a pattern so I don't get lost along the way.

Pip

U AND U QAL

Here is my choice for Sujata's Kiracofe QAL.  This image is from one of Kiracofe's earlier books and also can be found in Unconventional and Unexpected on p. 2.   Like the Overlapping Octagons. this will be pieced in strips with scrappy bits and pieces outlining the striped fabric.  Yes, I know it is the back of one of his quilts, but some things just need to be tried.

Gathering the fabrics

I finally decided I was going to go with the quilt

design marked out by Sujata, it may be a slightly large block size though.

As usual I'm going with my bright and bold plus a few solids, at least

that's the present plan.

Fabrics collected as of now

and I would dearly love to add this fabric below if possible

yes, I must find a place for it somewhere.

Pattern presently being drawn out and I'm hoping to make a test block

over the coming weekend.

See you soon.

Maureen

This is the colour scheme I have "chosen" for my newest quilt.

Really they chose me as this is the stash my friends gave me for my birthday last year.

Moving out of my comfort zone.

But with every stroke of the rotary cutter I am thinking how good this will look made out of my vintage Japanese collection

or solids.

I see this year's projects forming a line...

Now if I could just put my hand on my copy of 

Unconventional and Unexpected Quilts below the Radar

U AND U QAL January 2019

Happy New Year!

This year is all about this QAL I am so excited for!

We are making quilts inspired by the quilt collection of Roderrick Kiracofe. Please join us to check out our progress as bunch of us scrap quilts lovers make our versions.

The details of the beginning of this challenge are posted on my main blog but we will collectively posting here to keep everyone in the loop.

Those of you who have been following this blog, you already know how much we all love crazy scrappy quilts. Let's add more fun to this passion. If you are new to this blog, have a seat with a cup of tea or coffee. Be here for a while and see what it is all about.

Those of you who are participating, if I have not invited you to be author of this blog, please let me know. I will add your name. You must send me your email address. You will not be able to post your progress as "unknown".