Makes Me Want to Make Another

I'm not sure how many quilts I've made with Sujata's free-pieced blocks, but I'm always encouraged by the outcome. There's just something about the method that resonates so well with me, helps me to not get bogged down in decision fatigue I can often experience with other styles of improv.

Vintage Lily

Vintage Lily above, is the most recently completed quilt made with help from the 'Cultural Fusion' book. Love the old timey vibe from imperfect piecing and a scrappy fabric pull. This one even managed to incorporate some reclaimed, well loved shirting fabrics! You can read more about it on my blog if you like or maybe take a look while its hanging in the NCW Quilt and Art Festival later in August. {If you happen to be in the area, that is.}

Chunky Crossroads

Chunky Crossroads, above, is an earlier attempt at yet another free-pieced block in the book. I meant for the blocks to look even 'chunkier', but we all have our natural rhythms when cutting! When thinking to post the Vintage Lily quilt, I remembered that this one never got posted over here on Sujata's blog. These blocks turned out to be such a wonderful base for the applique border that I was itching to do. So many times, I'm really just looking for a great, but unobtrusive compliment for whatever applique that is on my mind. Thinking about complex piecing can just make my head hurt! This quilt was given to one of my sister-in-laws shortly after finishing and I'm pretty sure she loves me just a little more now....

Optic Strings - an update

I've been making a block a day.

(or a total of seven blocks per week)

I'm thrilled that my plan to use 

a wide mix of solids and an equally wide 

group of reproduction prints is working so well.

Part of me wants to rush ahead

but reality is keeping me to my weekly plan.

And because of the way I'm making my blocks

there are corner cut-offs that just begged to be used.

So there is now a second quilt in the making!

Quiltdivajulie

p.s.  You can see the introductory post for this project HERE.

Overlapping Octagons

As I haven't posted here for some time I thought an update on my Overlapping Octagons was due.  This is the last photo of my Overlapping Octagons before the final Y-seams to bring it all together.

This has certainly been a challenge. The challenge is not yet over! Because a photo is flat it's difficult to show how the triangle sections between four red squares are refusing to lie flat.

bubbly triangles!

I have re-sewn some of the seams in the bubbly triangles; the rest I'll try to tame by hand when I finish joining all the columns. I think I probably have more control over the fabric when hand sewing.

Much as I like the effect of the vertical white fissures in the first photo, they are not a design feature; my next task is to join columns 1 and 2, and then to join that section to columns 3 and 4. Lastly I'll be joining the seams between columns 4 and 5. Somewhere along the line I see I need to add a couple of small triangles in the edges, and to add triangles to three of the four corners. I haven't yet decided whether or not this quilt is calling for a border. What do you think?

Happy sewing

Marly.

Spring Housetop - a Gee's Bend Inspired quilt!

Ever since I’ve immersed myself in Gee’s Bend quilts, I have LOVED the housetop block which these quilters use liberally in their quilt making. They come in all sizes in their quilts and it seems to be a common ‘go to’ block for them.

This past April I began piecing simple 19-inch housetop blocks. They didn’t really turn out to look like Gee’s Bend blocks because I used mostly prints - which is predominantly what I have in my stash......although lately I have been trying to add more solids to my quilts because I’ve noticed so many of the quilts which I like have solids in them! I call it “Spring Housetop”.

In this quilt is fabric from some of my other quilts, fabric from a dress I sewed for myself years ago, dresses I sewed for my two daughters many years ago, and simply stash. There is also a thrift shop cotton shower curtain fabric in there!

In process on the wall....actually the center fabric in two of these blocks got weeded out in the final edit....the black in the upper right corner read too dark....and I can't remember why the utensils didn't make the cut!

The fabric in one block was too thin so I backed it with another fabric to give it bulk....

Here are some of the blocks before being quilted.....the lily fabric is left over from an apron I made my mother years ago.....the two tone purple print is from binding on another quilt. I really like it when the same fabric shows up in several of my quilts.....it makes the quilts seem like sisters...like they're related and connected by a common thread. Ha! One big happy quilt family!

The daisies on the navy background (below) is fabric that I used with a smaller size daisy print in the same colors to make dresses for my two daughters years ago.....so that reminds me of them! And the turquoise with purple circles is from shorts that my son wore when little. Okay, enough with walking down memory lane!

I like that it sewed up very fast with such big pieces and I sent it to My Long Arm Quilting Service in New York for a Baptist fan quilting treatment. Just got it back recently, sewed the binding on, and called it finished! (Still have to do a label.)

One more quilt on the stack!
Happy Piecing!

~Edith Yoder Schmitt

Optic Strings - Another U&U Project

I ran across The 100 Day Project last week

and realized it was excellent motivation

for me to work on one of my projects 

for the Unconventional and Unexpected QAL.

I have always loved this quilt 

in Roderick Kiracofe's book.

My version will feature a mix 

of solids and reproduction fabrics.

It will also be smaller than the quilt in the book

with a layout 8 blocks wide x 10 blocks long.

Here is the information on the inspiration quilt.

This photo shows my nearly-final fabric pull . . .

And this is what 80 sets of strips look like

when sorted using my paper plate system.

This is that same group of 80 sets of strips

but shown from a different angle.

I can't wait to get started on this one

which I have named Optic Strings.

* * *

My goal is to make a block a day

during the next 100 days  --

and if I get the blocks done in time,

I will include the layout process

as part of my 100 Day Challenge.

Each Monday I'll share an update post on my blog

with the blocks from the previous week.

Here's to making progress!

Quiltdivajulie

Two U&U quilts

Two U&U quilts finished:

Sunshine Scraps for Sujata

The top quilt was random scraps for a class I was teaching on Improv Log Cabins.  I’ve titled it “Still Crazy (About Quilting) After All These Years. 

The bottom quilt is titled “Sunshine Scraps for Sujata” which started out following the quilt Sujata demonstrated for this challenge.  Of course, I veered off course.  I used solids that must have been the original charm pack way back before stores had die cutters and a standard size.  They were approximately 4” sort of square.  Close enough for this project.  The prints were from a mystery box I purchased one from a local quilt store years ago with random leftover block of the month kits.  There was a great variety of fabrics in all sizes, all neat and tidy.  I eliminated the corner quarter triangle squares.  I used simple straight line machine quilting.  Fun and Done!

A Lattice Quilt....fun with a Cultural Fusion Quilt!

This past February immediately after completing the Overlapping Octagon challenge for the UANDUQAL, I grabbed Sujata Shah’s book “Cultural Fusion Quilts” and was inspired to jump in and make my first quilt from her instructions. Some of the quilts in here have been on my bucket list for a long time! I love it when suddenly it becomes clear to me what I NEED to sew next....that point when nothing else crowds in front waving its colorful promise and begging to be first, you know?

Lattice Quilt - 64" x 76"

The Lattice quilt took its place at the front of the line.....it had long been on my “to do” list and its time had come. I began making blocks.....LOVING the freehand cut curves for the lattice. As usual I made a ton of blocks.....when piecing blocks for a “block” quilt, I find that I ALWAYS make many more than I need. I can’t really tell how everything is going to play together until I actually see it up on the wall and I like plenty of choices without having to return to the sewing machine every five minutes! Even so, it's a continuous process of "yes, no" and "make some more". Often what I think will be perfect as I collect a pile of fabrics....just isn’t.

For example, the yellow/green (below) seemed to be too stark....and it needed to exit the premises. I liked the darker leafy green but only had a limited amount so I had to piece a few 9 inch blocks before cutting the lattice strip from the middle....but no problem there. I began with different reds and had to jettison them, but rather late in the game the orange/red fabric showed up and I felt it to be perfect. Yay for a touch of Orange!

Happily I found that I could cut 7.5 inch squares instead of 6.5 inch squares (per instructions) from the pieced units (which began with a 9 inch square) so I was able to make a slightly bigger quilt from my efforts with less fabric loss. Win Win. Sewing the curves was FUN!

I also ironed my seams open when joining the blocks.....it seemed to help with more accuracy at the join.

Witness my rather large pile of leftover blocks.....a few of my originally chosen 'reds' and 'greens' didn't make the cut.....at any rate, there is another quilt somewhere in here I suspect....but it will wait for another day.

This quilt was machine quilted by me in an irregular cross-hatch. A great deal of the fun of machine quilting my own quilts is traveling across all the fabrics and enjoying them all over again while they are playing nicely with each other in a unified whole! I’m sure the same is true for hand quilting. We’re doubling our pleasure, right?!

 Pieced Lattice Quilt Back

And there's my first finished quilt from Sujata Shah's book!

~Edith Yoder Schmitt