Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Luxe Rebellion

Every year, Michael Miller and The Modern Quilt Guild get together and issue a challenge in advance of QuiltCon. Usually it involves a fabric line and a few stipulations. This year the challenge was to use the new Luxe Wide Back fabric by Michael Miller. We had to use at least one print from the collection along with the solids, and, if needed, one Cotton Couture Solid.

I admin, when I got the fabric, I was rather stumped. That is, until I realized that the blue print would be the perfect fabric to fussy cut and use in a pattern I had recently designed. You see, I'm constantly designing quilt patters, and most of them rarely make it to the fabric stage. This one was sitting in a binder, and when I saw the fabrics, I had to make it.

Introducing Luxe Rebellion! (Quilt on the left, the original challenge fabric on the right.)
I designed this quilt when I was playing with different ways to manipulate a hexagon. What started as playing with a partial hexagon triangle pieced turned into a much longer, more narrow block after quite a bit of manipulated. Sometimes playing with and tweaking a design can yield cool results. I originally envisioned this quilt in greens, browns and yellows and called it Turtle Power after seeing a Ninja Turtle commercial, but that just didn't seem right after making this. With the edgy look and the rebellious way I used the print fabric, Luxe Rebellion just seemed like the right name.

You can really see how I fussy cut the fabric in the photo above! I admit, I found this fabric a bit challenging to work with. The weave was interesting and I probably should have given it a heavy starch before working with it, as I found the fabric frayed easily. If using this fabric in the future, I'd definitely recommend starching it to avoid some of the frustrations I had. 

I knew I didn't have time for a custom quilt job on this given the tight deadline for QuiltCon, so I did an all over crosshatch. I quilted lines 1/4" apart followed by an inch apart, repeating that pattern. I loaded the quilt on my longarm at a slight angle to give the quilting a little more interest.

I'm also pleased to say that this quilt was juried into QuiltCon along with my Quilters DNA quilt. So if you happen to be in Savannah in February, make sure to check it out.

If interested, you can download the pattern on Craftsy. I'm really interested in seeing how this pattern would look in different color combinations, so do share if you make a Luxe Rebellion quilt.

Fabric: Michael Miller Luxe
Thread: Pieced with Aurifil #2024 50 wt. Quilted with So Fine #50
Batting: Two layers of Quilters Dream Cotton Select
Finished Size: 35" x 48"

Friday, December 2, 2016

Quilters DNA

It's no secret that I love designing quilt patterns and I especially love paper piecing. If I can't paper piece it, I better really love the pattern or design in order to make the quilt. Often I start designing my patterns by doodling on a piece of paper and move to the computer to see how it would look as a real quilt. That's how this quilt came about. I just started sketching and throwing lines on a piece of paper and fell in love. Introducing Quilters DNA!

I love this quilt. The colors, the jewel tones, are so me. Teal is my absolute favorite color. Add some purples, lime and orange and this quilt just screams me. The geometric design and paper pieced elements also scream me. Combined, I'm pretty sure this quilt is a depiction of my own, personal DNA.

It took me a while to figure out how to quilt this. I did some "point-to-point" style quilting in the "DNA Strands" to keep things simple. I didn't want to overwhelm the design. For the vanilla background, I emphasizing the diamond shape inside the strands while adding a ton of straight lines in the background.

And while it was next to impossible to photograph, I did extend the orange strands into the background, adding a fun quilting motif to break up the negative space. I love this design feature and think it gives this quilt just a little something extra that it needs.

If interested, I created a pattern for this and posted it in my Craftsy shop. Check it out today!

Fabric: Michael Miller Cotton Couture
Thread: Pieced using Aurifil #50 2024. Quilted using So Fine! #50 505
Batting: Quilters Dream Cotton Select
Finished Size: 68.5" x 62"

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Kaleidoscope BOM - Month 12

Well, this is it! We've reached the final month in our Kaleidoscope BOM. It's bittersweet for me. I've really enjoyed designing and making all of these blocks, but I'm also excited to complete this quilt and think about another project.

I like to call this block the "pinwheel trifecta." I love how the lime, teal and orange color combos create three fun pinwheels. I'd love to see this block repeated in a quilt. Imagine the movement!

This block has such a fun circular feel to it. Can you imagine a quilt with, say, four or five of these, offset, in some different color combos. I bet it would be super fun.

Download the pattern now on Craftsy and don't forget to check out all of the other blocks below. Be sure to share your creations on Instagram using #KaliedoscopeBOM too. And stay tuned for the finished quilt with all of the blocks combined.

Check out the previous months too:
Month 11
Month 10
Month 9
Month 8
Month 7
Month 6
Month 5
Month 4
Month 3
Month 2
Month 1
Fabric Selection