Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Alternate Way

Those of you that follow me on Instagram (@AQuiltingJewel) might have seen the flying geese blocks and quilts I've been working on lately. When I'm making these quilts, I tend to make extra blocks in case I want to alter my design. I find that having extra blocks comes in handy often. In this case I had 10 extra flying geese blocks, so I started playing around with them.


Using a design wall, I moved around the blocks until I realized what would happen if I organized the blocks around a square made of the same color as the goose. Wow, what a fun design. I knew I had to turn this into a little mini quilt right away. This mini isn't big - only about 15" square or so, but I just love the look.


One of the trends I noticed at QuiltCon was the increased use of faced bindings. I've been wanting to try a faced binding for a while and decided that I would go for it here. And what do you know, I was able to do it pretty easily after checking out a number of tutorials online. I can definitely say that you will see more faced bindings from me in the future for sure.

The best part of this quilt - every single piece is from my stash. From the solids and prints on the front (Cotton Couture and some Violet Craft prints) to the backing (an old Art Gallery print), binding, batting and thread (Aurifil 2024 50wt)... I didn't have to go out and purchase anything. Score! Or is it a bad thing that I've got so much fabric in my stash that I can just whip up a ton of quilts without going shopping? Nah!

Monday, April 10, 2017

Stumped

Every year for the Boston MQG Quilt Show, we have a mini quilt challenge. This year, the theme was Improv. We had to make a mini quilt that was no more than 36" x 36" using an improv technique. That's it! It's amazing how when given so much free reign, that it becomes difficult to get your mojo and make something. In fact, I was stumped (despite being the president and issuing the challenge...)


I decided I just needed to dive in. I've toyed with the idea of an improv curved quilt, so I pulled a bundle of fabric and some coordinating solids and just started cutting and sewing. I had no idea where I was going with this when I started, but I ended up really enjoying the end result. The colors and process are definitely out of my comfort zone, but that's what I love about a challenge. It pushes me as a designer. 


I thought the quilt top looked like a tree stump (hence the name of the quilt), so I quilted concentric circles to enhance the design. I love the effect it gives the quilt. I quilted this using Aurifil 50wt (and pieced with it) in an all over moss green color to match the background. I love using a thin thread to really blend in with the fabric, regardless of the color.


The end result is a fun mini quilt that I really like. Now to think of a new challenge for myself!

Fabric: Alison Glass Handmade and Cotton Couture Solids
Thread: Aurifil 50wt
Batting: Quilters Dream Poly (from my QuiltCon goodie bag!)
Finished Size: 25" x 30"
Started and finished in March 2017