Confetti

Over the Christmas break I managed to finish my Simply Solids Bee quilt. The quilting took a while, as I'm sure you can guess by looking at it.

Every 1/4" of this quilt has been quilted. This was only my second time doing ruler work on a quilt and am quite proud of how I did even though it's not perfect.

I sketched out how I envisioned the quilting to go and improvised as I went. I wanted a shattered, broken piece of glass look to the sections of straight line quilting. Each section was framed out first and filled in with straight lines roughly 1/4" apart.

I have to say, I'm really in love with this quilt. I think because it's so different for me. While I have done a number of improv quilts before, this one might be my favorite.

I tried to sneak outside this week and grab a few pictures of it with some natural light and barely got a few pictures before I began to freeze my butt off, so this is what I got for now.

I even made a scrappy binding with some of the random white/cream scraps and a few of the lime, pomegranate and navy fabrics. I never piece my binding with straight seams, I always piece them on the bias. It makes it easier to hand sew it to the back. But for this quilt, it just called for more straight lines instead of all of the angles. Let's just say that I won't be doing that again any time soon.


Quilt Stats:
51" x 50"
Fabrics: assorted solids
Thread: assorting for piecing (since it was a bee) and So Fine #50 - Pearl for machine quilting
Batting: Two layers of Quilter's Dream Orient

Simply Solids Bee Block

Earlier this week I showed the quilt top I made from the blocks I received in the Simply Solid's Bee (on Flickr). I was a bit late on this November block, but last weekend I made this fun and easy block.

The pattern called for sewing the blocks together in tubes and ripping out a seam in different ways. I wasn't crazy about the planned-looking pattern that occurred after I did that, so I ripped a couple of blocks out and rearranged them. There's still a little bit of a planned look to the block, but I think it looks much better and a little less random. 

Simply Solid Quilt

What seems like ages ago, it was my month in the Simply Solids Bee (on Flickr) earlier this spring. I asked my fellow bee members to make improv blocks using mostly whites and creams with a few hints of a specific fusha, lime and navy fabric.

I made this test block to show everyone what I was thinking.

Blocks started to pour in and I was faced with turning all of these blocks into a cohesive quilt. For a while I wasn't sure where to start. Some of the blocks had teeny tiny pieces while others had larger pieces of negative space. After a while, the blocks sat in a pile... out of sight, out of mind.

But last weekend I finally had some time to sew for the first time in months. One of my first orders of business was to finally tackle this quilt. After hearing Victoria Findlay Wolfe talk about taking some bee blocks she received and cutting them up to use in quilts, I thought about dissecting some of these blocks with tiny pieces and inserting those pieces into some of the blocks with more negative space.

The result, I have to say, is pretty awesome! I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I quickly went online to order a backing print that I had in mind and have been thinking of how I want to quilt this one up. I have a few ideas, but until my longarm is fixed, I'm stuck contemplating the best way of quilting it.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

September Simply Solid Bee Block

Last month was crazy, so I was a little late making my September bee block for the Simply Solids Bee.

We were to make feather blocks, but I was only able to make the feathers and attach background fabric to once side, as there wasn't enough fabric provided to add the rest of the background fabric. Oh well, the hard part is done!  This should be a fun quilt once it's all assembled. I can't wait to see it. 

Simply Solids - August Block

August completely got away from me. I don't know where the summer has gone or where 2013 is going. Wasn't Christmas and New Years just a few months ago?

Anyway, last week I squeezed in some time after a late night of work and finished the Simply Solids bee block for August. I finished it with just a few days to spare in the month.

The august block was a HST block using a bunch of solids and a few shot cottons. I've been hoarding a few shot cottons for a while now, and after making this block, I have the urge to cut into them. Not to decide what to make... 

Simply Solids Bee Block

Last week I finished my Simply Solids Bee Block for them month of June. This was a fun block to make that went together pretty easily.

After what seemed like forever, I finally sat down in front of my sewing machine and did some sewing. This was the first think that I tackled. I'll share more of what I'm working on throughout the week!

Needless to say, it feels good to be doing some sewing. 

WIP Wednesday: Quilts For Boston and a Bee Block

The past few weeks have really been focused on trying to get quilt tops pieced together and starting to quilt them. I'm excited to see more of these get finished in the near future.

Last night I finished quilting this quilt that I'm pretty sure was pieced by Alice.

You can sort of see the quilting better here.

We have another sew-in tonight at Quilter's Way to continue to piece tops, backs and bindings. If you're in the area, come join us.

In addition, I also finished my Simply Solids Bee block for the month of May over the weekend and sent that out to its recipient.

Simply Solids Bee

I've posted a few pictures of blocks I've made for the Simply Solids Bee on the past couple of months. Lucky for me, April was my month. I picked April because I knew it would be an absolutely crazy month for me and I probably wouldn't have time to make something myself.

I've been inspired by all sorts of improve quilts and low-volume quilts and decided to combine the two. I sent folks a bunch of cream and white neutrals and a couple of pops of color in lime, pink and navy to be used sparingly throughout the quilt. I asked folks to make completely improve blocks and this is what I got back!

I'm still waiting for one more block and then I need to figure out how to lay everything out. I'm probably going to add quite a bit more neutral fabrics to balance everything out. At the end of the day, I don't want it to be noticeable that these were a bunch of blocks pieced together. I want the quilt to have more of an organic feel to it.

Simply Solids Bee

I'm participating in the Simply Solids Bee and April is my month. I've been loving a lot of the low-volume quilts out there these days, so I decided to use a lot of creams and whites for my bee block with just a hint of lime, dark blue and a lime green.

In going with something completely different for me, I am asking for some wonky/improve blocks.  Here's a sample block that I made during retreat last weekend.

There's no real plan to the block, which I like.  The hints of color are small and random.  When looking at the quilt, I hope to see mostly creams and whites with a few random pops of color. I'm hoping it will look really nice when everything comes together.

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Simply Solid Bee Block - March

Tonight I finished the Simply Solid Bee block for the month of March.

This month belongs to Roonquilt, aka sportsew.  She asked for a skyline block.  This is what I came up with. Her quilt will consist of all sorts of blocks using the same dark blue as the sky.  I think this is going to be a really awesome quilt.  I can't wait to see it finished.

My month is next month, so I need to get my act together and mail out the fabrics and post instructions for my block. 

Simply Solids Bee

This year I signed up for the Simply Solids Bee on Flickr.  I have been wanting to get in on a bee and I thought this sounded like a fun one.  There are over 100 participants from around the world broken down in to a bunch of different groups.

The bee doesn't technically start until February, but we were given our instructions and told we could start early if we wanted. The groups are named after obscure colors.  My group is the Cochineal group.

Jenny from Squawk! is up first and requested wonky log cabin blocks that alternated warm and cool colors.  This was a stashbuster block, and I just happened to have a bunch of solids out last week, so I threw this block together.  

I'm currently deciding what I want to do for my month - April.  I have some ideas, but haven't yet decided.