My voice

"Curried Plums" is my entry into the Project Modern "Find Your Own Voice" challenge.  I wrote that my voice is "...about minimalism, clean lines, bold shapes and limited color palettes.  It is about fabric and thread and batting."


Some of you may recognize this design as a variation of my "Raindrops" pattern with a lot of "border".  I was playing around on the computer, thinking about the Project Modern monochromatic challenge (#2) when I set that quilt into a large field (Project Modern quilts need to be 45" x 45").  I didn't pursue the idea for that challenge, but decided to follow the idea for this one.


Even though I designed "Raindrops" a while ago (2008!) setting it in the larger quilt really shows the evolution of my design voice.  Back then, I never would have imagined adding so much negative space to a quilt.   I love how doing that also let me complete the circles that went off the edge of the original quilt.  Another bonus to revising this design was that I love to hand applique and love the idea of hand appliqueing modern quilts.

For the quilting, I went with my standby straight lines.  The lines inside the small applique part of the quilt are horizontal and the lines on the larger border area are at about a 30 degree angle.  It is hard to see in the small picture, but each of the circles use a different plum colored fabric.  The background under the applique is a Lonni Rossi fabric and the large border area is Kona Curry.


I still have a few threads to bury on the back but I'm glad to have met the challenge well before the midnight PST deadline!


Do you have a quilting voice?

Finished!

I finished my Project Modern Challenge 4 quilt!  Now "all" I have to do is the photography.  I'll post pictures tomorrow.

Stitching away...

on my Project Modern Challenge 4 entry.  As you can see, I have a few thread tails to bury!

I'm not quite sure I'll get this quilt finished in time - keep your fingers crossed for me.

Stash buying?

Perhaps I have been deluding myself that I don't usually buy stash fabrics.  I tend to think I buy for certain projects.  However, in reviewing my purchases over the past few months, I think it is pretty clear that this is not always the case!  Oh well :)

Anyway - before we went to Chicago last week I checked out the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild's website.  They include a list of several quilt shops in the greater Chicago area, so I researched which ones were somewhat near the University of Chicago.  I think the closest two were Quiltfabric.com and Quiltology.

After we parted from my daughter on Monday afternoon, I thought a little retail therapy was in order!  Quiltfabric is closed on Mondays (I'll get there next time I visit), so we zipped up Lake Shore Drive to Quiltology.  What a sweet little shop!  Lots of great modern prints and they were having a fat quarter sale.  Who could resist?

These are (top to bottom):  Floralicious, Michele D'Amore, Bentartex; Habitat, Michele D'Amore, Benartex (two); Modern Meadow, Joel Dewberry, Free Spirit; more Habitat; more Habitat(!); Kaffe Fassett; Midwest Modern, Amy Butler, Rowan.  I didn't realize I had picked up so many from Michele D'Amore's Habitat line!  There are a lot of other great prints in the line that I didn't get.

Also falling under the "I couldn't resist" category:  a solid scrap bundle from Pink Chalk Fabrics that included about 4 yards of fabric for just under $13!

Guess I'd better get busy sewing!

Dorms and quilts

Sorry to have neglected you my bloggy friends!  It has been a whole week since I posted anything.

We left Saturday to move my daughter into her dorm.  It rained the whole day!  Luckily, the times we were doing the most running in and out it was only raining lightly.  Michelle and her longtime best friend are rooming together.  They have a double that has two small rooms.  One has a fireplace in it!  I'm pretty sure they aren't allowed to actually use it, but I promised to give her some of my pillar candles to put in for a fireplace effect.

The beds and dressers fit in one room and the desks fit in the fireplace room.  They also have a large closet with some great storage space above it.  I didn't get a picture of it, but the beds are quite high so there is also storage underneath them too.  If she fills up all that space during the year, we'll never be able to fit it all in to bring it home next spring!

Of course, I can't go anywhere without seeing quilt possibilities!  This picture is the outside of her dorm building.  I love the arrangement of the blocks.  There are so many windows that this was the biggest chunk of wall I could take a picture of.  Now that I can look at the blocks a little closer, the arrangement may be random, but it still has a few wheels turning :)  If I make a quilt inspired by her dorm that would be a different kind of "dorm quilt" wouldn't it!

I'm stitching away on my Project Modern entry - not sure if I'm going to make the deadline!

Project Modern Challenge #4

The Project Modern Challenge #4 deadline is September 30.  So, of course, I just started a quilt to enter!  Since I made the decision to enter Challenge #2 about 8 days before the deadline, you might get the idea that I like to work under pressure.  Not really.

I think what happens is that I have trouble deciding whether I want to make a quilt to enter or not.  Some days I definitely do and then other days I think I have so much else going on that I'll skip this one.  As the deadline approaches, it becomes clear to me that I really do want to enter.  Hence the "last minute" situation.

This color palette may look a little familiar.  However, for this quilt, the yellow golds will be the main colors and  the purples will be the accents.  Wish me speedy sewing!

Do deadlines motivate you or not?

Purple Pillow Project Payoff

I didn't end up with much sewing time this weekend.  I think that was probably a good thing for this pillow.  I kind of needed to leave behind my original vision and switch to what I was working with.

In the end, all I really did was to add some more yellow and rearrange the pieces.  Because, really, this pillow is all about the purple.  I just love the depth of these fabrics!  They are the perfect color to add some richness and warmth for the coming fall.

I am happy with the final result and think it looks pretty good on my couch.  I used up quite a few purple scraps and made something in a more improvisational style than usual.  Another fun thing about this project is that some of the scraps I used were partially made strips and blocks from other projects so that when I cut my squares, they already had piecing in them.  Extra detail and pattern without any extra work - can't beat that!

I am entering this pillow into two of my must-read blogger's events this month.  Rachel at Stitched in Color is organizing Celebrate Color and Brigitte of Farbstoff is focusing on pillows with Pillow Talk.

Sorry about the post title but I'm a sucker for alliteration!

Work in (non)progress

You know how you get a great idea (maybe in the shower) and can't wait to work on it?  I had this idea yesterday morning of lots of shades of dark purple with a few little pops of yellow.  Somewhat inspired by the work of Yoshiko Jinzenji - I love how some of her piecing lines blur the background fabric with the pieced fabric.

So I dig around in my scrap bags, because I don't really have much purple fabric.  I found quite a lot of fabrics left over from this quilt - which was perfect because that is exactly the color I had in mind!

So I cut squares out of the scraps and added a few wonky bits of yellow to some of them.  Then I made a bunch of half square triangle blocks and put it on my design wall - yay!

Not so much :(  Pretty underwhelmed here.  So I moved the pieces around some -  it only got worse!

Staring and thinking in progress...

Giveaway Winner!

The winner of the copy of Quilting Arts Gifts is Sandi P!  I have sent Sandi an email.

Thanks for your great gift suggestions everyone.  Lots of people suggested various kinds of food gifts.  I have to agree - those are always popular at our house!  We love to give and receive homemade goodies.

If you are looking for some great ideas for the holidays browse through the comments.  The three I am most likely to try are aprons, mug rugs and zippered pouches.  I am a longtime apron wearer, so I suppose I should spread the love a bit!  Mug rugs are such fun to make and so pretty and useful I'll definitely make a few of those.  I've seen so many cute zippered pouches all over the internet, but have never made one.  They seem like such a great gift, especially for the teenagers on my list.

If you weren't the lucky winner today, you can still order QA Gifts here.

QA Gifts Giveaway

The new Quilting Arts Gifts is out!  Aren't those little bird ornaments on the cover darling?  I enjoyed last year's issue so much that I submitted a project to this one and they included it!

My Holiday Ornament pillow project is on page 62.  Those of you who were reading this blog last holiday season may recognize this pillow as part of a series of red and white pillows I made then.  I love the shape of the ornament on this pillow!  I used the same shape for the quilting.

Quilting Arts added recipes to this issue too.   Everyone who submitted projects was asked to include a favorite recipe.  Mine is for Cream Cheese Cookies.  I've been making these cookies since I was in high school (we won't discuss how long that has been :)).  They are fast and easy and when I take them to a gathering I know that there won't be six other plates of the same thing.

OK, now for the giveaway part - I'm giving away a copy of this Quilting Arts Gifts magazine!  Leave me a comment and tell me what small gift you love to make.  We all love to make and give quilts, but what do you like to make when you need or want a smaller gift?  You can enter until the end of the day Thursday, September 8.  International entries are welcome!

Playing with Blocks

Wednesday was our Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild meeting and those of us who had finished our Habitat blocks turned them in.  We will be putting together a charity quilt in the future.

I got temporary custody of the blocks and couldn't resist playing with them on my design wall.  We need at least 35 blocks for our quilt and have collected 26 already.  We know there are quite a few more out there from those who weren't able to make the meeting.

I threw them up rather randomly onto the design wall.  I thought I would like it if the ones with more solid were sprinkled around the quilt.  But, maybe because the fabric is already quite busy, that just seemed to make the quilt too scattered.  So I bunched the blocks with more solid in the corners.  It isn't a perfect layout, but I had a fun half hour or so playing!