Quilting & Learning - What a Combo!: Postcard from Sweden

Showing posts with label Postcard from Sweden. Show all posts

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Postcard from Sweden and Starry Bright Sky

Postcard from Sweden

It's done! The quilt top for Postcard from Sweden is finished.

Finished Postcard from Sweden quilt top in batiks

I absolutely love the quilt in the original Kona colours but could never have managed to follow the pattern. Instead I used batiks and roughly followed the values of the original, except for the last row. I didn't have enough of the correct valued fabric cut out but had many other half-square triangles, so I made due. I'm sure that this would work for the whole quilt since it's more about mixing the colours and values than it is about the specific colours.

It's a very grey day outside, so the colours aren't as brilliant as they should be, even with fancy technical adjustments. This close-up picture shows a bit more of the details of the fabrics.

Close-up of the batik fabrics

Thank you Sandra of MMM! Quilts for hosting this quilt along. This quilt top would still be in its lovely project bag if it wasn't for your deadlines and encouragement 😊

The quilt top is done!

Finishing the Postcard from Sweden quilt top was my OMG for April. Hooray!!!

Next steps: I'm not finished, am I? I'm looking forward to quilting this baby. I am going to quilt it very densely using all kinds of FMQ designs. It won't be for a little while because there is a line up in my quilt room, but with luck it will be finished in 2018.

Starry Bright Sky - Week 4, Improv

This is my absolute favourite block so far. I just love improv... minimal measuring, lots of experimenting!

Here is the first block. It has an improv centre as well as the star spikes. It was a lot of fun to make.

Improv star block

The second block is a small star improv block - you can put 4 together to make the full size block. I'll probably make a few more and sew them together.

Smaller improv star block

I used my new design wall to put the blocks together and to take pictures. It really is great. I don't know how I worked without it!

Blocks on my new design wall :-)

Here's the gang so far!

Blocks 1 to 4

What I learned

If I ever ~~fell on my head and~~ decided to make another Postcard from Sweden quilt, I would still use batik fabrics, but instead of matching the value of the original quilt, I would just place my fabrics randomly. I think that as long as there was a good range of values in the fabrics, it would come out great. This would take a fraction of the time to make.
I used some very light batiks from a couple of charm packs since I don't have anything that light in my stash. Getting a variety of charm packs could also work for a random version of this quilt.
I just love sewing pieces of fabric, cutting them and sewing them back together, without any pattern or plan. That, of course, is why I love improv piecing 😊
My design wall is holding up really well. I'm very happy with it.

Sunday, April 01, 2018

March finishes and April beginnings

I've had a great time with a friend. A weekend full of playing, gabbing and eating. Of course the playing involved textile - and even paint!

Colour Vie Pigment System

In the fall, Gunnel Hag was a guest speaker at the September Out of the Box meeting. She is a textile artist who became allergic to commercial dies. She worked with a company to develop the Colour Vie Pigment System which is water-based and eco-friendly. I bought a starter set at the meeting and was hoping to visit my girlfriend, the artist, to try these out. Well my girlfriend is visiting this weekend and we've been playing with Colour Vie.

We did some experimenting with the colours and this is my practice fabric. I think I'm really going to like making marks with Colour Vie.

Trying out and making marks with Colour Vie

Do you remember the FMQ project below from my Learning Quilt-Along ? Lyne and I have started painting little bits of it. It's pretty slow going.

The back of the wholecloth quilt

The blank canvas that we are painting :-)

The painting is coming along. I'll share this with you in a future post.

Starry Bright Sky - Block 3, Origami

For our third month, Alida had us create a star with fabric doing origami.

Origami star

Free-Motion Challenge Quilting Along

I've joined Angela Walter's Free-Motion Challenge Quilting Along. I've missed a few weeks but hope to catch up, or just to do them when I can. I was hoping to make a quick Quilt-as-you-go quilt based on Angela's suggested quilt top, but that's not going to happen. I am doing a Quilt-as-you-go technique but only with solid blocks.

Every week Angela presents two FMQ techniques. Week 6, when I started, was Machine Quilting Wavy Lines & Serpentines.

Wavy lines block

Back of the wavy line block

I've been drawing the serpentine block for a couple of days. This one is very difficult for me.

One Monthly Goal

I'm hoping to finish my Postcard from Sweden quilt top by the end of the month. Technically it needs to be ready for April 3rd and then quilted by April 11th, but that's only 10 days away....so who knows.

I do have a more recent picture of what is done so far.

April OMG -

Postcard from Sweden quilt top

Great news! Susan of Midweek Makers featured my quilt top on her colourful quilts to herald spring! Thanks Susan 😊

Fibre Fling 7

Fibre Fling 7

To-Do Tuesday: This week I have to finish getting ready for Fibre Fling 7.

I have two quilt labels to sew on the back of my quilts and I have to prepare the bags to delivery the quilts in.

What I learned

I really enjoyed making different marks on the practice fabric with Colour Vie. The medium is really great to work with.
However, painting all of those really small sections of my wholecloth quilt reminds me too much of the paint-by-number that I ruined when I was a kid. There was no way that I was using more than one brown to paint the ceiling of the Last Supper!
There are a lot of very fiddly little areas to paint (like the paint-by-number), although I least I get to choose my own colours.
The Starry Bright Ski Origami block was very difficult to make. I learned years ago that I don't do origami! That's my son's strength, so I did the first part of the folding and he completed it.
I am looking forward to doing some of Alida's extra textured 3-D blocks.
I'm really enjoying Angela Walter's videos of FMQ designs. I've always had problems with "S" curves, which she calls serpentines. I'm sure that if I practice them enough that I'll get them. I start off well but eventually the echoing either starts getting flat or too curly 😊
I decided that since I'm starting the FMQ challenge late, that I would do a quilt-as-you-go quilt. It's going to be fairly simple, and I can join each quilted block (of different pinks and purples) once I'm done.
I'm following Jera Brandvig's instructions in Quilt As-You-Go Made Modern, for joining the blocks.

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Lots of projects in the works

My quilting deadline season is coming up with two quilt shows in the works as well as a whole bunch of quilts started, promised or ready to finish. I made a list, with dates where applicable, so that I wouldn't forget anything. I didn't get much done this weekend, but I did start.

Scrappy Triangle Baby Quilt

Second triangle - highlighting the doggy fabric and FMQ leaves

A very long time ago I made some scrappy triangles. I was at an in-town retreat and didn't feel like working on anything. Thank goodness I had a box of scraps with me. I just started sewing them together.

At the other end of the hall, a couple of quilters were working on "Toe in the Sand" quilts. From afar, they looked scrappy. When I got close, I definitely saw my mistake. These were beautiful and very intricate - not at all what I was in the mood for. But they did spark my imagination to make a scrappy triangle quilt.

First triangle - FMQ a large starburst design

I worked on my triangles for a while and even trimmed them all to the same(ish) size and put aside a piece of solid fabric that came in a kit that I will never make. It then sat in a project box for a long time.

Block 3 - FMQ some starburst designs

As I was designing the pattern for the Charming baby quilt for Make Modern magazine, my mind turned to other baby quilts that I could make to practice my free motion quilting (FMQ). Out came the project box. It didn't take me long to make the solid triangles and finish piecing the quilt top.

The first row of the Scrappy Triangle Baby Quilt

Now that I have someone to give the quilt to, it's time to get going. As you saw above, I've FMQ the first row. I'm not sure what I'll do for the solid triangles. I want something simple that won't take away from the scrappy triangles. I FMQ another 3 blocks last night and now have 4 more scrappy triangles to quilt before I start on the solids, so I have a little bit of time to think about it. Any suggestions?

Postcard from Sweden

I've joined another Postcard from Sweden Quilt-Along, this time with MMM! Quilts. I'm really, really hoping that I will get this quilt finished this time 😊

Postcard From Sweden Quilt so far

My version is a variation of the original pattern since there is no way that I could ever go through the trouble of keeping track of all of those Kona solids, even if I bought the kit. I just printed up the original finished quilt in black and white, and then started using light, medium and darker batik fabrics to make it.

HST cut and ready to piece

Cut and ready to go

During the last quilt-along (with Busy Hands Quilts), I cut enough triangles to finish piecing the quilt. I really want to finish the quilt top so that I can start quilting it. I fell in love with this quilt when I saw someone's quilted version of it. I'll look for the link and add it to my next Postcard from Sweden post.

What I learned

As usual, I'm having a great time FMQ the scrappy triangles. When possible, I'll follow the fabric, but otherwise I will probably use Angela Walter's starburst design from her Dot-to-Dot technique course. It's easy, has lots of possibilities, does well in triangles and I generally don't have to mark them anymore.
I'm planning on making the Postcard from Sweden my next OMG to help me get it finished. We'll see what other deadlines I'll still have to meet by then :-)