Organized stash

I do like all my fabric organized!

Yellows

I have started to really like charcoal gray and yellow.

Blue patterns

Denise Schmidt

These colors are outside my comfort zone. I am really liking the small
prints fabric this year so I was lured in by the pattern.

Four Fassett's

How can I make these work together? I will have fun trying.

Orange and pink pow!

These fabrics just make me want smile and put on some sunglasses. I am
going out of my color comfort zone.

Kaffe Fassett's fabric

I love these two so much. It will take some serious design playing
with fabric to figure out what to add to these.

Amy Butler fabric

Again, green and blue together but this time with yellow.

Denise Schmidt fabric grouping

Blue and green my favorite colors together. The top three are Denise
Schmidt collection. Still deciding if the bottom blue will make the
cut or not.

Fabric that looks like vintage men ties

Today I am organizing my recent fabric purchases. Some things I got
from Aunt Bea's Fabric store online. It was a joy to play with
bunching certain fabrics together for future projects. I got these
three small print neutral color fabrics to go together. What to make?

Detail of Jeweled Amish

Jeweled Amish- Modern Quilt Challenge #4

Here is my third entry into the Modern Quilt Guild Challenges.  The Challenge was to find your own voice.  This is the paragraph I sent with it.

To find my own voice, I followed my intuition by letting this quilt grow organically. My starting point was bold colors and geometric design, a modern log-cabin single block in jewel tones.  I went outside my comfort zone by not using a ruler for the individual strips. I decided to add jewel-tone strip piecing on the sides of the green center. The blue top and green bottom cooled down the jewel-tones. I wanted the four sections to appear to keep going off the edge of the quilt like an infinity pool.  Thank you for the challenges.

This paragraph was edited down to 100 words, very hard to do.  This is what I started with.

Each of the past three quilts I have made for the Modern Quilt Guild Challenges have led me on a creative journey to push my color and design choices to be more intuitive.  I am now focussing on what I love about quilts- bold color, unique design and the creative process itself.  For this quilt I wanted to make a medallion single block quilt. Log cabin is one of my favorite classics that look totally modern. My colors are jewel tones reminiscent of the Amish clothing colors I saw as a child visiting Lancaster, PA. I was drawn to these bold colors and simple geometric designs.  Seeing Amish quilts with these jewel tones inspired me to become a quilter originally.  This quilt is a nod to these early influences.

The Jeweled Amish quilt grew organically.  For the first time I pinned on the design wall and sewed each section after trying it out on the design wall. The overall design was not preplanned before I started sewing.  I wanted some strip piecing with all the jewel tone colors on the sides. I went outside my comfort zone and did not use a ruler for the individual strips.  I decided the quilt needed to cool down with the two toned blue top (for the sky) and green (for the land). I wanted the four sections to appear to keep going off the edge of the quilt like an infinity pool, so I used different fabrics in the binding to help with the illusion.

I will miss these challenges and hope I find something else to prod me to keep reaching and exploring as an artist.

Detail Spring Green

Spring Green- Modern Quilt Challenge #2

I am getting my blog a little more up to date.  Here is my submission last Spring 2010 for the second Modern Quilt Guild Challenge #2. This is the paragraph I wrote about it.

This study in green is named "Spring Green".  Being in the Midwest in winter creates a longing for spring yellow-greens.  Hence, my color choice of green.  The design is based on an old-fashioned wooden window frame.  Since I love geometric designs, I took a picture of the window frame in a coffee shop liking the strong vertical lines which draw your eyes upward.  To emphasize the weight of the bottom section, I decided to block it up onto different size rectangles of color to provide a solid base for the quilt.  Then I used the same blocks to create the vertical dividers.  I did not want the quilt to actually look like a representation of the window frame, but I just borrowed the structure.

Here is the back of the pillow

Scrap log cabin pillow cover

I read Gwen Marston's Liberated Quilting II over the weekend. The idea
of just playing with fabric at your sewing machine and planning/sewing
as you go was really liberating!
So I decided to just go for it with scraps in the blue and green
families. I have loads of them.

I added a half inch to the actual pillow form of 14x18. Then I made
two panels for the back measuring 14.5x11. I sewed a hem on the
exposed side of the back panels.
I then put right sides together, pinned and sewed around the
rectangle. Final step was to turn it inside out and stuff in the
pillow. I used a feather pillow insert since I like the mushy feel of
it.

iPad case

So I made the case from the tutorial at "Amy's Creative Side." I
discovered I have a difficult time with sewing a seam, turning the
fabric inside out and having the correct side facing out. Wow. I spent
alot of time figuring this out and still my inside seam for the pocket
was showing. I wrote down detailed directions in my own short hand for
my next ones. At least I got the complicated sewing of the flap and
top of the pocket all at the same time in a continous line. I was
feeling pretty smug til I turned it all inside out and saw the exposed
seam in the pocket. Oh well. It looks great from the outside.

Handmade iPod case

I am back after many months. The kids are back at school so now I have some uninterrupted time to myself. I started by organizing the quilting studio. Unfortunately, it has become a dumping ground for "I don"t know what to do with this" items. No more. I have my speakers set up for Pandora and I am ready to go. I saw a blog tutorial for a laptop or iPad case. I starred it in my goggle reader from the blog "Amy's Creative Side."

Since my iPad came a week earlier than expected, I started a cover today. I was a little unsure about the turning inside out for the inside fabric so I tried a sample project for my iPhone. I basically thought I could just put batting between two fabrics, turn inside out, pin the side together and sew over, fold it, sew sides. The fabric became too thick. So I figured out how to do the tutorial with a pinned version to avoid ripping out seams. I think I get it now. I need to be fresh so I will tackle the iPad case tomorrow. I still like my iPhone case though.