Judy's Stars

 Since I'm still not up to a lot of work in the studio, I was captivated today by Electric Quilt declaring it Judy Martin day with a sale on her add-ons to EQ8. All to celebrate her upcoming inclusion in the Quilter's Hall of Fame. Woohoo, Judy, congratulations!! 

And guess what, when you're still just lying around recovering, it's quite fun to fool around on EQ8 and design quilts using Judy's excellent and interesting stars. I splurged and got Distinctive, Exquisite and Spiky stars. Using some of my favorite blocks from each group, I designed this quilt which I'm titling Judy's Stars. I took the coloring inspiration from one of the initial block colorings and I think I really like it a whole lot. Not a final design of course. These are super fun blocks!  Very versatile with endless combinations.

More. Candy.

For the next part of the quilt I designed for the MQG challenge, we’ll that is now past due. But I really like the design and the Color palette so I’m carrying on. This part  is a big sort of pine cone paper pieced block. I’m using the fold flip method.  So, as I watched part of the 18 inning (!!)World Series game, I took the time to fold on each line before ever sewing a stitch.

First stitches and pieces of fabric.

Beginning to see the point(hah) of all this…

All three sections pieced but not sewn together.

Woohoo 🥳 done! And now for 3 more of these babies…

Selvedges Showing

Another year means another challenge from MQG, and this year's palette is pretty great. Using six colors of Windham Artisan Cotton. These fabrics are really lovely to work with, so I'm looking forward to sewing with them. They're now available in 90 colors. Along with the challenge fabrics I got the two prints in the picture from Sewtopia.

Because of how they're woven, (cross-weave)  I really love the look of the selvedges. I'm going to try to find a way to utilize those in the design. I would probably not use the blue and pink fabric's selvedges as that bright white might be too much.

I started playing around with a design in EQ8 with some fairly simple blocks.

I'm trying to imagine this design if it was pieced so that some, but not all, of the seam lines would have the selvedges visible on the front of the quilt. Not a thing I can sketch out in EQ8. Just a starting point design idea here, not likely to be the final one I go with.

Still Assembling.

Time to put the parts together of Running Out of Rain Cloud on a day where the sky outside is just about this grey-blue color.

Pretty good at the match-ups.

Looks like the upper two sections are going to line up well.

Almost there, but that last section is much too big. So it's time to un-sew, re-measure or re-make. One of the half rectangles was supposed to be smaller than the other but they're the same size for some reason. I want to get this top done so I can start in getting the quilting done.

Untitled So Far

I'm working on making a quilt to submit to the Ruby+Bee fabric MQG challenge this year. This is what I'm starting out with from a design I did in EQ8. It may change a bit due to the amounts of each color of fabric that I have to work with. Also the outer edge is a much much darker color in real life. This is an 8 patch design which I really had fun with stretching these "normal" quilt blocks to fit.

I've just gotten started on cutting and piecing the top and I am really Loving The Color palette soooo much this year. This super wild color on top is called Turmeric. And now I want to make a Grellow/Turmeric quilt.

So far so good on the piecing. Fairly big simple blocks in odd sizes/shapes.

I've already gotten three of the blocks done and I'm cutting out the pieces for the rest of them.

Now to start thinking of a good title.

Wrong Way Round

I guess I wasn't paying enough attention this morning as I raced through sewing up the sashing/cornerstones and adding it onto the two sections. 

 All together and ready to sandwich.  But it's really not, look closer.  If only I could go back in time and stop myself, sigh.

All sandwiched up and then I realized that I got it all turned around when I joined the two pieces. Some un-sewing time later...

Impressed with the dents of the seam allowances left in the batting.

The ghost outline of quilts meant to be finished by now (sigh).

A little fiddling around was required as some of the top stretched as I un-stitched and re-stitched.

There, phew all ready to quilt now. The finished size that I'm shooting for is 24 x 36" so that's why the border is a little oversized so I can trim after quilting.

Colorful Cornerstones

 

An array of corner stone pieces cut out and ready to sew into the sashing for the quilt I'm making for the BAMQ group exhibit at the San Mateo County Fair. I really love the color palette represented here. I also like seeing the real difference between commercial solids and my hand-dyes.

The final arrangement before stitching.

I got most of the way there and managed to keep the points pointy. That will be more apparent after I press the seams open. Now I'm starting to think about the quilting I want to do on this....circles maybe?

Sashing Decisions

 

I decided to put up the four blocks on top of a possible sashing fabric.I think this one works well, it's different enough from the darker grey triangle. It has hard to read handwriting in German, just looks texture-y to my eye.

Looks pretty close to the design I originally started with. Except, I don't want to use all yellow cornerstones.

I think using colors from the blocks will look better. Only the center one is a square, the others are rectangles  as the outer sashing is going to be a bit wider to give me some trimming/quilting shrinkage room.

This might just work out!

All Four 4 I's Blocks

 

According to my original design, I'm moving onto working with grellow-ish, weird yellow/green and purple for the other half of my quilt. Name change of this quilt: The 4 I's (Ideation Interpretation Iteration Implementation) 

I was really really pleased with the first block that I made out of all of my hand-dyes.

Honestly, I'd like this one all on its own. 

I think it works pretty well with the other half, here it is next to the solids version of the blue and orange.

And here's how the print version of the grellow/purple looks with the other three.

Now to decide on the the final form, and add the sashing. I like the way this pattern works with four blocks right up against each other, so I may change that from the original design, and just have a larger exterior border(s) to make the final quilt 24"x36".

Second of Four

After yesterday's successful test run with the all prints version, I dove into making another in all solids. I visually tested out all the solids options that I had and came up with this final choice.

Here's how it looks all sewn up with the print version.

And here they are arranged the opposite way. I think I like this slightly more, but I haven't sewn them together yet. I'm going to make the other two and see how they look best all together.

I like seeing how the intersection of the prints and the solids go.

A kite appears!

Just for fun, I put the two blocks together horizontally and I really really like this arrangement!

The other way around is not as effective, imo.

First of the I's

 
I'm starting in on making the first block of four for the 3 I's quilt for the BAMQ group exhibit. Yes, I'm paper-piecing these enormous blocks, and yes, it's more than a little bit silly, but I think it'll work for me.

The first piece went together well. I really like these two prints together. I'm glad that I wasn't trying to match the directions of the blue print. I think it works out to be more visually interesting to see each of the three blue pieces go in slightly different directions.
Here's how the three pieces of the block look before sewing them all together. Really happy with the prints that I chose, they're all busy and active in their own ways, but not overly so. I'm looking forward to seeing the contrast of another block being all solids.

And here's how it looks all sewn up, pretty cool, I think! I'm really liking the direction and movement in this block, kind of like the FedEx logo, etc. The giant paper piecing isn't terrible since it isn't tiny like the tiny Trinket blocks.

Start of 3 I's

 

The challenge this year for the BAMQ group exhibit at the San Mateo County Fair is "Work In A Series". The details are to make four quilt blocks, minimum size 4x6", quilt size max 40" square. Here's my first pass quilt design in EQ8 for a 24" wide by 36"long quilt. I like this size, it'll match the other ones I've made in this size. The four "blocks" are quite big, sized at 11x17" unfinished with a small sashing all around. The quilt block I used is called "Ribbon Border".  The quilt will not necessarily be these exact colors. My main idea is each of the four blocks will be very different from each other, they'll only have the same block design. The quilt has a name before I even start sewing: The 3 I's (Ideation Iteration Implementation) 

Starting out with Ideation first, what forms concepts do I want to work with within the parameters. The main thing is each of the four blocks are different one from the other, but they must all four work together as a whole.

The first idea group for the four blocks that I'm starting with is to have the blocks be made as follows:

1. All Prints
2. All Solids
3. All hand-dyes
4. All black/white/grey

My second idea is:

1. Each, or some of the, elements of the block design are pieced prior to using in the block
2. Each element of the block design is machine embroidered in its own design before piecing or as part of quilting process
3. All the pieces of the block are manipulated by tucks and folds and gathers before piecing
4. All pieces are very different textures within a block

These two sets of ideas may combine as I proceed. I think the sashing fabrics will be letter/numbers fabrics. Such an orderly start to a creative project, usually I don't write it all down like this.

I've printed out a foundation piecing pattern.

And here's the first fabric choices for the block that will be all prints.