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Monday, June 9, 2014

Red Hots

I totally expected the Oakshotts coming my way to be beautiful. I mean, I had heard others describe them and seen photos of their projects, but oh my! To experience them in person, I was stunned by their luminescence. I seriously just stared at the stack for a few days before I could even consider what to do with them.
Of course, I knew a mini quilt was the goal, as I was participating in the Oakshott Ruby Mini Quilt Challenge hosted by Sew Mama Sew. And it didn't take me long to know I wanted to use every single one of those luscious colors. Each fat eighth was 9.75" x 23.5", with very enticing names - Madrid, Girnoa, Barcelona, Cordoba, Granada, Valencia, Salamanca, Corunna, Cadiz, Palma, Toledo, Seville, Almeria, Jerez, Santa Cruz, and Santiago - all 100% cotton and each with a red warp.

I took inspiration from Red Pepper Quilts and her tutorial for Cutting and Sewing Free Hand Curves. I loved the vertical curves in her pillow cover and had that in my mind as I began. But I decided I wanted some of my curves to be scrappy, or rather striped, and with my vision set, I cut strips from the longest side of each piece of fabric, 1 1/4" to 2 1/2" wide. I began sewing them first in pairs, offset at one end . . .
Then kept sewing the strips together until I eventually had a large piece that from then on I treated as a piece of fabric all its own.
And from here, the curves began. Working from left to right, I cut curves and added strips, sewing as I went.
Some strips were solid, some striped - whatever hit my fancy in the moment.
I had left the first strip on the left (Toledo) quite wide, and did the same with the red (Santa Cruz) on the right, imagining them in some fashion as borders. And eventually, it was decided to add in the purple (Seville) and orange (Corunna) as top and bottom borders.
And then it was time to quilt! Matchstick quilting was definitely in order in the solid strips!
And I used just about every coordinating thread I had, trying to keep the look of this piece as "hot" as Oakshott advertised.
I debated for a while over what to do in the striped strips, and finally settled on parallel lines with my walking foot, echoing the seam lines of the stripes. At first I wasn't sure about the 'traveling' lines being so obvious, but in the end, I think they added to the overall design. 

And lucky for me, I had plenty of the striped 'fabric' left, deciding it would be really fun as binding, extending the vertical stripes all the way to both edges of the quilt.
As it ended up, this binding 'extra' was constructed exactly like my Striped Binding tutorial, and pieced into the solid binding using my Straight Matched Binding technique.

Red Hots finished  at 19"x21" and really was a pleasure to create, every step of the way!

Be sure and visit the other Oakshott Ruby Mini Quilt Challengers throughout the week:
And if you're on Instagram, check out hashtag #oakshottrubymini.
Many thanks to Oakshott and Sew Mama Sew for the opportunity to discover this luscious fabric for myself. It most certainly was a pleasure.

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday and Finish It Up Friday.

54 comments:

  1. Debbie your quilt is stunning. Thanks for sharing your process! Love it!

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  2. That's true fabric love when you just have to look at it for days :) stunning mini quilt. Really like the quilting too.

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  3. Absolutely gorgeous. I love the quilting . Excellent !

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  4. Love your quilting! Good thing you had all those matching threads.

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  5. Gorgeous! I wish I could see it in person, since it must look even better with all that dimension of the shots... Swoon!

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  6. beautiful! so tell me, do you have more than 24 hours in your day? How does that work exactly? You get so much accomplished!

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  7. love that!!!!!! I need a stack of blues!!!! hmmmm

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  8. Congratulations on a beautiful finish!!! I am INSPIRED :-)

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  9. Your Red Hots mini is just gorgeous! The small phone screen for IG doesn't do it justice. I just love the quilting!

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  10. I love that you used the left over stripes for binding. It really makes the quilt that much more special!

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  11. Wow - that is gorgeous Debbie! There is so much to admire in your quilt. I love the design and that quilting added just the right amount of um, I can't think of a word to use - fabulousness???

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  12. Debbie, this is awesome! Improv curves take a bit of work, don't they? ;) My favorite part is your quilting! Stunning!

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  13. I love how this turned out.....and yes there is nothing quite as lucious as Oakshott Cottons!!!!

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  14. Gorgeous, love the improviness of it! I picked up a bundle last week, but since my blinking parents have sussed out how to stalk me on IG too, and it's for their anniversary pressie, I can't share until next month *sigh*

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  15. Debbie that turned out so lovely and your binding really finishes it off nicely. Thanks for sharing.

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  16. It looks fantastic, I especially like the striped binding you've made, and the curves.

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  17. Such vibrant colors, Debbie! The matchstick quilting is a nice complement to the piecing. Well done!

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  18. Oh I do love those colors too. Haven't used any Oakshott yet but this is tempting me. Beautiful.

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  19. I have been eyeing the oakshott line. I have been on a solid colored fabrics design kick lately, and this line is SO appealing for that little bit of luminocity combined with a textured look from the colored warp threads.
    This project definitely cements my getting a bunch of fabric to play with from this line! I love the use of the shades and tones of red, and I am especially infatuated with your striped binding! Thank you so much for playing and posting!

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  20. The Oakshotts are of course gorgeous but the composition and quilting are stunning. Beautiful mini.

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  21. that is really beautiful, so nicely done.

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  22. A really stunning little quilt that showcases the Oakshotts perfectly. Thanks so much for sharing it and how you made it.

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  23. I love it! Totally love every detail, including the threads. A stunning modern piece.

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  24. Stunning mini! Your photos really show off the depth of color in the Oakshotts. I love the design and the quilting!

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  25. This turned out beautifully. Congrats on a great finish.

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  26. I love how the quilt just seems to glow, it truly is so pretty and the photography of it is great too!

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  27. This is completely gorgeous, Debbie!!

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  28. This is a great project Debbie, one of a kind!

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  29. Love your quilting! Good thing you had all those matching threads.

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  30. How beautiful this is! This might be one of my very favorite sets of Oakshotts. It's hard to take apart the stack and start cutting, right? You did a beautiful job!

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  31. The binding!!!! The quilting--so great all around.

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  32. Debbie that is just stunning! Your pictures of the fabrics are impressive to begin with. But what you did with them is amazing! Your quilting choices are perfect!

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  33. Such a stunning quilt - your design and quilting really makes those gorgeous Oakshotts glow!

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  34. Just followed your blog! Please come follow us back! Thanks.

    quackadoodlequilt.blogspot.com

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  35. This quilt is beautiful! I really want to try out this line of fabric, and I love the pieced, bias cut binding.

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  36. This quilt is beautiful! I really want to try out this line of fabric, and I love the pieced, bias cut binding.

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  37. Gorgeous! I'm in a red phase right now and love the shimmer. Your quilting as always complements the piecing so nicely.

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  38. I absolutely love what you did with the fabric and your quilting made it perfect.

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  39. Like the stripes and the wavy ones add interest. 24Tangent "at" gmail "dot" com

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  40. Love this! Love the colors, love the size, love the design!

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  41. I've loved watching this come together. Thank you for sharing the progress pics. It is stunning!

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  42. This is gorgeous! Thanks for sharing your process.

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  43. It's beautiful! The fabrics look so good together and your design is lovely.

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  44. A beauty as usual!

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  45. You make it all sound so easy ... but your strong design made a wonderful quilt.

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