Monday, April 19, 2021

Variations

Last month when I took our guild's Traditional Variations class with Cheryl Arkison, I didn't really plan on starting a new quilt. I mean, Cheryl even said as much as our session began - we were there to play, with no end result necessary. But whatever, right?

During class, I played with scraps, and that continued over the next few weeks until I just had to pull from stash a tiny bit to finish some of the larger blocks. Not quite sure why I was so liberal with the block sizes, but that was part of the fun. They ranged from 9" x 15" to 20" x 21".

So somewhere along the way, I decided to create a lap-sized quilt, and at 54" x 65", it's pretty perfect. For a backing, I was really happy to find that the good-sized piece of Denyse Schmidt's Big Dot from her  Franklin line coordinated nicely. To bring it to size, I added Lori Holt's Cross Stitch, one of her backgrounds, some scraps of which are in my blocks as well.

Quilting was a simple diagonal grid, and for binding, I cut from a leftover piece of Carolyn Friedlander's Doe wideback - that thing has been a part of several of my quilts - I just can't seem to use it up!


Anyway, this one was really satisfying fabric play, just as it should have been.


12 comments:

  1. Love the photo location! I grew up in Portland and spent lots of fun times at the coast. Looks like Mt. Ranier in the background. Great quilt!

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  2. I love the look of improve and randomness and genuine play of this quilt. The colors too are just as much fun. Love your photos by the sea.

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  3. Congratulations, beautiful finish! Your colors are a perfect match for the clear spring light along the coast.
    And super piecing skills!

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  4. I like that you were inspired enough by the workshop to keep exploring and playing. The variations in block sizes keep me going back and looking around the quilt top for more details. Fun!

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  5. Great improv quilt and photographs. I always get stuck when trying to put blocks of different sizes together, your blocks and quilt top look great!

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  6. Gorgeous quilt and it's great that you managed to make most of it with just scraps. Fabulous!

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  7. I love your color palette and it made for an awesome photo shoot too!

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  8. What a fun quilt! And I love the beach pictures - especially the last one. xo

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  9. This is just stunning Debbie! I love the colours and the different block sizes, it’s just absolutely beautiful!!

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