Crush

Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning, went to look what was new on Instagram, and there was the new KONA Color of the Year, Crush! After having the Pantone Color of the Year announced just days ago, it being a rich Viva Magenta, I was so surprised to see the Kona COTY choice also in the red color family.

After all my work with Rich Red this year, I'm definitely a fan, even with the similarity to Viva Magenta. I feel like there's a little orange in Crush, or hot pink? I definitely recommend glancing at the feature projects on the Robert Kaufman website to see how the makers have used Crush with other colors. So what are your thoughts? Yay or nay? 

Rework

There were a couple of things that inspired this project - the first being the palette on my desk calendar, and the second, a previous project, the mini quilt Loosely Connected. Basically I wanted to play with the triangle shapes from Loosely Connected on a larger scale, and chose Kona Denim, Red, and Camellia to explore with.

Of course I started by making several striped slabs, and then cut them into long rectangles. After rearranging the triangles on the design wall again and again, I settled on a layout.

Problem is, once I started sewing them together, I lost interest completely. Like I didn't even like it completely. So after staring at it for a couple of months, I confessed that my original vision was gone, and that was ok. I very nearly took the pieces down and put them in the closet, but luckily, it came to me that I should cut them up and see what that did for me. Obviously!!

And I immediately was interested again!

I was totally happy with the initial random layout of my newly cut blocks. But I decided to see if the piece was helped at all by offsetting the blocks a bit and filling in with the background blue. Deciding to go that route, I thought a little more contrast might be good too, so I added in some Kona Cardinal here and there. And yeah, I liked that even better.

Add a simple frame, and I was done.

I found a really fun and colorful backing in my stash, and though I felt a little guilty using it as the  back, it also seemed perfect. Once that was settled, I was so ready to get quilting! At 36" x 38" I knew it wouldn't take long, nor be too stressful. I had decided while I was still piecing that I wanted to quilt a diamond grid, and went the adventuresome road by choosing a variegated thread - Aurifil 50wt #4647 [Berrylicious]. It added a spirited element of charm, don't you think?

SO. Not that I need a message here, but this project was SUCH a good reminder that if a project isn't speaking to you, consider reworking your vision for it.

 There's no guarantee it'll take you to a happy place, so be sure and celebrate if it does!

Splash!

After the announcement of Living Coral as the 2019 Pantone Color of the Year earlier this month, the watch was on for the Kona Color of the Year from Robert Kaufman Fabrics. And yesterday, we were rewarded for our wait with the announcement of Splash, "a bright and boisterous blue-green hue." 

photos courtesy Robert Kaufman/Kona Cotton; 

patterns shown can be found here

So whatcha think? I confess I kinda love it! And like I did with Kona COTYs Highlight, Pink Flamingo, and Tiger Lily, I fully expect to dabble with it and see where it takes me. 

Being Sewcial

Towards the end of last year, I said farewell to 3 bees that I'd happily sewn with for the past 2 years - Always Bee Learning, Mid-Century Modern, and That Stash Bee. I made lots of good friends in those bees, friends I definitely want to keep in touch with, and we've made some beautiful quilts together - all really good stuff, right? But the bee blocks were stacking up in the ole stash, and honestly, I guess I just needed a change of pace, feeling that sticking with my one charity bee, FAITH Circle of do.Good Stitches, would be enough bee action for a while.

And then I got an invite to a new bee starting up. Bee Sewcial was different. It was all about using solid fabric. It was all about improv. It was all about derived inspiration. And it sounded challenging in a new way that quite honestly, I just couldn't resist.

So it started in January with Stephanie/Spontaneous Threads at the helm. With photos from a Dale Chihuly exhibit at the Denver Botanic Garden as inspiration, and an extensive list of Kona cottons as a suggested palate, we were given free reign. As in, anything goes - follow where the inspiration leads, creating our best improv interpretation on the theme.

I admit I was frozen for a bit, but one night I just jumped in, with my stack of solids on my cutting table, and my rotary cutter gripped tight. I had flipped through Lucie Summers' book Quilt Improv a few days before so I guess I had the reverse applique "porthole" on my mind, though how it came to be fractured in the block below is all due to the mystery of improv.

As I began my second block, all I knew was I wanted lots of dark blue (Kona Nightfall), and there was a vague notion about slicing through the pieced strips at some point.

The requirement for this bee is 2 approximately 12" blocks (or the equivalent in 1 large block or several smaller blocks). And 1 terrific-to-me feature is that we've been told not to trim the blocks up. So they'll be heading out just as you see them, fresh from a good press. 

So I'm in! This should be a stimulating experiment in stepping outside one's comfort zone. If you feel like checking in on us, just look for #BeeSewcial on Instagram. We just might be going where no bee has gone before . . .

Jewel Lines

There's been a little project behind the scenes that I can finally share. And that would be a table runner I made as a shower gift. It's a bit complicated when we live in different states, but daughter dear and godchild Jessica figured out a way to throw a shower for my soon-to-be-daughter-in-law. They called it "Bridal Shower-in-a-Box."  Basically, they asked local friends and family to fill a gift box with something for the bride-to-be, then Jessica and Rachel packed them all together with fresh-baked cookies and party decorations, and sent them off.

The runner I made was "get in line" by Amy Walsh of Blue Underground Studios, which was published in the June 2012 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting. In the magazine, the runner was made of Dupiani silk, which was lovely, but I chose to make mine more day-to-day-friendly by using Kona cottons.

It was a really interesting process cutting strips . . .

and playing with placement on the design wall.

For quilting, I tried to add some more variety by using 3 different Aurifil 28wt Mako Cotton Threads. The 28wt is heavier than the 50 weight I use for piecing, and emphasizes the stitches well. I was pleased to find 3 really nicely coordinating colors in my thread bin - Winter Mauve #5003, Sapphire #2730, and Peapod #1231. I stitched randomly spaced straight lines in the stripes across the runner, 2 or 3 lines per stripe.

The finished runner measured a generous 20x44", and I've named my version "Jewel Lines," taken from the many jewel-toned Kona's and the obviously repetitive lines, both in fabric and quilting.

So the bridal-shower-in-a-box has arrived to bless my future daughter-in-law, and in just about every way, I couldn't be more pleased.

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday!

A Dead Simple {Revised} Plan

I had a plan for the Dead Simple Quilt-Along {see here}, but things have changed slightly. This was my chosen palette:

KONA wheat, sweet pea, olive, tan, lupine

Well, when the fabric came, I realized that in reality, olive wasn't the right green for this palette, so I've substituted KONA artichoke.

KONA wheat, sweet pea, artichoke, tan, lupine

It may be hard to tell from these swatches. In fact the swatch for sweet pea really isn't as dusky as it is in person. But artichoke seems a better fit.

If I were to follow Lynne's layout, mine would look something like this:

I may be tweaking it a bit, but there is my tentative dead simple plan.

A Shop and A Book

Yesterday, while out and about, I visited a sweet little quilt shop, Glad Creations. I was welcomed by the most wonderful display of KONA cotton solids. Sooo lovely!

Mom was with me and fell in love with a sample table runner, so we had fun picking out some fabric for a project for her. So while this isn't exactly 'stash fabric', it'll be nice to have it hang out in the sewing room until I get started.

Lastly, I saw a new book I was interested in, which I didn't realize was even on the shelves yet! Couldn't resist buying a copy each for daughter dear and myself.

It features 12 different quilt bloggers who participated in a year-long "block party". The book is full of modern quilt blocks, 'taught' by several bloggers I follow - A Quilt is Nice, Film in the Fridge, Tall Grass Prairie, and Oh, Fransson - and more that I want to check out! What a great little quilty outing!

Stash

You hear quilters talk about their ‘stash’, which doesn’t necessarily sound appealing, does it? But as every quilter knows, their ‘stash’ is a lovely place. It may not be folded and stacked neatly (probably isn’t) but your stash is one facet of quilting that keeps you going. It is what you want to use up; it is what you want to add to. It is your constant quilting companion.

Many quilters have very large stashes, collected over the years. Many add bits and pieces of all the latest fabrics by all the popular designers. Compared to these kinds of quilters, my stash is quite forlorn, mostly ‘leftovers’ from projects past. I occasionally make lists of what all I could make of these leftovers, and it really is quite a lot. But often, I am mostly drawn to what is currently on the market – what’s new and exciting.

My daughter adds fat quarters to her stash. One friend usually adds fabric in two-yard lengths; another buys all the fabric she’ll need when she finds a new pattern, making her own ‘kit.’ Lately, I’ve added a few things to my stash “just because.”

Before I share the really good stuff, here’s my current stash. Pretty much three bins of that leftover fabric I mentioned, with a tad of newish stuff tossed in, roughly organized by color. Bin three has leftovers bagged together with everything from one project. It’s hard for me to separate what I know goes nicely together. I also have two bags - one of Christmas fabric, and one of "Aunt Gracie's".

New this week and ready to go into bin three are 15 layer cake squares from the Central Park quilt I’m piecing. Thinking they might make into a cute baby quilt.

I don’t have a lot of ‘basic’ solids in my stash, so I recently added three yards each of KONA Charcoal & KONA Snow. Also, because I like it and it’s ‘in’ right now, a yard of Metro Living white rings on pewter by Robert Kaufman.

The quilt class I took this month was held in a quilt store. Duh. Had to check out the goods there, and came home with a charm pack (my favorite kind of pre-cut) of Origins (by basicgrey/origins for Moda), and a fat-quarter pack of Sunkissed grays (by Sweetwater for Moda), both of which would go nicely with the KONA Ash I have left from my SOCKEN QA.

And, of course, the best kind of stash additions are those that are gifted to you! And for my birthday last week, I got two more great additions:

A Cappuccino Bali Pop by Hoffman, along with a book with a pattern using said Bali Pop. I haven’t used batiks very often, but I love how they feel as you sew, so am looking forward to putting this project together soon.

AND a half-yard pack of KONA cotton solids! Hand-picked! Wow. Someone knew I needed those solids in my stash! Those lovely colors are Cardinal, Tangerine, Canary, Sour Apple, Lagoon, Bright Periwinkle, and Charcoal. And are they ever beautiful! They will definitely add some life to the (stash) party!

 

Thank you to the gifters! They are two woman who both encourage and inspire me!

(Am I the only one that leaves new stash items out for a while, just to enjoy the sight of them?! Can’t put them in the bin too soon!)

Socken

I've joined a second quilt along, Socken (German for "sock"), sponsored by Cherry House Quilts. Cherri of Cherry House LOVES solids, and pretty much uses only them in her quilts. Solid quilts are very trendy right now, and this project looked easy and fun.

The schedule:

2/1/11 CUTTING INSTRUCTIONS

2/8/11 PIECED COLUMNS

2/15/11 ASSEMBLE QUILT TOP

2/22/11 QUILT THE TOP

3/1/11 FINISH THE QUILT

We were encouraged to use Kona Cotton Solids, of which there are over 200! I had enough 'Ash' for the background, so just needed to choose colors for the squares (Black, Coal, Purple, Marine Blue).