Spare

Seventeen months after I gave the initial Minimal Shapes prompt to my Bee Sewcial @beesewcial mates, I have a quilt finish to share! I'm calling it Spare, as a reflection of its minimalistic nature.

As I shared in my Back to Minimal Shapes post back in early October, I started with the 16 blocks, made by my mates and myself, and cut them all into circles and half-circles, filling in around them with Kona Lupine and Overcast. Then I used leftovers from cutting those circles to begin a pieced quilt back, adding in solids from stash as needed to bring it up to size - Konas Hibiscus, Lighthouse, Mocha, Coffee, and Eggplant.

For quilting, I started by machine-quilting vertical straight lines using Aurifil 50wt 2520 [Violet] across the entire quilt. Though I rarely use both machine- and hand-quilting in the same quilt, this one seemed to call for it. So once the machine-quilting was completed, I used my hera marker to mark half-circles and circles in all the Lupine spaces, and hand-quilted using Aurifil 12wt 2520 [Violet]. 

Then I used Aurifil 12wt 2625 [Arctic Ice] to hand-quilt randomly in between the vertical machine-quilted lines in the gray borders and interior rectangles. First time ever, I used an entire small spool - and then some - for hand-quilting the Overcast sections on this quilt.

Once quilting was complete, it was finally time for binding, which I did with more Kona Overcast. My intent with the layout and filler fabric placement was to create a see-through illusion, with the gray portions being the 'background.' Whether or not that worked is up to the viewer, but I 'see' it, so there's that. 

The completed quilt measures 76" x 76", and it is indeed a relief to finally have this one done. Many thanks to the co-creators of Spare - Leanne Chahley @shecanquilt, Stephanie Ruyle
@spontaneousthreads, Felicity Ronaghan @felicityquilts, Karen Foster @capitolaquilter, M-R Charbonneau @quiltmatters, Jen Broemel @jen.broemel, and Irene Roderick @hixsonir - who all contributed lovely improv blocks for me to work with.

Back to Minimal Shapes

OK! This last week it was finally time to face a project that's been stashed away for a while. It's my Minimal Shapes quilt for Bee Sewcial @beesewcial that I initially set a prompt for back in July 2024. I pulled out the blocks (16 total), and cut them all into circles and half-circles using the amazing Clammy by Latifah Saafir Studios. I started placing them on the design wall with a bit of an idea in mind, thought the layout wasn't final quite yet.

I had ordered up two solids to fill in around the shapes - Kona Lupine and Espresso. Unfortunately, as I was adding pieces to the design wall, the Espresso seemed way too overwhelming.

So I changed plans, and luckily had enough Kona Overcast on hand, and I liked that much better.

The top is now complete, measuring 76" square, thanks to a 4" Overcast border I added all around. I did that, even though borders aren't usually my thing. But I wanted the gray rectangles at the edges to look like they were attached to the border, and the gray rectangles around the center of the quilt to look kind of like holes. So for better or worse, that's where it stands now. And it'll stay there while I make a quilt backing, hopefully from the scraps and leftover solids from my original pull. I have a machine-quilting plan, and thread picked out. And I even have an idea for some hand-quilting after that. Time will tell!

Minimal Shapes Blocks

So I have a bit of unfinished business to face in the weeks (months?) ahead. All of my Minimal Shapes blocks from last year's prompt have come in from my Bee Sewcial beemates, and as usual, things are looking good! I always love to see how each one interprets the prompt, and before long, I'll be seriously debating layouts, always the toughest part for me. I kind of had a plan when I started out, but we'll see what I come up with when I get right down to it.

Here are my original inspiration blocks - organic, but reminiscent of geometric shapes in an orange, purple, brown, and gray palette.

And here are all the blocks I received from my beemates....

Irene @hixsonir

Jen @jen.broemel

Karen @capitolaquilter

Leanne @shecanquilt

Stephanie @spontaneousthreads

Felicity @felicityquilts

M-R @quiltmatters

Whether or not this one waits until after my Ode to Joy quilt remains to be seen. (I think it will.) Either way, I'm excited to move forward on it.

Minimal Shapes

It seems that most of my Bee Sewcial quilts over the years have turned out pretty maximalist. (Click to see them all!) So this year, especially considering my month is smack dab in the middle of our summer, I chose a more minimal-leaning prompt, Minimal Shapes.

I found this simple definition of 'shapes': "Geometric shapes, such as circles, triangles, or squares, have perfect, uniform measurements and don't often appear in nature. Whereas, organic shapes are associated with things from the natural world, like plants and animals." -Google.com

A collection of the kinds of shapes I'm looking for - organic, but reminiscent of geometric shapes - can be found in my pin board, Minimal Shapes. I'm thinking bold shapes with both straight lines (improv-style, meaning ruler-free is fine) and maybe some gentle curves. 

As for a palette, I'm asking my beemates to work in a palette similar to a purple and orange collage by Liz Roache - ie. orange, purple, brown, and gray. More specifically, colors such as Kona:

• chili, tangerine, pimento
• raisin, eggplant, hibiscus
• chocolate, brown, mocha
• lighthouse, overcast

Other guidelines I'm asking are:

• use two to five fabrics per block, in at least two colors
• each block should contain at least two but no more than six shapes
• shapes inspired by those shown in the pin board, but not exclusively those
• no transparency, no applique, 100% quilter's cotton only please
• two blocks, each at least 12.5" square 

One of the layout ideas I'm considering would involve minor trimming, so blocks need to be at least 12.5" square; but anything much larger risks being trimmed off. That said, blocks may be left untrimmed, as long as they fit the 12.5" minimum request.

So pictured throughout this post are the two sample blocks I made. I'm hoping the prompt is fun but not too demanding. Plus I'm curious to work with more minimal blocks than my usual Bee Sewcial prompts provide. I'm anxious to see how the project evolves.