Woven Whispers

A few weeks ago, a friend contacted me with a possible quilt commission inspired by a blessing he had written in honor of his mom's retirement. She had been a teacher for many years, and after reading what he'd written, there were several words/thoughts that resonated.... threads, mosaic, changing shapes. I sent him photos of a few general quilt design ideas, and the one he chose was my Home Away from Home.

As for a palette, we settled on something subtle as a connection to the mentions of whispers, influence in quiet places, sacred hush, a silent promise, echoes, that he'd used in his blessing. "Fall colors and earth tones," he said, so from my stash I initially pulled a mixture of substrates and textures:

• Kona Ice Frappe, Oyster, Snow
• Diamond Textiles wovens - Top Stitch in Pale Jade, Crossed in Cream, Lined in Sage
• Riley Blake Designs' Grid in Seaglass
• a pair of textured solids

Once I got started, I knew I needed more solids, and brought in:

• Kona Haze
• Cotton Couture Powder Blue
• Northcott Colorworks Pearl

I made piles of improv quarter log cabin blocks, and then puzzled them together similarly to my process with the inspiration quilt. For a backing, I wanted an overall design that would complement the front, and chose Rifle Verte in Cream from fabricBUBB, hoping it would work. And boy, did it. I couldn't have chosen anything better if I'd selected in person, right down to the bit of blue that went so nicely with the CC Powder Blue in the quilt top.

Due to the width of the quilt top, I chose to pattern-match the backing. Years ago, my guild-mate Matt @odditease had shown me how to pattern-match a quilt backing, otherwise I never would have thought, or tried, to do it for this quilt. But I think it's just what was needed. so I was glad I took the time to do it. And for your reference, Samantha @aqua_paisley has a terrific tutorial on her blog if you're interested in trying it sometime.

I used Quilter's Dream Select in Natural batting, a product I haven't used a lot, but I'm thinking that might be what contributed to the quilt's rich texture. Using Aurifil 40wt 6722 [Sea Biscuit] and 2021 [Natural White] along with Aurifil 50wt 2843 [Light Grey Green], I quilted a combination of straight any wavy lines to echo the journeys of one's life. 

Bound primarily in Kona Oyster, the lap quilt measured 52" x 54". Since the quilt was to be a gift, I thought it would be nice to deliver it in a coordinating fabric gift bag.

So that was an enjoyable odyssey into improv with intent.... but not overtly, obviously so. But hopefully my friend - and his mom - can be reminded of her influence over the years, the mosaic of experiences, and trust that even efforts that often went unseen, will continue to be felt.

Vista

When I shared about my recent finish, Golden Honey, I told you I was hoping to jump into another small scrappy improv project soon, and just a few days later, I did! This one got its name from the main fabric - Ruby Star Society Horizon, a cotton linen canvas by Alexia Marcelle Abegg from 2019. I think the color is Sand, though I can't find out much about it on the web. The pieces I found in my scrap bucket are left from when I recovered my pressing table a few years ago. Which reminds me, I need to do it again! And by the way, though the fabric is considered canvas, it's not super heavy, and was plenty easy to combine with quilter's cotton. 

Anyway, I struggled a bit deciding what other fabrics to use with the goldish print. There were just a few pieces of solid gold and orange I found, but then I tried red with it and really liked it. I'm thinking this would be considered an analogous color scheme - do you agree?

I really don't have much to say about the arrangement of the fabrics.... they just sort of evolved as I began piecing and playing with them. I do like what I ended up with, but I think what really makes this piece is the quilting. I began by quilting all of the red portions with Aurifil 28wt 2260 [Wine], one of my very favorite red thread colors. I quilted pretty densely, while playing around with stitching shapes also. It was all very fluid and in the moment.

Once the red was done, I went hunting for something that would coordinate with the canvas print, but none of the golds I had worked well at all. So I thought about using an off-white, and that's when I realized, my thread stash is realllly low on those. The best I had was an Aurifil 12wt 2000 [Light Sand]. That's a lot heavier than I usually quilt with, but I referred to the Aurifil recommended uses, and saw that machine embroidery was one of them. I figured the amount of quilting I was planning on this small (15.5" x 21.5") piece could qualify as embroidery, and decided to try it. 

It definitely worked! In fact, as I got started basically outlining seam lines and creating shapes, the 12wt became an integral part of the whole piece. It really stands out, and in a way, mimics the lines and shapes of that focus fabric. At first, I was going to leave all the red unquilted, but obviously changed my mind in a few places.

Obligatory quilt back photo comprised of stash bits and pieces....

Vista is bound in Kona Rich Red - another favorite red - and in a switch from my norm, the industrial feel of the piece made me choose to machine bind it. So that all made for a fairly quick finish, and was thoroughly enjoyable. I've got a few random sewing projects coming up this week, but in between all that, I already have an incentive for my next piece. In my basket of batting scraps, I found one that already had a backing. It must have been trimmed off a larger quilt project, and I'm excited to let it lead me into something new.

Linking up with Favorite Finish for February with Quilting JETgirl.

The BOM

Oh it feels great to have another quilt finish. Especially since it's the Seattle MQG block-of-the-month that was begun last year. I worked on it in fits and starts, but when I finally decided it was time to finish it up, progress went really well.

If you remember, I filled in between the year's modern traditional blocks with Kona Pond, Jade Green, and Emerald. I had a small amount of a berry solid that was used too, and I think it really added a lot. Anyway, once the puzzling was done, I had fun making a pieced backing from some of the scraps and backgrounds I'd been using, along with a couple of coordinating stash finds.

For quilting, I finally settled on Aurifil 50wt 5006 [Light Turquoise], which may seen an odd choice, but a neutral didn't seem quite right. 

It took several hours  - between 8 and 10 - to do organic straight-line over the whole thing, and I was surprised how much thread I used! For comparison, the spool I used (which was new when I began) is on the left in the photo below; a new spool on the right. And the finished quilt is just 53" x 56". 

There's one little tip I thought I'd share, in case you want to try organic straight-line quilting. Once you are done covering the entire quilt with stitching, go back with a ruler and see how many lines of stitching are in, say a 3" section. In my case, in the segment shown, there were 12. Then I move my ruler across the quilt and see if there are sections that could use another line of stitching. If there are either too few lines or too large a gap between lines, I place a pin to mark where I want to go back and add more stitching. It's definitely not a science, rather all personal choice, but something to consider if you like.

For binding, I just had to go with matched binding. 

It took me a few minutes to decide what to use where, since obviously I didn't match in absolutely every section, but I am SO pleased with how it turned out! I think the placement of the binding adds a lot to the overall placement of the background fabrics, which pleased me to no end. 

So yay, my second quilt finish for 2023. I'm not 100% sure what's next, and that's a great place to be. Whatever, it feels good to be moving forward.

#SeattleMQGBOM2022 
#SeaMQGBOM2022 
#YearOfDoublesBOM 

Linking up with Meadow Mist Designs' Favorite Finish Monthly Linkup.

eXtra

The first block or few of my latest quilt were made only as a test. You know, to decide if it was worth making more. I decided yes! I was using Kona Rich Red and Black from stash, but all the other fabrics came straight from the solid scrap bin. In time, I'd make about 35 blocks in several sizes. All but the largest gold one made it into the finished quilt.

It ended up I had too many blocks to make my original quasi-plan work, so I switched to more of a block-based quilt design than my norm. But the layout intrigued me, knowing I'd fill in with more solid black, so for better or worse, I just went for it.

There was definitely some puzzling involved, but it was fun puzzling as opposed to stressful puzzling. Haha. But before I knew it, I had a quilt top! 

For a quilt back, I found two yards of American Jane's Pez print, which I know had been waiting in the ole stash for several years. The colors were perfect for this quilt, so since I couldn't remember why I'd been hoarding it, I happily put it to use. I paired it with two smaller pieces of Kimberly Kight's Grid, and was pretty pleased with the result.

For quilting, I used two Aurifil 50wt threads - #2975 [Brass] for the majority of the stitching of both straight line and 'fancy' zig zags across the quilt - and #2250 [Red] for a few lines in each column just for fun. 

Bound in Kona Black, the finished quilt measures 48" x 58", and even though it wasn't where I thought I was going when I started out, it was an enjoyable process. I especially enjoyed playing with a new block design, as well as using all those colorful scraps. Plus, that Fancy Straight Line quilting from Jacquie Gering's Walk book is always fun to execute and gives great results. I keep reminding myself that my quilt creations can be whatever I want them to be!

So just in the nick of time, I had a quilt finish for July. We happened to have a weekend visitor while I was finishing up this project, and true to form, he totally ignored the quilt until I went and roller brushed it to get the batting lint off. Then suddenly it was bath time. Gotta love it!

Connections

It's been nearly a full month since I started making improv bead blocks, inspired by an element in Irene Roderick's "Improv Quilting." Besides being a way to use some scraps in a new quilt, I also decided to have the project be a sort of retirement commemoration for myself. Why not, right?

If you remember, the palette is that of the branding of the church where I worked - brick(ish), teal, gray, and purple. I pulled scraps in those colors, and for a while, just made strings and strings of 'beads.'

Eventually, of course, I needed to start coming up with an overall quilt design, and chose a long 'string' of bead blocks; which for me, represented the many connections I'd made over the years in my work. Pretty early on I decided I needed a common 'background' color, and settled on Kona Lighthouse. Then as I progressed along, I added in more background grays - Kona Silver and Titanium + a forgotten-named Cotton Couture gray. I incorporated them because I wasn't sure if I would have enough of the Lighthouse, and I'm so glad I did, as the mix added some fun interest I think. AND I was right - I ended up using every last inch of the Lighthouse by the time the quilt was finished.

Anyway, I 'strung' the groupings of beads, beginning at the top, and winding down to the bottom. Having the string begin and end off the edges of the quilt design seemed appropriate, since where I worked these past 23 years was our church home prior to my working there, and will continue to be into the years ahead. I know full well that many of the connections I've made in that place won't end because of my retirement; and of course, there will be new ones for sure.

For a quilt back, I imitated the strings of bead blocks on the front, supersized of course, using a bold and surprising Painter's Palette in Royalty as the background. I confess I kinda love it!

I quilted with Aurifil 50wt #2600 [light gray] on top, and #4030 [plum] in the bobbin. I simply echoed the lines of the bead edges and the strings, filling between them so lines of stitches did not exceed about three-quarters of an inch. 

A binding of Kona Lighthouse, the primary background color of the front, seemed unobtrusive and fitting, and the quilt finished at 53" x 63". 

It feels good to have this one done! It was a perfect project to work on these past weeks as I've settled into retirement. There are so many connections that have been meaningful over the years, and it's been nice to reflect on them as I worked on this quilt. Plus, I have a new lap quilt that I can enjoy going forward with so many memories stitched into it.

Scrappy Beads

So I started a new scrappy improv quilt, inspired by a 'bead block' in Irene Roderick's new "Improv Quilting." I have no idea how my strings of beads will fit together, but for now I'm enjoying making them, and that's good enough for me.

The palette is a unique one: brick(ish), teal, gray, and purple. The reason is simple.... it's the palette of the website and communications for the church I've been working at for the last 23 years. In honor of my upcoming retirement(!), I decided I might as well make myself a quilt to commemorate the event. Why not, right?

After making several strands of 4" tall beads, it seemed some variety in sizes would be good, so my latest length - about 36" long - is 5.5" tall. I expect to be at this a while, figuring it out as I go, but it feels good to be working through some scraps!

Lineplay

So when I left off sharing about the progress on my current Quilt Improv Studio challenge project, I had four triangle-ish segments of improv lines, and honestly, I could have just left it as it was. I liked the imbalance and the tiniest bit of yellow in my primary + black & white palette. But I had other plans, and I felt compelled to see them though.

I had ordered some 28wt yellow thread [Aurifil #2120 Canary] and set out to create two "ghost-blocks," if you will.... segments that echoed the feel of the improv lines in the red and blue slabs, but in thread rather than fabric. Honestly, I love how it turned out!

Then, of course, I needed to quilt the rest of the design. I chose Aurifil 50wt in black [#2692] and in the red and blue sections, stitched from the edge up into the black lines and back out. In the yellow sections, I again echoed those lines but just until they met. (Sorry, forgot to take a photo.)

Once the planned quilting was complete, there was just a slight problem, and that was that just a few of the blue 'lines' bubbled up in the center more than I would have liked. So with happily matching thread, I quilted just a few of the red and blue lines in each section. Minor, but it helped the problem, and added a little extra interest.

At just over 24" square, "Lineplay" barely fits the minimum dimensions for the challenge, but it works! I'm happy that though it started with a couple of purely improvisational striped slabs, I find the resulting shapes very intriguing. And the ghost 'blocks' were fun to execute - one of the few times I've used 28wt thread. I definitely want to use it more. And last but not least, this piece was constructed mostly of scraps, which made me verrry happy.