A Rich Red Report

Remember last spring when I decided to purchase a good amount of Kona Rich Red and use it in each future project - for as long as that felt like a good idea - ? Well, there were several cases (gift, bee quilt, color-guided challenge) where that wasn't feasible. But I was still happy to see that since last May, I used it a little or a lot, in five quilt finishes.

Rich Red I

eXtra

Let's Eat!

Italiano antico

Red Cross Meets Very Peri

When I refreshed my solid stash last week, I included another couple of yards of Rich Red, as I plan to continue with my personal challenge going forward into this year. Maybe not every quilt, of course, but I definitely hope to continue the focus. We'll see where it takes me.

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!

Rich Red I

If you caught my recent post about supplementing my solid stash, you may remember a suggestion from my friend, Dionne - to buy a lot of one color and use it in each future project - for as long as that felt like a good idea, of course. And that came to me as I was trying to decide what to do with the yellow scraps I had left from a project late last year.

I'd been glancing through A Common Thread: A Collection of Quilts by Gwen Marston, and when I happened upon her series of Red Square quilts, I knew I was on to something. I promptly began piecing blocks in the spirit of Red Square IV, which Gwen made in 2008. And in doing so, I'm considering this quilt the first in a series of sorts, where I use Kona Rich Red.

I made single blocks, as well as strings of them, first just placing them randomly on the design wall; then filling in or adding on with scraps and fabrics from stash as I built the quilt top.

For a quilt back, I pieced one leftover block with a variety of small pieces from stash. That blue plaid on the right doesn't obviously coordinate with the front of the quilt, but it certainly did with that floral, which decidedly did. Gwen was whispering in my mind, "Just have fun and try things," and that made everything fit.

For quilting, I used Aurifil 50wt #1103 [burgandy] to stitch an 'X' through the center of each red square. with a frame in the larger squares. Then with variegated 50wt #4658 [Limoni Di Monterosso - side note, I have actually been to Monterosso! Good memories!] I quilted squared coils around each red square, with quilting lines no more than 1/2" to 3/4" apart. There was a variety of other patterns used to fill in as needed - all with my walking foot, and totally improvisational.

It was a little tricky squaring this one up, and I confess I had to pull out my laser levels among other tricks of the trade, before I was satisfied. Bound in Kona Grellow, the quilt finished at 43" x 53". Quilted relatively loosely, this one turned out very cozy, which is never a bad thing, now is it?

So we'll see how using Rich Red in subsequent quilts works out! If you've ever done a color-based series, please do share with us in the comments.

Linking up with TGIFF with Sarah Goer Quilts and Meadow Mist Designs' Favorite Finish Monthly Linkup.