Stripes Stripes Stripes

Émilie's @mili.tra Bee Sewcial prompt for September was stripes stripes stripes. Her goal for us was to create a pseudo-repeating pattern using a minimum of four colors in total: one light, one dark, one bright, and one muted. We could add more colors to each category if we wished, but the idea was then to avoid mixing two colors from the same category within a single stripe—for example, no pairing two light colors together. But I just used the initial four I chose, so that wasn't an issue.

Above is my first block, roughly 15" x 19". The second block, below, would be approximately 10" x 18" if trimmed, and could be kind of angular, or not.

Stripes are almost always fun to create, and these were definitely as expected. They'll be heading off to Émilie soon to join those of my bee mates.

ColorScape

After finishing up a commission quilt recently, a new table runner, and a batch of quilted bookmarks, I was kind of at a loss at what to do next. Isn't it great when you find yourself with nothing pressing?

So I hauled out my bin of solid scraps, and started in on a scrappy thing inspired by some of Ophelia Pang's @opheliapangg works. Very few colors were rejected as I pulled from the scrap basket, making columns of multi-colored stripes of varied widths. I even added in a few black, white, and gray strips, and by some miracle, the happiest palette began to emerge.

I stopped when the quilt top nearly filled my design wall at 56" x 69". I hadn't really had in mind to make a quilt that large, but what did I expect? There are plenty of scraps left. I could have kept going and going. 

Instead, I opted to see what I had in stash for a pieced quilt backing, without being too fussy about it. Predominantly orange seemed to make the most sense once I found some good sized pieces that worked together. And on those fabrics I found a bit of a surprise - two especially fun selvages. I decided to trim those off and make them a focal point, which is something I very rarely do. But they just seemed to 'fit' this quilt, don't you think?

For quilting, I rummaged through my collection of small spools of Aurifil 40wt and 50wt, hoping to use a variety of colors both in the bobbin and as the top thread. Originally thinking 40wt for the quilting and 50wt for the bobbin, I ended up using both 40wt and 50wt for the quilting because of the colors I chose to use: Aurifil 40wt 2150 [Pumpkin], 2423 [Baby Pink], 4020 [Fuschia], 6722 [Crimini] and Aurifil 50wt 2115 [Lemon], 2886 [Light Avocado], 5006 [Light Turquoise], 7000 [Neon Orange]. This wild mix of thread colors made the quilting most enjoyable.

I used my hera marker to mark every 2" to 4" for beginning lines of an uneven grid. Once I had those lines done, I filled in randomly, ending up with lines .5" to 2" apart. I really like using Erica's @kitchentablequilting method for grid quilting. It always gives me such a great result, and this time was no exception.

This quilt was trimmed without much squaring or measuring. It just wasn't important for this particular project. Up to that point, things had been pretty relaxed, so why stop? For binding, I continued to pull right out of the scrap basket, odds and ends of other bindings from other projects. I think the scrappiness fits the quilt well enough.

Honestly, I loved the process of making this quilt, and the resultant finish, so much, I could easily dive right back in and make another. I probably won't do that, but one of these days, I may.... 

For now, I took my friend Erica's @kitchentablequilting advice, and had hubby take a photo of me with my finished quilt!

Linking up with Quilting JETgirl's Favorite Finish linky!

30 Days of Improv :: Stripes

It’s Week 1 of the 30 Days of Improv QAL hosted by Shannon @shannonfraserdesigns and Amanda @broadclothstudio, and what fun it's been. Yeah, I had plenty to work on without adding daily improv play into the mix, but it just felt like something fun to do during this last month of summer. Once it crossed my mind to use my bag of Carolyn Friedlander fabric scraps for the QAL, I was all in. 

So Week 1 has been all about stripes, one of my favorite improv shapes to work with. The first block was made ruler-free until trim-time and basically I was just having fun with a favorite print - that purple/pink one. I decided to go ahead and trim all my blocks during the QAL to 6.5" square.

Day 2's challenge was to play with scale.

Wonky stripes for Day 3.

Normally a fan of the slice and insert method, I struggled with it on Day 4's block. So it's not my favorite of the week, but still fun.

And my block on Day 5 was created with all sorts of bits and bobs from the week. Though stripes are less pronounced in this block, they are there, and this turned out to be one of my favorites.

I thoroughly enjoyed making these throughout the week, and look forward to seeing what the next week of improv holds.