Rainbow - a finished quilt-

In the end I finished this quilt quickly. I decided not to enlarge it after all but instead to enjoy the colour gradation as it is.  And for such a small little quilt I took many, many photos.

I basted the quilt with a remnant piece of wool batting I had left from quilting this quilt.  And I didn't find the experience to baste and quilt with wool particularly great then and nor did Inow. I love the warms it gives off but because there is so much loft and the material has a lot less grip than my trusted 100 % cotton wadding, it makes basting and quilting a bit of a challenge.

I quilted in a grid pattern, lengthwise about 3/4 inch apart and on the horizontal once through the middle of the squares.

 This gives the quilt a really nice drape and shows of the puffiness and loft of the wool wadding.

Finding a suitable backing was a bit of a challenge but in the end I decided on another remnant piece I had from making this quilt from the Heirloom collection by Joel Dewburry. It matches many of the colours from the quilt front.

The binding was another challenge but I soon found what has to be my favourite binding of this year. A little text number I had in my stash that I managed to cut and attach is in a way that shows little snippets of phrases along the edges. It might be a bit cheesy but I keep smiling when I see that....it must be the Christmas season....

I used my go-to steal grey 28w quilting thread from Aurifil to quilt which always works a treat.

As much as I struggle with the wool batting, I must admit it does drape wonderfully and it's lightness combined with the lightness of the Oakshott cottons, makes this quilt truly a sumptuous and luxury affair.

Any of you who have worked with Oakshott cottons know that the colours are just so luminous and iridescent that a finished quilt always feels and looks very special.

And that's it for this year I think.
I wish all of you a wonderful Christmas and New Year and am looking forward to see you all back on my blog in 2016.

Love Judith 

Rainbow - part two -

I played and played for days rearranging the squares endlessly until I ended up with a sort of colour gradations from light to dark.

I am pretty pleased with it but I find it to small with 40" by 45" or so. I keep thinking I want something more around it. Not more squares but something solid.....

So I guess I keep playing a little longer with this.

Rainbow - part one -

A few years ago Michael Oakshott gave me a couple of charm packs to photograph for his web page. This proofed difficult and ultimately the images weren't suitable to publish (to much reflection from the fabric). Michael who is one of the most generous people allowed me to keep them regardless and I regularly admire them but never felt the right kind of motivation to turn them into a quilt.

But the other day I just took them from my stash and played a bit with them and and I guess will do that a bit more until I have an idea. I am determined to to do something with them before the end of the year.

Those colours are simply luscious and very inviting to play and much to wonderful to remain hidden in my stash.

A spot of Improv

I'd like to say a spot of improv piecing came upon me in the middle of the night and wouldn't let go of me but that would be rather untrue..... I have made one wall hanging in the spirit of Gee's Bend quilts last year and very much liked the process. There is something reckless about it because you have to let go of everything that you have leaned before; to hell with the ruler and rotary cutter, no exact 1/4 inch and seam allowances are ironed just where they want to lay themselves.

Liberating, yes but also a bit unnerving and with a lot of potential for frustration. When I went to Quilt Con I was particularly interested in the Gee's Bend quilts and their improv style. It just appeals to me and whenever I google Gee's Bend quilts I never tier of looking at them. Yet I find it strange that this burning desire doesn't lead me to obsessive improv piecing.

So when I attended the workshop with the lovely Gee's Bend Ladies I knew I was forced for 3 hours to improv piece. It was a strange 3 hours to say the least. All they said was "Sew!" and that was it. I was fine with that given that I have a little bit of experience with it but it lead to some frantic piecing by all participants. Hardly anybody looked right of left and I had the impression that everybody put their head down to produce as much as possible. In a way that was also creative as we worked against the clock.

I took some old denim, cotton from my father's work trousers (he is a baker and still baking at 73 in our bakery) and a whole bunch of Oakshott I had lying around plus some old linen and some text fabric. The outcome was this:

Please excuse the bad image quality as it was taken with my phone. I was ok with it but not thrilled. I liked the yellow small squares intersected with my checkered work trousers fabric best but the rest was just...well....

After that I went home and put it all away for a few weeks. I took it out the other day and started looking at it and then decided to undo most of it and cut some of the larger pieces up again only to sew them back together in a different way. If you don't like it, just cut it up ! That is the beauty of improv.

The outcome is this:

And this I like very much now. I love the dark petrol strips in between as I feel they combine the individual parts. It needs more denim for sure and I have other pieces that I created since and those that are left from the cutting up that should go into it.

It's a piece in progress that I will put away again for a few weeks and see then where it leads me to. 

In support of Solids

I have teamed up with Robert Kaufmann' Kona Cotton and Love Patwork & Quilting to make a series of solids only quilts for the magazine. The first quilt that is truly a riot of colour and I promise you, should not be missed is made using all the new Kona colours plus many, many of the existing colours. It will feature in the November or December edition. So why am I telling you this ? Well, because Robert Kaufmann generously sent me two fat quarters bundles of the 33 new colours which means I can give one away. That I will do later in the week and I hope you stop by and participate.
But first I hope you enjoy a little trip down the solids only memory lane with me.

Over the past years I have not only appreciated solids but have worked often with just solids and now almost find myself preferring them to patterned fabric (there I said it).

And one of my all time favourite quilts is still the 'Single Girl' quilt made with Kona and Klona cottons. Having it on my sofa or bed or simply looking at it fills me with enormous pleasure and satisfaction and I am sure this will never change.

 

And I think the second favourite is my Comet quilt featuring Oakshott Cottons that really pack a punch.

Front

Back

But it wasn't always high impact colours that I went for. 'Tuscan Hils' uses masses of negative space in a very subtle way and incidentally was my first quilt on which I tried circular quilting and that has now become something of a trademark on my quilts.

I also used circular quilting with 'She loves the Blues' , a quilt commissioned by my brother for his girl friend. I really love this quilt with its floating squares.

A wall painting in a London restaurant served as inspiration to make the Sketch quilts. Sketch I was sewn from all my solids scraps and Sketch II with Michael Miller Cotton Couture and both make me smile a lot. Sketch II was also the first quilt that I made for LP&Q.

 

Sketch I

Sketch II

I must have been drunk to want to make 400 or so HSTs for 'Drunken Harlequin' but I was glad I did in the end. This quilt also uses the incredibly soft Michael Miller Cotton Couture solids.

And my latest edition to the ever growing solids series is the Gee's Bend inspired quilt 'Dreams of Summer' which was constructed without rotary cutter or ruler and felt quite liberating to make.

There is growing number of quilters such as Alissa Haight Carlton that now use solids as the main feature in their quilts and not just as a background colour. Solids only quilts have a distinct modern feel to it that is often combined with a graphic design element. I find it easy to use solids but know other quilters find it rather difficult due to their intensity. So I hope the giveaway that will be on my blog later in the week will inspire another quilter to become a convert for solids only quilts!

On point - a finished quilt

So I finished the quilt and what can I say, I love it.

I used the Kikoi fabric and some of K. Fassett's stripes and juxtaposed these with Longshott Oakshott fabrics and created 9 patch blocks for which each square was cut on point. Originally I had thought to set each 9-patch block on point too but that turned out to be a little to much so I chose for a straight arrangement.

The backing fabric is a large piece of a K. Fassett print from a few seasons ago that I still had in stock and which I supplemented with a few stirps of solids in turquoise, red, orange and black from a Kona and Freespirit Designer Solids. It really works well with all the colours on the front.

I quilted in simple diagonal lines to give  the quilt stability and used variegated Guetermann Sulky threads in two different shades. For the top a thread with more greens and for the bottom one with more orange and red. I wanted the thread the blend in rather than stand out as a white or off-white thread  would have done.

For the binding I wanted to use something fun and light, yet complimentary to the overall colours of the quilt so I opted for a gingham in orange and white that I ordered at Frumble fabrics.  I am really pleased with the choice as it give the quilt a little lift.

All the fabrics used in this quilt are woven and cutting them on the bias (or on point) was a little challenging but it worked out much better than I thought. The key was to work quickly and precise and to sew the 9-patches together speedy rather than moving the pieces about forever.
The quilt measures 64" x 74" (1.63 x 1.88) which is a good sofa quilt size in my opinion.

Please find previous posts on this quilt here, here and here and if the quilt is for sale in my Etsy shop.

On-point -work in progress-

I normally don't give that many update throughout the progress of a quilt-in-making but this one is so special and so vibrant that I can't help myself photographing it all the time.

Hopefully this isn't getting to boring for you and the next post about it will be the finishing line.
Promise !!

A finished quilt for Enne

You might remember before I plunged into the Liberty 'Quiltathon' that I had started a commission from my sister for her mother-in-law. (details and first post can be found here). Over the past two weeks I picked up the work again and sewed slaved every morning a few more paper-pieced blocks ending in a staggering 90 !

Then I contemplated the design and quite unlike my original thoughts on this I decided on a zick-zack pattern and mightily pleased with my choice.

I used a lot of Oakshott Lyon (again check out the original post for info) and a variety of Kona solids (putty, oyster, cream, stone)  and some left over Oakshott solid.

I love the effect of the zickzack as it gives the quilt purpose and structure while retaining an element of randomness through the arbitrary placement of the blocks in terms of colour.

Another reason for this layout was that I really did NOT want to quilt over the Oakshott Lyon as it would take away some of its beauty. Lyon is shot like other shott cottons but it has more of a woven quality and is shot with thicker threads.

The best way to avoid quilting over the Lyon shott cotton was with this layout where I quilted in zick zack lines along the seams in the negative space.

The quilt back of this 63" x 70" (1.60 x 1.80 m)  sofa sized quilt is kept very simple with Kona stone and cream and I must say although I probably would have gone for a patterned back I love the calmness this conveys.

Let's hope my sister and more importantly Aenne loves it.
I certainly do.

A quilt for Aenne {work in progress}

I have a new quilt commission. This time it is from none other than my lovely sister. She and her husbeast would like to gift a quilt to her mother-in-law Aenne for Christmas.
Apparently Aenne used to sew a lot in her younger days and is rather impressed by my quilts (my sister has several). So no pressure there.

My head went straight into planning mode when I heard and because Aenne is a keen gardener who has a large vegetable and flower garden I was convinced that Kaffe Fassett and Philip Jacobs would feature largely in the plan.

Then my sister and Aenne trawled my webpage and it turned out that Aenne is much more taken by my modern and contemporary quilts such as the Comet or Tuscan Hills which took me by surprise. But she reasoned that her living room is already full of pattern and colour and a quilt that would be equally as exuberant would be to much. I couldn't agree more.

So the other night my sister and I (she in Germany and me here) had another look at my quilts and those in my favorite section on Flickr and Anja's eye fell on the 'Trajectory' quilt by Megan from monkey beans.This is indeed a quilt I covet and have thought to make for myself one day using my voile fabric collection on black background. My sister thought that those boomerang shapes looked like little swallows or larks flattering in the sky and I really like that notion.

So this was settled and the next step was to choose the fabric. We also spotted in my stash folder my Oakshott 'Lyon' collection that I bought in Feb 2011. At the time when I bought this gorgeous pack of fat eights I was contemplating to use them in my single girl quilt but later decided to go with just solids. I am so glad that we finally found a purpose for these amazing woven fabrics.

The plan is to combine them with a variety of natural Kona solids (such as cream, sand, putty etc.) and then to add the Oakshott fabric for the boomerangs. I'm afraid it will look rather similar to Megan's original with respect to colours but as it is a commission I am ok with it. If it was for myself I would have chosen different colours.

It will be a large lap quilt at 63" x 70 " or 1.8m x 1.6m. My calculations have resulted in 90 blocks at 7 1/2 inches! I created my paper piecing block according to Megan's excellent tutorial and already started paper piecing; 24 done only 63 to go......

Comet has landed

I finished my Comet quilt last weekend after a surprising short time of quilting. You may remember that my quilting plan was to quilt radiating straight lines from the center (as seen on Angela Walter's blog). 

I was convinced that the quilting would be a nightmare and drag on forever but the opposite was the case. It took me literally only two longish evenings. My plan to quilt in quadrants with a few guiding lines worked a treat. After I had quilted six or so lines I was able to use these as guides to fill in the remaining lines.

At first I started out each line from the middle of the quilt because I thought it would pucker otherwise but soon changed tack and started from the outset which worked just as well and was somewhat easier. I also changed tack in terms of tidying up threads. First I planned to tidy up each thread by hand later but I realised that the Valdani thread isn't as strong as Gueterman Sulky or Aurifil and often a gentle tuck on the thread to bury it with a knot leads to it breaking. So I changed instead to sewing a few stitches in place by machine and then cut off the thread (my Horizon does this rather neatly).

I used both thread colours throughout the quilt (but did the middle square entirely in 'Vibrant Red' ) to ensure that there were some highlights in the black. I loved the 'Red Eclipse' thread as it really gives the impression of star bursts with the black parts disappearing in the black background and the red parts standing out. 

I also chose not to quilt all lines through from the outside to the centre because I did not want the centre to be overly crowded with quilting lines.Some lines I stopped at the beginning of the red pattern.

Well, and this is the back. Due to popular demand and on special demand by Sarah I chose this pattern. Actually what clinched it was Jennie's comment that it would look like a before and after shot of the comet approaching and exploding (thank you Jennie). I am really, really happy with this choice and sometimes even prefer the back.

The material is all Oakshotts and the list of colours can be found in the first post here; other posts regarding this quilt can be found here and here.

The binding really was a no-brainier. I chose black with two intersections of red to further the impression of the comet coming and exploding.

I made this quilt as a response to the July challenge of the LMQG which was to make something inspired by modern art. The quilt was in the main inspired by Rothko's series in black and red and when I presented it to my lovely fellow LMQG members they all teased me that I was an overachiever....... I guess it was rather disproportionately huge compared to the other pieces in the show and tell...but I could not help myself...once the idea was in my head there was no going back...sorry Ladies and Gentleman :-))

Comet is for sale and the listing can be found here in my on-line shop.  Sold