Throughout 2012 I really want to try and work through my stash and scraps. In my collection were some 1930’s reproduction prints. Here is the original quilt I made with some of prints.
Using the same pattern I went through the more girly colors and decided to just focus on the pinks and purples. I still have a few colors but they will be going into my donation stash. They are not my style. I tried white instead of gray, but the gray was just right. I had just enough Kona Gray to finish making the blocks.
The piecing was easy. Once the blocks were made, the blocks did spend a few days on my design wall. I wanted balance with the prints.
Couldn’t resist using the new fabric from Riley Blake on the back. It is light gray with little white flowers. For the quilting I just wanted something simple. Criss cross diagonal lines in white finished off the quilt. The binding is a light pink solid from my stash.
Indianapolis Modern Quilt Guild has been hosting a block swap for the last year or so. I have really enjoyed the challenge of doing blocks for someone else. I must admit not every month was my favorite and I struggled, but overall it has been a good creative outlet for me. Thank you to me fellow swappers for pushing me out of my comfort zone.
My blocks are up for June. Meg totally stole my idea for May, so time to look for something new. I have a block idea but need to decide if I should utilize my FAVORITE fabric in my stash, Timeless Treasures Botanica. Or should I do something else. I have some extra fabric that I think would go really well. Anyone up for all solids???
Here are some of the blocks I’ve done over the last few months.
Modern MosaicFebruary blocks
The block above was super easy. I should try this with some of the fabrics sitting in my stash.
Wonky Log Cabin
Darn you Meg for taking my idea. No worries though. Love this block and actually made mine bigger than you asked for. I really got into the creating, sewing, etc part and just forgot to check the size.
Purple Stone Walk-up
Really struggled with this one. Had to create without a real pattern. EEEK!! Why do you think the block is so tall?
Mom is a word that is not yet apart of my personal description. I do have a wonderful mother that has been a great mentor for me. Plus many friends that have shown me how to be a great mom with the next generation.
A few months ago I was asked to make three special Mother’s Day quilts for a friend. Her mom passed almost six years ago and she wanted to do something to celebrate her mother. Her sisters had created a quilt block a few years ago that is on a traveling quilt currently. This was my inspiration.
Into my fabric stash I went. Amazingly, I had enough fabric to create three quilt tops except for the backs and sashing. I have wonderful sewists in the Indianapolis Modern Quilt Guild that offered to help me with the embroidery that I had envisioned for the quilt. Here is what I started with.
The design/layout of the quilt was changed a couple of times. I had one block in mind and started cutting squares per the instructions and it was becoming difficult to match up three fabrics for each block that would be different. So instead I changed to a block that showcases just two fabrics.
Upon delivery of the first quilt I learned the story of how the quilts came to be from my friend. She mentioned her sisters have had a really hard time since their mother has passed. She has a hard time but has tried to make Mother’s Day something positive, by volunteering, donations, and/or something else that didn’t let her dwell that she was missing her mom. I am blessed to still have my 97 year old grandma and my ** year old mom, I don’t know what I would do without them. She wanted the quilts so her sisters could have the blocks to remember their mom. I was very pleased to help her bring this to life.
Her sister’s quilt were made the exact same way with the green sashing. For hers I wanted it to be different especially after why she told me she wanted the quilts. I added in the cream sashing and and extra worry spot to the back. I think I may start adding these tags onto the back of quilts that I’m working on. Something fun and different.
quilt #3 on the design wall
pinned and ready for the machine.
The quilts were a big hit. So glad I could help someone have positive memories for Mother’s Day.
This week I decided to look at quilts specifically. I’m inspired by women that used to sit and hand sew big quilts. My great-grandmother Waggoner made a wonderful around the world quilt. My grandmother had it on her bed in the guest room. As a little girl I would sit and just look at it, follow the blocks around, and usually found a new print that I had not seen before. Thank goodness my grandmother kept her mother’s hand sewn pieces, I have them put away in my sewing room. Wish I had inspiration to do something with them.
Wonder how old these actually are?
Can you imagine the time that it took? Then again they didn’t have TV, internet, Facebook, 60 hour a week jobs to get in their way. They lived very different lives from us even just 80+ years ago. How many of us had home ec in school? We did very limited sewing in the class, mostly cooking. Luckily my grandmother had taught me to sew long before the class. It was very boring for me. Imagine what those women could do with all of the technology we have now.
Sewing Machine Quilting
Spring 1980 edition.
For a couple of summers my mom and her friend would go to estate sales and auctions for fun. Sometimes they would find wonderful old fabric stashes, patterns, pieces, etc. This had to be my favorite…it was filled with fabric. My mom’s friend gave it to me as a college graduation gift, I thought it was perfect.
In case you didn't already know it is a suitcase.
So how did we get to what we call Modern? What can we learn from previous trends and create something new? Found this great history that I recommend you spend some time reading.
Using some of the Recs triangles I cut out for last week’s block, I decided to make my own.
Okay now what to do? Let’s just play the match game and put the white with the black.
Not off to a good start, my points are off. Should I have matched them differently? I matched point to point.
Looks great minus the bottom half being off. Doesn’t look bad if I was trying to make a jilted A. Good success of making my own block. It just needs some work.
Yes, I am behind, but Week 3 will be out by this Friday. For these next two blocks, time to go into my stash of tools that are very rarely used. A couple of years ago I added the Tri-Recs tool to my arsenal. Challenge of two different triangles that work together. Last week my points were okay. After making this block, I know I have lots of work to do to match up points. (more…)
The finished quilt is for sale in my Etsy shop.
