I have missed making strip quilts and I needed to put together a baby boy quilt. I bought this owl fabric a while back not sure what do with it. Inspiration was born. Use the colors in the owl fabric to make a coordinating front in strips. Done.
Using just a bit of yellow really gave it a nice pop. The binding is gray along with the quilting.
The owls are from Robert Kaufman’s Zoologie line. The eyes are super cute on the owls, some are sleepy and some are surprised.
Here’s a peak of what’s going on around our house. We are working on basement renovation this summer. This is my basement floor currently. Had to have it done to add in a half bath. So the house is a disaster.
The colors in the Moda Summer House collection are wonderful. Bright, cheery, and modern. I won the charm pack from Fat Quarter Shop on the Talk N Tuesdays twitter chat. Once I received the package I was sorting this charm pack. Did I mention I love the colors?
Some of the prints were too floral for what I had in mind. I took those out, to use for something later, and just focused on the ones I was drawn to. Simple and squares was my design. I really wanted to focus on the prints so I just made 5″ Kona white squares. The hardest part was finding a combination that I liked the best on the design wall. Must have gone up there about 3 times before the pattern was how I wanted it.
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?
Last week I talked about the history of quilting. As I was writing I kept going back to Gee’s Bend how the women create so freely and it turns out wonderful. These women deserve their own post because I think they were “Modern”. They created without real patterns and made their own style.
Here is a story that NPR did a few years ago about these inspirational women, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=970364.
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.
Blue is color that I am usually drawn to. Hubby and I are working on re-painting our bedroom in the next few months and I’m looking at a variety of dark blues for an accent wall. A nice light gray will be the primary color. So I wanted to look at vintage blue fabrics that could be used in our design.
Great accents for a room.
Fabrics and design can’t be overly girly. I think these would be a great addition to the room and add in some pops of color.
