Scrappy and Quilted

The Scrappy quilt is now completely quilted and joined into one big piece.

I think it looks great.  There are some parts of it that I really love. 

The quilting was fun and is as "scrappy" as the piecing. 

Yet it all works together. 

I really love the quilting I did in the "pink" blocks that are near the center

of the quilt

I also love the piece above in the peachy fabric.

This photo is skewed as the quilt was not hanging straight. 

Finally this yellow section makes me smile a lot. 
I was aiming for a different pattern but the quilting seemed

to take over and do something different.  

That is quite okay with me, I love that part too. 

The big question I am asking myself is whether I want to quilt another panel 

or some borders to make the quilt a bit bigger. I confess that sewing them on would 

be a challenge. That is one reason I have a limit on the size of quilts 

that I make.  But I think it would be more useful in a slightly bigger size. 

Decisions, decisions! 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Stitch Camp - An Artful Sidestep

While I am still quilting on the Party Time quilt,  I saw an online course called "Stitch Camp."  It involves fabric, paint, stitchery, and creative challenges.   How could I resist?  So I signed up and have now finished day two of five days. 

We started by choosing three fabrics. Then we took our light fabric and painted two pieces on it. One was heavily painted with only a small amount of negative space (bare fabric) left.  We painted with paints matching (or close) to the other two colors.  Each piece was split roughly in half using more of one color than the other.   As my colors were blue and brown, I had a blue side with some brown, and a brown side with accents of blue. 

The second piece was more linework with a lot of negative space left. Again it was split roughly in half. 

Today we cut piece from our works and sewed them together.  In the demo she did this all by hand.  I sewed the columns by hand but then used a machine to zigzag them together.  Here is my result to the current stage. 

Being a quilter, it is no surprise that I chose to make mine a 9-patch.  In the demo, she sewed hers into a long single row.  But we were given freedom to do this as we choose. 

I have no clue what happens next, but I am sure it will involve more hand stitching - embroidery type.  I suppose it is time that I find matching threads of different weights to use tomorrow (Wednesday.)

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Section 3 Begins

This morning, Thursday,  I decided to start the quilting on section three of my Happy Scrappy Quilt.  We have named it "Party Time" thanks to one of my friends who reads my blog.  

Since I had such fun doing "waves and loops" on the single block in the previous section, I thought it would be great for one of the bigger strip sets of this section.   The pattern is done by making a wavy line and then echoing it (anywhere from 1/4" to 1" away)  Then move over about 2 inches and repeat that.  Next you quilt between the two sets of lines with a wavy line with loops in it. 

2 wavy lines - wavy line with loops - two wavy lines - repeating this pattern as needed to fill the space. 

In this second photo, you may notice that the bottom is not according to pattern. I saw that there wasn't space to do it that way so I just added a loopy area to fill in the space.  In the overall quilting that won't be noticeable at all.  This pattern of quilting really adds a nice texture that would certainly work over an entire quilt.  My favorite part is that it is extremely forgiving. My wavy lines are not always echoed exactly.  But it still looks great. 

If you want to try it without working on a full quilt, why not try some placemats or a table-runner project and quilt it this way?

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

A "finish" - Panel 2

Some of you noticed that I was having  a lot of fun quilting the second panel. That was the reason that it got finished so quickly - errr, not that you noticed, but that I was having fun.  Before I started the last two blocks, I noticed that I had gotten very involved with the designs. So for the final two blocks that I quilted, I decided to just do a simple meander.  Of course when you see the entire panel, that is pretty well hidden. 

This panel is roughly 5 feet long. 

Here are some of the sections to show the variety of quilting.

The top area of the pink has a "swirl flower" that is made by starting a spiral

and then making petals around and echoing them.

This one has a slightly different flower.  I call it a loop flower. 

First you make a loop, then you use that as the center of the flower

I call this "waves and loops."  I think it is a simple light-hearted quilting motif.

It went really fast. I think it would make a great all-over pattern. 

You simply make two wavy lines and repeat across the area with space between. 

Then go into the between spaces and add a wavy line with loops on it. 

Of course you can vary what you put in the "in between" spaces if desired. 

There is one more panel waiting to be quilted, but I may take a break for a few days. 

I have some other creative ideas (non-quilting) that I may work on. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Yes, more quilting

It is what it is.....as I will be quilting on these two panels for a while longer, you will be seeing more quilting.  Of course, it will be some fun quilting, because I prefer to have fun when I "work" at anything. 

This is quite possibly my favorite part of this section - well, okay, my favorite part that I quilted on Sunday.  Ha ha. 

I used the lines in the piecing to break up the sections of the block and worked in those constraints. 

On other blocks I have quilted patterns right over the piecing lines.  I make a rule for whatever I am doing at the moment - but the next section may have a completely different 'rule' -or- no rule at all. 

Here is another interesting block.  The quilting on this is a bit wild and a little sloppy, but that will disappear when it is washed - all that will be left is texture. 

There is part of this panel left to quilt, 

then the third panel is 

layered and basted -and waiting. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Having More Quilting Fun

As I am going along with the second panel of this quilt,  I am having more quilting fun.  Here are some sections of the quilting. 

I love quilting the tumbler shapes with these organic lines that mimic the angles of the sides of the blocks.  

First of all, that piece of fabric in the middle is just yummy. 

And I did a strangely fun pattern in the quilting that I made up as I was going. 

It is loosely based on something from one of Christina Cameli's books on quilting. 

And finally a gratuitous photo of some of the back of this section.  

It is the same backing fabric with whatever quilting design I decided to use as I was going along.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Panel One - Quilted

While I was quilting the first panel on this quilt, I kept thinking "Have I lost my quilting mojo?"  I didn't let it stop me.  I kept quilting in spurts until it was quilted.  Monday morning, I finished the last small area that needed quilting.  After that set up my big folding table (in the kitchen, which is the only area big enough for it) and trimmed the panel.  The front looks pretty nice. 

I had to do the photo in two sections since it was cold and sn.....y outside. (in my opinion that "s" word is a four letter word!)   

Then I flipped it over - the small bit of light shining in from the window showed up the textures of the quilting.  I GASPED.  Wow!  How do I feel about that?  Well see for yourself and then I will tell you. 

How did I feel???
I felt like a quilting ROCK STAR.  That is how I felt. 

The simple truth is there are a lot of small imperfections, places where I "wobbled"

But Like a Weeble, I didn't fall down.  I kept going.  

There are curvy lines, straight lines, zigzags, and swirls.  

I did whatever felt fun at the time. And you know what?  
It all blends together into something I am kinda proud of. 

I was originally going to make the backing of the center panel a 

different fabric/color to add some interest to the back. 

But, now I say "Why, just that color with all the quilting will

look plenty interesting if that side is face up. 

And now.....two more panels to quilt.  

It will take me ---well, as long as it takes. 

And I am fine with that. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.