I was at the dentist the other day. We’ve all seen that overhead light. It suddenly struck me that there was a face above me – I love the row of bottom teeth – I couldn’t actually see them from where I was sitting, but the positioning of the iPhone picked up that reflection. Other-worldy, don’t you think?
This quilt uses a combination of Kaffe Fassett large print fabrics with contrasting pieces of Fossil Fern (Benartex). The quilt turned out quite a bit larger than my other quilts – not quite a twin bed size. So the back had to have an embellishment to extend the single length of backing fabric I had.
[Someone asked whether I had a pattern – I didn’t – I’d seen a photo and could immediately see the whole was constructed as a 9-patch with a “solid” square at the centre (I used a KF fabric centre) and surrounded it with 8 HST squares which I constructed from the KF fabric and a light fabric (I used a number of different Benartex light Fossil Fern fabrics I had in my stash). I’d suggest using the same pale fabric throughout if you’re new to quilting – easier to see how to arrange the blocks.
The HST are arranged to form a 4-point star around the centre square. The outer corners are triangles from the KF fabrics. All my KF fabrics were in shades of red or deep pink so they all blended and could be placed against one another. My quilt top was a 3 x 4 array of the 9-patch blocks. Where they join you have a square, on point, made from four different KF triangles.]
The quilt was embroidered in my 360 X 350 hoop using a large design I created – that allowed me to quilt 4 squares at a time!
I finished this quilt this morning. It’s based on an idea of Joe Cunningham – Pattern-free quilt making (a Craftsy class) – Fantasy Four Patch. The idea is simple – take two fabrics (one dark, one light), cut 1 strip from each: 5 1/2″, 4 1/2″, 3 1/2″, 2 1/2″, 1 1/2″. Sew them in pairs to make 6 1/2″ strips, then cut the strips: 5 1/2″, 4 1/2″, 3 1/2″, 2 1/2″, 1 1/2″. Again, sew together in pairs to make 6 1/2″ blocks! Now start laying them out to make a design pleasing to you – there are no rules here. I wanted a 5 X 7 array so I needed 35 blocks. I could have done a 6 X 8 array which would have needed 48 blocks – you get the idea.
This was my idea – to draw the colour concentration from the dark fabric toward the light fabric to get a colour flow. I tossed in three small bits of contrasting fabric to catch the eye.
The binding carries on the colour flow extending the dark into the light.
Because this is a small quilt (~42″ X 54″) I was able to back it with a single (unpieced) WOF (width of fabric) panel so there’s nothing to show on the back.
I enjoyed making this quilt. It went very quickly.
Forgot to post a photo of this pair of socks – I knit them for a friend initially (large size), but because she’s also a knitter I thought she might be offended if I gave them to her so I gave them to another friend who isn’t a knitter!
I bought the variegated yarn initially to make another shawl, (I had skeins of navy, green and pale blue in my stash which would have been enough for the shawl), but decided I wasn’t up for that investment of time, so I used the variegated yarn for this pair of socks.
This is the state of my sewing room: at the top is the enlarged photo for the next art/landscape quilt of the two boys, below that is the pattern and fabric for a jeans jacket I want to make in the next couple of weeks, on the seat of the sofa are two quilts that are stitched in the ditch but need to be quilted, and fabric and ideas for one quilt from a stack of fat quarters and another from a jellyroll. Lots to do and not enough hours in the day! First to finish the two nearly done quilts, then the jacket, I think, before I tackle the two new quilts. Endless ideas for projects.
Finished this pair while I was in Toronto last week. The two socks aren’t an exact match – it was difficult to actually locate the start of the “pattern” so I just started on the second sock where I left off. The stripes make a “match” irrelevant. These go into the give-away pile. And I was on to the next pair.
jmn 