I used a lot of my scraps this weekend

Last month I went through my scrap binds and pulled out all the strips - long rectangular pieces with at least one straight edge - and then I put them in a box. This weekend I took them all out again.



I picked the easiest block for different sizes of strip scrap - log cabins. Every log can be a different width and it does not matter, your log cabin can continue without issue. I picked blue as there were a lot of blue strips and it always makes me happy to sew with blue fabric.

For the first several rounds I could sew, lean over to press and then trim right on my table. Once the log cabin got too big I hopped up to the actual cutting table with each log.



I made giant blocks - about 30" square, more or less. This was block one, finished on Saturday night. I decided just random fabric placement was working fine - I mostly looked for the next strip by size.



This morning I made another. I figure it takes me about 1.5 hours to make one of these big blocks, working fairly steadily. At this point it was lunch, and time for a long walk - I managed 7700 steps today, I am in training for QuiltCon.



I figured I did not have enough blue, so I later this afternoon I started a green one.



Before supper I had three finished. After making the green one I was almost out of green scrappy strips, but I also realized that I had enough blue left for one more block.



After supper - my DH cooked and did the dishes and it was yummy - I made the last one. This is not a great photo as it was dark and in my hallway, and I edited it heavily, but you get the gist. A 60" quilt top, all from scraps! It's a bit scary that I can name almost every designer of every one of those fabrics too.

I know that the February Scraptastic Tuesday link up is not opening until this Tuesday, but maybe you are inspired to join Nicky from Mrs. Sew and Sow and I now. Those scraps can turn in to lovely quilts.

I might have to start another, I have a lot more scrappy strips.

Best,

Leanne

Spin - Ta Da!

Let me tell you about Spin. After a wash and dry, she is about 56" x 58", drawing in a bit more in one direction than the other it seems. The math for the pattern gives you an un-quilted quilt top of 60" square. If you wanted it bigger it would be a simple thing to add more of the background squares.

Spin is a version of my own design - a pattern I call Twirl. A minimalist medallion using the Allium block I designed when I made Echoes. This pattern will be available to purchase very soon. In the meantime, if you are impatient, feel free to just make your own version if you are able to figure her out, although I would love it if you would let me know and credit me for your inspiration.



I waited just a bit too late for the best photo light, but that one above is probably the closest to right. Spin was made with some wonderful orange bits and lots of low volume neutrals. There are a lot of Carolyn Friedlander prints in this quilt but several others too. I have to say that orange is my current favourite quilting colour.



I quilted and quilted Spin. I have already written about the quilting here and here. All the quilting was done on my Millenium Longarm machine. I drew every line free hand, without the help of rulers or channel locks or markings on the fabric, and with no computer or panto either.

I used 100% cotton thread for the quilting. The top and the bottom, as I quilted her used a medium orange Superior Threads King Tut - that close up above is the orange thread. The middle portion uses a Star variegated orange, pink/red thread. I used the same thread in the bobbin as on the top.



I consider my style - this style - to be modern industrial - think warehouse, brick wall, rough and functional - organic, not precise. I filled the spaces with lines, every which way.  For the orange curvy bits, I echoed the curves. The final step to show off this style of quilting is to wash and dry the quilt so that the 100% cotton batting and thread draws in a bit and adds some texture. I prewash all my fabrics so the draw in is not from the fabric shrinking.



For her back, I used four prints that I love. Two by Zen Chic, one by Denyse Schmidt and one by Suzuko Koseki. You can see the quilting well on the light prints on the back. The binding is scrappy, made of 7 different Carolyn Friedlander orange prints.



The above photo is before I washed this quilt. You can see the flatness in the quilting and the stiffness in the drape. There is just no way for me that the quilt is finished at this stage, this is not the look I am seeking.



Here is a close up of the unwashed quilting. The quilting is easier to see but it is so less textured and dynamic.



Here is another photo after the wash and dry. You can see that the cardboard-y stiffness has gone and the quilt is drapey like a blanket. This photo also gives you a bit of proportion.



I am so smitten with this quilt. I am going to enter her in the Quilt Canada National Juried Show - the entry must be in by noon tomorrow. I am going to try for one more photo shoot first thing in the morning to see if I can get a better full on shot for the entry, but either way, I am hoping that she will be accepted into that show.

I am off to the Lethbridge Modern Quilt Guild meeting - they will be the first quilters to see Spin in person.

Thank you to all of you here and on Instagram for all the encouragement and enthusiasm about this quilt. I am already keen to make another, but I have some other designs using this block in mind too.

I've linked this post up to some excellent and inspiring, sharing posts: Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Hearts, Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, Finish it up Friday with Amanda at Crazy Mom Quilts, and maybe I'll add some more links as the week goes along.

By the way, Spin was on my Q1 FAL List too, so I have one finish already!

Best,

Leanne

Twist - Ta Da! - a scrappy quilt made in part with scraps

Here is Twist - she is about 70" square. I named her Twist because she is a modern-traditional sort of quilt - a courthouse steps quilt that looks like lanterns, a log cabin quilt built as courthouse steps, a highly traditional pattern presented in an asymmetrical, non-repeating, modern colour scheme. Modern-traditional is a phrase that is contradictory, the unexpected ending so to speak, the twist - oh here is a highly traditional log cabin quilt - but then you look and see the twist. I'll stop now.



This quilt began  a year ago, when Daryl from Fabric Spark gave me the opportunity to curate a blogger's bundle. I picked magenta, navy and low volume white. I wanted to make something that would be bold. Twist is the result.

As I kept making blocks I realized that I wanted this quilt to be largish so I turned to my scraps and bits to finish her off. Having set out to create a non-repeating pattern it was easy to add in new fabrics as I went. It turns out that you can use your scraps in all kinds of quilts.

I blogged about the process of making this quilt a couple of times, in February here and here, then I wrote a tutorial about changing out those dark purple hearth/start squares after the blocks were made here, I put her on a list to keep working on in June here, I shared about quilting her in July here, I put her on my Q3 FAL list here, I showed the finished quilting here later in July, she went in a box for the move, she made it to the Q4 FAL list here. Finally, I found the box she was packed in and finished her off over the holidays.

There can be no suggestion that I was shy to share my process regarding the making of this quilt, progress that took place over the last 12 months, perhaps you are tired of hearing about her.



I had a great time quilting Twist. I decided to use my favourite industrial style unevenly spaced but close together lines - and then the twist - I quilted the lanterns so the lines change direction.

I also quilted the lanterns in their own colours, so I travelled along the quilt and had a lot more thread breaks than I normally do. If you carefully examine the photos you will see a couple of thread ends I missed on my mending in before I washed and dried this quilt - I'll be finishing those tonight. I have to say that the quilting makes the back of this quilt so interesting too.

I wanted to point out that I did not first quilt in the ditch around the blocks as a more traditional quilter might do and I drew the lines free hand on my longarm machine without rulers or channel locks. I thought about stitching in the ditch, but first my ditchstitching quilting is not that even and my ability and patience with rulers is worse. In the end I like this so much better anyway - another modern twist to this oh so traditional quilt pattern.



On the back I used big chunks of some favourites. The roses on the right are metallic gold - perfect I think for this quilt. I don't have a great photo for you of the binding, it is a white print with blue lines from Doe by Carolyn Friedlander -its the one at the very end of this post by Carolyn. I wanted the binding to sort  of disappear, not to hem in the pattern and it does just that.



There she is with a little scale on our wide front steps.

It turns out that Twist was also on my Q4 FAL 2015 list so I will link her up with Adrianne over at On the Windy Side here before the 2015 Q4 finish link closes - there is a day and 7 hours left so get your finishes linked up too.

And a reminder, please plan to join Nicky - Mrs. Sew and Sow - and I for the Scraptastic Tuesday link up next Tuesday, January 12 - the second Tuesday of the month. You will have a week to link your scrappy project - in progress or finished - and/or your thoughts on taming the scrap mountain. There are terrific sponsors for ST for 2016, and it's just one link per person from your blog, flickr or instagram.
And given how long this one took to finish, I am going to link this post to a few nice places where one can see beautiful and inspiring projects,  including Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday, and Blossom Heart Quilts for Sew Cute Tuesday.
Best,


Leanne

Happy New Year - look back, look forward

I wanted to look back on 2015 and record some quilty milestones and accomplishments. In 2015:

• I had a lot of fun quilting.

• Breathe won first place in the QuiltCon show's Minimalism category and she was chosen to tour with the MQG exhibit. Breathe is my favourite of all the quilts I have made.

• Echoes was published as a pattern in the first ever QuiltCon Magazine.

• Echoes won first place in the Modern Wall and Bed Quilts category at Quilt Canada.

• Echoes was also chosen for the Modern Quilt Guild Exhibit at the Houston International Quilt Festival in October and she will be at the Quiltcon show in February 2016 in Pasadena CA.

• My first pattern in a book was published in Krista Hennebury's - Poppyprint - book Make it, Take it.

• Stephanie - Spontaneous Threads - and I conceived of and were a part of a fantastic quilting bee with the best bee mates - Bee Sewcial and it will continue into year 2.

• I am a part of an international round robin group to make a mini quilt, again with a wonderful, talented group of quilters - which has been fun and far more challenging than I expected.

• Nicky - Mrs. Sew and Sow - and I successfully hosted Scraptastic Tuesday for the whole year.

• I went to Spring Quilt Market.

• I went to QuiltCon.

• I taught my first quilting class in Inuvik, Northwest Territories.

• I made almost exclusively quilts, which was what I wanted to focus my sewing time on doing.

Overall, 2015 was a fantastic quilting year for me.

 I am not big on New Year's Resolutions and such but I do want to note a few things:

A 2016 word - intention. 

I don't normally do this "word" to be guided by thing, but I keep coming back to intention so I am going to have a word after all. Intention in my actions, my choices, my time, whatever. I hope to look back on 2016 and feel less buffeted about by things. I might have to make a small quilt to remind me.

Community - my blog, social media, quilting events

I plan to be more engaged on my blog this year. My plan is to share more of my creative journey and progress as well as more tutorials. Nicky and I will continue to host Scraptastic Tuesday and as I mentioned the other day, I will be one of the global community of Finish-A-Long hosts too. I hope to use instagram more consistently. I might even make friends with Facebook, we shall see on that one. 

I also plan to engage with modern quilters at QuiltCon and hope to be able to attend one of the Quilt Markets. I am giving some thought to entering a show or three as well, but first it is time to make some of the new quilts that live in my imagination to enter. 

Patterns

I have so many patterns in my head to write up and to try out. I am hoping to get two written and tested shortly - Consider and Twirl - and I know I have said that before and did not do it. This year is going to be my year for patterns - both for sale and as tutorials, that is one of my intentions. (see, maybe that word thing will work). 

So stay tuned, I think that 2016 will be a fun year!

All the best to you and yours for the New Year and thank you all for inspiring me and supporting me.

Best,

Leanne

paris - Ta Da!

Let me tell you about paris. She is a 24" square mini quilt, inspired by the events in Paris a short while ago.

I entered the Modern Quilt Guild Michael Miller Challenge and was sent a number of pieces of the patterned black and white fabrics, which are part of the Glitz line. The challenge allowed the quilter to add any other Michael Miller solids. I was stumped creatively with these bold, high contrast metallic prints and let the challenge sit.



However, as those who entered the challenge agreed to enter their quilts in the QuiltCon show, as as the entry date approached, I started looking around for some Michael Miller solids in my stash. I realized that I had a whole little bin of scraps left over from my ongoing paper piecing project (Violet Craft's Lion). Then the terrorism in Paris happened and I was upset. So I decided to quilt out my sadness. I made the red/orange scraps into a big piece.



Continuing along with improv, I improv pieced around the blob, and was surprised to see that it resembled a teardrop - sometimes working without a lot of particular care allows you to create what you need to make.

I used up almost every bit of the patterned Michael Miller fabrics piecing around the red tear.



Then I quilted it a lot.



Given that this quilt is not large, the quilting did not take that long, but it was very satisfying to do.



I did wash the quilt to bring out the quilting. This time I washed it before I bound it. first I zig zag stitched around the outside edge.



The textures and colours are fantastic - I want to make a lot more pieces with this kind of quilting - sort of controlled scribble.



There she again, paris. This quilt is much more about the making for me than the finish - she helped me process my sadness and anger over the events in November. She looks quite dramatic on the wall too. Although I am so tempted to wash her again as that smooth binding bugs me.

I have to mention that paris is a " #QuiltConReject ". I entered her at the last possible minute. I got the quilt out of the wash as I was leaving for a business trip. So, I was away from home and had no sewing machine to attach the binding. On the very last entry evening, I hand stitched it on to the front and the back, and then I photographed her and entered with about 1 minute to spare (she was entry #1943). But she is not going to be in the show.

I am good with that. The challenge was supposed to feature the challenge fabrics and it is pretty clear that I featured the solids. But I have to say thank you to Michael Miller Fabrics and the Modern Quilt Guild. But for this challenge, I would not have made this quilt, and making her was a process that was so good for me.

I hope you are enjoying the holiday season. I was able to spend the entire day yesterday tidying my office and sewing spaces. There is so much more to do but I feel better already. Maybe today I can sew a bit.

Best,


Leanne

Artisan Cotton Blog Hop - starting Monday

The lovely folks at Windham Fabrics asked me if I would like to participate in a blog hop to show off their Artisan Cottons. Well, a chance to work with a solid shot cotton that I have not yet seen - you know I said sure. Shortly after that, a box arrived with those beautiful fabrics - as with all shot cottons, the actual colours are different and more beautiful in person that what I am able to capture in a photo.

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen this project developing - I have never made a wonky log cabin quilt so it seemed time to make one. Come back on Wednesday to see the final quilt, assuming I get it quilted today. These fabrics are lovely to work with - a nice quilting cotton weighted shot cotton. They washed up beautifully too.

And I recommend that you can follow the whole blog hop next week, as there will be bundles of these beautiful Artisan Cottons to win as well as a chance to see some beautiful work using them. Here is the schedule:

• Monday:       Windham Fabrics
• Tuesday:       Rachel, Imagine Gnats
• Wednesday:  Leanne (me!), She Can Quilt
• Thursday:      Ashley, Film in the Fridge

I'll be quilting today, and trying to come up with a name for my quilt. I hope you are having a lovely weekend too.

Best,

Leanne

AYOLF - November goal

I was successfully linking up a single monthly goal and achieving it all year until September. September's goal was not finished until October and I did not even get to making an October goal in time. But I'm in time this month, so my November goal is to finish - quilted, bound, and washed - this purple/pink version of my soon to be ready Consider pattern.

Shanna and Melissa have been running this lovely event for a long time now and it has been a very nice little shove for me all year (well except for recently). You have time to join in too, the November goal link is open until the end of tomorrow. Your goal can be whatever you like, and it does not have to be a finish, even just a step is a goal.

I do have this quilt on the longarm frame and I quilted the top left corner of the coloured motif with matchstick quilting in hot pink Aurifil 50wt thread. I have been trying to decide what to do on the rest of the quilt, maybe I will have an idea tonight.

I'm off to work, it feels like it's been a very long week already. 

Best,

Leanne

Scraptastic Tuesday - a quick scrappy quilt top

Last night I got home from work late. I had intended to make more scrappy Liberty blocks to catch up with Nicky, my Scraptastic Tuesday partner from Mrs. Sew and Sow, but as I walked into my sewing room I looked at the blocks that I had arranged on my design wall. Those blocks are the ones I made during the Decipher Your Quilt series and I needed to join them into a quilt so I would have some photos for a post about how to do that.



It's harder to see as I had to seriously lighten the photo given that it's now dark after dinner, but I had made these blocks with low volume scrappy backgrounds. My original plan was vague, maybe I would join them using the math - they all are sized to go together. But I was feeling like trying out something more scrappy.



So I picked up some low volume scraps that were handy on my cutting table and started sticking them up on the wall. I've seen many of these quilts with blocks and a bunch of random low volume pieces and I love them. Using only the light low volume pieces in the background is a way to make very scrappy quilts that are far less overwhelming than the brightly coloured similar ones. So I decided to give it a go and started piecing the puzzle together.



As the night wore on, I had scraps piled all over the place, and the quilt was growing. I made a rule for myself, I had to find the low volume piece somewhere already as a cut bit - I did not pull any fabric off a shelf and cut a piece for this quilt - which really forced me to use only the messy scrap mountain, not the folded scrap pieces.



This project totally benefited from my lack of scrap organization. I just kept pulling out more possible pieces of every possible size. If I had already cut and organized those scraps into uniform sizes this quilt would not have happened because I needed every possible size piece and plenty of larger ones too. However, I did end up with scraps everywhere as a result.

This morning I am wondering if I should just sort my scraps by volume, low, medium, high (dark), and solids. Maybe separating them also by neutrals, warms and cool colours? Maybe I don't have to embark on one of the popular and efficient scrap cutting and storage approaches after all but instead just get some accessible bins for the scrap mountain?



Here is my quilt top at the end of my sewing night. I stayed up far later than usual and again this photo is heavily edited to brighten it up. I think it is a success. I am not sure if I will trim the bottom or add more bits to it and also add to the right side or maybe all sides - I need to figure out the best overall size for this quilt. I will share my process for fitting the scraps and blocks together in the next Decipher Your Quilt post.

This was a fun project. It is full of pieces from other projects which I was reminded of with each scrap added. It was low stress, unplanned and improv. I highly recommend it, with or without a few traditional blocks added in.

I see Nicky has made even more blocks on her scrappy sampler - she is including all the instructions so we can make one too, do check out her progress. I will be pulling out my Liberty scraps to catch up to her this week.

Next week is already the second Tuesday of the month. Nicky and I will round up some more sponsors, and we hope you will be joining our link then with a post about a scrappy project - in progress or finished, or about using, organizing or dealing with your own scraps. We are going to leave that link up open for only one week from now on, and we sure hope you will be joining us - last month was great fun.

Best,

Leanne

I was sewing, and a winner

I spent much of yesterday sewing - a lot of hours. Earlier last week I had washed and pressed - yes I am a totally dedicated prewasher but you don't have to be - my set of the she can quilt blogger's bundle from Fabric Spark.  When Daryl gave me the chance to pick this bundle, it took me a long time to decide on the bundle because I wanted to choose the fabrics with particular projects in mind and actually use them. Yesterday was my opportunity to get those projects started.

First I laid out the fabrics for another version of my new pattern, Consider. Then I redrew the pattern and checked all the measurements and cut according to the pattern, and it even worked.



Once I made the centre motif I laid it out to pick the outer borders. My plan had been to use that subway Gramercy print on the left. But, the truth is I don't like quilts that are that busy, and this pattern is again supposed to be a large geometric modern sort of motif inspired by Josef Albers, so some negative space seemed like what I needed.

So I pulled out some more fabrics that I have big enough pieces of and asked the instagrammers. No clear consensus arose and I did not like any of them much, so I decided to sleep on it. Right now, my last large piece of  Kona Charcoal is in the dryer. I am pretty sure I will either use it or Kona Snow - predictable but both good as negative space.



So my plan for the rest of my bundle was to make another giant plus quilt. So I cut up the remaining bits of my bundle into 5" squares. I started laying them out on my design wall. When I realized that I did not have enough for lots of full pluses, I just made some with empty middles. I rearranged and sewed the vertical rows together. I pulled out the Kona snow and made squares and later strips to finish it off.

As I look at this quilt now, I realize if I had been paying more attention I would have moved those two similar blue pluses so they were not aligned in the same row. But maybe it's more random this way, and anyway she is sewn together so I am ok with that.



And before I went to bed, the quilt top was all done. I just love the simple sewing of this kind of quilt. A number of folks have asked, and I have promised before, so I will make it a priority to make a pattern for my approach to this quilt too. In the meantime, if you need one, google it or check on Craftsy as there are many others available already.



So I used up my entire set of 12 fat quarters in one long day of sewing. Today I hope to get some of the quilting done on these tops, we shall see. In the meantime, I used the random number generator and drew the winner of the bundle donated by Fabric Spark to give away. The lucky winner is # 106, Rhiannon, who blogs at Sew Punny. Thank you all for joining in the fun, and a big thank you to Daryl for such a lovely give away.

If you want your own bundle and did not win, Fabric Spark has some for sale here.

Today I am off to quilt a little and to finish the first written version of the Consider pattern so that I can give my pattern testing volunteers a chance to try it. I have a Decipher Your Quilt post to write for Thursday and to take some photographs for. I want to work on my scrappy projects and maybe sort and tidy those scraps some more. I've already voted over at the Blogger's Quilt Festival, you should too. It's a good thing that I have an extra hour - we are off daylight savings time in Canada today.

Best,

Leanne