Tag: Cotton+Steel

Turkey Tracks: Pillows, Pillows, Pillows!

Turkey Tracks:  March 30, 2019

Pillows, Pillows, Pillows!

Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild has TWO challenges going this year that rotate every other month:  our “Bee Inspired,” where we make blocks for a member that illustrate her creative prompt (mine is “shapes” and asks for bright, solid colors) and making something using Anna Graham’s HANDMADE STYLE book for inspiration.  Anna Graham (Noodlehead patterns and web site) has all kinds of projects in her book, like quilts, clothing, bags and clutches of all sorts, and, yes, pillows.

I needed some pillows for my living room as my couch and chairs are deep.  I started with twolong narrow pillow with the flying teal geese and followed with an EXPLOSION of pillows that perked up both the living room and the downstairs room that gets heavy use as that is where the tv lives.

There are 2 of the flying geese pillows (see earlier blog post), 3 of the pillow on the left (Sarah Watt’s canvas Tokyo Train Ride Cotton+Steel fabric, which I fell in love with at first sight and have hoarded for a few years now), 1 of the Radiating Log Cabin (3rd block from Tara Faughnan in The Color Collective class I’m taking from Sewtopia), and 1 each of the two pillows on the right from a fun Japanese fabric (Tréfle, KOKKA CO, Ltd).  I will make two more, one will be my trail of the 4th Color Collective block, a Lone Star block.  (I’ve always been terrified of Lone Stars.)  And one from the insert of an existing pillow that is worn out that will likely go into the downstairs bedroom.

The big pillows are 20 inches, the smaller Japanese one is about 18 inches.  All are lined with muslin and batting and quilted on both sides (except for the flying geese pillows, which are lined, but not quilted).  All have invisible zipper closures on the bottom.

These three pillows just  “sparkle up” the downstairs, which was looking quite shabby.

The Radiating Log Cabin wants to live here.

But the choice of the center color makes more sense next to this pillow:

Oh well, that’s why one does trial blocks.

Very sparkly pillows upstairs in the living room.

Fun!

I’m working hard on the “parts department” blocks that are on my design wall.  That is coming slowly, slowly, but it is coming.  Meanwhile there are other smaller projects as well, like trying the Lone Star block.  It’s all creative, fun, and life-giving.

Turkey Tracks: “Absolutely Colorful” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  January 5, 2019

“Absolutely Colorful” Quilt

Here is the second quilt gifted to two local sisters (7 and 9) this Christmas.  They are the great grandaughters of a dear friend, Linda McKinney.  AC Slater likes to pose on quilts.

The block is Bonnie Hunter’s “Garlic Knot.”  And the setting with the little crosses in the sashing is also Bonnie Hunter’s design.  Bonnie did a more elaborate piano keys border than I have here, but my center is busier I think.  The block formations would be more graphic is I had used plainer low-volume setting fabrics, but I like all the more complicated low volumes we have these days.

I used this backing once before in the darker grey with turquoise.  It’s Cotton+Steel.

How cute is this backing???

Turkey Tracks: “Bee Warm” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  December 2, 2018

“Bee Warm” Quilt

It’s done!

This quilt is done with Victoria Findlay Wolfe’s herringbone braid method found in her book MODERN QUILT MAGIC. And the fabrics are all Cotton+Steel low volume.

This quilt has been what seems to me a long time in the making—mostly because I had other projects with higher priorities.  So, this one became a kind of leader/ender project, which I started back in May 2018 at the Coastal Quilter’s retreat.  It took some time to get in the rhythm of this method—it’s not hard, just different.   And I had a little trouble figuring out how wide and long the braids would be.  I went back and added more length to the braids when I realized the quilt was too wide for the length.  Next time…I will know.  And I suspect there will be a next time, for I really like the texture of this quilt.

I started by going through all my Cotton+Steel low volume warm fabrics and ironing each one enough to cut the 2 by 8 strips.  (I prewash all fabrics when they first come into the house as the chemicals in them bother me.)  So I had a big bag of strips and had a great lot of fun choosing which ones to use when as I sewed.  I had this kind of selection because I had a monthly C+S club order from Pink Castle Fabrics for about 2 years.

I’m assuming you know by now that C+S will no longer have the 5 original designers who have now moved to Moda and are named the Ruby Star Society.  Their first fabric offerings with Moda will be in the spring of 2019.  I will also say that some of the new designers under the C+S name are interesting, especially Emi Oka, who is from Tokiname-shi, Aichi-ken, Japan.

Anyway, here is a close up.  I used the “Grande Hyancith” pantograph by Patricia Ritter.  I’ve been wanting to use thisl pattern again.  It’s curvy and dense, and it is adding more lovely texture to this quilt.

I love the bee fabric on the back.  Its from the Sarah Watts collection, Magic Forest.  Bees are beloved in m;y family.  My DIL Tami Enright runs the Bee Cause project that originated in South Carolina and that seeks to save the bees by placing them in places where they can thrive or where people can observe them and learn about them.  She now has hives in all 50 states.  See thebeecause.org for more information.

The binding and label are done in this lovely pinkish fabric, which is as soft as the quilt and which is giving more texture around the outside of the quilt—as the white slashes play against the pink.

I love this quilt!

I am making a “cool” version, but with a different pattern, with the C+S low volume fabrics in blues, greens, and greys.  I’m ironing and cutting fabric now, but have made some trial blocks.  I can already see that I will love the “cool” quilt that emerges.

Turkey Tracks: On the Longarm Today

Turkey Tracks:  November 22, 2018

On The Longarm Today

I fell in love with Victoria Finlay Wolfe’s herringbone quilt pattern.  She takes the notion of a braid quilt and gives it a whole new twist and then moves on again to take the pattern into all sorts of formations, including curves.  This pattern can be found in her book MODERN QUILT MAGIC.

I’ve been working on this quilt for some time—I found I need to make what I started longer to fit the wider size after I added additional strips.  The connection piecing is tedious, but once you get into the groove of how to “see” what goes with what, you can zip along.  Figuring length and width also was a learning curve for me.

But, boy do I like this quilt—it’s all low-volume Cotton+Steel.  (If you didn’t know it, C+S has disembarked from its current home.  The five designers have stayed together, have gone to Moda, and are now Ruby Star Society.  Their first collection for Moda will come at the spring market.)

 

Turkey Tracks: Fifty Tula Pink’s

Turkey Tracks:  June 5, 2017

Fifty Tula Pink’s

I’m halfway there!!

Fifty Tula Pink’s 100 Modern Quilt Blocks finished–which covers me through June.

I am using almost all Cotton+Steel fabrics in each block.

I have NOT got a clue about what fabric to use to set these blocks.  Time will tell…  Maybe a khaki kind of color?

These blocks are fun to make–easy and all about the fabrics.