Tag: Maria Shell’s IMPROV PATCHWORK

Design Wall, July 2021

Turkey Tracks: July 18, 2021

Design Wall, July 2021

My quilt room looks like a bomb went off in it as there are color-coordinated piles of fabric everywhere as apparently I am working on four projects at the same time.

(1) Here are the strips for the log cabin, all cut—with two blocks organized on the right. I am using the Creative Grids 12-inch log cabin ruler for this project—which makes log cabin blocks super easy and fast to make.

I fell in love with Tara Faughnan’s Wedding Ring quilt the moment I laid eyes on it a few years ago. [Let’s face it: I’ve fallen in love with so many of Tara’s patterns now, having been introduced to her in The Color Collective (Sewtopia, Amy Newbold) three years ago.] This past spring I got as far as buying her pattern, and last week I photo copied the 10-inch versions on to freezer paper and thought I’d “just make a trial block.” Yeah. All of you quilters know how THAT goes. Here’s where I was by last night:

I’m finding it takes a lot of cutting to get started on this project—but that it is gobbling up solid scraps like mad.

The “funky” wedding ring quilt top—now a leader/ender project—is coming along. I will make it 4 blocks wide by 5 blocks (14-inch blocks) so it comes out 56 by 70. That will be a nice lap size. Previous posts cover the origin of this project for me. The block is by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston and is in their book FREDDY AND GWEN COLLABORATE AGAIN: FRIENDS. And I am indebted to Debbie Jeske (A Quilters Table blog) for making the block without sashing which makes it much more modern.

And here’s how Maria Shell’s “Rattlesnake” zig-zag pattern gets formed with light and dark isosceles triangles. I used Tri Rec rulers to make mine, but Maria Shell shows how to free-hand cut these triangles in her book IMPROV PATCHWORK. I love the scrappy nature of this project.

I’ve cut a lot of strips while going through solid scraps, but have put this one on hold until I get the “funky” wedding ring top off the design wall.

It’s a totally rainy day today, so it will be a lovely sewing day for me—with breaks to console AC doggie.

A Fun Quilty Journey

Turkey Tracks: July 12, 2021

A Fun Quilty Journey

It started with seeing Debbie Jeske’s triangle quilt from a class she took with Alaskan quilter Maria Shell at this past year’s QuiltCon virtual (during covid) 2021 meeting—where Maria Shell also won a major award.

I am a big fan of both of these quilters.

Here’s Debbie’s quilt—which is based on Maria Shell’s “Rattlesnake” quilt—and which is on Debbie’s blog, A Quilter’s Table. Among her many workshop class offerings, Maria Shell teaches workshops on dynamic triangle quilts.

My heart started beating the minute I saw Debbie’s quilt. I pulled out Maria Shell’s book IMPROV PATCHWORK, which I have really wanted to start exploring during quilty “play” time, and reminded myself of her “Rattlesnake” quilt, which is featured in her book and in her workshop class list.

I am noticing now how Maria Shell’s triangle lines form a zig zag with her manipulation of the dark colors. Hmmm…. Flashlight! That’s the snake. I can be so dense sometimes when I get overwhelmed with pattern and color. No wonder this quilt is longer rather than wider. I’ll probably have to try this idea down the road. And I am also seeing how the side pieces to each triangle can be different dark colors, but also have some light “pop” colors thrown into the mix.

Anyway, I had an unused palette from this year’s The Color Collective, Tara Faughnan designer, for a project I couldn’t get my head around. (After 3 years and 20 projects, having only 2 projects that didn’t draw me in is an awesome record for Tara Faughnan.) I put the palette and Shell’s book and a picture of Jeske’s quilt in the “to-do play” pile until I had time to get to it.

And that happened this past week as a quilt top on the design wall got finished (“Monkey Business”) and there were several rainy days. Here’s my mostly finished top. There is one block on the far right that is too dark, so I’ll take few minutes to replace that one dark green patch today with the light green and call it a day.

The big challenge was balancing the colors. I did add the pale orange to the original palette. You would think that having 12 colors would be enough, but I really needed one more light color, and I think the orange addition was a good choice.

It will finish at 34 long by 45.5 wide—and I have absolutely no idea how I’ll quilt it. I’ll bind with the dark green, use whatever fabric in my stash that fits the back, and set it up as a wall hanging.

Amy Newbold and Tara Faughnan are going to do a season 4 of The Color Collective. I really feel like I have grown so much as an improv quilter due to The Color Collective, so likely I’ll continue this part of my quilty journey.

Some Cool, Sweet Days

Turkey Tracks: July 4, 2021

Some Cool, Sweet Days

I took this photo Friday when I took AC doggie to chase his ball at the Snow Bowl athletic field.

I love what I think of as “soft days” here when rain or fog is around and the clouds sit lie down on the mountain tops.

I’ve been thinking off and on all day that John and I made our first trip to Camden in July 2003 and were here for the 4th and that it was this some sort of cool weekend that we have this year.

It has rained yesterday and today, and much to AC’s distress, we have not gone anywhere. And it has been “get a sweater” cool, which I so love about June in Maine. And it is a joy to see the garden and grass so happy.

I’ve sewn a lot these past two days, and the design wall is, once again, changing.

The small circle top is done, and I sewed it together and stay-stitched the edges this morning. I think I’ve found really good color placement and movement in this little top, which will be a wall hanging. I’ve organized a backing and the batting, so will put it on the longarm tomorrow to baste it. And it is now off the design wall. I’ll probably hand quilt it.

You may remember that it came from the “off-cuts” from the last project in this year’s The Color Collective—the “Tenderoni” block Latifah Saafir designed. My version is layered and basted, and I’ll start hand quilting it tonight with 12-weight cotton thread.

The triangle top I’m exploring has been inspired by Debbie Jeske of A Quilter’s Table blog—after she took a class with Maria Shell at this year’s Quilt Con—The Modern Quilt Guild’s annual show. I’ve had Maria Shell’s book IMPROV PATCHWORK for a few years now and have wanted to try my hand at one of her amazing projects. Debbie Jeske’s version pushed me further along that road, so here I am.

I’m using one of the monthly color palette’s designed for a project that didn’t draw me in enough to make it. Out of 20 projects over three years, that’s a great record for The Color Collective’s design work. There are 12 colors in one of the monthly fabric palettes, and I’ve added a pastel orange to go with the pale green and pale pink. Given what develop’s in the next rows, I may add other colors, but it is a creative challenge to stick mostly to the original palette.

And likely you know the “Funky Wedding Ring” block by now from this blog. It’s coming along as a leader/ender. This project is also inspired by Debbie Jeske’s “redo” of an older “funky” block designed by Freddie Moran and Gwen Marston.

I spent a fair amount of time ironing and cutting strips for all the dark grey fabrics I’ve collected for the new 12-inch log cabin I planned months ago. I had lots of light greys from the blue/grey log cabin made this winter—but I did augment and reorder some of the greys, so I ironed and cut those as well. I’ve begun making those blocks as leader/ender blocks too as I’m near the end of the Funky Wedding Ring project—which would make a really nice baby quilt I think—but I may make it a bit bigger. I never know how inspiration will strike.

Enjoy the long weekend!

Turkey Tracks: Coastal Quilters’ 2018 Mothers’ Day Retreat: My Retreat

Turkey Tracks:  May 21, 2018

My Retreat

I prepped these 2 by 8-inch strips before the retreat:  all low volume Cotton+Steel in the warmer colors.

Here are two rows of Victoria Findlay Wolfe’s herringbone braids, from her book MODERN QUILT MAGIC.

I am really liking what is happening here.

I figured out how long I wanted the quilt and decided I’d done enough work on this project.

Next I put together about ten blocks with my Wild and Goosey quilt block (Bonnie Hunter)

I took papers out of the quadrants I had completed one night while listening to a book on tape in my room.  I have rather a lot of these done now and brought home more to do.

I made two pineapple blocks to learn how–with Heidi August as a teacher.

I learned how to use the Creative Grids 60 degree ruler–a block I use a lot and one we will do for Jen Kingwell’s “Long Time Gone” quilt.  I’ve always used the Tri Rec ruler and like it.  The Creative Grids Ruler leaves more space between the end of the star points and the edge of the block.  It is fun, but you can see that it does not make a perfect star.  One could probably figure out how to make that happen, but for the Kingwell project, I’m going to use the Trip Rec ruler.  However, I do like the funky nature of the stars in the blocks below.  They’ll go into my “parts department” bin for an improv quilt maybe in the fall.

I

What I really wanted to do this retreat was to play with my scraps.  I brought them ALL with me, so I got them all out.  Along the way I culled out scraps that were too small or that no longer attracted me.

Here I started playing around with Maria Shell methods from her book IMPROV PATCHWORK–where she makes her own plaids and stripes.

 

Next I sewed a lot of 4 1/2 inch squares–for a quilt in progress.

Here’s that quilt-which is at home on my design wall:

I had some black and white strip sets, so I cut them up and made a checkerboard.  Maybe it will go into “Long Time Gone.”  Or, maybe into the “parts department” bin.

I had a lot of dark charcoal pieces left over from my “Big Star” quilt.  Which block do you like best, big or little?  I am drawn to little every time.

So…

I saw on Bonnie Hunter’s blog that she was making some light/dark squares with strips.  Boy are they versatile.  These are 4 1/2 inches.  (I use newsprint as a backing, cut to size.)

 

These are 3 inches–made because I had some leftover 3-inch paper strips while cutting.

At night I worked on 6-inch hexes, all Cotton+Steel and a solid or two, from Katja Marek’s THE NEW HEXAGON book.  I’ve almost worn this book out.  I’m going to make these blocks like the cover, where they are linked together with triangles, which can make stars on the outside of the blocs too.

I came home with so much energy.  Inspired by Betsy Maislen, I got my “On Ringo Lake” on the long arm.