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New York Beauty Pillow

February 16, 2015 By Katie

Paper piecing workshop development and sample made, CHECK! And totally drool worthy if I don’t say so myself.

The Foundations of Paper Piecing Workshop is listed if you find yourself with some spare time on March 14th.

A New York Beauty block has been on the bucket list F-O-R-E-V-E-R.

I bought just enough new make me happy fabrics and combined them with some old to create a new to me color way. It seemed to just come together on the design wall so effortlessly. As usual it matches nothing in my house.

The white/creams I pulled from the scrap bins. There’s even some flannel in there.

It ended up that neither the shot cotton and the flannel on the front, nor the voile on the back created the headaches I imagined.

I crosshatched it in a lightly variegated lilac thread. This easy off the edge quilting design has the kind of impact makes me happy. Off course all quilting minds of Seattle that I saw last week were consulted;)

I almost put the voile back into the stash.

It’s one of those fabrics I have to force myself to cut into if I had curtains in mind five years ago. There’s still that hope of getting to that alive;) The decision was a good one, it pairs perfectly with the front.

If you’re headed to Quiltcon please go say hi to my quilts. There are two on exhibit and I just finished up this one here for display there in Island Quilter’s booth.

It will look a little bit more lively than it does it this taken at midnight photo.

This quilt thoroughly falls under the “it doesn’t have to be perfect to love it” category and I considered not sending it due to some obvious struggles I had quilting it, but then I reminded myself that perfection isn’t what it’s all about.

Happy week peeps. I hope it’s a good one;)

::Throwing Star Pillow::

February 2, 2015 By Katie

That leftovers thing happened again. Hexes turned into triangles, and now I have another shape to show as an example in my triangle workshop with a hexagon shape center to boot!

The stars turned out pretty wee by the time I cut them from the left over hexes.

The precision I’m pretty happy with, no paper piecing involved for those of you that asked, just 60 degree triangle piecing.

I floated them in Essex Linen.

These prints are favorites and deserved some limelight.

The diamond shape the quilting forms was simple enough to execute.

And it matches the pillows on my couch;)

Finished off with my Invisible Zipper Tutorial.

The weather couldn’t be any more perfect for quilting and if my child’s mood this morning is any indication of how most of Seattle is feeling today I think I’ll make the best of it and stay home to sew.

Chin up Seattle.

Happy Monday;)

::Double-Trouble Take Two::

January 26, 2015 By Katie

As I’m making one quilt I generally have block cast-offs and another design lay out evolves. That’s just what happened with the leftovers from the Scrappalicous Double-Trouble Quilt I made a while back.

What I call the Double-Trouble block is a half-square-triangle with an improv Stitch and Flip triangle on one side. Merging the two triangle techniques creates a block that is both controlled and chaotic. The Swirling Medallion quilt we made in Quilting Modern has the directions for the Stitch and Flips and my tutorial for hst is combined with my value quilt tutorial.

This time around I thought I’d try out the squares by turning what I had on point and giving them some space to breath. I love the scrappy controlled sets.

I tried my best to create the whole quilt, even the background with scraps. There’s a mix of flannel, muslin, and other neutrals that I used for landing the improv triangles. Anything goes for the triangles, voile, flannel, home decor and corduroy are all present.

I failed on using left overs for the binding. This small scale print from Alexander Henry’s Farmdale line was perfect.

I could have adjusted my neutral squares in some places with a larger size, but keeping everything to 3 1/2″ squares created more texture and depth.

The backing is another old Alexander Henry. Shocking I know.

One of my goals this year is to have my backings consume cast offs from the front and fabric from stash. This challenge so far has led to creating some backs that I’m rather smitten with. Unfortunately I don’t have a current full shot to show you what I’m talking about.

The quilt hangs at Island Quilter on Vashon Island for the month of January with other lovelies made by my peeps in the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild. Go take a ferry trip!

Happy Monday Peeps!

:: Double-Trouble Take Two Quilt ::

January 26, 2015 By Katie

This time around I thought I’d try out the squares by turning what I had on point and giving them some space to breath. I love the scrappy controlled sets.

I failed on using left overs for the binding. This small scale print from Alexander Henry’s Farmdale line was perfect.

I could have adjusted my neutral squares in some places with a larger size, but keeping everything to 3 1/2″ squares created more texture and depth.

The backing is another old Alexander Henry. Shocking I know.

The quilt hangs at Island Quilter on Vashon Island for the month of January with other lovelies made by my peeps in the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild. Go take a ferry trip!

Happy Monday Peeps!

::Somewhat Circular Hex::

January 23, 2015 By Katie

I didn’t manage to get a good full shot of my Somewhat Circular Hexagon quilt before bolting out the door to teach. I had to move it out since I wanted it to be hanging in the shop as a new sample for next Thursday’s Hexagons By Machine workshop. There are openings in this class if you are curious about the methods of strip cutting hexagons and piecing them by machine.

I’ll be sure to get some photos of it next week and post them. I’ve got my eye on some huge floor pillows that want this design on them. You know I like pillows.

Somewhat Circular is my second quilt finish for 2015, I think this quilt doubles what quilts I produced in 2014. My first was my Double-Trouble quilt hanging at the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild’s exhibit opening at Island Quilter. I’ll be on the island Sunday for an Open Quilting Studio at IQ and hope to snap some pictures of it to share. Anyone’s welcome to come work on projects and check out the guild’s quilts.

The binding was a hard pick on this one, but the black print worked great with the backing.

As you can see there are a few lines of quilting still needing to be removed and some to be added in, but the color way is spot on and the Essex linen really works with the black background fabrics.

I used this quilt to photo my Cutting Corners Binding Tutorial this week if you missed it.

It’s a beautiful Seattle day to stay inside and sew (and avoid laundry;).

Happy Friday Peeps!

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P.S.

I had a cancellation and now how one slot left in my Improv Log Cabin Workshop on Tuesday. Come play!

::Somewhat Circular Hex::

January 15, 2015 By Katie

Regardless of my best intentions posting anything here gets pushed to the back.

I have a new season of lectures and workshops coming up and am always hoping to finish up at least one more sample for design options. I love this practice as it allows me to reacquaint myself with a technique. Often I’ll gain perspective to share with my students that I didn’t originally think of. Design wall time is invaluable to my process and a main focus of my workshops. Leftovers from the original project are generally my go to, but more often than not, one project’s scraps merge into another project.

But it’s that desire for a finish that keeps me from here. What I need to get over is always wishing to post that finished project. Especially since I sew way faster in my head than real life.

So I think my intention for blogging this year is to focus on process AND post about it.

Marketing workshops is at the forefront of posting too and I wanna say I’m lucky that my classes fill as if late, but I also have to give myself credit that I’ve been working hard to figure out what people are inspired by, it’s not an accident.

But if there’s a spot I like to make sure that I’m working on a sample. And that’s just what happened with this hex quilt.

There’s some quilting that needs to come out here and there, but I’m pretty happy with it. The trend and my love for dense quilting however isn’t fitting for the utilitarian use of baby quilts in my opinion, cardboard comes to mind, but we’ll see how it washes out. I probably could have helped it out by selecting a type of batting that would be more supple instead of just grabbing a scrap that fit.

My To the Point workshop is full, but I’m working on a sample from the hex scraps for it. They’re wee and currently being quilted. Hoping for that finish today along with hanging sleeves/labels for Quiltcon quilts and squaring or at least picking out binding for the hex.

Thanks for reading, I’ve obviously got things to do;)

::Merry Merry::

December 24, 2014 By Katie

Create-Sew-Overthink-Run Out of Time-Put Away-Recreate

It’s something I’ve known for awhile, I sew faster in my head than in real life. Thing is, I’ve learned to accept it and put projects aside that aren’t actual ‘work’ so workshops can be developed, evolve and samples made. The good news is a better idea of what to do with the stashed project usually emerges in that stashed time and it can cycle into a class sample.

Unfortunately, this time/sew thing also means that I often have to put it away more then once.

The blocks above that I call Split Personality Nine-Patch are a perfect example of this cycle. They were made years ago, but it wasn’t until my student and lovely friend Laurel showed up at my open sewing studio with her Arkansas Crossroads quilt that the inspiration struck.

Time has run out though. I think I’ll likely pack it up unpieced for next holiday’s projects. I have a feeling you might see this in solids soon;)

Of course there are scraps involved in the creative process so my secondary design wall was taken over by some visions of snowflakes or something. This is as far as playing got me, but when I was clearing it from the wall inspiration struck that will hopefully be remembered a year from now.

On the home front we have the family here from Northern Ireland since travel is hard for my other brother in law with ALS. Monday night we celebrated Grandpa John’s life with us and spread his ashes in Elliot Bay. Most of all we are enjoying our first Christmas in our home and thankful for our time together;)

Of course I baked Almond Kiss Cookies, one of my favorite Christmas traditions. Santa highly recommends them especially with a Guinness.

I’m looking forward to the upcoming year with lots of teaching planned. A big thanks to all of you who have supported me and helped grow my business in the past three years. We all have good creative things coming to us.

Enjoy your family and friends peeps. I’ll see you in the new year.

xo katie

Improvisational Quilting Techniques Pillow Series

December 16, 2014 By Katie

sewkatiedid/modern patchwork workshop series II

sewkatiedid/modern patchwork block workshops series II

The first group that joined me in my modern patchwork series made it so fun and I enjoyed making the samples so much that I’ve decided to run it again in the new year AND I’ve added a second part to the series.The color combo is so wacked and I’m 100% smitten with it.

Each of these pillows I’ve made with techniques I love to use and teach. One of the things so enjoyable about quilting is figuring out new ways to do things and I’ve certainly learned some good tips to pass along with these.

Here goes (and if you were wait listed or unable to do all of the first session than you can also sign up via The Quilting Loft).

-Exploring Inside a Box-

Modern Patchwork Series II

Please sign up via The Quilting Loft’s site.

Take one session, or the whole series, to explore the merging of traditional and improvisational patchwork techniques, one block at a time. Katie Pedersen, author of Quilting Modern: Techniques and Projects for Improvisational Quilts will guide you through the techniques and skills needed for each block, variations in block design, and the secondary designs multiple blocks create. While we’re at it, we’ll get friendly with our design wall, touch on color and value theory, and cover the advantages of constructing a block that is either precise in piecing, or more willy-nilly.

*Even if you are a seasoned quilter you can up your patchwork game by adding improvisational techniques to your knowledge base.

*Session I- To the Point Triangle Workshop- Thursday, January 22nd from 6-9pm Learn the proper techniques for cutting and piecing equilateral triangles to create sharp points and a design with the most impact. How design is affected by color value, scale of fabric and placement will be covered in this skill building workshop. All levels of sewists welcome. *Session II- Psychedelic Baby Block- Thursday, February 26th from 6-9pm This modern block workshop combines improvisational strip piecing and a traditional foundation paper piecing technique to create unique string blocks that are both chaotic and controlled. Once we’ve constructed some blocks we’ll cover color and value placement so that we can play with the block’s unlimited quilt/pillow design potential. *Session III- Improv Curves- Thursday, March 19th from 6-9pm Fear the curve no more with this no pinning, no templates and no stress approach to the curve. This session gives you the class time to master improvisational gradual curves to be later built into curved emeba blocks (See Emeba Workshop below). Free-handing improvisational curves are manageable even for beginners. *Session IV- Tipsy Amebas Block- Thursday, April 23rd from 6-9pm (An Improvisational curves workshop must be taken to sign up for Amebas (March 19th or April 21st to sign up for this workshop) Now that you’ve mastered improvisationally pieced curves without pinning a thing it’s time to move on to creating organic shapes. Watch your ameba multiply as we cover a chain piecing technique to make more than one at a time and follow up by learning how to bring your blocks together on the design wall without noticeable block construction. Hope to see you there!

Improv Patchwork Pillow Series

December 16, 2014 By Katie

sewkatiedid/modern patchwork block workshops series II

Here goes (and if you were wait listed or unable to do all of the first session than you can also sign up via The Quilting Loft).

-Exploring Inside a Box-

Modern Patchwork Series II

Please sign up via The Quilting Loft’s site.

*Even if you are a seasoned quilter you can up your patchwork game by adding improvisational techniques to your knowledge base.

Halloween Take 10

October 29, 2014 By Katie

I love everything about Halloween.

I love the memories of Roan’s costumes over the years, the bands of kids, the season it lands in, the decorations, watching Roan separate his bounty when he gets home and of course my own childhood memories.

The first year Roan and I ever went trick-or-treating he asked me if candy was good for you? I thought about it and replied back that I thought it might be good for the soul.

He’s definitely his mother’s child when it comes to having a sweet tooth. I’ve been know to pillage his loot for a Jolly Rancher and I’m pretty sure I bought a roll of Sprees at a gas station last week that might have been ten years old. They’re hard to come by you know;)

This will be our first Halloween in the house. Our urban life was good to us with our neighborhood shops offering treats and our friends allowing us to tag along, but THIS Halloween in our own hood is going to be the Halloween to remember.

Until next year at least;)

And of course its an excuse to make stuff right?

Because it’s part of the remembering.

Napkins this year. Much needed with chili.

Hands down, my all time favorite crafted for Halloween item is Roan’s trick or treat bag that I made using the quilt as you go method. We just fold his old one into it for extra storage.

It just came together perfect and I have such a love for all the scraps involved.

Haha, I look at this photo and it makes me want to spend my day making potholders or a pillow!

Happy Happy Halloween Everyone!

::Going Circular::

October 21, 2014 By Katie

Thanks for all the kind comments last week. We’re regrouping in week three and lucky to have such awesome friends.

Life continues behind the scenes of a quilting blog;)

I finished the last of the samples for my Exploring Inside the Box series. It might be the colors, but regardless of the improvisational curves this pillow has that same graphic edgy feel as the others.

This shape is so simple to execute improvisationally. I really love the little hit of added strip piecing. I rotate building out all four quadrants on this design. A little to this quarter and a little to that avoids identical colors mingling in the same location, unless that’s the look you’re aiming for. It’s rather forgiving if you feel you’ve misplaced a color because you can always rip it apart or recut.

It would be fun to make in a binary color scheme too.

I’ve really enjoyed working with this color way, but it’s time to move on, so I’ve been thinking of new blocks and colors for Series II. We’ve got the winter dates, I just need to get going on the blocks before we list it.

Series II might be inspired by Seattle’s fluffy white and grey clouds currently passing us by and the blue sky you get snapshots of here and there.

I have all the pillows currently home and it’s fun to see them all together, though overwhelming in the matchy-matchy department. Perhaps some Plain Jane’s are needed to break things up.

I’ll get right on that;)

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If you were wait listed for the first Exploring Inside the Box series we have new dates for the winter session on Tuesdays, follow the link here.

Monday, October 27th is Open Studio at Island Quilter. Reserve your spot by following this link.

::Happy Snowballed Sunshine::

October 14, 2014 By Katie

There’s no sugar coating it, our family has had a full dose of life reality lately, so it wasn’t a mistake that I pulled this bit of happy colored sunshine out of the pile of unfinished tops to quilt.

I needed some mind occupation.

It seems that each quilt has a memory of its making somewhere along all its steps, and not in a bad way, but quilting and binding Happy Snowballed Sunshine will remind me for a time of my father-in-law John passing.

This quilt and its association with this particular time reminded me of quilting Supernova. Supernova was the quilt that I was working on four years ago yesterday, the same day John got his kidney transplant.

There were tears of joy quilted into that quilt and a few sad ones for the donor’s family too. That generous lady knew that in her passing she could gift a family some of those ‘best of times’ as we call them.

And she did.

But quilting this also made me thankful that I have creative things to do that occupy my mind when I need them.

It also solidified something that seems so obvious, but I’d never really thought about it. My love for fun and funky color combos that lift my mood to happy when I see them, even if the times don’t match.

And the prints that are hard to cut into? Now is the time to use them.

I’ll gift this bit of happy at some point. This quilt hasn’t found its person yet, but that baby will add another dimension to the quilt memory.

(thanks Sounders FC instagram for photo)

And for my happy memory I’ve been reminding myself to remember the healthy John. The John that would sit on my couch drinking a martini telling me funny stories.

He would have liked my happy quilt and he definitely loved sunshine;)

« Previous Page

New York Beauty Pillow

::Throwing Star Pillow::

::Double-Trouble Take Two::

:: Double-Trouble Take Two Quilt ::

::Somewhat Circular Hex::

::Somewhat Circular Hex::

::Merry Merry::

Improvisational Quilting Techniques Pillow Series

Improv Patchwork Pillow Series

Halloween Take 10

::Going Circular::

::Happy Snowballed Sunshine::

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