SewKatieDid

Because thread is the best glue

quilt design wall

::Design Wall 101::

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SEW KATIE DID/Design Wall Tutorial

Hopefully in the next month I’ll be updating my design walls for the studio so that I can expose the electrical sockets and make them floor to ceiling.

SEW KATIE DID/Quilt Design Wall Tutorial

I’ll make sure to document the process to be included in the tutorial.

 I use two types of design walls.  The grey one above is insulation board wrapped in flannel (tutorial here).

SEW KATIE DID/Layered Design Wall

 I’m sure none of you have more than one project you work on at a time, but if you do the other is a layered system (tutorial here) that allows you to roll things up and keep them in place so that you can work on what’s underneath or take it for travel.  This system is also perfect for those of you in small spaces since it can be rolled up and stashed somewhere like under a bed.

SEW KATIE DID:Psychedelic Baby Block

SEW KATIE DID:Psychedelic Baby Blocks Square

Design walls aren’t an essential tool in everyone’s creative process, but I do talk with my students about it being number one for mine.  I like to step back and see how things are getting along.  I encourage students to take photos of their project’s progression and even when they think they’ve got it perfect to take everything down and rearrange it.  This is how new ideas might develop.  In Quilting Modern we talked about not being ‘married’ to what’s on on your design wall, and in a workshop Jacquie and I taught together one of our students joked, “You’re just sleeping together.”  That quote has stuck.

SEW KATIE DID:Triangles

I’ve developed some tricks along the way when it comes to using the design wall and the one I utilize the most is not sewing things together, but rather use bits of scraps pinned up to audition color or placement.

SEW KATIE DID:Triangles Add

I now have a bowl of various 90 degree triangles for this task.  Like so.

photo-3

I have the same with strips.  This system does add to the amount of scraps, but I’m good with that.  I can’t tell you the number of times something has been all sewn together for me to realize I should have changed out something dead center of the quilt.

Happy Monday Peeps.

Hope you and your design wall are finding some time to sleep together:)

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::Somewhat Circular Hex::

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sewkatiedid/somewhat circular hexagon quilt

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.

sew katie did/somewhat circular hex

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.

sewkatiedid/throwing stars

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;)

::Point A to Point B Quilt Top::

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I’m calling it Point A to Point B quilt top, not only because of the obvious, but changing directions is my usual mode of operation (or mode of procrastination).

I won’t even bother to show you were I started, but will say it stunk and I had to move forward or backward depending on how you look at it.  Some triangles were saved and others scrapped.  The verb “scrapped’ may be my new favorite.

My next point is I have a new class sample for my Improvisational Elongated Triangle Block Class.

This is good news, except I was really needing to get to work on this Magic Number quilt displayed with sleepy Jefe and TV transfixed small child as a sample for my Magic Number workshop that is offered first (a new coin quilt class sample wouldn’t hurt either).  As I’ve said, I sew much faster in my head than in real life.  There is still time I hope.  For now envision it all pieced and surrounded by that lipstick solid fabric.

Now hold that vision, because I need to get this pieced for Krista into some Osnaburg fabric background by Friday.  This quilt was the original reason for the making of the first quilt and procrastinating the second quilt and so on.  Thank goodness for procrastination or all that collaborating about fabric, quilting other quilts, drinking beer and laughing with Krista might never have happened.

Oh, and look what she sent me yesterday.  Drool.

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::Improvisational Coin Quilt:: $85 Thursdays, September 20th and 27th from 6-9pm at the Quilting Loft in Ballard.

No two will be the same. Learn improvisational techniques like angle piecing and strip piecing while creating a modern coin quilt loosely based on a tradition Chinese Coin Quilt Design. A great quilt to feature your favorite prints. All levels of sewists welcome.

::Adding Stitch and Flip Triangles to Half Square Triangles::

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I had to take these off the design wall to focus on what really needed to be done.

I started fiddling with the idea of using scraps for half-square triangles with stitch and flip triangles during my Swirling Medallion class.  This simple technique from the book lends itself to so many designs.

I went with a small sized square so I could use up even the smallest of favorite scrap fabrics.

They are ideal for chain piecing.  Think of it as an ongoing project in between all those others.  I simply have added a stack of white squares to my sewing table and as I produce scraps from other projects I add hsts to the mix.

I think on-point might be what I go with and I’ll mess with them more before I teach the Stitch and Flip Triangle class and the Psychedelic Baby Block Class that will cover this technique and more.

It would be fun to play with value a bit more, but the process itself is so gratifying as you watch it grow.  Rather addictive I would say and always fun to see those out of print fabrics that you have miniscule amounts of on display in a quilt.

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::Improvisational Strip Piecing Workshop::  $85 Saturday, September 8th, 10am-4pm at Island Quilter on Vashon Island.

An all day workshop to explore the creation of your own quilt designs utilizing improvisational strip piecing.  We’ll cover this improvisational patchwork technique while constructing blocks for your own quilt design. All level of sewists welcome.   Quilting Modern Book required.

::Psychedelic Baby Quilt::

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My friend Laurel and I made it over to Island Quilter to retrieve my quilts from the exhibit.  I enjoyed viewing them one last time displayed together, but am so happy to have them back home where they belong.

I also snapped some photos.  In the rush to finish things up in time for exhibit I neglected getting a photo of Psychedelic Baby Quilt all bound.

I’ve got shot cotton, linen and Kona in this one, all leftover scraps.  The list of the materials can be found over at my Pantone Pop post.

The block is a mix of two quilts in the book.

Fractured.

and Swirling Medallion.

I really like the effect.  Not having a plan, just enjoying the process of sewing can lead to good things.

My leftover half square triangles with the linen that DIDN”T make it into Pantone Pop became the impetus for this quilt.  It wasn’t till the end that I thought I could turn it to be square rather than diamond.  I think it makes it look a bit more modern.

Washed it is a crinkly delight.

It kinda matches the flowers in my back yard right now.  Too bad the lilac flowers are gone.

and psssttt….a little bird told me about a sale:

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::Grape Crush::

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I’m still playing with scraps from Pantone Pop and Psychedelic Baby.  It seems I may have inadvertently created my first quilt series all based on use of the same fabrics.

From the scraps, I messed around with the Crazy Piecing technique detailed in Quilting Modern.  I had no initial plan, but ended up with four pieced squares.

As I browsed the book for inspiration I thought of setting them in a design like the Tunnel Vision quilt from the chapter ‘Log Cabin Makeover.’

Getting the values right was the hard bit and I worried I would run out of lilac Heath fabric that seems to have vanished from the face of the earth.  It took some innovative piecing, but I had enough.

The Seattle Modern Quilt Guild is exhibiting at Island Quilter in July.  This will be my entry.

I’ve got some other projects that I have to get rolling on, like Roan’s birthday quilt and a quilt for Island Quilter’s June exhibit.  This will give me a little time to think about the quilting on this one.

::Design Wall Playdate::

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Yesterday and today I got to do something I haven’t done in a long time, play with the book’s techniques and not have a final plan.  That’s right, just my design wall and I had a date.

I pulled from the scraps of Psychedelic Baby, which in turn was made from the scraps from Pantone Pop.  I guess I overbought.

One block has a load of possibilities.

This block is the one I made for Psychedelic Baby and had some leftovers.  This design could go zig-zag or create the rectangles found in Quilting Modern’s Blind Copilot.

How about an hour glass?

Still obsessing a bit over the diamonds.

Then there are these string blocks, going to ‘magic number’ these with some wonky stars, something I’ve always wanted to put in a quilt.  I like the subtle color, but am thinking grass green would give it some pow factor.

More leftovers.  I could zig-zag or rectangle.  They need some added color though and aren’t really on the list.

These scrappy bit beauties are what is really holding my focus though.  I’m thinking of introducing them into a design layout we gave another quilt in the book or maybe it needs something new.

Fun to play isn’t it?  Especially when one doesn’t have to focus on one project, just sew and see what happens.

Wish I had weeks of it.

::Improvisational Path::

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I’ve been asked over the past couple of years how Jacquie and I worked on designing the quilts for the book long distance.

( Photo above used with permission from Better Homes and Gardens American Patchwork and Quilting.  June 2012 Meredith Corporation.  All rights reserved)

Individually our improvisational design processes turned out to be similar in style.

We’d start messing with one of the seven techniques in the book to start.

Even the longest journey begins with a single step right?

Most often the process involved messing around a lot on the design wall with value and placement.

It was challenging to work within a certain colorway to keep variety in the book.

If it were up to me the whole book would have been blue and green.

We continually reminded ourselves to keep the design fresh and original.

Together we were sometimes overwhelmed with ideas or NOT.   One of us might have a lightbulb moment with the design or we had to simply settle with being the cheerleader for the other to keep going, an idea would eventually emerge.

I can’t tell you how many times we wished to be in the same room when we were stumped.

At times we would spend whole days messing with a design, but have no forward movement.  The polar opposite would happen with others and the design would seamlessly evolve.

This process would continue right down to choosing backing fabric and binding.

What a fun experience writing Quilting Modern with Jacquie has been.  We both learned and grew so much as artists.

I highly encourage you to find some quilting buddies to share the process with!

And just because you have a stack of fabric you started with, don’t think it has to end that way.

We hope the book encourages you to explore and challenge your inner artist too.

Happy Weekend!

::Adding Dimension::

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Ever design a quilt and know that the quilting needs to be beyond your skill?

Opposing Triangles was just that kind of quilt.  All that neutral space needed some dimension, and a lot of it.

This required a visit to my professional long arm quilting friend Krista Withers (lolablueocean on flickr) who lives and runs her business here in Seattle.

We spent some time discussing my vision and she inserted her ideas.  She spoke with me about what was technically possible when using a long arm.  We loosely settled on an organic design combined with simple lines in the triangles so as to not fragment their boldness.

Upon my departure I emphasized that the final quilting design was really in her hands, that I trusted her artistic intuition and skill.

And let me tell you, the girl’s got MAD SKILLS!

I especially am taken by the quilted triangles coming in from the sides that she came up with.

Now I’m a little befuddled by the binding.

I’m thinking of going neutral.  I really want those triangles to pop.  I did have a thought of putting a pinch of white faux piping in the binding, but all the tutorials I could find machine stitch it down.  Anyone have a resource they could send my way?

::Thanks for the Quilty Love::

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Wow everyone, thanks for the love on my Pantone Pop quilt.  I was able to battle the snow and get it to the shop as a sample for my Seeing Value Class coming up.

It seems that this quilt caught the eye of WordPress enough to make their Freshly Pressed page.

The quilt produced a flurry of questions so I thought I would address them here.

*Yes, it did snow and NO, I didn’t eat my quilt.

*Yes, I use equal parts of each color fabric.  I listed the colors in the original post.

*The key to perfect points for me is cutting down my half-square triangles, see here.

*Finished squares are 6″.

*I believe the Quilting Loft is kitting this fabric bundle up for sale.

*The arrangement is totally random.  After I finish the hts blocks I give them a shuffle and where they land is where they go.

*Information on how I make my dual layer quilt design wall is here.

*No, this quilt is not in the book.

*I’ll likely just quilt it in linear lines like I did for The HST LOVE quilt.  That will have to wait until I get it back from the shop.

*Need further information?  Come take the class!

We’ve dug out from the snow and are back on the usual program here in Seattle.  I’m just itching to show you all an adaptation of a quilt from the book, but will have to settle with just my family, that truthfully haven’t even taken notice of how cool it is.

I’m looking forward to a Sew-In on Friday night with the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild and quilting this puppy.

Here’s to Friday not coming soon enough!

 

::Pantone Pop Quilt::

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I love orange and purple, but can’t say the rest of Pantone’s spring colors appealed to me.

I have a hard time working with colors I don’t like…or doing anything I don’t like or want to do for that matter, so I stacked some bolts on the counter at the Quilting Loft and kept changing them out until I found a color story that worked for me.

Seattle is not kind on light this time of year.  So I want you to know that the dark purple is a bit lighter than pictured.

I love it when I look at my design wall and like what’s there.  I even generally will smile to myself.  Who wouldn’t?

The half-square quilt design is not new (and certainly not original to me), but simply a redo of my HST Love.  It is pretty fun to mess about with different colorways.  I love the punch that this colorway creates.

The fabrics are:

granite ( I think this is the name), prune and tangerine shot cottons ( I love these shot cottons, but think they are a pain in the ass to iron after they have been washed)

the pomegranate color is Moda cross weave # 38

Kona solids in baby blue, white and petunia

This Amy Butler print would never have caught my eye, but when I started pulling fabrics for backing it spoke to me.  P-E-R-F-E-C-T.

After its time as a class sample for my Seeing Value class it will be a long overdue wedding gift to some dear friends of mine.

Hoping you are all having a good week.  From the media hype, Seattle is suppose to be blanketed in snow by 3am.  But I might eat this quilt before I believe it.

Bring it on, I’d be happy enough to be snowed in for two weeks or more provided I have power to my sewing machine.

::Unknown Direction Quilt Top::

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I seem to gravitate to the blue/green combo, but the gray is so calming and the white pops it all out.

I wanted to go larger and add some spikes to the top and bottom by alternating the colors with the white, but I’m trying to live within my fabric stash here.

I’m sad to see the last of the Carolina Chambray in the teal disappear.  The colors are getting difficult to come by.  Baby size it is.

I already have plans for the quilting, inspired by this design.

This was a practice run for a quilt I plan on making for my brother and wife.  Their home is lovely and neutral with pops of deep red.

I don’t seem to be the only one obsessed with triangles.  My friend Rachel just posted her scrappy triangles with a tutorial.  She was even inspired by the same quilt that I was and has a lovely picture of it on her blog.

I love the scrappy idea and would certainly cut strips of fabric if I was going to go that route.  Generally, I have a pile of fabrics in mind and I have to cut a few and place them on the design wall to see how they mingle. So I make a template from plastic and most of that experimenting goes into the scrap bin… or now into a scrappy triangle quilt!

I made my triangles isosceles, not equilateral.  For isosceles you need some tricks.

I blunt the tip of the triangle template so it is a quarter inch wide.  This eliminates fabric and helps match seams.

When you place your triangles right sides together, place the entire 1/4″ tip on the base of underlining triangle, this way you know it is a quarter inch seam.

Your end result will be super straight rows.  If your rows are straight, you are more likely to have a square quilt top in the end.  Of course with this top you will have to square the sides for some half triangles.

Make sure to leave an extra 1/4 inch so they look right when you put on your binding!

Now I’m off, because my only goal in life today was to wash my floor and baste Unknown Direction, instead I’ve made another mess of triangles.

Can’t wait to see the next load of triangle quilts out there in blogland.

P.S. I found this brilliant tutorial too!