Improvisational Quilts

Hearts

February 3, 2019 By Katie

All the Christmas stuff is down in the basement still waiting to be put away, but the upstairs is rocking its Valentine. I’m sure Jefe is fully enjoying the amount of quilted heart patchwork in the house right now;)

I thought it would be fun to post a few photos of this shape that might have recently surpassed the amount of stars I’ve made. Above is a stash busting quilt made with my Value Quilt tutorial, which is the studio’s featured February workshop.

These Splintered Hearts pillows were left overs from making my Have a Heart Quilt.

If you make enough pillows they all start working together;)

My Improv Crazy Piecing workshop called Crushed It has become one of my favorite to teach. You can make different shapes of course but I love the look in the heart shape. I’ve got a Saturday workshop this month going on with this fun block.

My love of Crazy Piecing started with a bunch of leftovers that became this quilt. Someday I’ll get a good photo of it. The background is amazing.

I’m sure I’m forgetting some finished projects with this shape and I’ll spare you knowing the ‘in process’ amount.

When I can manage to steal some time alone in the studio I’ve been getting some new workshops together. You’ll find a little improv mixed with foundation piecing and the precision traditional curve piecing gives you in Round and Round.

Have a good Valentines Peeps. May your heart be happy. xo

:: Split Crumbs Quilt Top ::

October 4, 2017 By Katie 4 Comments

Loving this finish.

This Split Personality crazy piecing technique that I’ve been teaching is so fast and satisfying. I can’t stop making the blocks in all my favorite color ways.

I’ve made several sets and they’re waiting for their own quilt designs to come to me. I’ve also had a little personal challenge going on to make quilt tops come together with fabric I already have, a task that takes a little more design time.

I used traditional block techniques like half squares and quarter squares and randomly placed them up on the design wall filling in here and there with solid fabrics. For the quilting I off set it a bit, diagonally coming together somewhat in the center. It was enough without distracting.

Alexander Henry from stash for the back.

I love this Notorious line by Cotton and Steel for the binding.

This turned out to be an easy baby quilt and I love the heart pillows I made with the left over blocks even more.

I wish I could have both of these in two places at once so that I could show them at my lectures in Ashland next week and at the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild as samples for the November 4th workshop.

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:: Fractured Hearts Pillows ::

September 19, 2017 By Katie 6 Comments

I don’t know what it is about these crazy pieced blocks I call Split Personality, but I’ve got to say they’re nothing short of addictive. In talking with a few students in Saturday’s workshop, I’ve realized I’m not alone in this addiction. After learning the technique they’ve created more than a few sets and let them marinate on their design walls until the perfect quilt design idea came to them for their placement.

I had some left over blocks from my Split Crumbs Quilt top, so I placed them into one of my favorite shapes, the heart. I used the improvisational stitch and flip triangle technique we teach in Quilting Modern for the tops of the heart, and a good ole half square triangle for the bottom.

I’ve been wanting to play with a binding/sashing for pillows, but will have to start teaching myself another zipper or closing technique besides an invisible zip.

The variegated thread stitched up a lovely line. I was thinking a grid, but it didn’t need it.

In the Studio’s evening Open Studio for September and October we’ll focus on installing an invisible zipper into a pillow. I know it sounds complicated and scary, but I actually know 12- year olds that do it without calling their mommy and trust me, making pillows is addictive in a good way. You are welcome to bring any project though.

Of course if you don’t need the hand holding, but just a good tutorial for installing your own at home you can check my invisible zipper pillow tutorial out here.

The Seattle Modern Quilt Guild will be hosting me to teach the Split Personality Quilt Block November 4th. They’ll open up the workshop here soon, so save the date! Not sure but there might be some spots left at Quiltcon too.

Happy Week Peeps:)

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Side-Lined Quilt

February 8, 2017 By Katie 5 Comments

I told you I still quilt:)

I completed this lovely ages ago and have just needed a brighter Seattle day to photograph it.

I thought it time to share it with you.

| Inspiration |

The Land of Nod spring catalog supplied an inspirational color way and it just so happens I didn’t have to buy any fabric to create it. Truly unbelievable.

There are a mix of Konas, Cotton Couture, some of my go-to shot cotton orange, and a flannel. The whites are quite a cocktail including some flannel. Amazing how different whites can be.

One thing about teaching workshops is you always need blocks in all stages to demo a technique. Before I know it I have enough blocks to finish them up into a baby/lap quilt which is a more manageable size to travel with, and yes, I do pack one King for lectures.

Can you guess the other thing not so easy to travel with? Books😉

I’d go mad if I have to remake the same quilt, so my inspiration was another variation of what I call the Psychedelic Baby Block for my improvisational strip piecing workshop. Teaching a technique over a pattern has its benefits for the short attention spanned like me. It gives me the flexibility to design something new.

At 15″ square, using the technique I teach, these blocks come together fast.

| Quilting |

Straight lined and Grid Grid Grid went the quilting. I started with light blue thread, but ripped it out after a few lines and replaced it with white. I have to say I was not liking the line quilting design at all, but kept adding and adding until it came together. Enough quilting to please the eye and little enough to still have a soft drape. It has a great texture.

| Binding and Backing |

I really wanted to purchase some flannel that I’d fallen’ in love with, but I poked around my stash and as usual was glad I did. These older Heather Ross prints and flannel came together into a lovely minimal back. My leftovers from the top were grey or white. White as a binding sounds like it would become a Swifter, so I went with the grey and it frames it nicely.

I love the controlled chaos happening in it. I’m going to make a larger one for our bed once I finalize the color way. Decisions decisions. I am slow moving, but am working on a pattern for this quilt.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you get in some crafty time Peeps;)

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P.S. If you’re in the mood to hear about my quilts I’ll be doing a lecture tonight at the Seattle MQG and this Friday with the Frasier Valley Modern Quilt Guild (workshop sold out).

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I guess my call to finish up those quilt tops was needed and the classes filled! I’ve added two new sessions (evening and next Wednesday) to the straight line quilting workshop if anyone wants to come learn the tips and tricks that work for me. We’ll be making our practice pieces into useful nesting baskets.

:: Blogger’s Quilt Festival 2016 ::

September 23, 2016 By Katie 12 Comments

Popping in for a minute in support of The Blogger’s Quilt Festival. This visual gallery of quilts is the brainchild of Amy Ellis. Amy and I both started blogging around the same time and like other quilters that have continued to share their work online, our blogs have served as a wonderful journal documenting our artistic growth and evolution.

This virtual festival celebrates and spreads our love of ALL quilting. You chose which category to place your quilt submission into. ‘Modern,’ ‘traditional,’ and everything in between are defined by the artists themselves.

It was a tie for me this year between BIG Tossed Hearts and my No/Know Twin Quilts. I couldn’t single down the No/Know Quilts to one, so I went with BIG Tossed Hearts.

I’ll place this quilt under original design, though I certainly think it could go under modern or scrappy quilts.

I have a whole write up about this lovely quilt here if you want to know more about its improvisational conception.

If this crazy piecing technique appeals to you then I’ve got another quilt created using it here. As you can see some other layouts I’ve managed to get somewhat out of my head and into fabric. It really never ends.

I hope that you take part in the festival either voting or entering. Regardless let’s spread the love of this art. I always find some new blogs to follow and hope you do too:)

Happy day Peeps.

:: Going Neutral ::

June 2, 2016 By Katie 8 Comments

I taught the quilt block workshop I call Psychedelic Baby while in Georgia. I’ve been loving the process of making quilts with this block method. It creates two types of blocks simultaneously and there are numerous variations to play with. These samples are the most simplistic.

I was already lugging nearly a hundred pounds of quilts with me so I took one of the samples unquilted.

I’m hoping for rain today so I’ll stick to a day of quilting and my new plants get a drink before our week of mid-70s.

The layout for this one developed rather improvisationally and more than once I had to pull a seam apart to get blocks where I wanted them.

Over the weekend I made a back and did the basting in the sunshine of my front window.

I wasn’t very excited about such a neutral palette. I love the scraps of course, but the color worked better than I ever imagined. I did cheat from the grey and white to add the yellow, but that’s baby neutral right? And that metallic fabric is so sparkly good.

Once they are both finished and gifted I’ll share a little more about their development, but I thought I’d just pop up some process photos for the day.

I also have some brick painting in my future now that I’ve finally got the Christmas lights down:)

Happy week peeps.

Split Personality Christmas Quilt

December 7, 2015 By Katie 25 Comments

This quilt is a long time coming, as in years…

Alexander Henry’s Merry Moderns fabric was THE Christmas quilt fabric for me. I just fell hard for it the minute I saw it.

The fabric seemed a perfect merge for an improvisational technique I’d been brainstorming about. A block that was a faster way to produce ‘crazy pieced’ looking fabric. So I started playing with the block construction concept that became what I now call the Split Personality Quilt Block. The method quickly produces multiple blocks allowing you instant playtime with it in endless design concepts.

Fabrics from the stash that would coordinate with a Christmas theme were pulled, auditioned and sewn. Some favorites were eaten up in the process.

And so, all these happy fabrics have been living together as blocks for a few years, waiting for the perfect pattern to show itself.

My friend Laurel showed up at an open studio to finish up an Arkansas Crossroads quilt. I instantly envisioned my blocks in that design and the production began…last year;)

The essex linen in a cross weave black stabilized the scrappiness.

Merging traditional quilt designs with improvisational techniques has really become where my process leads me. I love the secondary designs traditional set blocks create.

When it came to quilting I lived and breathed this quilt for days. For once I didn’t overthink it and went with straight lines that ran off the edge and echoed the ‘Xs’ the secondary design created.

I dreaded the thought that I’d have to add another horizontal and vertical line because my body was done with quilting, but in the end I dismissed the addition. It has the perfect drape and isn’t over quilted into the luscious feel of cardboard.

Here’s a peek at the back. Leftovers and flannel of course.

The binding is the small scale print in the Merry Moderns line. It worked out that some faces landed on the front and back of the quilt’s edge.

You can see more designs and concepts with this block in my Instagram feed and I’ve added this block onto my January calendar as a daytime, nighttime and weekend workshop.

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and then of course there is spring!

Happy Happy Peeps;)

Mod Pinwheel Quilt

May 4, 2015 By Katie 19 Comments

I’m continuing my documentation of projects that haven’t yet made it to my Quilts Page for one reason or another.

Mod Pinwheel is another quilt pattern Jacquie and I created for Quilting Modern that didn’t make the cut, but is available as a free e-book.

The adjective Mod is a little off for this quilt in my opinion, but we named it years ago. When I look at it now it speaks to the traditional side of quilting that I love, with a taste of something a little different.

It’s these ‘eyes’ that are the twist, removing it one step from a traditional straight set layout.

Hanging this quilt up gave me a new appreciation for it.

As always, I have a love/hate relationship going on with this quilt. A little more thought with the value and color placement might have elevated the design, but truly I think this is a pattern that speaks to going scrappy, something we stayed away from in the book, but where my heart really is in quilting.

I see myself playing with this foundation pieced block again with a bin of scraps to see if my vision is true. What a great baby quilt it would make.

Teal dot for the binding and a delicious red dot flannel for the back.

If I had to pull one component that I love most in this quilt it would be the quilting by Angela Walters combined with the flannel backing. Oh wait, that’s two.

I pulled out some sample blocks to dream up something new with, but ‘been there done that’ set in and cutting seemed necessary.

You can make your own Mod Pinwheel with the instructions posted here.

I went ahead and ordered the flooring on the right for the studio. We’ll hopefully install it and paint in the next few weeks. Three Berninas have arrived for student use and tool kits are collected.

Things are coming together;)

Have a great week peeps!

::Tools For a Quilt Sandwich::

April 27, 2015 By Katie 15 Comments

To make a quilt a quilt you eventually have to baste it through your choice method. I’m a pin baster. I also have OBD (Over Basting Disorder).

If I’ve already over thought my quilting design then I try to land my pins in areas that won’t interfere too much with it.

In my life basting a quilt is a good excuse to clean my floor, have a beer, and soak in a few episodes of whatever TV series I’m currently chain-smoking. I’m having a marathon with Scandal today.

Here’s a list of my tools for basting a quilt. A nice container to store them all together in makes for easy transport to my basting spot.

::Basting Tools::

Basting Pins– I’ve run into a load of poor quality basting pins in classes. If you’re going to bother pin basting buy good quality, your quilt top will thank you. Heavier thread count material can also make sharp pins even more important. I prefer the smaller curves ones. They are about 1.5″ long.
Kwik Klip– This little tool helps close pins. I don’t know what my problem was that it took me so long to purchase one of these. If you are going to pin baste this tool is also an essential in your toolbox. Trust me;)
Painter’s Tape– Use this to systematically tape your quilt back right side down to the floor. I work by alternating sides as I tape. Beginning from the midpoint of the sides. Don’t stretch, but it should be flat.
Shears– For getting rid of excess batting. I fold the batting back onto itself and cut away at the fold to an inch or so smaller than my quilt back. This gives me a visual to run my quilting off the quilt top and secure it into the backing.
Snips– To rid quilt of stray threads.
Lint Roller– Don’t forget about the back. If the quilt has been handled a lot the back will have longer stray threads. It generally isn’t even a problem, but if I have a light color on the front and a dark thread gets quilted behind it it will show through. I find this annoying after putting so much work into perfection.

This is by no means a concise tutorial on all aspects of making a quilt sandwich or basting, but I’ll fill in the blanks at some later dates.

I also am a true believer that there is no need to reinvent the wheel, so I’ve pinned a Whole Cloth and a Quilt It Pinboard with a load of great tutorials on quilt finishing such as basting, quilting and binding that wonderful people have put together for wonderful you;)

Any tools you can’t live without?

Happy Week Peeps;) I’m off to quilt and fold a mountain of laundry.

On-Target Quilt

March 2, 2015 By Katie 27 Comments

Remember this quilt?

I showed and sold Psychedelic Baby at Quiltcon 2013. It is still one of my favorite quilts and block workshops to teach. I love blocks that provide so much design potential.

I instantly wanted to recreate Psychedelic Baby a little differently, so I upcycled the leftover bits into a new quilt with a little different take.

I’ll call it On Target.

Just as with any quilting I learned some things.

The amount of linen and shot cotton meant some stretching would occur and my choice of quilting didn’t help. As I reached the smaller outer edge with my “V” things started puckering. If I was to do it all over again I would stitch in the ditch between the blocks that create the “V” shape and then go back in between with the fill lines on the blocks. This likely would have stabilized it a bit more. I was also lazy on switching directions when quilting the same side and this certainly didn’t help.

But let’s not take things too seriously, it’s just a quilt.

On the back I showcased an Alexander Henry print that I love. This was all I had of it and I’m continuing on my path of using what I have to create quilt backs.

The binding I made twice. I wanted to reproduce the feel of the original quilt and selected the light blue with out auditioning it. Poor choice. This quilt needed the drama of the dark purple.

(Thanks Rachel of Wooden Spoon for the photo;)

I finished it up just in time for Anja and Paul of Island Quilter to take it with them to Quiltcon for their booth.

This year was Quiltnon for me, but three of my quilts made it;)

AND I have another layout in process to add to my Psychedelic Baby Quilt Block workshop samples.

I’d think it might never end, but I’m officially D-O-N-E with this color way.

Happy Week Peeps!

(p.s. thanks to my friend Krista for being my quilt holder;)

::Throwing Star Pillow::

February 2, 2015 By Katie 22 Comments

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 26 Comments

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!

Improvisational Quilts

Hearts

:: Split Crumbs Quilt Top ::

:: Fractured Hearts Pillows ::

Side-Lined Quilt

:: Blogger’s Quilt Festival 2016 ::

:: Going Neutral ::

Split Personality Christmas Quilt

Mod Pinwheel Quilt

::Tools For a Quilt Sandwich::

On-Target Quilt

::Throwing Star Pillow::

::Double-Trouble Take Two::

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