modern baby quilt

Improv Fresh Cut Quilt

April 6, 2015 By Katie

I realized I have several quilts I haven’t blogged about and they deserve their little spot here.

Like Fresh Cut.

Fresh Cut was a quilt I made to be published as a pattern in Quilting Modern and would have landed in the Slice and Insert chapter as an example of inserting consistent width strips perpendicular to one another.

Since books only have so many pages we have a few projects that didn’t make it and Fresh Cut was instead marketed as a preview for Quilting Modern in American Patchworks and Quilting’s June 2012 issue.

They styled it super cute for a nursery wall hanging.

As with any quilt there are things I love and things I learned and Fresh Cut is no exception.

Granted I’m looking at a quilt I made in 2012, so the things I would do differently are multiply as I write this.

If it weren’t for the binding having a few tricks I would take the simple quilting out and after over thinking it for a long time I would redo it in a simple grid of straight lines.

And if I was going to bother with that then I would add some blocks to change the bizarre size of this quilt. I’m not sure what I was thinking. I’d love to see an additional row of three blocks making it a big nine-patch. Hmmmm…

What I do love?

-The added bits sliced into the sashing of the blocks.

-The fabric colors.

-The quilting thread color change out.

-The variety of the inserts.

I really need to write a post on mixing up binding. I’ve got quite a few examples that I need to put in one place.

It really is a fun quilt and a simple intro to the Slice and Insert technique within a block structure. You can find the pattern here.

Just out of marketing curiosity, did anyone have exposure to this quilt when it came out? How about the other quilts that didn’t make the book that are free patterns? I’m guessing since I never see them in the virtual world that I need a blog post on how to find them.

The studio is in the process of being drywalled and I’m off to look at flooring.

Happy Monday Peeps;)

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There are two spots in my Improvisational Curved Shapes Workshop (beginners welcome) on April 23rd from 6pm-9pm at the Quilting Loft (call to sign up). This will be our last workshop there as they are closing their retail shop at the end of the month. 30% off sale starts Tuesday (7th). Stay tuned for details here.

On-Target Quilt

March 2, 2015 By Katie

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;)

::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;)

::Double Herringbone Whole Cloth Quilt::

August 20, 2012 By Katie

I know I am not alone in thinking morning till night about quilt design. If I had a large studio, all walls would be design walls, covered in the latest, or not so recent, but percolating ideas.

I’m not sure if it is good to dream of living in a padded room, but projects wouldn’t get tucked away in whatever space available to become ignored or forgotten. I would just do a little of each as to not get bored or feel an idea forced.

But I get bored and projects get put away.

Ashley’s herringbone quilting on Swirling Swans, her version of the Swirling Medallion quilt in Quilting Modern, inspired me to shake the wrinkles out of a whole cloth quilt that was already basted, but tucked away. Even the bindings were produced and rolled along with it. The fabric had already driven my vision in this direction, but knowing that this type of quilting would take time set the procrastination in.

I obviously had not thought out the binding’s contrast very well. Placed next to the herringbone fabric it simply disappeared, so I added the faux binding. It is a simple technique that I teach in my whole cloth quilt class.

It turned out erratic and fun. I placed the vertical lines first and then used two pieces of masking take horizontally to keep somewhat straight in placing the zig zags. A fabric marker would do to.

I created a whole cloth quilt flickr group to share.

I’ll be missing my niece Ella when the family leaves back to Northern Ireland Tuesday. Be still my heart, when she exclaimed as we were cutting squares and placing them on the design wall that she could just play with fabric all day!

Oh, and Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law Hallie. Her pillows match my couch so well it might be hard to let them go! I added invisible zippers of course. Tutorial here.

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::Swirling Medallion Quilt:: $85 Saturday, August 25th 10am-2pm at the Quilting Loft in Ballard.

A merging of two blocks! Come see how this quilt comes together while learning proper technique for cutting, piecing to create sharp points and sewing rows. All level of sewists welcome. Quilting Modern book required.

Improv Fresh Cut Quilt

On-Target Quilt

::Happy Snowballed Sunshine::

::Double Herringbone Whole Cloth Quilt::

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