I’ve been playing around with the Quilt Blocks fabric and making some improvisational blocks. Making things without a pattern or set plan is so much fun and really takes the stress out of quilting. Here, I’ve used some Quilt Blocks fabric, a print from Rashida’s Washi collection, and some Denyse Schmidt fabric. I’m really enjoying dark backgrounds these days.
And speaking of improvisational quilting, have you seen this amazing quilt that Lucie Summers of Summersville is working on? Genius.
Hand Carved Bowl, $55 from Gray Works Design.
Japanese Cotton Fabric, 1/2 yard for $7.50 from The HeyDay Shop.
Hand Carved Wooden Block Stamp, $9.25 from Ta Ta.
Chevron Pillow, $98 from PLYtextiles.
Walnut Wooden Fox Brooch, £20.00 GBP from Box of Birds Shop.
Organic Patchwork Quilt, $65 from Weepereas.
Girl’s Dress, $39 from Ilona Lemane.
Origami Paper Bowl, $29 from Ruti’s Roots.
Needle Felted Rabbit, $15 from Felt Jar.
Katy Jones of Monkey Do (and one of the editors of Fat Quarterly) has made the most spectacularly awesome quilt top using some of my Quilt Blocks collection. With only bits of fabric she had from quilt market, she has put together such an amazing design. I LOVE the falling pieces appliquéd at the bottom. I think one of the interesting things about this design is that these fabrics have a larger scale pattern that most quilters wouldn’t think of cutting into smaller pieces. I think what it does here is add randomness and abstraction to the design, giving it a very modern feel. She used the fabrics pictured below and added polka dots and some bright solids. This Spring Carnival, or ferris wheel design, works so well and you can see how it’s completely different depending on the fabrics you choose. I also love the version with Jenean Morrison’s fabrics. Katy is selling the acrylic templates that she used to simplify the process — what a great idea. And she’s also been working on this pillow with my flying geese fabric. Look at her amazing quilting here!
Over the past year, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing things people made from my book 1, 2, 3 Sew, but it is possibly even more exciting to see people take their own creativity and use my fabric designs to bring their ideas to reality. I’m looking forward to getting the all the fabrics from the Quilt Blocks collection soon and I can’t wait to make some things — and even better, see what you make!
The Quilt Blocks collection for Moda should hit shops in the next month. If you own a quilt shop and you’ve ordered the fabric, please do let me know so I can add you to my links. I’ll also be offering a free month of advertising for all shops who carry the collection!
So it looks like I’m working on a school auction project again this year. Don’t know how this happens. Anyway, the kids in my daughter’s third grade class had already started with a glue batik project and I made some additional squares with them last week, as you can see above. We started with this tutorial. Thinking of putting these on a neutral linen background so that the colors would be appealing to most people, but not sure. I tried this glue batik technique a couple of years ago, and decided it would be better to limit the color palette. I do think that worked better and as you can see this time I went with blues and greens. I’d also suggest having the kids focus their designs and possibly even trace something. Although I love for kids to be creative and make their own work, when it’s auction time, you need to get something good from every kid and it’s not easy. It’s a time when art really is about the finished product and not the process, which kind of takes the fun out of it.
Anyway, I’ll keep you posted on this one. They have asked me to sew the kids’ designs into a quilt, so we’ll see how it comes out.
Betz White recently sent me some of the beautiful fabric from her new line of organic cotton for Robert Kaufman. The fabric is GOTS certified organic quilting cotton. I was impressed by the thickness of the fabric and it has a great feel as well, which you don’t always find in organic quilting fabric. This fabric is perfect for quilting, apparel or home decor projects. And of course I love the geometric shapes and playful stitching motifs.
I decided to make another quick zipper pouch and really wanted to use the hexagons that were just begging to be cut and used as appliqué. I just cut 1/4″ around the shape and sewed them on by hand, overlapping them. I lined the pouch with the zig-zag fabric. If you find that you can’t get enough of chevrons lately, you’ve got to get some of this fabric. Next I plan to make some skirts for my girls. And I think the hexagons would make a fun pillow with reverse appliqué. Just place some fabric over the hexagons and hold it up to a window, trace around the shapes, stitch and cut out to reveal the pattern beneath. And of course you could make a cheater grandmother’s flower garden quilt with this fabric.
You can see all the designs and find out where to buy Stitch here. And be sure to check out some of Betz’s projects with the fabric, as shown below. Plus, you can share photos of your own creations in Betz’s Stitch Flickr group.
