Marsha's Smokey River Quilt

Sometimes simple is best.

overall quilt

When Marsha brought me this quilt, her request was to keep the quilting simple, (She knows I can sometimes get carried away!) so that's what I did. The large blocks of strip piecing in the quilt are actually what I puzzled over the most! So while I was thinking about these, I started filling in the other areas, since many times this helps to determine what will be done with those "wonder what I will do with these".

border area

I usually do the border first, just to keep the quilt contained, and as I loaded the quilt, it was obvious that the border was a bit wonky, so the pattern chosen here was a curvy swirl pattern that would take up the excess in that border fabric. The 9 patch areas are a simple basic curve pattern to compliment the border, and the black border has a simple diamond pattern. Since straight lines were used in this part of the border, a triangular Greek key pattern was used for the light blue triangles between the 9 patches.

Main block areas

Moving on to the larger blocks, to keep the star areas simple, basic continuous curve and swirl patterns were used, with the same pattern in 9 patch and chain areas that was used in the border. Okay - so now what's left are those large strip pieced areas. Since line patterns were used in the border, the same concept was brought into these areas to compliment, this time as an "X" pattern running through the 3 colored strips. The result is a combination of curves and straight lines throughout the quilt, and does finish with a simple look. (Marsha was pleased.)

So I hope you are all getting back on to some sort of a normal schedule, now that school in back underway. Hopefully that means you have time to quilt again!


Until next time, happy quilting!
Cathy

A closer view

Verse for the day: " Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.'"
(Isaiah 46:9-10)

Strip pieced areas

Carol's Stars

Before quilting

When this blue and yellow quilt was brought to me, Carol told me the pattern was supposed to form circles, but neither of us could see them. The top of the quilt is shown at right as it was draped over my machine (with a few sticky notes attached to remind me of what I planned once the quilt is loaded.) The pink contrasting stars are a "cancer awareness" reminder.

colored pencil sketch to help me think

Often,  I draw the quilts out on graph paper so that I can play a bit and get my creative juices going. When I drew this one out, the circles really popped out at me, so I sketched them in and started playing with some possible patterns.


This really looked like a wedding ring quilt in my drawing, and I had to stare at the actual quilt for a while to allow the pattern to set into my mind.

finished quilt

Once I had the pattern fixed in my head with a few ideas going, I loaded the quilt and got to work. I did the circles first, since the remainder of the patterns would depend on them. These were very large circles - I think 26" - so I had to do them as 1/2 circles to fit into my throat space.












When all the large circles were complete, patterns were placed into the shapes formed by the overlapping circles.

circular pattern detail

My quilts usually evolve as I work, since they seldom end up like I thought they would when I began. Line patterns were designed to fit into the outlined areas, and, in this case, I felt some background fill was needed around the star areas, so I used a pebble pattern.

"Pillow" area

star detail

back of quilt

"Chain of Fools" on my design wall

This quilt took me a while to complete, but I really like the finished look, and I hope you do too.



On another note, my "Chain of Fools" quilt is coming along. I cannot even begin to count the number of times I have had to take things apart because I got the triangles turned the wrong direction, but I think I am about two thirds of the way done!




That's it for now. Until next time, happy quilting!!!

Cathy

Verse for the day: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware." (Heb 13:2)

Skyrocket

Colorful and Scrappy!

This quilt uses batik scraps to make the "Skyrocket" pattern. My husband thought it was a bit too colorful, but I think it's wonderful.
The bright colors just give it such a cheerful look.















The blocks were connected through the white space, so I created a line pattern to fit, and incorporated the same design used in the sashing.
















Because the "Skyrocket" areas were so colorful, I thought simple would be best for these, so I incorporated straight lines and curves to fit the pattern.










The colorful border - picked to try to incorporated the many colors in the quilt - needed something to tone it down a bit, so  a detailed star pattern was used with a dark blue (toning down) thread.

The back of the quilt shows up all the designs quite nicely.











Until next time, Happy Quilting!
Cathy

Verse for the week: "For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel." (Ezra 7:10)

Blackford's Beauty & a Red/ Black Bandana Quilt

Crunch Time!

With the Christmas holiday quickly approaching, I am becoming more and more aware of the many quilts there are still hanging in my closet awaiting their completion!

Some quilts just seem to take me a lot longer than I anticipate once I get going on them, and that certainly did apply to this quilt, called Blackford's Beauty in Plaids, but I love the way it came out.

This was one of those with a lot of white space, so I had to use the "divide and conquer" method, quilting a diamond pattern to separate different quilting spaces. Since feathers were used in the  border, the plaid stars, and the pinwheels, they were also put into the diamond area for continuity. A flame fill pattern was used in the center, and a more dense clam-shell fill used in the remainder of the space.

That's it for now - have to get back to quilting! Hope you all enjoyed a very blessed Thanksgiving - we have so much to be thankful for.

Until next time, Happy Quilting!

Cathy

Verse for the day: "Daniel said, "Let the Name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to h\Him." (Daniel 2:20)

Midnight Garden Sampler

Midnight Garden Sampler

I love sampler quilts and enjoy working on them. What makes quilting them so time consuming is that each block needs it's own design, but the finished piece must work as a whole. This sampler was a mix of various shades of brown and turquoise, which made a stunning "garden."








Looking at the border, I decided the brown needed a little softening, so I used a turquoise thread and a spiked swirl pattern like a fill. The smaller inner borders I quilted as one unit in an alternating swirl pattern. I like to vary my textures so that there is both heavy and light quilting throughout the quilt. This adds more interest to the overall look and makes some parts of the quilt stand out more than others.

The blocks need some cohesion to them, so I like to use similar quilting to tie them all together. In this case, since all the centers were the same star shape and size, I quilted them with the same pattern - a combination of continuous curve and
cathedral window.

The blocks were of 3 basic styles. I used continuous curve in the triangle and square background areas (curved lines that go from point to point), swirls in other areas, and pointed ovals to look like buds in the flower areas. I hope you can see this in the blocks I have shown here.

Even though similar designs are used, each block has a different look, but the overall look of the quilt is cohesive. I always liked the way the triangular and flower areas came out.

For the background area, I wanted something tight so that the blocks would stand out, so I used a paisley fill. This swirly pattern was a nice contrast to all the points of the blocks, and allowed the block patterns to come forward. The finished quilt at the top of this post is the finished result.