Monochromatic Challenge

October's monochromatic challenge was a 2 colour quilt.  Any 2 colours, plus a background.   I picked up a set of fat quarters one day when I was out shopping for inspiration, and it turned into this Hallowe'en quilt.  Orange, black, and white - I think this qualifies for October's challenge.

 The block pattern was inspired by September's block lotto (curved rails) quilt blocks.  I cut each of the 10 FQ into 4 squares, 9x9".  Layered all of them (well, OK, I layered a few at a time) and cut the curves, then swapped colours around to make 40 unique blocks.  30 made the front of this quilt, and the other 10 framed a panel on the back.

The quilt was finished in time to hang in my front window for Hallowe'en - a good thing since I didn't have any other Hallowe'en decorations out.  The trick-or-treaters were out in force tonight, despite the cold weather, and the quilt greeted all of them from the window.

 November's challenge is black, white, and one other colour.  Which is perfect, because I have my black and white (and red) fat quarters just waiting for my attention.  This should give me the inspiration to keep that one moving along.

Design Wall Monday - Oct 31

I can't show you what's on my design wall today, because it's the sneak peek for November's block lotto.  But, I do have a couple of things to show you today.

First, my pink quilt is progressing through the quilting stage.  I've completed most of the center of the quilt, and one round of the border.  Two more border rounds to go, and then some small (4x4") squares in the middle that need quilting still.

Second, I have my next quilt - or at least the fabric for it picked out.  Here's where I need your help. What quilt pattern would you use for this?  I want something that will highlight the pink flowers, and I'll use the stripe for the border.  So I have a focus and 2 colours.  Any suggestions for quilt patterns with this set of fabric?  I thought about a disappearing 9-patch, but I'd really like to do something I've never done before.

So, after you leave me your quilt pattern suggestion :) hop over to Judy's blog to see what other quilters have on their design walls this week.

Stash Report - Oct 30

I worked on a lot of projects this week, but most were small items. And 2 I can't show you yet, so I will count them here and post pictures once the secrets are out.  The BOM and October block lotto were on my design wall last Monday.

Usage for this week:

Backing for 2 baby quilts - 1.75 yd
Block Lotto for November -  1.25 yd
Mystery Monday - 1 yd
BOM & block lotto for October = 1/4 yd

Total - 3.25 yards out
Zero yards in

Stash Totals for this year:
Overall, 92.25 yards in, 84.5 yards out.
Net for the year:  7.75 yards in.

Still trying to work my way back into the black. Check out Judy's blog to see what other quilters did with their stash this week.

Guess Who Came to Town!

This post has absolutely nothing to do with quilting.But I had so much fun today, that I just had to share.

Jen and john (the hubby of Jen), the author of Cake Wrecks came to town!!  I can't believe they came to Canada, let alone my own city, and even my end of the city.  Only 20 minutes away from me - I absolutely had to go!

I spent the afternoon at their book signing, and it was so much fun.  They were great, and the fans' "wreck-licas" were very entertaining.  Little cupcakes made by fans, immortalizing some of the best wrecks from the site.

I picked up a copy of their latest book, and got my own "wrecky" dedication from Jen :)

After that, I had to "fix" my book cover. Apparently, a minor mistake was made when the books were originally printed, which escaped all the copy editors.  After the final copies were ready, it was noticed, and "corrected" by the publishers with a lovely, correctly spelled, sticker.

My book is now sans-sticker, and much wreckier :)

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Once again, Amy is sponsoring a Blogger's Quilt Festival.  It's a chance for us to see and learn about a wide variety of bloggers and their creations.  I debated this year what quilt to post, and I decided that Triangle Delight was the pick for this festival.

I wanted to make a quilt for my sister and her husband.  She had hinted that she'd like to have one, so I went on a hunt for a pattern.  I wanted something different, a bit intricate, and not just a traditional quilt block.  At my local quilt store I found a book of quilts focused around triangles.  There were lots of patterns in there, but none that caught my eye - except one photo.  A beautiful quilt in rose and burgundy colours, in a tiny thumbnail photo half-way through the book.  I loved it!  But nowhere in the book were there instructions for this particular quilt. And the quilt did not use the same basic blocks that the rest of the quilts were built around.

However, I was determined not to let that deter me.  I bought the book, and headed off to my sewing room to do some drafting.  This was before I had any quilt design software, so I drafted the pattern by hand.  I identified the basic block, drew it out and made myself some templates for it.  Then, I worked out fabric yardage, and went in search of the perfect fabric for my sister.

I found the background fabric which I really liked, and matched the rest to that.  Assembling this quilt was more work than I had expected.  All those triangles.  All those points.  And there are several variations on the block, in terms of colour placement in this quilt, so I had to carefully keep track of that the whole way too. But eventually it all came together, and I was pleasantly surprised by the way the triangles seem to float on top of the background fabric.

The quilt was finished and delivered to my sister in time for Christmas 2009.

Check out the quilts from the other participants by following this button.

Practice makes perfect

My "third" project was really my 4th or fifth.  While I was working on project #2 (the quillow), I stumbled across an on-line mystery quilt.  I thought this would be a really great way to get some interaction with other quilters, and maybe learn a bit more.  It was a one-day mystery - 7 or 8 clues posted over the course of a single day, so I planned to spend that day in my sewing room and see how it went.

Still working from my stash, I pulled a few fabrics - green, blue, red, white and a dark, which mirrored what the creator was using.  I was a bit concerned, because these were novelty prints, but they all had similar primary colours, so I figured it would be OK. I happily went to work when the mystery came on line, and even finished it.  But, about halfway through, I realized my error.

The "red" didn't look red when you cut 2.5" squares from it. Ditto for the other colours - the novely prints were so large and bold that in the smaller pieces, the novelty pics took over and the main colour was completely lost.    I think you can see that from the pictures here - from top to bottom, "red", "blue", and "green".

The end result of that experiment was a complete disaster which looked like a random mish-mash of colour.  I crumpled it up, stuffed it in the back of the closet, and swore never to speak of it again :)  And, I didn't take a picture.  Several years later, I came across the top while moving and tossed it.  So, no evidence remains.

Fortunately, I didn't let that deter me on my quilting journey.  I still loved the process (and now I knew that I loved the process of assembling a complete top).  And I learned from that experience - that you can't mix and match a bunch of novelty prints cut into small pieces.

And hence my next quilt was born.  I still wanted to use up stash.  And I still wanted to do a complete top including quilting.  So I did a reset, planned a small baby quilt, and used a combination of my novelty prints and a solid white to break up the jumble.  This time I settled on an "around the world" layout - to try to help draw the eye to the background colours by grouping them.I pieced the quilt in 9-patches, after carefully drawing out the colours so I could make sure I made each patch correctly.

I backed this quilt with interlock - that was one of the purposes of making this quilt.  To find out if that would work, because the other half of my stash was interlock fabric - mostly in solids, thank goodness.  This quilt has a red back.

I discovered that it was possible, although challenging to do that.  The quilting here was a free motion (marked) swirl pattern - I never was one to start simple :)  The stretchy backing made it challenging, but I got through it with only one or two puckers in the backing.  Not too bad for a first attempt, I figured.  And still undeterred, I continued on my quilting journey.  Next up - a Christmas present for my nephew, was 5.

Date: March 2004

Recipient: Charity quilt for the Linus Project

Pattern: 9-patch cream & colour, Around the World layout

Fabric: cotton, interlock backing

Size: 36” x 36”

Quilting: machine quilted by Krista

Block of the Month, Part 2

The second installment of the Blogger's Block of the Month came out today.  Not being the patient type, I headed straight for my sewing room after work, to see what I could make of it.  The instructions are on Vicki's blog, here.  This block was fun to put together, and since Vicki's instructions left a number of corners trimmed off, I made mini-half-squares which I will keep in hopes that they can become part of the sashing or border later on.

This month's block is on the left, surrounded by the spare half-square triangles (which need trimming).  Last month's block is on the left.