Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Stargazer

Stargazer, designed by Rebecca Bryan, is a block-of-the-month I did last year. It was a big challenge, and after I was done with it, I felt so physically and mentally exhausted that I didn't want to look at it for quite awhile. So I put it away for a whole year ... but I finally decided it's time to quilt this.

Although I usually choose to quilt my quilts to death, I decided to try something different here for a change. I wanted to emphasize the beautiful geometric nature of this quilt, so I did a lot of dot-to-dot geometric quilting. This is the most sparse quilting I've ever done, and honestly it's kind of scary.

However, I didn't want the whole quilt to be composed of straight lines, so I slipped some swirls and continuous curves into what I consider the focal point of the quilt: the center.

I also reflected these designs on the directional points of the quilt.

The color palette of this quilt is so striking with the purples and teals. It was what initially drew me to this pattern, but it presented a dilemma during quilting. If I quilted this very densely, I would likely have to keep changing threads, and I really didn't want to do that. But by quilting sparsely, I managed to get away with just using one color: purple.

Quilting this quilt was nowhere near as challenging as piecing it, but the super bumpy corners did present a little bit of hardship. Miraculously, I didn't break a needle, and I now feel a bit more confident about thick seams in general ... because if my machine can handle this quilt, it can probably handle anything I throw at it!

When the quilt top was first completed, I remembered thinking it was beautiful but lacked a little bit of soul. Solid quilts tend to have that problem for me. But now, I'm really, really happy with it, and I think it has soul now.

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Handiwork ~ Build-A-Quilt #2

Handiwork is the 2nd colorway from the Build-A-Quilt program by Angela Walters, and unlike Urban Grid which felt a bit like a risk, I knew I loved this color palette the minute I saw it.

I mean, it's Alison Glass, how could I not love it? What did scare me a bit more than Urban Grid is that I chose a layout I've never tried before: a braid quilt.

This was definitely more challenging than the flying geese layout of Urban Grid, but I'm glad I chose it because it is definitely an interesting and beautiful design!

I was quite apprehensive about this layout, and it was definitely not easy, but I'm very pleased with the way it turned out! Unfortunately I couldn't get a full picture as it's so huge, but I can't wait to quilt this!

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Urban Grid ~ Build-A-Quilt #1

Late last year I decided to join the Build-A-Quilt program by Angela Walters. I had trouble deciding between 2 colorways, so I decided to just do both of them. The first one I've completed is Urban Grid.

What drew me to Urban Grid immediately is the really funky fabric. This is not a palette I would usually pick for myself, but something about it was intriguing to me, so I decided to give it a shot.

I enjoyed receiving fabric in the mail every month and making the blocks a lot. I followed the pattern except for one curved block that I substituted.

The best thing about this Build-A-Quilt is that the layout is so interesting! I really enjoyed the look of all those giant flying geese framing the blocks.

At first I wasn't sure how I'd feel about this quilt, and to be honest I'm still slightly on the fence, but one thing's for sure ... the more I look at it, the more it's growing on me.
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