Thursday, September 24, 2020

Pick-Up Sticks

Pick-Up Sticks is such a fun and unusual quilt for me. The original pattern is called On the Ball by Brigitte Heitland (of Zen Chic). I really liked the pattern, but it was made with the splice and insert technique which will be incredibly difficult on this scale. So instead, I made it with the applique technique. Details on how I made this top is here.

When it comes to quilting it, I decided to keep this one simple in concept. I extended each "stick" into the background space, and I love the way it divides up the background.

I filled all the areas in between with my favorite filler: elongated elegant swirls.

I filled the center areas with pebbles, and left all the sticks unquilted so they would rise to the top of the quilt.

This quilt was easy even if it was time consuming. I absolutely love it, but I also cannot use this as a lap quilt because between the applique and the pounds of thread I added on, it's just too heavy! But I think it'd make a fabulous wall hanging ...

Sunday, September 20, 2020

Solstice ~ Ready to Quilt

Late last year after I finished the Stargazer Block-of-the-Month run by Rebecca Bryan, I said I wasn't going to do another one. Stargazer was a lot of work, and I was still feeling tired from it.

A few months later, when Rebecca revealed the 2020 Block-of-the-Month, Solstice, I decided that yes, I was going to do another one. Rebecca's quilts are never easy, but they're super interesting and unique. I certainly don't have another quilt like Solstice in my collection.

After 8 months of block making, I finally got ready to assemble Solstice.

Solstice wasn't too difficult to put together as it consists mostly of 60 degree triangles assembled in rows. There are no bias edges on the outside which is good news for me. However, some of the seams are very, very thick and I found that the most challenging part. The end result definitely has a wow factor! I would never have thought to use these colors, but they work so beautifully together.

Solstice is the first block-of-the-month I finished this year, and I couldn't be more pleased with it. One down, 3 more to go!

Thursday, September 10, 2020

Velodrome

I was in the mood for a quick and easy finish this week so I pulled out a quilt top I finished quite awhile ago. The original pattern is Mod Ovals by Malka Dubrawsky, but I made my blocks bigger. The fabrics used in this quilt are all from Libs Elliott's Tattooed North line, a sparkly line of neutrals with some golds mixed in. I simply love Libs Elliott's fabrics, and I consider her the rock star of the quilting world.

Even though I meant for this quilt to be quick and easy, I still wanted to put some effort into the quilting to make it special.

I quilted each block with a mixture of straight lines, ribbon candies, and dot-to-dot designs. I love how the secondary designs show up in these types of quilts.

There are 3 special blocks in this quilt where the fabric is gold instead of the neutral, so I decided to quilt them a little differently.

I named this quilt Velodrome because the individual blocks really remind me of cycling velodromes. I'm super happy with the fabrics and the graphic and urban look of this quilt, and it looks so different from Malka's original quilt that I marvel at just how much a quilt can change its vibe just by using different fabrics.

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