Glow

Most of my quilt tops reach a few years of age before I quilt them, as I need to distance myself mentally from a quilt top before I finish it. However, Glow is a quilt I finished relatively recently, within the last 6 months in fact, and it's because I had a vision for how to quilt this from the get-go.

Glow is definitely one of my favorite quilt tops in my stash, because it contains some of my absolute favorite scraps. The pattern is called the Scrappy Quarter-Log Cabin, and it's by Christina Cameli.

This quilt is not only scrappy, but also improv, which is mentally exhausting and always scares me a lot, but also usually results in something that is quite magical. I named this quilt Glow because there are so many shiny fabrics on this quilt, it really does glow.

For quilting, I used mostly straight lines for the white space and some free-motion designs in the others. As the focal point of this quilt is the beautiful scrappy fabrics, I kept the quilting fairly minimal in that space.

After a fairly unproductive year in terms of quilting last year, I really wanted to do a lot more this year, and so far, I've finished 5 quilts, one a month. I'm pretty happy with the output, but we'll see what happens now that summer is around the corner.

Even though the year's only half done, I'm calling it now ... this is my favorite quilt finish for 2024!

Circuit

After the holidays last year, I was feeling lethargic and decided to take a break. However, I didn't expect the break to last half a year! To be honest, with everything that's going on in my life and beyond, quilting just isn't at the top of my list at the moment.

But I did recently finish a quilt, a quilt I've been longarming on and off for 5 months. I finished the quilt top for Circuit several years ago, and it's been one of my favorite quilt tops in my stash. The pattern is by Sylvia Schaefer.

I'm very attracted to the sci-fi, cyberpunk style, so that's probably why I love this pattern so much. I also adore the fabrics, which is a mix of chartreuse and black with a lot of metallics thrown in.

For the quilting design, I decided to use a bright green thread with a tiled design, but filling it with echoing straight lines so it emulates the look of circuits.

I wanted the circuits in the foreground to really jump out, so I kept the quilting very simple there, with just some light echoes.

Although I was stuck for a long time on how to quilt this, and then stuck for a long time not wanting to quilt anything at all, I'm very happy with the end product. This is one I hope I'll always have.

***

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation and Meadow Mist Designs.

Facets

Facets is one of my favorite quilt-tops from last year, so I didn't expect to quilt it so soon, but when I looked through my queue to decide which quilt to quilt next, it jumped out at me, begging to be quilted. Well, I can't resist that when it happens!

The pattern is by Christa Watson, and I used nothing but scraps for this quilt. I remember the piecing process to be very fun but quite stressful as well due to its improv nature. But the quilting process would just be plain fun.

I used several different designs in the colored fabrics, alternating them by rows. They include swirls and a geometric design with a plume feather. In the solids section, I used a very simple geometric design. I decided to use a greenish thread that blended in well with the improv sections, but still stood out a little on the blue.

And finally in the white sashing strips, I did a simple back and forth design spaced about 1/8" apart. This is one of the first designs I learned on the longarm, and I rarely use it. When I started to quilt this, I remembered why. It is incredibly demanding physically!

Facets was fun and fast to quilt, and though I don't think I'll be making another one anytime soon (improv is so exhausting), this is definitely a special quilt to me that I'll be keeping.

Facets ~ Adventure in Improv

Earlier this year I made the Scrappy Market Tote, an improv bag by Christina Cameli. I really loved the finished result, but I couldn't get enough of the palette of blue / green / yellows I picked, and I wanted to make a full-sized quilt with the same palette.

The pattern I decided on is Facets by Christa Watson. I love how the improv patchwork is juxtaposed with white fabrics for some breathing room, and the solid column of colors is perfect for a bit of balance.

In order to gather fabric however and for a truly scrappy look, I had to dive into my scrap bins. I have quite a few of them, and they're all incredibly heavy. I usually don't look inside them because I'm scared of facing my scraps, but I also don't have the heart to toss them. After pulling a ton of fabrics and ironing them and cutting them into random-sized strips, I had a good selection to work with.

The first step is to make large rectangular panels from where I could cut the shapes I need. This part was fun but also very exhausting. I realized that my brain is consistently on and I'm constantly making decisions when I'm doing improv, and it's not something I can help. The result is that I'm completely mentally drained at the end of an improv session!

After I had enough panels (it took a lot) I cut them into triangles for this quilt. I decided to use foundation paper piecing to make these blocks so they'll be perfect and so I don't have to buy any specialized rulers.

Final assembly took awhile as there are a lot of blocks, but it was exciting to watch this quilt come together.

Well, I'm really, really happy with it!

Scrappy Market Tote

The Scrappy Market Tote is a class by Christina Cameli on Bluprint, and I have watched it quite a few times, but I kept procrastinating on making one of my own. Improv terrifies me, and scraps intimidate me. So imagine how I feel when I'm faced with a project that's both improv and scraps.

But I finally decided to give it a shot. I'm using a palette of yellows, blues, and greens, and I combed through only the top of my scrap bins and already I was shocked at how much scraps I have accumulated over the last few years.

I then made a variety of improv patchwork, just putting things together however I want. Bias edges? No problem! Weird angles? No problem! Chop up whatever, add whatever. Anything goes. It's both terrifying and freeing at the same time. Improv completely goes against my usual factory assembly process, so it's challenging but also exciting because I never quite know how it's going to look.

After that, I auditioned which of those will make it into the final bag. This is the part I really had to rely on instinct, to tell me what works where, and especially if I need to insert extra things here or there to break up a space, to unify a space, or to add more jazz.

Since the panel is quite busy, I'm really glad for the big solid piece at the bottom of the bag to help tone it down and tie it together, and the matchstick quilting also helps unify it. However, I haven't done walking foot quilting on this scale in years, and now I remembered why I learned to free-motion quilt: because I hate doing walking foot quilting.

After all that, assembling this bag was the easy part. I also made a false bottom for it to give it a bit of structure. I'm super proud of this bag, because it far exceeded my expectations. I didn't think I could handle scraps or improv, so I'm quite amazed at how it turned out. It's a really gorgeous and happy bag to look at, and it's quite big too!

Mod Mountains Sew-Along

At the beginning of this year I joined 2 sew-alongs. But I didn't blog about them because I had a feeling that I'd fall behind. And fall behind I did. I haven't even started one of them, and the second one ... I'm several months behind too.

So the last thing I need is yet another sew-along, right? Well, when Suzy Quilts started her Mod Mountains Sew-Along, I felt the urge to join in. Suzy has this magic of making everything look shiny, exciting, and fun, and I felt myself being pulled in. I tried to resist it, but the clincher? It's a scrappy quilt.

My scraps are seriously getting out of hand, and Mod Mountains is just perfect for me to dig into my scrap bins. I decided on a palette of hot pinks, purples, and yellows.

Mod Mountains is what I call structured improv, because while there's a bit of improv in the mountains themselves which is what makes them so adorable and quirky, the final blocks are all triangles of the same size, satisfying my need for structure.

Laying them out on the design wall is so fun. I love how Suzy's pattern provides guidance for the color layout, to ensure that even though it's scrappy, it's still balanced. For color-challenged people like me, this is super helpful. When I use my own palette instead of a kit, I'm always nervous if it will work, but I think this does! At least, I love it.

This is my first quilt with triangles and I was a little worried it would be hard to put together. But there aren't any matching points in this quilt, which really helps. I think it turned out really well by my standards. Every time I look at this quilt top, it really makes me smile, because I love the scrappy prints so much!

Moonlight

My latest finish, Moonlight, uses Erica Jackman's pattern, Harper. It's a fun and easy quilt using basic Drunkard's Path blocks.

Some quilts are easy for me to to come up with quilting ideas for, and some are really really hard. For me, Moonlight was particularly challenging because of the printed background. Usually my quilts tend to have printed foreground components and solid backgrounds, so when I have a printed background, I really don't know what to do. The usual fillers I like to do in the background would all be too busy for the already busy background fabric.

But I know that dot-to-dot designs usually look good on prints, so that's what I did in the background. And as a bonus, dot-to-dot designs in the background blocks, when placed together, also create secondary designs. But I was also in the mood for some feathers.

I quilted the moons with an alternating design. It's definitely my favorite part of the quilt, it almost has a glow to it next to the indigo fabrics.

There are no solids to be found on the front of this quilt, which is pretty rare for me. But it allows me to quilt it on the lighter side, allowing for a cuddlier quilt than usual. It's really hard to see the quilting on the front though, but the back shows it well!

***

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation, Busy Hands Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Cooking Up Quilts, Powered by Quilting, and Meadow Mist Designs.

Stash Statement Blog Hop: Beach Retreat

Today is my stop on Kelly Young's Stash Statement blog hop and I'm thrilled to present Beach Retreat!

Photo credit: Martingale & Company

Kelly's Beach Retreat uses a beautiful and calm palette of light blues and light browns which makes me think of sea glass and sandy beaches. I wanted to go in the opposite direction and create a color palette that is energetic. I debated a bunch of color combos before deciding on 2 of my favorite colors in a complementary setting: blue and orange.

I created the "raw" fabric by using one of Kelly's methods of improv piecing. It is both liberating and kind of scary to just start sewing instead of cutting them into precise shapes. In fact, I ditched the rotary cutter completely until the very end when I squared the blocks up. I definitely felt more confident as I made more blocks, though!

But once the improv fabric is done, the blocks were super easy and very enjoyable. I love how the improv blocks set in a traditional fashion gives this quilt a perfect combination of order and chaos!

When I was trying to decide what to quilt, I saw these pinwheel patterns show up in the negative space between the blocks, and I wanted to do something fun with it. I used a lot of straight lines, a lot of swirls, and a lot of pebbles. To me, background fillers are critical to the final look of the quilt.

In the foreground area, I thought that it sort of looked like butterflies. I didn't want to actually quilt it to make it resemble a butterfly as it was still a bit of a stretch, but with the butterfly motif in mind, I added some feathers and ferns.

I really enjoy this approach to improv, and I couldn't be more pleased with the results! The quilting was like one big happy gathering of all my favorite designs.

Thanks for visiting! Here is my kickoff post with the full schedule. Be sure to visit the other stops in the hop. There are a lot of improv goodness around, and because all our fabrics are different, no two quilts are alike!

***

Linking up with: Crazy Mom Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, Busy Hands Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Cooking Up Quilts, Sew Can She, and Powered by Quilting.

Stash Statement Blog Hop Kickoff!

Today is the kickoff day for the Stash Statement Blog Hop tour. Stash Statement is a new book from Kelly Young of My Quilt Infatuation, and I'm thrilled to be part of this blog hop!

I love the look of improv, but I'm afraid of doing it. As a former software engineer and current owner of a very mathematical brain, it is a challenge for me to improvise even under guidance. That is why I so welcome Kelly's approach which combines improv piecing and traditional piecing for one-of-a-kind quilts that caters to my need of order and structure but gives me a chance to experiment with improv. It's the best of both worlds!

My stop of the blog hop is on 5/7. Until then, here's a sneak peek of what I've been up to:

Below is the full schedule. It starts today with Grand Bazaar which is the stunning rainbow quilt on the cover of the book. I can't wait to see the versions these talented bloggers have made, and of course, I hope to see you back here on 5/7!

Stash Statement Blog Tour Schedule

Kickoff post:

Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

4/16: Grand Bazaar

Shelley @ Cora's Quilts

Connie @ Freemotion by the River

4/26: Louvered

Lindsey @ Primrose Cottage Quilts

Diann @ Little Penguin Quilts

4/30: Precarious

Jess @ Quilty Habit

Myra @ Busy Hands Quilts

5/7: Beach Retreat

Sarah @ Sarah Goer Quilts

Liz @ Savor Every Stitch (you're here!)

5/14: Fire Pit

Alison @ Little Bunny Quilts

Preeti @ Sew Preeti Quilts

5/21: Detour

Laura @ Slice of Pi Quilts

Shelley @ The Carpenter's Daughter Who Quilts

5/28: Murrina

Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl

Leanne @ Devoted Quilter

6/4: Scattered

Jayne @ Twiggy and Opal

Christine @ Triangles and Squares

6/11: Bloom Chicka Boom

Chris @ made by ChrissieD

Michelle @ From Bolt to Beauty

6/18: Regatta

Susan @ Quilt Fabrication

Debbie @ A Quilter's Table

Christa @ Christa Quilts

6/25: Catch a Falling Star

Cynthia @ Quilting is More Fun Than Housework

Anja @ Anja Quilts

7/2: College Prep

Hilary @ by Hilary Jordan

Lori @ Crossquilt

7/9: Take Flight (bonus digital pattern)

Kelli @ Seriously, I Think It Needs Stitches

Paula @ The Sassy Quilter

L'Arc en Ciel

A special quilt deserves a special name, so it's no coincidence that I named this really special quilt after my favorite Japanese band. L'Arc en Ciel means The Rainbow in French, and it is a fitting name for this rainbow-themed scrappy Irish chain quilt from Melissa Corry's Irish Chain Quilts.

This quilt was made from leftover fabric. Well, almost. I didn't really have much in the way of low-volume scraps for the background and dug into my fat quarter stash for that, but the colored fabrics are all made from leftover strips pieced into crazy blocks. It was a lot of work, because I was making my own fabric essentially, but it was totally worth it when I saw the results at the end.

This quilt was slow to piece, but easy and enjoyable. I enjoyed all the different rainbow fabrics, and I particularly love the way the low-volume background looked. To make this quilt, I think I pretty much exhausted my almost-white prints, which means I need to replenish that.

When it comes to quilting, I had several ideas in mind. It ranges all the way from improv, to a more structured design. Ultimately, I chose structure because the piecing has enough improv in it. I quilted a secondary design in the background with diamonds lying beneath each chain cross. It's an easy, minimal marking design that also puts straight lines next to curvy fillers, which is my favorite way to employ contrast.

I had to resist the urge to quilt this as densely as I secretly wanted to. I usually like to quilt fillers at a super dense scale, but I just felt this quilt was busy enough that it didn't also warrant super dense quilting. So ... I used closer to a 3/8" scale, which was honestly a bit painful, but on the bright side, it means the quilt is slightly cuddlier.

This quilt has a sparkle to it because some of the fabrics I used has a metallic sheen. I adore it, and it's just perfect for brightening up those Chicago winter days! (Although, I don't think Chicago winters are all that dreary.) I toted this quilt all over the house, trying to find a good "stage" shot. I really think photography is the hardest part of being a quilt blogger!

***

Linking up with: Crazy Mom Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, Busy Hands Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Cooking Up Quilts, Sew Can She, and Powered by Quilting.

Tokyo Subway Map

It's scrappy. It's modern. It's urban. It's Tokyo Subway Map! After more than a month of piecing the top, and nearly a month of quilting, I'm proud to unveil my finished Tokyo Subway Map quilt. The pattern is by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh Fransson. It is the perfect quilt for a self-professed Japan-o-phile like me.

This quilt is the biggest quilt I've ever quilted, at 80" x 80". I won't lie, it was a real chore to manage the bulk on my midarm. More and more, I find myself longing for a longarm (no pun intended). I thought the best quilting design for this quilt would be improv, and plus I've wanted to try improv quilting for awhile. I had a lot of fun doing improv because there's no planning. Naturally, I quilted this quilt to death. I really like the neat Where's Waldo effect because of all the things I threw on there. I did notice after awhile that one motif kept showing up ... the sunburst medallion. I must like it a lot!

I kept the quilting in the train lines pretty simple, and just did a continuous curve, mostly so I can maneuver in and out of the space easily.

I had a vision in my head for this quilt, and that was to make it look very urban, very modern, very colorful, but still clean and bright. (Kind of like Tokyo itself.) I think I achieved what I set out, with the beautiful and striking scrappy fabrics, and the heavily textured improv quilting. I absolutely adore this quilt! (But it's really heavy.)

Previous posts on this quilt:

Scrappy Subway Map Quilt

Tokyo Subway Map ~ Ready to Quilt!

***

This post participated in the link parties at Crazy Mom Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and Busy Hands Quilts. Link up and join the fun!

Tokyo Subway Map ~ Ready to Quilt!

The first time I saw Tokyo Subway Map, I was still a fairly new quilter, and though I loved it, I was really intimidated. It looked so tiny and intricate. I put it on my "make someday" list and didn't think about it much. Then, about a year later, I remembered it and suddenly, I had to make it now. Talk about queue jumping!

Making this quilt first consists of cutting 1600 squares. After that, it's piecing those 1600 squares together. This quilt took more than a month to piece the top, just because there were so many little pieces. While it shouldn't have been difficult, I had a hard time with this. I think I just don't do very well with little pieces, but that doesn't mean I won't keep trying.

I love this top so far, and I'm so excited to quilt it. I think I'll have to finally try my hand at improv quilting, or wild quilting. I took a class with Christina Cameli on wild quilting that was incredibly inspiring, and I've always admired the amazing work of Karlee Porter. I can't think of a more perfect canvas to try wild quilting than this quilt, because it's got an urban feel, it's asymmetrical, whimsical, and has so many odd spaces.

Since I've never done wild quilting before, I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to sketch it out some. I just randomly doodled some stuff without thinking too hard about it, but I kind of like the way it looks! In a blending thread, it'll be great. One thing I always have to take into account, though, is contrast, as it's something I struggle with.

Well, I can hardly wait to get started! This will probably take me a month or so to quilt, but it will be a really fun one.