Unintended ~ A Mini Haphazard

If there's one part of the quilting process that I hate more than anything ... it's loading a quilt onto the longarm. After quilting Modern X, I realized since Modern X isn't a very big quilt, I have a little bit of room to put another quilt on there! That's what I call a freebie, since I didn't have to load it.

The only quilt top I have that actually fits is my mini Haphazard quilt that I made late last year. I named this quilt Unintended because it truly was unintended. The fabric came out of my Rock Star quilt, because I made a mistake reading the instructions and ended up cutting twice as much of the black and white fabric as I needed. The fabric was too special for me to put aside, so I made them into half-square triangles and then loaded up my Haphazard generator to get a nice 36" x 36" arrangement.

For the first time ever, I decided to try matchstick quilting on my longarm. Nancy from Grace and Peace Quilting had previously given me some advice for how to do it, and I'm very grateful, because otherwise I would have totally messed it up! Just like free-motion is not as hard as it looks, matchstick quilting is not as easy as it looks.

Matchstick quilting isn't particularly exciting to do, but there's a sort of zen-like calm to it. I think it turned out really well, and I'm very happy with it. It is so striking, and the quilting adds such a lovely texture. I'm not sure yet where it will go, but I think it will look great hanging up in my quilting room!

But after making this quilt, I realize that I really want another black and white Haphazard quilt, except throw-sized. I guess I'll have to do that one soon.

***

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

Modern X

I'm asked a lot what I do with my finished quilts. The truth is ... not much. I've given a few away to family and friends, and I usually have one draping on the couch that I snuggle under (and which I swap out once every few months). I don't even sleep under my own quilts! I know, I know ... but I don't have much of a say in that.

So I'm excited that this new quilt I've just finished, I do have a use for! It is a wallhanging that is going to go in our side entrance hallway.

This pattern is called Modern X by Christa Watson, it is a simple half-square triangle quilt, but made interesting in the fabric choice and fabric placement. That pop of wasabi is just so beautiful!

Since it's a super modern wallhanging, I kept the quilting very, very simple with all straight lines that basically follow the angles of the triangles. In other words, I used the same design that was on the cover of the pattern. But I didn't feel a need to improve on what's already perfect.

I absolutely love this, and I'm so excited to see it hanging in my hallway! But that's not enough ... now I'm thinking I want to make a throw-sized version of this quilt. It'll be quick and satisfying, exactly what we need in times like this.

***

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

The Macabre Mini

A few weeks ago, I was making a pinwheel star quilt and when I completed this block, I realized the birds that were all cut up and juxtaposed next to each other just looked kind of ... wrong. So I tossed it to the side and forgot about it.

Then one day, I came to my sewing room and saw it, and decided I might as well make my first mini quilt. Since I haven't done walking foot quilting for almost 2 years, I figured this was a good opportunity to play with it since the quilt is very small. I quilted lots of echo lines and I really like it!

My favorite part of this quilt is the binding. I found a leftover piece of binding from another quilt I made and it was the perfect length for this mini. Putting the binding on made me rather dizzy because of the tiny black/white strips, but once it's done, I love how it pops!

Maybe it's finally time to begin that mini quilt wall.

Fragmental

Fragmental is the easiest quilt top I've ever pieced. That's because it's cheatercloth! I was browsing on Quilting Is My Therapy one day when I saw a quilt kit that consisted of a few panels of this really pretty geometric design, and I knew it would be fun to quilt.

Piecing of this took about 20 minutes, and most of the time was spent on pressing the fabric. But the real purpose of making this quilt top, of course, is to quilt it.

When I loaded this quilt top, it was actually a piggyback. I use wide backing, so frequently after finishing a medium-sized quilt there's still room for a small top. This one just barely fits after I finished Lakeshore, so that's why I quilted it next. Unlike most of the quilt tops where I have some idea what I was going to do before I started, this one I really just winged it and made it up as I went along.

I did continuous curves in the colored shapes, and then went to town on the negative space filling it with all kinds of fun filler designs. Whatever I did once ... I just had to repeat it across the quilt so it looks somewhat symmetrical. But I vary the motifs across the quilt so it doesn't look too symmetrical.

I don't think every design I did was necessarily successful, but I didn't rip. Whatever I did, I just made sure to repeat it somewhere. As Angela Walters always says, 'Once is a mistake, but twice is a design choice.'

But my favorite part is the triangles on the side. Instead of quilting just a filler, I divided up the space with different quilting. I think it looks much more impactful than if I just filled it with a swirl or such.

I originally intended this to be a practice piece, and since I didn't sink a lot of money or time into the quilt top, I figured it'd be low pressure. But it turned out much better than I expected, so winging it wasn't a bad idea after all. It'll end up being a wallhanging when I get my quilting room finished ... one day. I just have to pick up the phone and call a contractor. Sigh

***

Well, this is going to be my last quilt this year! I'm going to take a break from blogging and social media for the rest of the year. It's been a great year for quilting for me, and I'm so encouraged by the visits, the comments, and the follows from you all. Thank you so much for making my blogging and quilting journey so much fun and so enriching. I'll see you all in the new year!

Link parties joined: Busy Hands Quilts, Powered By Quilting, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, My Quilt Infatuation, Crazy Mom Quilts, and Sew Can She.

Gone Bowling

The idea for this project came about one day when I thought about making a circle quilt with scraps. I wanted the circles on a lot of negative space, but didn't want to go with a traditional grid pattern. Then suddenly, the image of a top-down view of a bowling lane came to mind, and that became the inspiration for this quilt. I got out my sketchbook and did some rough planning.

There are two things I wanted to really play with in this quilt: striped circles for the bowling balls and free-motion quilting the "lane" space. For the circles, I used some leftover charm squares, and it's a combination of Northcott Urban Elementz and Moda Thicket.

For quilting the negative space, I sort of simulated the look of a bowling lane by quilting lane spaces, and in the spaces I filled each one with a different level 2 filler. I call them level 2 fillers because they're a lot more time-consuming and involved than my normal go-to fillers. But since the quilt is not big and it's a wallhanging, I quilted it to death and then added some more quilting.

In the "bowling pin" section, I quilted a different design into each circle. Some are more successful than others! I filled the areas around it with dense pebbles. That took a long time but is fairly mindless and relaxing to do.

In the lane space, I let it fly! This would have taken forever to do if it wasn't so small (42" x 26"). My favorite section in here is definitely the pebbled leaves.

This little quilt was great fun to do, and it functions as a quilting sampler. Eventually, it'll be hung in my quilting studio ... when I get around to finishing the space, that is!

***

Link parties joined: Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Busy Hands Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts, Sew Can She, and Cooking Up Quilts.

Modern Crosses Quilt

I just completed the Modern Crosses Quilt, a pattern by Elizabeth Hartman. I doubled the size over her original 30 x 30 quilt to make mine 60 x 30, so that it can function as a horizontal wallhanging.

Piecing this quilt was fairly easy, as it uses a slash 'n sew technique to create the wonky crosses. Composing the finished pieces took a little more care as an accurate quarter-inch seam actually matters, since we're putting together panels that all contain different numbers of crosses. I used a pack of fat quarters from Free Spirit that I received in a Quilty Box, and I'm not 100% happy with the way the colors and prints worked out. Even though this pack is "coordinated", I suspect if I had done my own fabric audition, I would have been able to get a more pleasing combination.

Due to how busy the fabric was and the fact that the crosses were wonky, I decided to do an allover quilting design to tie it together instead of custom quilting. I did an allover Paisley design, which I'm really happy with. The Handi Quilter quilts like a dream. I didn't end up using the regulator much, as I found it too much of a hassle, and I think my stitches are even enough.

I used a plain muslin backing since the back is not meant to be seen, but it really shows off the quilting well, so in hindsight that may not have been a bad choice. For the binding, instead of cutting strips like I usually do I picked a few coordinating strips from a jelly roll. I think I really like this option for the binding, as it's both convenient and more interesting to look at than a binding that's all one color or pattern.

I still don't quite know how to hang this. I don't like using a dowel, so I'm going to have to look into magnetic or clipping methods. I'll post my findings on how to hang this once I manage to figure it out.