A little more piecing

Yesterday I showed the small amount of curved piecing I found time for. Now, let’s look at a little more piecing!!

Lately, I have been thinking about doing some strip-piecing, but I am thinking about TINY strips…..like some that I saw at QuiltCon.

It didn’t take long to cut a few scrap strips of fabric and make a 4-inch set…..

Since it is 4-inches, that gives you an idea of how small some of the strips are!!!

I trimmed it into a square…..

….and stood back to look at my work!!

But then the “what-ifs” took over and I took it one step further…..

Okay….that’s interesting!!

So now I have these squares to play with….

(Too bad didn’t make them the same sizes!!!!)

But WHAT am I going to do with them!!!

Come back on Thursday and I will show some of the ideas that I came up with!!

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A tiny bit of studio time!!

As most of you know, I am a CPA and this time of year is CRAZY BUSY!!!

So, finding time to create is very hard to do!!

The other day I gave myself 30 minutes in my studio. In truth, it turned into a bit over an hour!!

My biggest problem was that I didn’t have a specific thing to be working on…..

So I started something new.

The night before I had been playing with curves and trying different ideas on Procreate (on my Ipad).

I came up with this idea……

Doesn’t that look fun!!

So when I got into the studio, I pulled a few scrap fabrics out and started sewing.

First I had to remember how to use the circle ruler!! I looked back at this post from last May…

Playing with pieced arcs

….and finally figured it out again.

My first cut and seam were not the best…..

…but this is a sample block….right??

I added a few more arcs and ended up with this design…..

Now, how about if I add another arc on one corner…..

The arcs certainly got smoother as I went along!!!

Okay…..that looks okay, but what am I going to do with it???

Come back tomorrow for more play time!!!

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Thank you…….

Crossing Hemispheres…..

For most of this week, I have been talking about a 24-inch quilt that I am making If you haven’t figured it out, this is my Modern Quilt Guild Mini Swap quilt that is being sent to Christine in Australia.

I have already talked about the quilt that she made for me……

Click HERE if you want to learn more about this quilt.

Here is the finished quilt that I will be sending…..

Over the last few months, I have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to decide what to make. Christine told me that she loved bright colors and mixing florals and geometrics. I tried to keep to that plan!!

In honor of the distance between the two of us “swap-mates”, I named it

“Crossing Hemispheres”

I was excited with the label…..

Now, before it starts winging its way to The Land Down Under, let’s talk about how it developed.

It started with the Pantone Color of the Year for 2023….

Then followed the fabric pull……

Pantone Fabric Pull

Remember that when I pulled these fabrics, I had NO idea what I was going to use them for!!!

BUT, I did know that I wanted to try some Split-Rectangle blocks.

AND, amazingly, the quilt was born!!!

One of the things that I worried about with my fabric selection was whether there was enough contrast between the background fabric and the other fabrics.

Even though there isn’t much contrast, I think that the background fabric really brought the quilt together and I am happy that I used it. I will say that I wasn’t completely sure about it until the quilt was completed!!

This experience of Swapping Quilts with a stranger has been SO much fun. I have loved meeting Christine and I hope that we stay in contact over the years.

Thank you to the Modern Quilt Guild for giving us this opportunity.

AND….if you EVER have the chance to do this, please jump in with both feet!!!

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In this blog, I post stories about creativity, techniques, tools of the trade, and lots more about the wonderful art of quilting. If you are enjoying these posts, please subscribe to be notified of each new blog as it becomes available.

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Split Rectangle Designs

On Tuesday I posted about using Deb Tucker’s ruler (Split-Rects) to make a series of Split Rectangle blocks…..

Now that I had a bunch made, it was time to figure out what I could do with them!!

I spent time looking at quilts online and found LOTS of ideas, but nothing that appealed to me.

I did play some with stars…..

And some other ideas…..

…but didn’t come up with anything that I was really excited about.

I also played with random placement…..

…but that was just “MEH!!”

So, I decided to lay out all of the squares, separating them between the two layouts…..

HMMMM….. I kind of like the straight diagonal lines that appear.

I wanted it to be very random, so I took all of the blocks, mixed them up, and put them in a pile…..

I stood at the design wall and picked up one at a time (without peeking) and placed it on the wall. This was my “random” design…..

I kind of like that!!!

This quilt needed to be 24-inches or less, and I was afraid that it would be pretty boring if the ENTIRE quilt was made of these triangles. So, I got rid of two columns and one row of blocks…..

….giving me room to add two borders!!

Piecing the blocks was super easy and I was pleased with how the points came together.

I added a scrappy border and called the top finished…..

Since I had some blocks left over, I used them and pieced the quilt back too…..

Come back tomorrow for the quilting!!!

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In this blog, I post stories about creativity, techniques, tools of the trade, and lots more about the wonderful art of quilting. If you are enjoying these posts, please subscribe to be notified of each new blog as it becomes available.

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It’s Time for Hearts!!

We all recognize that February is a time to display our hearts in quilt form and life!!

I love my February decorating because I get to look at all of these sweet photos of Michael and my parents…..

Between them, they were married for over 110 years!!!

Each month I make a display featuring one of my small quilts. In this case, it also includes a crocheted doily that my Grandmother made and a photo from our wedding….