Oh, Fransson!

Canasta Quilts Option 1: Natural Canasta

This post is about a quilt made with my new pattern, Canasta Quilts.  The pattern will be available in my Etsy Shop on Thursday (March 4).  In the meantime, you can enter to win a copy here.

 

This is my original version of the Canasta pattern.  It's made with sets of four different 12.5" x 12.5" square-in-square blocks.  Because there's no sashing to fuss with, the size of the quilt can be modified by simply making more or fewer sets of blocks.

Each set of 4 blocks is made with 4 fat quarters, as follows:

• 2 print fabrics
• 1 neutral solid fabric
• 1 contrasting solid fabric

Alternately, sets of 8 blocks can be made from 1/2 yard cuts.

The pattern includes color-coded cutting diagrams and printable reference sheets to hang in your sewing area to help you keep track of which pieces go with which blocks.

For this quilt, I used the same neutral solid in all of my block sets, which gives the look of crisp sashing without the process of piecing it between the finished blocks.  For a more varied look, you could use a variety of different neturals.

The pattern also includes suggestions about how to integrate fussy cutting into your work.  Fussy cutting takes more fabric, but you don't have to do very much of it to make a big impact.  For example, in this quilt, I fussy-cut only one of the print fabrics that I used (the paint-by-number deer print).  Just four blocks include that print, but they make lovely focal points on the finished quilt top!

The piecing layouts for each size quilt back include suggestions on where to add an optional scrap-pieced strip like the one I made for this quilt.

I free-motion quilted on my regular machine, using natural-colored thread (Gutermann 506). 

Fabrics used in this quilt include: Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley (Piney Woods colorway), Erin Michael's Lush, Carolyn Gavin's Wild Thyme, Essex cotton/linen in Ivory, and Kona solids in Olive, OD Green, Artichoke, Curry, Moss, and Brick.

Check back on Tuesday and Wednesday for photos of the other two block styles that can be made with this pattern!

Introducing Canasta Quilts

 
I'm excited to announce my new pattern, Canasta Quilts!   The pattern will be available in my Etsy Shop on Thursday, March 4th.*  Comment on this post before 10:00 pm (Pacific) on Wednesday for your chance to win one of five copies of the pattern that I'll be giving away.

Canasta Quilts is really three patterns in one.  It includes directions for making three styles of blocks that can be applied to six basic layouts ranging from baby to king bed size.   

I'll talk about the different styles in more detail during the next few days, but here's a sneak peek . . . 

 

 

 

*The only date that's also a command! (Happy Birthday, Melissa!)

Week Seven Paintbox Blocks

These are blocks that I made for the Paintbox Quilt-Along.  Read more about the quilt-along here.

 

It's Week Seven already!

 

This week we're moving on to greenish blues . . .

 

. . . and bluish greens.

As usual, information about the fabrics is tagged on my Flickr photos.

My variations blocks this week are all made with Midwest Modern and Kona Snow.  Most of the prints in this quilt are from the Daisy Chain collection, but I needed to add some Midwest Modern to come up with 40 different prints.

 
This is probably going to be a quiet week around the blog, as I put the finishing touches on a new pattern that will be in the shop next week.  Check back on Sunday, February 28, for more about the pattern.  (I'm sure I'll post again between now and Sunday, but wanted to let you all know that a new pattern was coming!) 

. . . and now for something totally different

 
I haven't put binding on this quilt yet but, since I haven't made a final decision on binding yet I thought I'd show you some photos.

This is my quilt for Project Improv.  It's a quilt that has been started, thrown out, and started over again many times during the past year or so. 

 
It took me a long time to realize that I actually did "get" improv piecing, but that I was getting in my own way.  My first few attempts were totally frustrating, because I kept actively trying to avoid making design decisions.  Every time I got an idea about where the composition might go, I though "No!  It has to be random."  Once I finally got it through my head that randomness is a component of, not the entire point of, improv piecing, things totally clicked for me and I was able to start with some random elements and use them to build a composition that I made up as I went along.  In the end, I'm pretty confident about calling that "Improv Piecing" even if others may have different ideas. 

Thinking about improv piecing as a sort of quilting equivalent of abstract expressionism was helpful.   

 
As I mentioned in this post, I started by cutting a bunch of strips of red Kona solids and turquoise prints.  I cut without a ruler, which resulted in kind of wonky, randomly-sized pieces.  I then sewed three randomly-selected solid strips and one randomly-selected print strip into sets of four.  I trimmed these strip sets to rough squares (again, not using a ruler).

l then marked a grid on my design wall with blue painter's tape.  I marked the outline of the quilt and then subdivided the area into seven rectangles of varying size.  I filled in each rectangle with pieced components, rotating every other component 90 degrees, for a kind of wonky rail fence look. 

I sewed all of the blocks within each rectangular area together and sewed the finished rectangles together with sashing between them.  I contemplated making the sashing wonky, but decided that I preferred the really sharp, crisp look of having the sashing both straight and perpendicular to the sides.  (The sashing is Kona Snow.)

I was pleasantly surprised by how well my quilting thread choice worked out.  I was really worried that, no matter what I chose, it was going to look weird somewhereon the quilt.  In the end, I chose a natural linen color (Gutermann 506) and I couldn't be happier with the look.  It's subtle enough on the deep reds, but doesn't stick out too much on the white sashing. 

 

I'm not too crazy about the back.  Since I'm a total dork, looking up "improvisation" in the dictionary was part of my research for this project, and since one of the dictionary definitions is "making do with materials on hand," I made my quilt back entirely from pieces of fabric I had in my sewing room.

I do like the effect of the red, but I kind of cringe about those blues and blue-greens together -- especially the ultramarine in that Katie Jump Rope print that's bisecting the back.  

 

So, anyway, that's my Project Improv quilt.  I feel like I'm on board with the whole improv piecing thing now and, while I don't see myself devoting a ton of time to this style, I can definitely see myself trying it again.

Week Six Paintbox Blocks

These are blocks that I made for the Paintbox Quilt-Along.  You can read more about the quilt-along here.

 
More green blocks this week. 

 
I like these a lot better than last week's.

I only had a tiny piece of the Mingle circles left, so I couldn't fussy cut, and you can see in the lower-left block where some gold is visible.  I'm hoping that most of it gets caught in the seam allowance!

As always, please reference Flickr for information on the fabrics used.

And here are my variation blocks, made with Amy Butler's Daisy Chain and Kona Snow.  I'm not crazy about the colors in these blocks, but I know they'll fit well in the final composition.

And let's finish with a photo of Maeby.  What the heck is she doing with her legs?  I found her sleeping like this earlier today!  (I should probably mention, since it may not be evident from the photo, that the perch she's in is almost five feet tall, so her front legs are just hanging in the air.)
 

Kona Rollup Winners

Thank you all for entering!  The winners of a Kona Dusty Rollup are: Alana, Meghan, Lucy and Meg.  I will get these out to your shortly.

Thank you to Robert Kaufman for another fantastic giveaway!

I also wanted to acknowledge that it's difficult when so many people enter, to be able to identify in these posts exactly who won.  If winners have a blog, I will link to that but, when they don't, I can only publish first names.  Of course, when there are 1000+ entrants, there might be any number of non-winners who happen to have the same name!  Please rest assured that, if you are a winner, I have contacted you via e-mail.  And please continue to enter these giveaways.  It's great to see so many people participating!
 

Kona Rollup Giveaway

I'm a little late with my Paintbox Blocks this week but, in the meantime, I wanted to share a fun suprise that showed up at my door last week, courtesy of Robert Kaufman.

These Kona Rollups are from the Dusty Colorway.  Unlike some of its flashier siblings, Dusty is a subdued palette featuring lots of neutral greens and browns, as well as some nice warm pinks, corals and pumpkin orange and some lovely periwinkle blues and plums.   

To be one of the four randomly-selected winners, leave a comment telling me how you would use the rollup.  Comments will be open until tomorrow (Wednesday) at 5:00 pm Pacific. 

Thanks for playing!

Happy Valentine's Blocks

Since they're so holiday-appropriate, I thought I would post a photo of the Bee-autiful Quilting Bee blocks that I've received to date.  They were made using this process.

And here's a sneak peek at a quilt I made with some of that cut up fabric (specifically the red solids and the blue prints) that I showed you the other day. 

Couldn't Resist

I couldn't resist the red and aqua/turquoise solids.  I cut into them this morning and (are you ready for this?) I didn't use a ruler.  Really!

I chopped up 12 fat quarters from the "hot spice" stack.  They're all of the truer reds and deep, bittersweet brown.  I took out the mauves, violety reds and chocolate browns.

I cut up the 10 bluest (least greenish) fat quarters from the "poseidon" stack and added a fat quarter each of Pepper and Peacock. 

I also cut up a bunch of aqua/turquoise prints and a bunch or red prints

I'm planning to make two sets of blocks, one from the red solids and blue prints and one from the blue solids and red prints.  We'll see what happens! 

While I'm not going for the same look, my general inspiration for this project is this quilt. 

In the comments to the last post, some of you asked about the Moda Cross-Weave.  It's woven like chambray, with different colors used for the warp and weft, but it's less iridescent in look to the Kaufman Carolina Chambrays.  It's also a little chunkier than the Westminster Shot Cotton.  (It actually reminds me a little of the Net of Jewels solids that went with Joelle Hoverson's Cake Rock Beach collection.)  I got mine at Bolt in Portland.  Online, you can buy it at Pink Chalk.

Fabric Love: Solids

I'm not sure what I'm doing with these yet . . . Right now, I'm just enjoying the fact that they look pretty.

 
Kona solid fat quarter bundles in "hot spice" and "poseidon" colorways.

Moda Cross-Weave cottons

 
Kaufman Radiance cotton/silk blend and Quilter's Lame (Moda?) from Bolt.  (These are going to have to become some kind of super-luxe quilt!)

ETA: That looks really funny without the accent aigu.  I mean that it's lah-may, not that the fabric is lame!