Oh, Fransson!

Ruby Star Mod Mosaic Quilt

I've been trying for months to figure out just what I wanted to do with Melody Miller's awesome-giant-bee-featuring Ruby Star Spring, and I finally decided that a new Mod Mosaic quilt was the way to go.

I started by fussy cutting the large prints to make some featured tiles for my mosaic blocks.

I added a bunch of monochromatic print and solid fabric scraps in tangerine, sea green, and violet.

Then I just went crazy making blocks! No plan for the block or finished quilt size. I just tried to make blocks in a variety of sizes and to include some of the featured prints in each one.

Here's some of the blocks up on the wall. So far, so good!

I'm going to use these blocks to make a quilt similar in composition to this one. The negative space on one side will be Kona Raffia and the negative space on the other side will be Kona Emerald.

By the way, I just published a new tutorial for making Mod Mosaic Quilt Blocks! You can find it here.

Jill's Swap Quilt: Construction

Now that it's safely in its new home, I can tell you about the quilt I made for Jill for our PMQG holiday swap. The yummy yellow and gray scraps pictured above were selected by Jill. 

For this swap, we were supposed to make something from our partner's scraps, while only adding one fabric. My added fabric was a Free Spirit Designer Solid in Gold. Because I wanted to make a quilt, I needed enough fabric for binding, so I bent the rules and also added more of the Secret Garden floral print that Jill included with her scraps. 

I went back and forth and back and forth over how to make this quilt, but I eventually focused on the Heather Ross print with the little girls playing with horses. I decided that I wanted to fussy cut it, so I ended up cutting all of the scraps into 2" squares to make Stamp Collection blocks.

I'll admit that I had to cheat a little bit to get 4 whole blocks with 100 squares each! Fortunately, I had most of the prints and solids Jill had given me in my stash, so I was able to add more squares when I ran out of certain fabrics. Just like the ones I made for this quilt, each finished block measures 15" square.

I pieced the four blocks into a quilt top, centering them with lots of negative space around the edges of the quilt. I honestly cannot remember the exact size of this quilt, but it was around 50" x 50" square.

For the back, I pieced the leftovers into two columns and used more of the gold solid for the negative space.

I chose a butter yellow thread for the quilting. I wanted something that wasn't quite as stark as white, but that wouldn't detract from the lighter grays and whites in the pieced blocks.

I free-motion quilted the entire thing with a pattern of intersecting boxes . . .

. . . and I bound the quilt and wrapped it up just in time to take it to the December meeting and give it to Jill! I'll show photos of the finished quilt in my next post.

Sparkle Punch Quilt: Piecing

This post is about my Sparkle Punch quilt. Read the previous post here.

The piles of cut pieces that I showed you in my last post became sets of block components (1 center square and 4 wonky points squares for each star).

Star blocks, like the ones shown above, are often sewn together with background fabric squares in the corners, making square blocks that come together like a nine-patch. Because I wanted the stars in this quilt to nestle, I omitted the usual corner squares.

This means that each star in my quilt is made from 5 square components that, if sewn together by themselves, would make a plus sign shape. To keep the piecing straightforward, I didn't sew the components of each star together before laying out the quilt top. Instead, I arranged all of the individual block components on my design wall, starting in the middle and working my way out, nestling each star together as I went.

It was at this stage that I started calling this quilt Sparkle Punch. I just thought the little wonky starbursts looked like those "POW!"bubbles that appear when cartoon characters punch each other.

Here they are all together. So bright and shiny!

The finished arrangement is made of 480 block components, each 3-1/2" x 3-1/2". I sewed the components in each row together and then sewed all of the rows together to finish the quilt top.

Space Invaders Quilt: Invaders 5 and 6

This is a quilt that I'm making for my nephew, my previous posts are here, here and here.

I'm seriously giddy about the way these all look together. Invaders 5 and 6 really tie the quilt together.

Invaders 5 and 6 are made with the chartreuse fabrics, including Timeless Treasures Screen Texture, stripe from Red Letter Day by Lizzy House for Andover, Party Dress print by Mo Bedell for Blue Hill, Mingle print by Monaluna for Robert Kaufman, and Kona Chartreuse.

Here's the Invader 5 block.

And here's the Invader 6 block.

Now I just have to make several of each of these!

Space Invaders Quilt: Invaders 3 and 4

This is a quilt that I'm making for my nephew, my previous posts are here and here.

Two more invaders are joining the quilt today. Please say hello to Invader 3 (pictured above) and Invader 4.

Invaders 3 and 4 are made with a crosshatch print from Michael Miller's Mini Mikes collection, a large dot from Circa 60 by Monaluna for Birch Fabrics, a dot from Lecien Color Basics, a stripe from Red Letter Day by Lizzy House for Andover, and Kona Aloe. The background fabric is Kona Pepper.

Here's Invader 4!

Space Invaders Quilt: Invaders 1 and 2

This is a quilt that I'm making for my nephew, my previous post is here.

As I was piecing these first two blocks, the reality of how long it was going to take to piece an entire twin-sized quilt from 2" squares (1.5" finished) hit me. It's going to take a while!

I should mention that I'm using a bunch of tiny squares (instead of blocking together similarly-colored areas) because I think it looks better. To me, the grid/pixelated background just isn't the same unless it's truly made from only little squares. I contemplated piecing these guys like this, but I've found that method works better with sashing between the blocks, like on this quilt.

Invaders 1 and 2 are made with a print from Good Folks by Anna Maria Horner for Free Spirit, Kei Honeycomb Dots, Timeless Treasures Screen Texture, Party Dress print by Mo Bedell for Blue Hill, and Kona Turquoise. The background fabric is Kona Pepper.

The finished quilt will have several of each type of invader. For each of the Invader 1 blocks, the basic layout will look like this, but the placement of the scattered print squares will be different.

And here's the first Invader 2 block. 

Just need to make several more of each of these!

Yellow and Gray Quilt: Quilting

I'm making a new version of my Block Party quilt. Check out my earlier posts here and here.

I think working on this quilt should be considered some kind of color therapy. The colors are just so pleasant!

Nothing very new here. I'm just quilting in a blocky meandering stitch, which is giving the quilt great texture.

Yellow and Gray Quilt: Putting the Blocks Together

I'm making a new version of my Block Party quilt. Check out my earlier post here.

Here are the 64 blocks up on the wall.

Despite my better efforts, I managed to get these all out of order when I was piecing.

I haven't done an intensive comparison yet, but I'm not sure they ended up in the same order they were in on the wall!

They did eventually come together though.

So pretty in my yellow and gray sewing room!

Yellow and Gray Quilt: Making the Blocks

Does anyone remember the quilt I made for Block Party? I decided that I wanted a version of it in colors that would match my house. Like all of the patterns in Block Party, this one is beautiful in its simplicity and very easy to put together.

I pulled yellow and gray fabrics that I had on hand and started cutting.

Back Row: Kona Canary, Lemon Shot Cotton, Free Spirit Spark Gold, and Kona Ash

Middle Row: High Society by Khristian Howell for Anthology, Picnic and Fairgrounds by DS Quilts, LouLouThi by Anna Maria Horner for Free Spirit, and Oval Elements by Art Gallery  

Front Row: Heath from Alexander Henry, Impressions by Ty Pennington for Free Spirit, Too Muchery by Helen Dardik for P&B, and Flora and Fauna by Patty Young for Michael Miller

I sewed and cut and sewed and cut some more.

Eventually I had piles of block units . . .

. . . which I turned into 64 blocks.

Here they are. All ready to be turned into a quilt!

Found in closet

 
The cleanup process continues, slowly but surely. 

I ended up moving my design wall to the end of the hall outside my sewing room.  It's pretty rough right now (literally just batting tacked to the wall) but I'm liking the location.    
 
I dug out my "put a bird on it" Echino quilt and the blocks I made for the quilt back, which just reminded me how much I love this project!  Now that I've seen it again, I want to finish it right now.

 
I also found a set of blocks from a quilting bee I was in last year (so made by the bee members for me).  This is another one that I want to finish as soon as possible.

At this point I just need to clean, clean, clean so I can get to the sewing part of things!