Game of Quilts

I signed up to participate in a fun quilt challenge sponsored by Bad Ass Quilters Society. There were two color ways to chose from and I chose Blood, Bone, Steel & Fire, these were the only fabrics we could use in our mini quilt.

Sorry this is on its side!  These are the fabrics.

The theme (in case you haven't figured) was Game of Thrones. I wanted to focus on the Starks of Winterfell and their Sigil or shield, the grey Dire Wolf.

The Starks have not had a good run, so one of the themes for my mini quilt is the horrific turn in the scene called
 'The Red Wedding' 

The Dire Wolf and blood are lightly fused, the flying geese are pieced and I traced the quote (by Jon Snow, the bastard Stark) with a light box and I will fill in the letters with quilting. 

Under the quote and the Sigil is an extra layer of batting to add dimension. I quilted around the Sigil and blood before trimming the batting around the dire wolf head. 

This could be the beginning of a mini quilt wall of all the Game of Thrones families. 

'Starks of Winterfell'
18"x 18" mini quilt
Aurifil thread for quilting, a bit of metallic thread thrown in

**Edited - I feel I should explain for avid Game of Thrones fans, I realize the quote I have used is from the Nights Watch, not the Stark family.  However, Jon Snow is a Stark (although a bastard member) and a member of the Nights Watch.  This is an interpretation of the Starks, there is no blood on the Sigil of the Stark family, and their motto is "Winter is Coming".  I imagined Jon Snow's feelings finding out that his family had been brutally murdered, and unable to avenge them due to his duty to the Watch.  I wanted to include Jon in my interpretation of the family.  

Fractal Quilt Block

I find so much inspiration on Instagram - I still go to Flickr occasionally, but IG is full of new ideas and swaps.  I just take a screenshot, and I can scroll through my photos later to pick a new pattern or fabric line or something to discuss with other sewists.  

And I found this one day

And I went straight to Craftsy to purchase this pattern.

There are two sizes you can make your block 12" or 16" - for my first one I went with the 16" size, as I wanted to make it into a mini quilt wallhanging.

Using Indelible and a few solids.  

This was one of my favorite lines that came out earlier in 2014

This is a paper pieced pattern, which sometimes creates road blocks when you can't quite figure out how large that next piece of fabric should be

Over two nights I completed the block - I just did not have a lot of sewing time available

I love how this one turned out!

I used two layers of batting in this one, I wanted the quilting to pop off the top.  Aurifil 40 wt was used in the quilting.  

Sadly (for me) this mini is off to it's new home as a swap gift.

Keep Calm and Quilt On!

Mary 

Finishing Touches

I admit it, I have a problem finishing projects.  Before I'm barely started with one, the next one is calling me out.  I have more ideas, fabric, drawings, patterns and tools that are waiting to be used.  

One of the reasons I like making bags, pillows, and minis is that they are projects that are finished quickly so my ADD doesn't kick into overdrive before I can get the small item finished.

One of the things I'm slow to do unless there is a deadline is the binding.  I had a quilt sit for 3 years with no binding.  Then when I added the binding it took all of about an hour (I usually machine bind).

This wall hanging just lacked the binding for 3 months, and then it was probably only finished because it was intended for my granddaughter's nursery and she was due to arrive.

I'm not one of those people who neatly roll their binding on to an old spool or something.  It just lays there in a puddle, waiting to be added

And voila it's finished, even added a label (another thing I often don't get to, but I'm trying to be better at)

And up on the nursery wall

The bed skirt matches the Elephant wall hanging

Nursery sewing I have to say, is quite rewarding.  I love to dress up the room with color

Keep Calm and Quilt On!

Mary

Wood Lily

in*spi*ra*tion

:something that makes someone want to do something or that gives someone an idea about what to do or create : a force or influence that inspires someone

For an upcoming meeting with the Virginia Beach Modern Quilt Guild we have a challenge, take the block #110 from The Farmers Wife Sampler Quilt and make a modern version.  Wood Lily is the block name, and we are to make a 24" mini quilt. (If you want to have a look, there are some photos on Pinterest and Google Images, but I don't want to post anyone else's photo of the block without their permission.)

After looking at a few different images of the Wood Lily block, I settled on two elements, the half square triangle and flying geese blocks which are present in the original.  This is an inspiration exercise, I only wanted to work with those two parts of the whole, and see where I could take it.  

I started with a drawing on graph paper

At the time I was working on my modern variation of Wood Lily, I was also reading Savor Each Stitch by Carolyn Friedlander Yep, I was reading a quilting book instead of just looking at the photos.  The section of the book about contrast in value inspired me to think more about the name of the block 'Wood Lily' and think of the contrast in those two words 'wood' and 'lily'.  One is dark and robust, one is soft and smooth.  

Taking those 2 contrasting words I transferred them into fabric color

Making flying geese blocks

Progressing with all the small geese

The small flying geese are 1" x 3" finished.  

Both sections of this mini use the two elements I chose from the original Wood Lily block, half square triangles and flying geese.  I have seen a few examples of other VBMQG members minis and I think it's a good exercise to see where each person finds their inspiration.

Commencing with the quilting

This one needed squaring up after the dense quilting of the lily sections

While I was working through the different steps of concept, drawing, fabric selections, and piecing what came to mind was a dense forest seen from the air with surrounding snow fields.  

This mini finished at about 23 1/4" a bit smaller than 24" due to the dense quilting, I'll need to keep that in mind for future quilts.  

Kaffe Fasset and Brandon Mably prints in the dark wood sections, Kona solids in the snowy lily sections.  Quilted with Aurifil threads.  

Keep Calm and Quilt On!

Mary

Summer Canvas

Every other month in the Virginia Beach Modern Quilt Guild we have a member swap.  This month's swap was a mini quilt swap with a summer theme.

I chose to use Canvas pattern by Leanne Chahley of She Can Quilt.  This is a well written pattern with measurements for many different sizes of quilt already figured for you.  

For the summer theme I chose several different shades of Kona solids that represented the sun and a neutral border color 

For quilting, I chose a variegated thread that had the same colors of the center block

This variegated thread changed the look of the center block, I think it added another element to the sun colors.  Making them seem to blend together.

My quilting pattern is called 'matchstick quilting', it is essentially lines of quilting very close together.  I went in one direction over the color portion of the mini, and the opposite direction for the border.  

There is a lot of texture to this quilting, I'm not sure I would want it on a bed quilt or lap quilt, but I think it is perfect for a wall hanging

For the binding, I decided to fuse and stitch the edges.  Fusing a binding is a little short cut if you are working on something that won't be washed much.  A mini wall hanging qualifies for fused binding.  I also stitched around the edge of the binding for reinforcement.  I had a bright green hand dyed fabric that went perfect with the summer theme.  

My mini was 14" finished

Keep Calm and Quilt On!

Mary

Owl Mini Quilt

I know I have been going crazy these past few weeks, have you?  With cleaning, holiday prepping, cooking and baking, and the all important shopping.  To add to my holiday madness we decided to replace our carpets, which are 15 years old and are long overdue for replacement.  I had put off this ginormous endeavor as long as possible - I didn't want to go through every single closet in the house.  But, the time had way past to replace, so we are doing it.  

Thus, I have spent hours rearranging, sorting for Goodwill, selling on Ebay, and taking to my children's homes their belongings that I was expected to continue to hold on to.  Ha!  I am still actually holding on to some of the childhood belongings, too precious for either Goodwill or their own homes.  And also letting go of some things in my closets that I have held on to for too long (not fabric, mind you).

Selling things on Ebay = New Fabric! (Shhhh!)

A nice fat quarter bundle from my friend Samantha at Pattern Crush, she has a nice Etsy Shop (bonus, she is having a sale right now!) and will make personal bundles for you.  I can't wait to dig into these.

And an order of Botanics from the fabulous shop PInk Chalk Fabrics, honestly I can't say enough nice things about Kathy and her staff.  Their customer service is prompt and helpful, and the orders seem to fly across the country.  

The last two weeks I needed to complete two totally different mini quilts.  I loved making both of them.

First was this crazy wonky owl

I fused the owl on to linen (ignore that spot in the top right, it is just a water spot) and added a scrappy border.

I free motion quilted in details on the owl and added a whimsical branch for him to stand on.  

I have to say, I really didn't want to give this one up.  

This was for a swap at my local Modern Quilt Guild, and I hope my partner liked him as much as I do!

Happy Holiday Sewing Everyone!

Keep Calm and Quilt On!

Mary