Pickled in Citrus

jill here.... In the midst of family and new designs, some new samples have emerged.  This new baby is Pickle Relish fabricated in Cherrywood Fabrics. 

Modern Pickle Relish is designed with citrus solids
on a sunshine yellow background.

April West quilted  with orange thread
in an overall pantograph of connecting
squares and rectangles.

The scrappy binding finishes the playful mosaic. 

Happy quilting....'till next Tuesday!

Fresh ... and Still Not Rocket Science!

jill here....When Marny and I first started blogging, our first free tutorial was this "Not a Rocket Science Bag".  It was developed by using canvas as the structural base and a sew and flip technique.  Here are the original instructions; they are as good today as when they were developed! This bags sews quickly with not a lot of hop la!

My daughter recently requested a bag that could carry the duties of motherhood.  I added just a few features to make it easier to locate the cell phone and a front pocket for keys (or whatever).  The straps were extended to distribute the load and take the weight off the top of the bag.

"Not a Rocket Science Bag" designed  using some of
the Zen collection by Bridgit Hegland for United Notions.

This bag was designed using only 4 fabrics in the strip set, sewn with 1/2" seam allowances. The cut sizes are  4 1/2" for the top, followed by 6 1/2", 3 1/2" and 9" for the last. Much of this last fabric is the bag bottom so a dark value is helpful.  If you wish to make this bag, follow the original instructions with these changes.

Sew only the first fabric as instructed in the original tutorial if you want to add the cell phone pocket.  Once this top fabric is in place, fold the canvas side out (inside) with the fabric strip at the top.  Mark the 1/2" seam allowance on the outer edges. Determine the vertical center of each half; this is where the pockets will be centered vertically.

This is the padded cell phone pocket.

 Make a padded pocket that will house your cell phone.  This one finished 5" wide by 7" deep, with an inch or so extra on the top back side to sew to the canvas.  Center the pocket over where the seam allowance will be.....an eighth inch at the top will be sewn to the canvas side when the second strip is sewn to the right side of the bag... .  Once this is sewn, fold up and pin the pocket so it is out of the way of the other stitching lines.

Once all the strips are sewn, with the canvas still flat,
hand stitch the pocket bottom to the canvas.

The extended straps obviously require more yardage.
Four yards will give you plenty to work with.
Before you sew them in place, make sure they
are positioned correctly and not twisted.
Guess how I know this?

This is the inside of the finished bag, sewn with
black stitching....cream thread would be more forgiving!
It would be nice to tack down the corner flaps.

This is the plain side of the bag.

I added a 7" square pocket to the front (once the strips were sewn and before the actual bag was constructed and the straps were top stitched).
The straps were top stitched just to the sides of the pocket, 6 1/2 " away from each other.

Enjoy the day...'till next Tuesday!

Pillow Peace, the sequel to Pillow Fight

Marny here...last week's Pillow Fight is resolved.  Peace on all fronts.  I think the finished pillow is lighthearted and cute!

Completed pillow!  

This is the first pillow attempt, discussed in last week's blog post.  There are too many fabric "voices" vying for attention here.  Maybe just the aqua should be used, or perhaps just the green, but not both.  Their lighter values are drawing attention to themselves.  Folding back one and then the other I discovered I was happier taking them both out.  They fought each other and distracted from the intended focus of the Vespa fabric.  

Needs more of an interior frame though.  The left and right sides of the interior unit look kind of lonely.

The green is a good solution.  It is a good value next to both the dark brown fabric with the circles and the medium dark fabric of the multicolored hexagons.  The focus is working and the darkest fabric still adds interest.  But hold on, maybe now there is too much green in proportion to the Vespa fabric.

Green border folded under to test.  The Vespa fabric is happily the focus and the darkest fabric adds interest but does not overpower.

Interior completed and oversized borders sewn on.  They are oversized because the pillow top will shrink a bit with quilting.

Next a three layer quilt sandwich made up of a light colored plain fabric, a piece of fusible batting and the pillow top is put together.  One piece of painters tape, sort of in the center and placed vertically, and off we go!

You can see two lines of stitching to the right of the tape, and the line of stitching just getting started.  My stitch length is lengthened to 4.  Normally I stitch seams with 2.5 or 2.  The thread is a light yellow-green in both the needle and bobbin threads.  It worked well to stitch all the lines top to bottom from the center of the pillow out to one edge at a time.  Then I placed the tape to the right of the original center stitched line and placed the pressor foot to the right of the tape to stitch.  This meant I always stitched from top to bottom.  Changing stitching directions might cause a distortion.

All the vertical quilting lines completed.  That was so quick and so much fun why not run the quilt lines left and right too?

The same techniques were employed, again starting somewhat in the center and working out to the edges.

All the stitching completed. 

Seems appropriate to end now, with the light from the setting sun on the top of the pillow!

Till next week.

Pillow fight in the workroom

Marny here...a story about a little project that failed.  Hopefully I can share a more successful version soon.

The starting point is fabric from the stash and bits and pieces remaining after the baby quilt blogged here.

Starting out I liked the balanced, but asymmetric direction this was headed.

Just a little of the brown remains.  The idea pops into my head to weight the right side and the lower edge of  unit.

Adding light above and to the left and medium to left and lower.

Plan to trim to size

See what I mean, it didn't work! 

So then I contemplated the addition of dark as a frame.

And then it hit me.  Simple is better.  Hopefully I can show you a cute version next week.

  

Till then...

Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild show up in the gallery

Marny here...The Des Moines Modern Quilt Show is hanging at the Gallery in the Round until July 25th.  The Gallery in the Round is located at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Ames, at 1015 Hyland.  The hours are M-Th 1-5 in July.  Call 515-450-6572 for June or for an appointment outside gallery hours.

Climb the stairs from the southern parking lot and catch sight of the quilt on the banister and then see Jill's quilt hung on the wall.

Close up of Jill's quilt, Portion Control.  The lighting in the foyer was not great for accurate, detailed photos.  The colored fabrics are silk and they are set with a very interesting textured cream.

Quilts hung in first circular room.

More quilts and a bag.

Close up of my quilt, Improv 9.  Pieced improvisationally and sparingly quilted.

Then you step into the large Gallery in the Round.  Guild quilts are displayed on the far wall.  Fellowship quilts hang right and left.  It is a beautiful circular room with huge windows and a calm, peaceful feeling.  This panorama shows it from side to side.

Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild quilts along the curved walls.  Such a variety!

Another view of the quilts.

Close up of Cafeteria Line, which we have discussed before, hung and lit.  April West's quilting is so striking.

All photos were taken by my supportive husband.

Till Tuesday.