Creating Focus with a Nod to Nature

Marny here...home again folowing two wonderful weeks in Hawaii! 

A small selection of the numerous June flowers
blooming in a lush garden on Kauai.

Hanging Heliconia
Chartreuse, yellow, red and pink glow in the evening
light against the multitude of greens and browns.
I hope you can see the
fabuous pinks and reds working together!

The flowers grab your attention and pop even though they 
are nestled within the monochromatic background of leaves 
in competing shapes, sizes, and values.
The flower's colors are in contrast to it all.

So one lesson to be learned is a small pop of color on either a monochromatic or analogous background will get attention. 

The pieced large blocks in Supper Club have just a little pop 
of red-orange to add a bit of interest to the overall quilt
and to each individual block. 
Red-orange really pops because it is the complementary 
color to the blue-green analogous color scheme.

Nature shares lots of lessons, we just have to take a peek and learn.
Till Tuesday...

Morsel Maze Followup

jill here...Well it's Tuesday again.  Don't know what happened to the week but I was bent on finishing the wallpaper inspiration.  Visiting granddaughters next week will keep my sewing time to a minimum.  I'll be playing dress up and swimming; a nice trade for warm summer days!

All those little bits looked like morsels
lined up in a maze.

Graphic lines in dappled summer light.

As you can see from last week's post that the block
was symmetrical diagonally.  Three by three blocks
(9 in total) gave me an asymmetrical layout.
Back to the layout board for some changes.

The symmetrical design as it panned out.
Four blocks central in a mirror image,
additional line surrounding that square,
 then 2 blocks split in half to the outside is how the
quilt was finished.

The corners feature three smaller squares.

On the deck rail...

The one leftover block was incorporated
into the back.  It was quartered then arranged
into a design similar to Baby Bites.

 I  wised up and signed one of the blocks as a label; it saved me the time later.  Just had to remember to make sure the placement landed in line with the finished front.

I had lots of ideas for the quilting but when it came down to time, I opted for the familiar.  It's just an over all meander in a very neutral thread.  The binding was the little orange elephants.

Hope you're enjoying summer. 'Till next Tuesday...

Wallpaper Inspiration

jill here...yes, it's Wednesday.  Sometimes I'm a rule breaker!

There's a new baby on our block!  I do have a stash of unfinished quilts but when I saw the nursery, I decided to design anew.  Some leftover Anthology fabric (that we had used for a Torte baby quilt) seemed perfect ...but had to design judiciously.  My recent wallpapering endeavor was my inspiration. 

The recently redecorated bathroom in a taupe/white graphic pattern.

You know, wallpapering is very similar to quilting.  You have to keep the edges straight and plumb.  Each strip is similar to a block.  Patience is the key and eventually, the room was complete.   I took my time over many days (even a week's break) and it didn't go anywhere.  I enjoyed the challenge.

This is a wallpaper close-up with some line analysis.
 The dissection helped decide how to built the block.

Other important questions were proportion of line to negative space, finished block size and ultimately, the sum of blocks to get to an appropriate baby size.

With less than 1/4 yard of many fabrics, the strips were 
cut 1 1/2" or 2" WOF.
They were sewn into 3 different strip sets.

The strip sets were cut 1 1/2" wide.

The completed interior block utilizes an 8 1/2" square of houndstooth background.
 The addition of the strips brings it to 10 1/2".

The "total" block with connecting lines.

I'll post the finished design soon and will share the details.

'Till next Tuesday...

Des Moines Modern Quilt Bee, Block 1 complete

Marny here...my 15" Bubbles block (block 11 in the pattern) is complete! It feels good to have had a refresher on paper piecing. The first quadrant took MUCH longer than the fourth. Maybe that proves I can still learn.

Leila offered a link to a great video on paper piecing. I'm going to share it here too.

The following is how the video is described on YouTube. "Karen Johnson, of Connecting Threads, teaches you the most common version of Foundation Piecing - usually known as Paper Piecing. Achieve perfect points on tiny blocks with just a few easy tips."

A design wall is very useful for reminding the sewer what needs to be included!

Paper piecing set up. The mat, postcard, Add a Quarter ruler, scissors, 
and unseen rotary cutter are all for moving forward. 
The scotch tape and seam ripper are for those "redo" moments. 
Oddly enough, my most challenging quadrant was my third one. Go figure.
Remember larger needle and tighter stitches!

Pinning to join two paper pieced quadrants. The paper side is pretty
slick against the feed dogs so a little pinning pays off.

I think it turned out really cute! 23 pieces in each quadrant, so 92 pieces in the block. Luckily it didn't seem like that many since there is no precise cutting or challenging piecing and trimming! Can I hear bit of applause for paper piecing.

Till Tuesday...