Last week I spent six days at the Empty Spools seminars in Asilomar (Pacific Grove) CA.  The class I took was called Taking Shape, and was led by Cathy Doughty of Material Obsession near Sydney Australia.  For five days we explored color, fabric patterns and design all while using 60 degree angles.  Hexagons, diamonds and triangles were the shapes of choice.  I brought along a fat quarter collection of Cotton and Steel from 2014, and a few other sort of modern prints I had.  All cool colored tones and small scale prints.  Cathy’s fabric lines are all about Australia, big, bright, organic shapes, aboriginal dots and motifs,  and the color pallet of that country.  So beautiful, I bought some to make a quilt with on my own.  The class was about designing a quilt on the fly, no pattern is needed, because all the pieces fit together one way or another.  For me, I needed a little bit of an outline so to speak.  I came up with a gem shape made up of triangles and hexagons.  Then I made six of these shapes, put them into a star shape and then filled in the center with diamonds

 

The outer space is currently set in trapezoids using the woven striped fabric.  I want to add a few more shapes, probably appliquéd to the background and a 2 inch border around the star.  Then finish with a 4 inch triangle border using up the scraps from the inner star fabrics.

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My design wall at home is covered in the second part of the Modern Quilts Illustrated pattern “Inner Circle”.  I need to iron the seams open, thats why it has a bit of a curve to it.  I am liking the contrasts between the light and dark pieces as seen in the photo to the right.  Next up is cutting these big pieces into large circles.

 

Linking up today with Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday.

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I finished quilting DR&G yesterday.  YAY!  I am so glad its done.

The purple marker will be gone it a few days, it’s been humid here, so it stays visible longer.  I tried to quilt each block differently, most of them have ruler work to accent the angles and break up the big spaces.  I finished this top on March 11th 2016, this post Red and White All Over has all the numbers and stats for it.  Funny, I don’t really remember making all those HST’s, but I’m glad I did, as they really make this quilt sing.  Now on to the binding.

Linking up today with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for “Can I get a Whoop Whoop?”  and while I’m at it,  Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday.

Whats on my design wall?  A couple of things.  Physically, the strips for my version of the quilt “Inner Circle” by Modern Quilt Studio are hanging on it.  I think it’s a bit too dark, and I am awaiting the delivery of another pack of gray batik strips to arrive.  The contrasting fabrics will be taupe and cream, I am trying not to create too much contrast, more of a shadowing effect.

Next are the blocks done for a quilt I saw recently at Missouri Star Quilting called “Falling Charms”.  There is a YouTube video tutorial if you’re interested.  I am trying to use up the rest of my 1930’s repo fabric, left over from making my Farmers Wife quilt.  I still have some, but I may just cut it up into 2 1/2 ” squares and be done.

 

In the TBQ pile, I finished a crib size top this past week too.  Again trying to use up the last of the fabric line called “Story Time”.  There were three fat quarters that had 3 inch square blocks printed on them.  I cut them out and interspaced them with a neutral print from the same line in a half block drop columns pattern.  Finished with a three inch border of another coordinating print.

Waiting in the box it came in is the batik fabric for a blue Storm at Sea quilt.  I am waiting/wanting to get to the printers to print the foundations for this block.  I think square in a square and square in a rectangle blocks are easier to paper foundation sew.  With the added benefits of turning out square/true and creating a huge mess of tiny bits of ripped paper everywhere.

Not on the wall, but on the frame, is my Diamonds Rubies and Garnets quilt.  I am about three hours away from finishing it.  Most of the blocks are done with ruler work, and geometric designs in red and white So Fine thread.   

In knitting news, I am doing a KAL with Curious Handmade Sock Society on Ravelry.  This pair is called Winter Rose.  I have Hellebores blooming all over my yard right now, but mine are white and dull purple.  This yarn is from my stash, it’s called Brick house, but the color is brighter than an old brick, and not that orange.  Last night I realized I made an error in the second round after the ribbing.  I was about to start the heel flaps, when I realized I didn’t have enough stitches, I was twelve short.  So I had to rip back, both socks to the ribbing and start over.  So sad.  The good thing is that I have the pattern memorized now, and won’t forget the yarn overs this time.

Looking back I think it was a busy and productive week for me.  I hope to finish the DR&G quilt today and get a few smaller quilts that need pantographs done.

Linking up with Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for design was Monday today.

This week I finished up a few tops and started getting more my quilts up on Etsy.  I finished a mitten, took an online Art and Stitch class and designed a few quilts for clients on EQ8.

I used the Kaffe Paperweight fabric for the outer border on the heart quilt.  It ties in nicely with the inner colors.  There is a stripe of it down the middle of the backing too.

The Crayon Box quilt was fun to piece and I think I need to do mitered corners on my borders more often.  Jinny Beyer has an easy way to measure and cut them, if you go to her website https://www.jinnybeyer.com and go to “free patterns” there are a few that you can download with the instructions for how to do the mitered borders.  I bought this as a kit from Craftsy last year, it was on sale and looked simple enough.  The directions are well written and there are full color fabric pictures so when you are separating the strips, you know which is which.  There are 36 different prints in this project.  The only bad thing about this kit was that they shrank the instructions down to fit two pages on one page.  At times I had to break out the magnifier.  There were many inset and Y seams, and the majority of them turned out well.

I started another kit I had bought on sale, I think in 2016, too.  I’m planning on making it into two smaller quilts, instead of a twin size.  The prints are too cute for an older child, but just right for a baby or toddler.

Linking up with Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday today.

 

This weeks finish is a sweater named Stråle by Woolfolk.  I can’t remember when I started it, but I finished the body of it some time last winter.  I remember stopping because it had become too warm to have all that wool on my lap.  This past summer I participated in a KAL with Curious Handmade on Ravelry, I needed something to knit while I was between patterns and the sweater was in my basket.  I did one sleeve and put it down again.  Last week I picked it up again and finished off the other sleeve and collar. I want to block it, but our weather has been very wet and cloudy, I know it would take a week for it to dry.

I didn’t do much sewing this past week.  Yesterday I got my serger/coverstitch machine out to hem two pairs of pajama pants.  It took me two hours to wrestle with the machine to get it to sew the hems.  Once I got the needles in the right place, threaded it right, and used the proper foot it was a breeze.  In other sewing news, I traded in my machine for the next model.  I want to start a new project with it, I’ve been designing a teeshirt quilt for a client and I was hoping that I could get started on it. Unfortunately the client has big plans for the tee shirts, and we haven’t found a design that appeals to her.  She sent me a few cute ideas, but they are small throws and use faux fur on the back.  Her tee shirts are 12″ blocks, not cute little 4″ squares of coordinating fabric.  Sigh.  I’ll come up with something, maybe I’ll end up making two quilts for her.  I am getting lots of practice with EQ8 in the meanwhile.

Linking up with Sara at Confessions of a Fabric Addict today for “Can I get a Whoop Whoop” Friday.