Locked In The Grid

Going back to some of the quilts made but not posted on the blog - this was another of those project long in the planning, but quick in the making. As I normally don't use a lot of black and white fabrics, I had to collect quite a lot of those for some time, on the other hand, the bright fabrics were quite hard to choose from, as I have a lot of those ;))

(I don't even have proper photos of this quilt, only those shot with the phone.)

So, the idea was to create a triangular grid in a black and white gradient with bright butterflies fitted into the triangles. The butterflies are curve-pieced, each wing with a bit of background makes a separate triangular block.

The assembly for this was quite straightforward - triangles into rows, then the rows pieced tightener. The quilting was more of a challenge, as the background is already very busy with all the high-contrast prints. I decided to try Superior Threads Microquilter thread in light grey, which is almost invisible, but was quite naughty, even with the recommended Bottomline thread in the bobbin. I had to adjust the tension in every possible way and still the stitching is far from perfect in places. On the other hand, I haven't had my machine serviced in a while, so it may be her fault. Anyway, that was quite a change as I normally quilt in cotton thread, often in the 40 weight YLI threads, which I sneaked into this project anyway, creating sort of "flightpaths" for the butterflies in a bright variegated   tread, as well as simple lines on the wings.

As I said, the quilting is almost invisible, you really see the thread only on the darkest fabrics, but the texture turned out nice and flowy. 

I know it's hard to see in the photos, in real life it's all very subtle, too.

All in all, I like the way it turned out - simple but quite affective due to all the tensions going on with colour and value contrast and geometric versus organic shapes.

Linking up to Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

Floating Squares

It's been a long time since I updated the blog as I find Instagram more immediate and less time-consuming (if you are there, I'm @lena.pugachova, please have a look, say hi and follow to see what's going on). However, sometimes I feel the pics are not enough and I want to tell at least something of the story.

I rarely make large bed quilts and I always find the process daunting, especially quilting them on my little Janome. In this case I had the additional complication of very limited time. I had planned it for long time and chosen the fabric long time ago - it's Summer Flowers batiks layer cake by Robert Kaufman Fabrics and I added it to my wishlist at www.fatquartershop.com as soon as I saw it, because I know my sister-in-law loves sunflowers and I thought she would love the colours, too. The quilt was meant for her birthday.

I bought the fabric in Black Friday sales, but I only started making the quilt in February, what with moving house and setting up a new sewing spot, which is now in the bedroom, in a sunny recess under a big south-facing window (the master bedroom, btw, is in the converted attic, don't ask me why, that's what "house type E" is laid out like). I have here a large IKEA table with plenty of drawers for all the bits and pieces.

So, because I had limited time and also because I didn't want to cut the fabric too much as it has some lovely large-scale patterns, I chose a simple pattern, one of those Gaye Grant demonstrated at the IPS Eastern Branch some time ago. Making the blocks was a breeze and even putting them together with the sashing wasn't too bad, it's the quilting that I was dreading as I had the whole thing laid out on the living room floor (with very little space left to walk around :))

Top tip: two layer cakes plus two yards of sashing fabric make a quilt big enough for a double bed; here it is on my bed for scale:

I decided to quilt it with the walking foot in flowy curvy lines to balance out the straight lines and squares. It was still hard and it isn't perfect, but I like the effect.

Another shortcut I took was machine-stitching the back of the binding. Usually, I hand-stitch it, but given the "mileage" here, I decided to go with the machine.

All in all, I managed to finish it in time, and even had a day to take some photos and wash it. After washing, the quilting texture became more pronounced and the whole thing looks scrunchy-er and fluffier.

Some more photos if you haven't had enough (I couldn't get a full straight-on photo as I couldn't possibly hang it straight anywhere):

Linking up to Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Splashes of Neon

Another productive day in my sewing group, and another improv curve piecing top.

The Eastern branch if the Irish Patchwork Society received a call for charity quilts for an orphanage in Russia, and I thought I'd try more improv piecing for that, because the time is limited, and this technique works really fast for me.

As I saw, a lot of our members are making quilts for smaller kids, so I decided to do something that's  more suitable for a teenager or a pre-teen (at least I hope this would appeal to them). The top finished about 45'' by 52''.

I had a fat quarter bundle of very nice and bright batiks ("Aurora" collection by Freedom fabrics), which were bought for another project, but were not used in the end, so I decided to use them, I also added a piece of bright blue-purple ombre fabric and dark grey butterflies to get to 42 squares of fabric. The squares had to be 9'', because the batik fat quarters were a bit smaller than usual.

I used stacks of four squares (mostly) and cut them free-hand in a more or less diagonal direction, then mixed the pieces and stitched them together. The finished blocks had to be trimmed to 8'' square. You can check out my previous quilt in the same technique, but with a different pattern of cutting, to compare the resulting effect.

I then had to spend quite a lot of time trying to create an interesting layout out of these blocks - it proved tricky, because the bright shapes stand out so and really draw your eye, so you have to organise something that is by itself random. I hope it turned out modern and dynamic.

Linking up to Linky Tuesday at Free motion by the River
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Airwaves Completed

I'm glad to report the completion of the free-style aviation-themed lap quilt that I showed started not so long ago.

I really like how fast it came together, even the quilting took just a couple of days. I don't like my "practical" quilts to be densely quilted, I prefer them to have more drape, so I tried to imitate the pieced pattern in the quilting - kind of loose free-form spirals and waves:

And because I had four blocks left over from my 6 by 6 layout, I decided to make it a quillow and used the four blocks for the pillow "cover". It's a bit smallish for the quilt (because it's made of the same blocks it's exactly one third of the quilt width), so when folded it looks  tight.

Anyway, I'm happy with it and I really want to try making other quilts in the same technique.

Linking up to Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

Can I get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Fly Up, Fly Down

I've got an un-seasonal finish to share with you today. A wall quilt about 30'' squared called "Fly up, fly down".

If anybody visits this blog regularly, they would know that curve piecing has been my big obsession for quite a long time now. I find that curves add a lot of interest to the predominantly straight-line genre of quilting. My previous curve-pieced quilts are more like "pictures", images that are their own thing. What I wanted to do in this case was to design a really simple curve-pieced block, which could work on its own as well as in combination with any traditional or modern blocks.

The butterfly block consists of two squares, so it can work in a grid, and and each square is made of six parts with curved seams, the curves being very gentle and much easier to sew than the traditional drunkard's path block, for example.

I wanted to make a couple of blocks to try it out and couldn't stop until I had 8! In this case the idea was co combine curve piecing technique with the modern quilt aesthetic, so I chose blenders and a neutral background (it would be more modern to use solids, but I just don't have any :))) Then I played with the layout options:

Decided on the last one.

I chose to quilt the butterflies with a custom wing pattern and the background with irregularly spaced vertical lines. I made a freezer paper "mask" to mark the butterflies:

The butterflies were quilted with variegated threads in shades of purple and yellow/brown correspondingly, and I like how different fragments of the thread show on different butterflies.

I like how this quilt turned out, although it's very different from what I've done before (sometimes I feel like I can say that about almost every one of my quilts - I really love experimenting). I hope it has that "modern" feel about it.

While working with this block I had so many ideas about other uses for it - for one thing it would be great to showcase some beautiful prints or hand-dyed fabrics, for another, I'd like to combine it with other blocks, then I though about enlarging it and "cutting" it with more curved seams to create various wing designs...

I'm wondering if anyone would like to try out this block. I could make it a free pdf download if somebody is interested.

Linking up to Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
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Little Kitty Village

Here comes the second of the quillows I made for my kids (you can read the full story here).

Once again, it started with a fat quarter with kitties, which I bought in a small shop in Moscow, just for fun - I have no idea what collection it is or what manufacturer or whatever. Its colorway is somewhat peculiar for my taste, but it had to be my starting point.

It's a twin (though not identical) to the Little Puppy Village, but I chose a different quilting pattern to see how it goes (you know how scientists jump at a chance to conduct experiments on twins?)

I think I like this quilting better, and there is also less of it, so this quilt seems fuller and warmer than the other one (on the other hand, I love the colors on the puppy quilt more; as for the girls, they both love cats more than dogs, but the little one is more dogged, so she proclaimed the kitty quilt her own))).

And again, a pillowcase to match:

We were lucky to get a glimpse of sun this afternoon, so we had a little photo session with the quillows. The girls are wearing matching kitty fabric dresses that I made for them a couple of years ago (love raglan sleeves - they make a garment fit anyone, regardless of size)))

Little Puppy Village

Now, this was meant to be quick and easy and here it is completed, BUT: it was started in winter - half a year ago)))

The idea was to make a couple of quilts for my kids to cuddle under on winter evenings, to play on, to take when they are going for a sleepover at their aunt and uncle's place, etc. They were meant to be handled a lot, so I wanted them to be really easy to make and also rally cheap (meaning using my stash only)))

They started with two fat quarters - one with dogs and another with cats (I'll show that one later. UPD: the kitty one is finished too!). Each one had twenty full "portraits" which were the starting point for all the maths as well as the color scheme. The photo below is not the final fabric choice, just the only picture I have before the dog fabric was cut.

I put the tops together very fast indeed, but then I decided I wanted the quilts to be warm enough to sleep under and, having consulted several ladies at the IPS branch meeting, I found out I needed wool wadding. This proved tricky, but eventually the ladies from the Limerick Quilt Center brought some for me for the May meeting. At that time I was too busy with other projects, and it was only in August that I got around to finishing this quilts, one of the incentives was the for which was the upcoming "Pets on Quits" virtual quilt show. And I managed just in time as it started yesterday! Do check it out as there's going to be a lot of eye candy for pet lovers as well as a lot of prizes if you decided to join in the fun (you still have ten days to do so!).

They needed very little quilting to stay warm and fluffy, so I decided to practice my walking foot quilting again, and again used my beloved rainbow variegated YLI thread. I chose wonky lines, firstly, to keep it fast and easy and, secondly, because the top reminds me of kids' coloring pages or something like that. My girls, who have just started trying to use my sewing machine, got to stitch a line each (can you see which are the wonkiest of them all ;)))

I also checked out several quillow tutorials and made a (quick and easy) machine appliqué pillow cover for it. Here is the tutorial by Rob Appell that I used as a basis, the only problem is I made the pillow cover a bit too small and it doesn't look very neat when folded. Anyway, this is the way it's going to look most of the time sitting on the sofa or the armchair.

Also linking up to Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts.

Rainbow Rose QAL - Finish

This week is the final link-up for the finished Rainbow Rose quilts at Modern Quilters Ireland.  I finished mine yesterday and took it out for a quick little shoot today, as it's been drizzling off and on.

I know it's supposed to be a Rainbow Rose, but for me it's more of a Colorwheel Star))

After a lot of deliberation I decided to quilt it in echo shapes in the variegated thread I have left from my Bubbles quilt. The thread is not a full rainbow, it doesn't have blue and yellow in it, but it's still very fun and bright (incidentally, the binding fabric has no blue either)))

I rather like how it fills the (still dreaded) negative space.

I marked the quilting lines this time, so they are more or less straight and I think I can consider my July monthly goal of walking foot quilting achieved with this and the rehearsal on the Candy quilt. I still have a couple of quilt tops which can also be walking-foot quilted till the end of the month.

I was deliberating the binding for a long time as well and finally decided on that not quite rainbow but definitely multicolored stripe I've had for several years (brought it from a trip to Moscow). I think it plays rather well with the quilting thread. To add some interest I cut the bias stripes in different directions to echo the star rays.

I couldn't find any appropriately rainbow fabric for the back, so I used the light grey piece which I was considering as an alternative to the white background in this quilt. So from the back it looks like a super minimalist whole cloth quilt ))).

Note how the binding has a different look from the back, with the stripes converging, not diverging as in front. Anyway, I suppose it will be more of a wall quilt, so the back won't get seen a lot, instead it will get a hanging sleeve.

If I ever have a sewing room, I think this would be a good thing to have on the wall there, for reference as a color wheel))

Linking up to Rainbow Rose QAL at Modern Quilters Ireland

Fabric, Thread and Yarn at France Nadeau

Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie 

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