Setting Direction

Um, so it's been a while, eh? It's been a little stupid busy around here since January and at the end of the day, I just didn't have the energy to blog. Kiddos are away at camp this week (woot woot!) and lo and behold, I've got some energy back. LOL

My current project is my 2016 BeeSewcial quilt. My month for BeeSewcial was all about direction -- I asked my BeeSewcial mates to help me make a village or city. And boy, did they deliver! I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to share what the fabulous blocks they made, but here goes:

From Leanne at She Can Quilt:

A post shared by Leanne (@shecanquilt) on May 22, 2016 at 6:37pm PDT

A post shared by Leanne (@shecanquilt) on May 22, 2016 at 1:29pm PDT

From Stephanie at Spontaneous Threads:

From Felicity at Felicity Quilts:

From Karen at Capitola Quilter:





From Kari at Craft Happy:

A post shared by Kari Vojtechovsky (@quiltsforthemaking) on Jun 17, 2016 at 2:49pm PDT

A post shared by Kari Vojtechovsky (@quiltsforthemaking) on May 29, 2016 at 7:25pm PDT

From Anne at play crafts:

A post shared by Anne (@playcrafts) on Jun 4, 2016 at 9:29am PDT

A post shared by Anne (@playcrafts) on Jun 11, 2016 at 8:32am PDT

From Debbie at A Quilter’s Table:





From Hillary at Entropy Always Wins:

A post shared by Hillary Goodwin (@entropyalwayswins) on May 22, 2016 at 5:07pm PDT

A post shared by Hillary Goodwin (@entropyalwayswins) on May 21, 2016 at 6:06pm PDT

From Marci at Marci-Girl Designs:







Roundabout?! I adore roundabouts and am so excited that my quilt will have one. If you check out Marci's Instagram feed, you'll see how she did it.

Aren't these so fun?


And here are my blocks: 

If you have a chance to check out the images on the #beesewcial feed on Instagram, you'll see that the blocks have back story. So cool!

After receiving the blocks, I'll admit that I got a little (ahem...very) anxious about doing these blocks justice. I pulled them out multiple times over the past year and played with the layout. My rule was this: each block had to connect with at least one other block, but I could add roads and negative space. 

More grid-like:

A little less grid-like:

Definitely playing with some alternative grid work:

After a lot of mulling and photos and rearranging and mulling and photos...repeat, I found a layout that I loved and started putting it together. It's just about done so I will share it soon.

Cheers!

Fibonacci Twist - A Work in Progress

I decided to take my love of the Fibonacci sequence and my love of solids and challenge myself to see what I could do with it using my scraps.

I made these Fibonacci blocks several years ago and it sat in my WIP pile.

I pulled that out, took off the largest squares and made more 8.5" by 13.5" squares from my scraps.

Playing with the layout. Hmm, no. 

That's a little more like it. Now for a background that would make those colours pop. 

Let's go with charcoal grey. Yep, that's it. A finished top! 

I could see making more quilts with these blocks and my scraps. 

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Modern Block Monday - Lake Country

The wonderful Felicity from Felicity Quilts was our Bee Sewcial Queen Bee for the month of June. She chose the theme of Lake Country and we were to do blocks of blue and green.

Here are my contributions:

Felicity received her blocks and has started playing around with layout. Looking great!

If you want to follow along with the Bee Sewcial gang, check out #beesewcial and #inspiredbybeesewcial on Instagram.

We The North Since 1867 - A Work in Progress

Well, I'm clearly on a red and grey kick right now. I designed this quilt last year in honour of Canada's sesquicentennial celebration, which will be next year, and I've been sitting on the design ever since trying to get up the courage to do the foundation paper piecing.

I'm not a fan of foundation paper piecing, or I wasn't until this project. ;)

The palette plus charcoal grey:

The first half - so far so good! 

Loving the value play. 

My 11 year old commented, "Those corners are 'tight,' Mom!" Thanks sweets! :) 

A satin stitched date. 

Ready for basting!

The completed top! I am so thrilled (and relieved) that the paper piecing worked for this design. It turned out as I had envisioned in my head. Yay!

Now for the quilting!

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend!

Triad - A Quilt-It Modern Blog Tour Finish

I'm pretty excited about the finish I'm going to share with you today. It's part of the Quilt-It Modern Blog Tour featuring Riley Blake Confetti Cottons and Crayola Colors. If you are new to my blog, welcome!

Now if you have been following me for any amount of time, you know I love solids. I'm new to Riley Blake solids though and I must say that they are pretty divine! They have a great hand and they are great to cut and sew.

Through the magic of blog time, I turned this delicious bundle of Riley Blake solids (Charcoal, Cayenne, Geranium, RileyBurgundy, RileyRed, RileyRaspberry, Rouge, TeaRose) ...

into this ode to the triangle, which I call Triad.

Why the name? Threes abound in this quilt -- triangles have three sides of course, the three floating triangles, three main sections of the quilt design, three layers of the quilt, three thread colours. So Triad just seemed pretty apt.

While I hadn't planned it, shortly into the process of laying out my little triangles on my design wall, I was reminded of one of my favourite t-shirts, which you can see in these pictures (Hi Maritime MQG!). Clearly my subconscious at work, eh?

This was definitely a quilt that I wanted people to step closer to look at the details so I went to town on the quilting.

I started with echoing the triangle seams, which gave a fun star effect at the triangle intersections and many little triangles.  

For the negative space, I used the walking foot technique I've used in various ways on Heathia, Codex, Separation of Church and State, A Stitch in Time and Night Flight. Only this time, I used two colours on the top (a red Aurifil #2250 and a charcoal grey #2630) and a lighter grey (Aurifil #2625) on the back and kept to the triangle theme of the design.

I did two triangles in the red thread and filled the rest in with the charcoal grey thread. While this is a very time-consuming technique, the texture is so worth it! This technique looks so great against solid fabric.

I also threw in a little Fibonacci sequence in the large red triangle. Can you spot it? Hint: 1-1-2-3.

Let's go even closer...

The back is a lighter grey and it shows off the texture nicely. Finished with a non-mitred facing.

Final size: 22" by 37". I think Triad is my new favourite quilt. :) 

Have you seen the other projects created so far on the Quilt-It Modern Blog Tour? If not, definitely take some time to check them out. Fabulous projects! Serious inspiration. 

6/27 - A Bright Corner

6/27 - Salty Oat

6/28 - Trillium Design

6/28 - Allison Sews

6/29 - A Quilter's Table

6/29 - Bonjour Quilts

6/30 - Euphoria Jessica

6/30 - Material Girl Quilts

7/1 - Samelia's Mum

7/1 - Sassafrass Lane

7/5 - Quilt Matters

7/5 - During Quiet Time

7/6 - Sometimes Crafter

7/6 - Modern Handcraft

7/7 - Orchid Owl Quilts

7/7 - Piece and Quilt

7/8 - Sew Katie Did

7/8 - Tumbling Blocks

7/8 - Leigh Laurel Studios

Modern Block Monday - BeeSewcial - Let's Get Comfortable

While January's Linear theme for BeeSewcial was a good challenge, February's theme was a stretch to say the least. Actually, that was the theme -- Stretch! Karen (@capitolaquilter on Instragram) had us design and make blocks in 'denim' colours with neutrals using the Stretch theme. So interesting and so challenging. After the initial relief of realizing that we weren't working in actual denim, I will admit thinking, "What did I get myself into?!" No, I can do this! I think.

Her inspirational photos and instructions were very helpful. I took the organic roots photo as inspiration for my blocks. I started building out one block of organic curving lines. Once it got to about 14" square, I cut it into 2 to make the foundation of both blocks. I added an inset 'jean hole' to break up the negative space on one of the blocks. The blocks didn't turn out like the inspirational photo I started with, but I'm happy with where they went.

One beemate thought they looked like ligaments. Huh. Hadn't even thought of that, but it's true!

To see more of what this bee is up to, check out #beesewcial on Instagram and if you'd like to play along, you can post your blocks to #inspiredbybeesewcial. Come play!

Weight of Love/Weight of 70s Love - A Work in Progress

Hi all, back in crazy November, I took a class with Libs Elliott. I'm so intrigued by her Processing work! The Ottawa Modern Quilt Guild invited her to come and give her Weight of Love workshop. Very cool.

Pre-work to the workshop included figuring out our colour palette. I wanted something with these colours.

I first coloured the numbered version, which would have allowed me to use the measurements that Libs had mapped out:

I also tried out the Colour Your Own version and posted them on Instagram to help me decide which one to do. 

The Colour Your Own version won hands down. Even Libs weighed in. :D

During the class, I cut out the pieces and put together the first two columns. While I was really happy with my Y-seams, the colours felt very 70s.

The class with Libs -- great variety of fabric choices, eh? 

When I got home, I laid out all of the pieces on the design wall. Meh. Not working for me. 

I replaced some of the yellows and oranges with some lighter purples. A bit better.

Then I replaced all of the yellows and oranges with more values of purples and magentas.

 Definitely better, but not quite there. Any recommendations?