Pink Improvisation with spirals, a new quilt

It began with a few pieces of pink and gray fabric from my last project. I intended to make a more improvised patchwork that stepped away from this year's obsession "the log cabin" block. Improvisational piecing these larger square and rectangle pieces together and using a pale palette was a pleasing variation on the bold colors and repetitious piecing I have been doing with log cabins. Modern quilters call this a "low volume" quilt. I would say it is a low value palette. It is when the colors are of such a pale value that they almost blend together to appear as one. This ends up giving a very pleasing restful appearance in the finished quilt. It's not quite a whole cloth quilt but the use of close values makes the quilting stitches important like they are in a whole cloth quilt. 

I began free hand marking and quilting the spirals on Labor Day. 

The spirals are a departure from my usual straight line rows of quilting.  I like the look of the rings as they go round and round almost like the rings on a still pond when you throw in a hand full of pebbles in, making ripples. 

This quilt has a continuous bias tape made of a bright coral color printed fabric. I found two new prints at Finch Sewing Studio in Leesburg, Va. during a DC Modern Quilt Guild sewing day. The binding and the backing are made out of a fabric line called Winged which recalls butterfly wings in the patterns. I chose a bold color binding to draw out the softer pinks in the low value top. 

working on the last step a coral print bias binding

Throw quilt spread out on the bed showing the hand quilted spirals 

completed hanging on the design wall 

new oval label adds the last detail

It measures about 41" x 66" before washing and drying and is made with a organic cotton and bamboo batting that was light and drapes very nicely. The backing clung to this batting like no other I have used it was clinging just by static attraction.

quilts, birthdays, walks and what not.

Quilting by hand, little by little carefully to save myself misery. That misery always comes if one does too much hand work in one sitting and it is a lesson I learn, then forget and have to learn again.  Over Labor day weekend I got carried away and after putting a recently completed improvisational pink and neutrals top together I began quilting with a mad abandon. It was so exciting to be trying something new. The batting was new, a mix of organic cotton and bamboo fiber which is very soft and drapes very nicely, much more so than just cotton batting I have used before. The other exciting thing was trying some spiral in the design of my quilting. Up until now most of my quilting has been variations using straight lines in diagonal or grid patterns. This set me on a roll and I got carried away. I didn't check how much time I spent bent over layering the quilt then drawing on the top and quilting the spiral. So I had to hang it up for a while and ice my neck to reduce the swelling.  I was lucky it was Keith's birthday last week and we had lots of things to do besides sit and quilt because it is a kind of addiction once I get on a roll. The birthday fun gave my neck and arm which were very aggravated a chance to rest.

Being 49 and turning 50 is a big deal, kind of like hitting 30 is for a 29 year old only different and since I am beyond that and marching quickly towards my 60th I understand that Keith was feeling a little anxious about his future. We decided to do what we love doing the best together to celebrate his big day. We packed up our gear and went for a hike and picnic out in nature. I wanted him to see the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens this summer and that is what he decided we should do for his big day. It was warm and we were covered in head to toe protection from the sun's harmful rays, the mosquito and tick bites, as well as the most dreaded poison ivy rashes. 

 You can see he was rather weighted down with his big zoom lens and that bag which carried essential things like lunch and water. So when we got home we were both hot and stripped off all that stuff to cool down and enjoy the delicious chocolate buttercream iced cake from Whole Foods and tall glasses of iced water with a mountain of gifts for him to  unwrap.

One special gift I gave him is a new orange patchwork coptic bound journal I made into which he may make notes on turning 50 or what ever he decides to write. I think he deserves to have a big smile for being such a great partner all these 15 years we have been together. Bookbinding is another one of those hand made projects that has to be done a little at a time to keep from aching pains. Next weekend I take these 4 hour glass quilt blocks I made to the charity sewing day at DC Modern Quilt guild's next meeting. That is where they will be assembled into a quilt for a homeless kid. This is just one of 100 quilts for Kids challenge. I am looking forward to seeing what the rest of the blocks look like when they all come together in Heather's Hourglass quilt.

Rowhouses, Townhouses, or Log Cabins?

I finished this low volume or value throw sized quilt and washed it yesterday.

 It's a small throw quilt, in soft colors with an attractive backing fabric from Finch Sewing Studios in Leesburg Va. The backing has these little row or town houses printed on a buttery cream color that seemed to fit with the front pink sections. It was used to wrap around and bind the edges as well. The front or top is log cabin variations from another bigger project I am working on... Now I am left to choose a name and make a label so what do you think it should be? Row house quilt, Town house or Log cabin quilt or something else?

Town Row house fabric detail

Finished, washed and dried size = 35 x 51 inches 

crinkly quilting details on the back 

I used machine straight line quilting on this quilt and chose a diagonal V pattern to accent the 45º angle of the pattern of the log cabin blocks. The pink inserted sections are where the lines change direction in four different ways. 

It was fun to make it and so fast with the machine. The hard part was piecing the blocks then laying out the blocks in a way that pleased my eye. This is my first attempt at a low volume quilt shying away from bold color wasn't so hard once I put my mind to work seeing things in a different way.

Fun just like the pink orange moon that rose over our horizon last night in Brookland. 

I have more fabric from Finch that will be showing up in quilts very soon after a great DC Modern Quilt Guild meeting held there two weeks ago. 

show and tell at Finch Sewing Studio with DC Modern Quilting Guild members busy working and listening...

wonky star quilts

Wonky Stars and Stripes quilt 

The past month I have been finishing two small quilts. Today I completed them both and they are ready to reveal. Wonky stars are a modern version of a traditional 8 pointed star block redesigned to be a little more relaxed than traditional stars. In a wonky star the points of the stars are at random angles willy nilly as it suits the quilter. I enjoyed making these blocks once I understood how.  I made more than I needed for a DC Modern Quilt Guild block raffle. Our theme was navy blue and white with a bold color. I tried different mixes of prints and solids and decided I liked both but not mixed up as much as I like them grouped together. So then I began making blocks for my own small quilt roughly 4 x 5 feet. I couldn't wait two months for the raffle. I made a total of 40 stars for these two quilts and had five more that I entered into the guild's raffle.

finished wonky stars and stripes quilt 

back showing the stripes 

Wonky Stars and Stripes label 

As I worked on the strong solid colors I experimented with some softer prints and found a new color way with a big yardage of pink plaid fabric my friend and former neighbor Kiley Bednar gifted last summer. It's a salmon pink plaid with little lines of pale blue, lavender, green and white, very soft and more feminine than the high contrast solid navy blue and white quilt. For the pink star quilt I saved up some wool batting to use and decided to hand quilt using a star and diamond pattern.

Hand embroidered label detailing wool and cotton content

Wonky Pink Stars quilt 5 x 4 feet

the back shows two stripes and the hand quilting pattern of stars and diamonds. 

Thanks to former guild president, Katie Blakesley who selected this block and the raffle color theme. She gave us a guide to colors and a link to a tutorial that made it all very easy and fun. Her new book is coming out next month and we are all looking forward to getting copies of our own. She presented her new book about revisiting traditional quilts in a modern way and she spent two years working and writing and quilting with two co-authors. Her presentation in late October to the guild about writing her book on quilting was very interesting and clearly not as easy as one would like to day dream it should be. 

Autumn is the Orange season

I am sitting here at my desk on a cold and sunny afternoon. The windows are all aglow with oranges, yellows and reds, hints of brown slowly overtaking the boldest display of colors nature has to show. The experience is so brief but always delivers a joyous burst before the long months of cold when grays are the main color theme. I have been taking photos of the leaves here and there when I go for walks and I have a few to share. I was lucky to go south last week to Williamsburg and Jamestown Va for a visit with my out of town family and friends. We sat by the fire in our rooms and told and listened to stories each of the elders had for us. It's getting harder to go out and make new experiences for some of the gang and just being together and sharing is still an exciting event with so much distance in between our family and these friends. Keith and I love going to colonial Williamsburg and the loop drive at Jamestown the original English colony famous for Captain John Smith and his little friend Pocahontas who married John Rolfe some years later and became the first officially sanctioned bi-racial marriage in the new world. The history in that area is fascinating to me and there are a some really good books that detail the stories for those interested in the colorful details. The designs in Colonial era were heavily influenced by Chinese art and ceramics. I designed a quilt based on one very popular fence detail my father the Architect told me was Chinese years ago. He and his father used it on their home's front porch.  Naturally, I took along a few inside projects, to fill some of my time in the big apartments we were staying in while in Williamsburg. I got one really big quilt top basted together ready to hand quilt and a second smaller one is nearly finished. My next blog post will be about finished quilts.

Brookland's streets full of color before we went south to Virginia

This year numerous deer were seen on the Jamestown Island Loop drive.

James River is tidal and surrounds Jamestown Island

Marsh grasses grow all over Jamestown island 

Sister Jenny, Mildred, Phyllis, Elizabeth and Frank at Jamestown glass blower

Keith with his long lens taking photos on Jamestown Island

Colonial Williamsburg was nearing peak color in their maple trees 

Yellow berries on a holly tree in colonial Williamsburg. Rare 

Colonial garden center

Lesson in how to make a garden row to plant seeds for winter crops. 

Scarlet oaks one of my favorites 

red house paint colonial style

The new Carlton Coffee House next to the Colonial Capitol was added a couple years ago 

All the formal gardens are open for free in Williamsburg 

Coffee house and costumed folks

bicyclists and girls on a bench lined the Duke's street 

tented encampment on a side yard was doing laundry

One of my favorite gardens has a stream running through with little foot bridges

a new tree to me this pink leaf wonder was only at Ford's Colony where we took long walks on wooded trails. 

more pink orange leaves over head

miles of trails at Ford's Colony made it a perfect vacation place to walk.

The pink tree at the edge of the woods posed for a close up.