back to soft and light

After all the rich color I have been working with lately,  I felt it was inevitable I would shift back to a lighter, softer color palette.

I had been wanting to make a quilt in these tones for a while and had been adding the fabrics to a class jar on the shelf above my sewing machine. I finally grabbed the jar and laid all the fabrics out and realized I had enough to make a throw sized quilt. So I went with the design that I make often, but this time I added a frame.

I really do love pulling linens into quilts. They add a texture, the soften up with use, and provide such a great contrast to feeling of cotton.

The black and white gingham binding is my favorite. 

Another rainy day picture, but this quilt feels like a good rainy day quilt.

here she is in full. I liked this one!

more rich color

It's a funny thing how what I enjoy making swings like a pendulum, shifting from one side and then dramatically sliding to the opposite. 

When I picked up quilting again in the fall, I was making quilts in soft color palettes that were easy and light what I was needing. And I did that, and then felt the need to add color into my life. Rich, bold, vibrant color. So I picked up fabrics and did just that. From the bananas quilt, to my peanut butter and jelly, to this, what I think of as my sparkling riviera quilt. Bright and lively blues, against warm corals and browns. 

I saved my scraps from this one and want to make something else from them because I loved the way the colors played off each other.

I need to take better pictures of this, because it was rainy and the colors aren't reading right. But I basically cut 10.5 inch squares and where the met the inside, I added a little wonky HST, to make little wonky white stars in between the blocks.

Again with the quilt swirl. Sorry. Can't stop, won't stop.

You can see more pictures in my shop!

Peanut Butter and Jelly

 Another recent finish is a simple design that I like to make because with the right colors, I think it makes a big impact.

I used a bundle I got from Cottoneer Fabrics, and added a few things from my stash.

I quilted it lightly to let it puff some and have subtle texture on all the rich color.

I know we are not supposed to say this about the things we make, but in this case since it is due to the color I feel safe in saying - I love this one. I love these colors together. They feel both comforting and warm, rich and eye-catching. 

Tell me I am not the only one wanting to make a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich?

It is listed in my shop here!

6 years in the making. Nani Iro.

If you read my last post, you've probably gathered that one of the things I have been working on these days is finishing up old projects. I don't know if the many MANY incomplete quilts were part of what sapped my quilty energy, but I figured it was best to get things cleared out so I could focus my energy on new things. And maybe just have a few projects lingering.....instead of the 17 I counted when I unpacked.  

This is one of those projects. I had almost finished the quilt top entirely, just had two rows to stitch together. I finally did, and got it quilted and bound, and voila.

The pattern was a simple   - make the Nani Iro fabric the focus with solid blocks, and the coordinating fabrics I cut into strips and sewed together and rotated some to sit next to the Nani Ironize.

Pictures do not do the Nani Iro fabric justice.

This quilt ended up being so light and so soft. 

It felt so good to finish and add it to my shop.  

five years later, a low volume quilt

I started making this quilt four homes ago. Which is not a typical measurement of time, but in my case, that's how I remember it. Gathering blocks in North Carolina to sew rows, and then we were moving to Alabama, so I packed it up and put it in a ziplock bag.

And apparently never opened that bag in Alabama. Or Oklahoma. But finally, in Florida, I found it.

My original intention was rows of low volume squares with smaller squares making a heart in the center. But then I decided I liked the the low volume squares all on their own. And so it became it's own quilt.

I am a fan of low volume. In fact, I used to be part of a low volume fat quarter club a few years ago, and a lot of those collected fabrics made their way into this one.

Sorry guys, I just really love a quilt swirl.

Can you see that? It has a BANANA BREAD recipe. 

What is with all the bananas showing up in the quilts I make lately?

 

branching out a little. and bananas.

 When I started to get back in my quilting groove, all of the quilts I started making were in soft and easy color palettes. I shared the two I made here (at the bottom of the post)  and here

After all that soft, I needed something bright and bold. 

I make this design often and the point of it, in my mind, is to let either the color or the fabric steal the show. I like bigger block sizes to show off the color and let it really saturate the quilt, also to show off a print in a fabric that I love.

This quilt was a combination of both. And I should say, I would not normally put bright green-leaning teals, rich yellows, and tans together, and mid way through cutting out blocks, I stopped and took them to Kaiti and asked her if I should stop and forget about it. But she told me to keep going, it would look better when they were all next to each other. I am glad I listened to her.

Please notice the bananas. When I was quilting it, I kept singing that part of Gwen's Hollaback girl.

The whole quilt was designed around the Kelly Ventura print. I should have bought yards of it. It was added to my shop and proved to be necessary splash of color!

roots and log cabins

 The very first quilt I ever made was essentially a big ol log cabin quilt. It was THE PERFECT beginner quilt because I was able to use big blocks, there were no matching corners, and I just continued to build outward until I was satisfied with the size and color layout.

My last baby on my first quilt. And chevron. Remember when chevron was big?

So, log cabins were my first love and it has been a lasting love. Simple design that allows for so much individual interpretation. I started off quilting log cabins and still go back to this design often, I just like to do different iterations of the log cabin now. 

My current favorite translation of a traditional log cabin pattern is an improv, framed log cabin. This quilt that I made a few months ago is in my top ten for favorite quilts I have ever made. The colors remind me of sand and sea, earth and sky, the randomness of the incongruous sizes the white space.....these are a few of my favorite things.

On my design wall. The bottom row just needed to be framed.

And all done. Sigh. Kind of wish I kept this one. The one that got away. lol. 

Blues and tans FOREVER.

I think I need to make another one.

It just looked so cute in my nest chair. 

Okay, now I think I need to give it an upgrade and say this is one my top fives. I might have to repeat.

Do you have any patterns that you go back to again and again?

making space for creativity

It's been so long since I have written here. I actually had quite a long gap in creativity. Between a pandemic, a move, a career change that requires a lot more from me, a career change for my husband, and then another career change for my husband and another move, and again, the pandemic......... Well, after all that, I did not have the mental energy to be creative. I remember sitting down at my sewing table dozens of times in the summer of 2020 and just waiting to be struck by inspiration. I had one snap of quilt motivation when we finally moved into our house in Oklahoma and made one quilt. But that was pretty much it.

That's it. My one Quilty make in 2020. I gotta say, though, it was a good one and I use it just about every day. It's a compilation of all my long-hoarded Ruby Star prints, from way way back.

I made a few pouches for friends. And some key fobs. Some baby items for friends have babies and one baby quilt that went to my shop. 

I loved these wonky stars.

I also totally started a bib addiction. These were really so fun to make!!

But the absence of my creativity weighed on me. I wanted so much to feel motivated, but just felt sapped of all creative energy time and time again.

Then 2021 came. Another change in life. Moving to FL from OK in late spring, after being in Oklahoma less than a year. I packed up my sewing stuff and prayed that when we finally settled in Florida, I'd unpack my sewing bins and feel revived. Turns out though, my sewing things stayed packed for several months as house after house fell through and we were stuck living in our camper for 3 months. Let me tell you. 5 kids, a dog, a cat, a fish, two parents, one of whom works remotely, in a camper for 3 months........well, it's just as insane as you are probably imagining.

And then, finally, a home. We moved in, got settled and I unpacked my sewing stuff. This time I set up shop in a loft upstairs because this home doesn't have a special space just for me. Honestly, with 5 kids, it was amazing that I ever had my own sewing space, and I was lucky enough to get it in 2 houses.

And with each box I unpacked, I decided to shed some of all the stuff I had been holding on to. I donated a TON!! And then I made scrap boxes. It felt good to lighten up. And from that, the desire to make slowly started to come back. 

I will be sharing more of what I have made recently, but here is the first quilt after a long hiatus. This is a quilt I designed myself and have made several times. I only have the rough measurements written down, but it is one of my go-to's when trying to come up with a new idea.

Between the texture of the linen and silkiness of the Art Gallery fabrics, it crinkled so wonderfully.