spring is here!

Another season means another mini quilt for my hallway.

After the winter we had in the midwest, every one was more than ready to see spring arrive.  Honestly, this spring has been a little lackluster, with it's cool temperatures and cloudy days (not to mention a little snow). But, hey, we've had a couple days where I felt the sun warm on my face.  I'll take it.
This mini was another improv creation.  I used a method detailed in this craftsy class taught by Jacquie Gehring.  She calls it slice and insert piecing.  I pieced strips of color into these six panels, three grey and three green in graduating tones.  I increased the number of inserts as the panels moved up; I wanted it to look like spring exploding up from the dark grey and gloom of winter.
My boys keep pointing out to me that it doesn't make sense to have the green at the top.  They think I was trying to make flowers or grass, I think.  In fact I was going for something a little more symbolic of spring, not quite a literal spring scene.  :)

Once the six panels were pieced and sewn together, I decided I wanted to applique more pops of color over the top.  I did this for two reasons.  First, I wanted to place some colored strips over the seams where the grey and green panels met.  I thought it would make the image more cohesive to have color bursting all over, not just confined to the six strips.  I hope that makes sense.  It's hard to articulate that idea!  Second, I just wanted MORE.  More color, more craziness, more exuberance, especially at the top of the piece.  I had pieced just about as much as I could piece without disastrous wonkiness happening.  At a certain point it was easier to add on top than to piece within an already heavily pieced panel.

Once again, I'm happy with this mini!  I think it screams SPRING even though it's not actual flowers or grass.  It's just color and life and spring all over.  It's like a confetti popper of spring, and I love it. 

Winter mini quilt

I'm working on a series of mini quilts, to hang in our entryway, that I will change with the seasons.  The first one I made was for Christmas.

In early January I made a mini quilt that represented Winter.

I was working, again, with Gwen Marston's Liberated Quiltmaking II.  I settled on what she calls "the exquisite block".  Basically a square or rectangle base, with triangles pieced onto the diagonal points.  When the blocks are joined together, you end up with a series of little bowties or butterflies, or however you want to see it.

My goal for this piece was to portray the starkness of winter by using lots of white and pale, cool blues and greys.  I also wanted to express the warmth that we cling to during these long months, the warmth we find within ourselves, in the company of family and friends, or quite literally the warmth of our physical homes.  I added the golden yellow blocks and some yellow triangles emanating out from it to represent the warmth and light that keeps us hanging on until spring.

I quilted it with a series of zigzag lines, emanating out from the bottom right corner, to emphasize the placement of the yellow blocks.

 I think it all works.  I'm happy with it!  My only complaint is that it doesn't quite lay flat against the wall, no doubt because of some technical error on my part.  Oh well.

A couple of weeks ago I got to present this during Show and Tell at my guild meeting, and Gwen Marston was in attendance, as she presented a lecture and trunk show for us that day.  It was really an honor to show her my work, and I was able to chat with her after the meeting.  The afternoon as a whole was probably the greatest highlight of my quilting life so far.

it all started with a tiny wall hanging...

I've been feeling like our apartment entrance is a little bare.  I hang a wreath on the door that I change for each season (all my super cute wreaths come from this etsy shop), but that's it.  A little boring, especially when our neighbor across the hall always has a festive seasonal display of wreath, flowers above the door, and flowers on a pedestal!  I decided to make a mini quilt to hang on the wall by the door, and I plan to make one for each season, so I can change them along with the wreaths.

First up, Christmas.  I had just received my copy of Liberated Quiltmaking II by Gwen Marston.  I love this book.  I love Gwen Marston and everything about her aesthetic and philosophy.  This book has been so inspiring.  I decided to try my hand at her method for making wonky stars.

My first star and the book that inspired me so much.

I made a lot of stars.  I didn't have a pattern or plan or a certain number in mind, so I just kept making stars.  They were a lot of fun.  Because I was making a Christmas wall hanging, I used a variety of greens and reds for my stars, with various grey fabrics as background.

Once I was done making stars, I started making log cabin blocks in low volume fabrics.  I put together a composition that I liked and pieced together my little wall hanging.  I quilted it in straight(ish) lines.  I was really happy with how it turned out.

Christmas wall hanging, before it was quilted.

here is the wall hanging that started it all, hanging in its place of honor in the hallway.

When it was done, I had a lot of stars left over.  Those stars turned into a small quilt for my mom, and a large quilt that our family is keeping.  I didn't have a particular size in mind for these.  I just kept adding until I felt the compositions were complete.  The quilt for my mom ended up at 84x66.  I would call it a nap size.  The quilt for us is 93x97.  It fits nicely on our queen size bed.

My design strategy for the bigger quilts was basically the same as for the mini quilt.  Festive red and green stars interspersed with low-volume log-cabin squares, plus a few big swatches of solids or prints.  I added random strips here and there to fill in spaces.  It was a very unplanned and organic process.  I hung a piece of batting as a temporary design wall so that I could step back and look at how things were coming together.

laying out the design for my mom's quilt, step one.

adding more stars and solids, step two of layout.

another progress shot... more spaces filled, more seams joined.

I sent the two larger pieces to my trusty long-arm quilter, Sarah Russett in New York state.  She did a fabulous job as usual.  I got them back from her just in time to bind them and wrap my mom's up for Christmas!

christmas stars quilt for my mom

back of mom's quilt

giant christmas stars quilt for us to keep!

back of our quilt.

These projects were my first attempts at improvisation.  For my first time not using a pattern, I was really pleased with and proud of how they turned out.  I think I could have done a better job of choosing fabric for some of the stars.  The values were too close on some, and the stars didn't pop out like they should have.  Aside from that, I really love all these quilts, from the mini to the queen size.  They are festive, funky, fun, and fabulous.  I really love improvising.  I may never use another pattern again. 

organizing my days, and a mini quilt

So this year (school year, as any mother of school-age kids measures her years), I have a lot I want to get done.  I want to wrap up the onesie business completely, and I still have a couple of hundred onesies to print and list in my shop.  It's a big job, and I've been chipping away at it.  But I also have other things I want to do and need to do.  Quilting projects, seasonal projects, etc.  I first thought I would alternate days, onesies then other things.  But I've decided it makes more sense to alternate each week. It cuts down on time I have to spend cleaning up and switching between each type of work.

Last week I worked diligently on finishing a mini quilt, putting together a napping size quilt and back, and making my halloween costume.  It was a lot.  I worked hard all week.

This week I need to get back to the business of onesies.  It's also Halloween so I will be at the boys' school helping with festivities.  This school year is going so dang fast, I can't believe it.

I had 3 quilts that I wanted to finish before Christmas, which was a huge goal, and I'm nearly done.  The tops and backs are all done.  I will send them to Sarah Russett, my long-arm quilter, and when she is done doing her excellent work, I will add the bindings and be done.  Yay.  Christmas gifts I'm excited to give, and a giant item checked off my to-do list.  I'll post pictures of them after they have been given away.

The mini quilt I finished this week is a project inspired by this print by Hannes Beers.  Last year the librarian at the boys' school mentioned that she was looking for things to hang on the library walls.  I immediately remembered that print and thought it would be perfect for the library.  I added to it a bit, and changed some elements.  I made a stencil on my Silhouette and then painted it on white fabric.  I did the quilting by hand.  It was my first foray into hand quilting, and while I have no idea whether I did it "right," I enjoyed the process and I like the final look of the piece.  I want to block it so it's a little more square, then add the hanging sleeve and it will be ready to give away.  It was super satisfying to do a small quilt project intended to hang on the wall.  I definitely will be doing more mini quilts in the future.