Gwennie-Inspired Liberated Medallion Reveal!

 Today is the day!  The stars have aligned properly and I can finally show you my completed quilt.  Yay!

This was the beginning block - a liberated basket

This wall quilt was the result of my participating in the Gwennie-Inspired Medallion Quilt Along with Lori at Humble Quilts blog.  Since I love all things Gwen Marston, I thought it would be fun to play along.

We were supposed to begin our quilts with a liberated basket.  I had the basket already made - I had made it in a Liberated Basket class with Gwen I took a couple of years ago.  I thought that was perfect.  The fabric that the basket is made from is some vintage fabric from the 1960's or 70's.

The second round was "childhood memories", the third round was log cabins, the fourth round was stars and the final round was "something fishy".

Ta da!
26" wide by 30" high

For the 2nd round, I thought of that childhood game Pick Up Sticks and also stilts.  I always played Pick Up Sticks at my aunt's home, as it was one of the few kids' games she had. (My cousins were grown and gone.)  And my sister and I spent a lot of hours trying to walk on our stilts.  We never did get very good on them!  I'm not sure I ever got to the end of our short walk from the front porch that ended abuptly in the middle of the lawn.  *grin*

Third round was easy - I love liberated log cabins!  Once I had decided on keeping the black polka dot consistently in the center of the log cabins, they just flowed.

For the stars border, I really wanted to continue the black dots fabric from the log cabins.  So I thought that just a limited number of stars in that border would be good.  It was looking very static, so I got the idea to have those stars "dance".   I love the way it turned out!

By this point, the quilt was looking finished to me, so I had a hard time figuring out how to do the "fishy" part of the 5th round.  I considered adding a border of flying geese pretending they were fish.  But in the end I decided that the fishes had to live on the back of this quilt. 

I had to include more dots too!  Of course!  It makes me smile that the dots remind me of the bubbles coming from those colorful fishies' mouths.

I decided to do one of my favorite quilting designs for liberated quilts.  Just not-too-straight straight lines.  I love that it doesn't disrupt the looks of the piecing and just seems to almost disappear.

highlighted to show the quilting

The center of the quilt is quilted this way.  I decided that in the black border, I would outline the stars then do straight lines parallel with the edges.

I'm not sure how well you'll be able to see the quilting here, because I used black thread on the black fabric.

I love my little Liberated Basket quilt!  And, when I showed it to Gwen, I got her "Seal of Approval"!  That really made me happy! 

I need to say a big Thank You to Lori for getting this QAL off and running, and to Katy, Cathy, Cynthia, and Wendy for the additional prompts.  It was so much fun to participate in this QAL and to make this quilt!

You can see the grand reveal of all the participants' quilts on Lori's blog here.  Lots of fun, wonderful quilts to see!  It has been so fun to see how everyone else interpreted the prompts.  

I'm going to be sending this quilt to Lori for a display she is doing at Quiltworks (in Bend, Oregon) for their 'First Friday' and monthly exhibit for May 2017.  If you live nearby, be sure and go visit!  You won't be disappointed!

New linky party:

Sew, Stitch, Snap, Share

AHIQ March - Improv with Gwennie & a Sneak Peek

I'm a little late to the party this month, but better late than never!  I'm linking up with Kaja, and you can see all the other improv at the linky here.

I was late because I was finishing up the quilting and binding on my Liberated Medallion quilt from the Liberated Medallion QAL with Lori at Humble Quilts.  I got it done!  Yay!  For right now, here's a sneak peek.

I'm really pleased with how this little quilt came out.  The sun is supposed to actually shine here on Friday and I hope to get the official portrait then.  You'll just have to wait to see the "full monty" until then.

I got to really play with some liberated improv last week, when I went to La Conner, Washington and took a 3 day class with Gwen Marston on Abstract Quilts in Solids.  It was so much fun!  I made new friends and played with my fabrics.  What is better than that?  I will do a post all about this class later, but right now, I'll "show and tell" my work/play from the class.

I had seen the exhibit of Gwen's abstract quilts in solids at the Northwest Quilt and Textile Museum the day before the class, and I had drawn out a few ideas.  So I knew where I wanted to start.  The night before the class, I came up with some color schemes, so I got right to work in class.

I have to add here that I was kind of freaked out about working with solids.  I haven't used solids in a long time.  They seem so "flat" to me - I'm so used to the prints in the fabrics doing some heavy lifting for texture and interest.  I made myself only bring solids - no prints of any kind!  After viewing Gwen's quilts, I realized that the actual quilting gives the texture and I really need to plan for that when working with solids.  It helped me to calm down and realize that it really wasn't too scary.

I knew I wanted to do some of the "unequal equilateral triangles", as Gwen called them, so I started with that.  And I wanted to include a curve and some floating squares.

Here was where I stopped at the end of the first day.

The next day, I changed things a little.

I decided I liked the green better than the purple/pink I had in there.  That strip across the top is actually light blue and it just looked glaringly clunky.  

And here is where I ended up at the end of the 2nd day.  That light blue strip was too much, and my table mate suggested trimming it down.  Now I like it!  This still needs to be squared up, and it's possibly not finished.  I'm still thinking about what else it needs, if anything.  Maybe another round of borders?  Maybe just some snazzy binding.  We'll see.

I wanted to try something else before the class was over, so I got started on my 2nd color scheme idea. 

I wanted to try some half log cabins, which I had never done "liberated"/improv before.  I cut some random width strips and 3 1/2 inch starting squares and just started sewing.  It was very fun and relaxing.  I'm trying to channel the Gee's Bend quilters here.  *grin*

Gwen said she'd never really used the half log cabin before.  She and Freddy used some in their collaborative quilts, but only with prints, not solids.  

I liked those so much, I made some more!  I'm not squaring these up too much yet.  These blocks are pinned up on a carpet-covered wall that was in the classroom.  I'm kind of liking that dark "background" in there.

And here they are on my design wall in my studio, in a more mixed up layout.  Looking at this photo, I can see that they do need some more dark in there.  Maybe sashing?  For right now, I'm still thinking about where I want to go with this.  More rounds on each block? 

I'm hoping to get back to this pretty soon.  However, we have to get through taxes before I can do much more.  I'd rather be sewing!

Late to The Party, and Still Not Done!

Long time, no see.  Wow, my poor neglected blog!  I really didn't plan on being gone from it for so long, but what with one thing and another, blogging just kinda fell by the wayside.  I feel a little out of practice now.

I've been so busy and have had so much going on that I'm not sure where to even start.  So I'll just confine myself to the update on the Liberated Basket Medallion Quilt Along for now, since I'm a little late to the party.

Confession time:  I haven't been working on my Liberated Medallion quilts.  I had a quilt show to get ready for, and I went to a quilt retreat in California.  I knew I'd be late for the link up because the quilt show was the same weekend.  And then there were technical difficulties.

Tall Basket Medallion

I've decided that the "Tall Basket Medallion" is DONE.  It just looks complete to me, so I'm not going to try to do anything more to it.  So, for the "something fishy" round, I'll be putting some fish fabric on the back of the quilt.

Wide Basket Medallion
back to this stage!

As for the "Wide Basket Medallion", I've been unsewing!  I've removed the last round of wonky stars.  The more I looked at it, the more I didn't like it.  It just didn't "feel" right to me.  I like what I'd done so far (through the log cabin round), and I don't want to settle for just anything, just to be done in time for the Quilt Along.  Comments from both Quiltdiva Julie and Lynn at Patchery Menagerie confirmed what I had been thinking.  So, it is currently in pieces, waiting for my attention.  Back to the drawing board, as they say.

The technical difficulties was that, unfortunately, my poor Bernina sewing machine decided that she needed to go to the "spa" right before the quilt show.  It's been two weeks now. I sure miss my machine!  I've got 2 other machines (one of which also needs to go to the spa), but they're just not the same.  And I don't like to switch machines in the middle of a project because the seam allowances just won't come out the same, no matter what I do.   Hopefully she should be ready sometime this week.  *fingers crossed*  I'm still not sure quite what I'll be doing for the star border - the possibilities are swirling around my brain.  I'll be keeping the stars, and possibly adding more, but the rickrack border is gone and so are the "string" blocks.  I won't be working on this until my machine is home, so I've been thinking in the meantime.  While being involved in other things, of course!

I'll definitely be keeping you updated on any progress!

In the last 6 weeks I've been to California for a quilt retreat,  my guilds' had a (combined) big quilt show, I've made 2 or 3 other projects, and miscellaneous other stuff.  So, I have so much more to share with you, but it will have to be in other posts.  See you soon!

Gwennie-Inspired Medallion QAL - Star Border Reveal!

 I was so excited about this month's assignment of stars in this next border!  But it hasn't been an easy-breezy task, for some reason.  As much as I love liberated stars, I really struggled with these borders this month.  And I barely finished in time.  And now I'm posting a day late, but better late than never!

For lack of a better name, I've named my two quilts Wide Basket and Tall Basket, at least until I can think up better names!  (I'm open to suggestions)

Wide Basket 30 1/2 " x 30 1/2 "

I decided to work on the Wide Basket top first, as this quilt seems to be harder for me to design and work on.  Possibly because of the limited number of fabrics and colors?  Using solids?  Who knows?

I didn't have a clear idea of where I wanted to go for this border, which makes progress hard to achieve.   And it was like pulling teeth Every. Single. Step. of the way.  But I dug in my heels and made it work, gosh darn it.  I'm not entirely happy with it, but I can't tell you why.  This quilt is the epitome of Gwen's liberated adage "If it's too short, add to it and if it's too long, chop some off."  I had to do some of both this month.

I made stars, to get started.  These finish at 4 1/2 inches.

I made some more stars.  I played with placement.  Nothing clicked for me.  Then I decided that I didn't want stars all the way around the quilt.  I want this quilt to get taller, not wider.  (I did achieve square, so that's a step in the right direction.)  So I tried coming up with other ideas of what to do. Meanwhile, we were having a heat wave and it was too hot to be upstairs in the quilt studio.  So I only sewed in the evening when it started cooling off.  

More rickrack sounded good.  I like that.  Then, after I made one star of each fabric, there were still big gaps around the border.  So I started looking through Gwen's books.  Aha!  How about some strings?  Sounds good to me!  So I made strings.

For some unknown reason, I cut those strings too short.  Now what?  Add to them, of course.  And that is why my strings have an inner border of the gold.  To make them fit.  And it works.

These two stars look like they're holding hands while they dance!

If you look closely at this photo, you can see that I had to add to the strings to get them to fit the length of the border.  I was concentrating so much on design that I had no brain left for math to get things to fit together properly.  So, I totally faked it.

This green star is one of my favorites.  I accidentally grabbed the wrong green for that one star point, and now it is even more liberated!  It makes me smile.  ;)

So now I have to really put on my thinking cap and come up with something to fit the prompt for September: "something fishy".  That sounds challenging.  I have a glimmer of an idea though, so hopefully this month's border might go easier.

Wendy at the Constant Quilter has given us the 5th and final prompt for the QAL and here are her thoughts:

Being from Maine, my theme choice for the final border is
“Something Fishy”

As with those who have gone before me (Lori, Cynthia, Cathy and Katy), you can interpret this as loosely as you like. Here are a few examples:

Clamshells

Scallops

Fish fabric or appliques

Sea birds (they eat fish!)

Marine mammals (they eat fish too!)

Lighthouses (they see fish)

Boats (they catch fish)

Ovals and triangles (i.e. fish shaped)

So, Wendy's kind of left it wide open.  Possibilities!

Next up for some stars was the Tall Basket quilt.

This was my start.  I wanted to use the black polka dot fabric that I have in the center of each little log cabin for this "starry" border for some cohesion and to calm down that busy quilt a little.  I made very scrappy stars, because I love scrappy best.

Again, I didn't want stars completely surrounding the quilt top.  These little stars finish at 3 inches and take about 1/2 hour for each one.  They're fun to make, but they're not fast. 

Tall Basket 27" wide x 30" high

I love the way this came out!  I made the stars "dance" in the border, just to liven things up.  It's such a wild quilt top that ordinary just won't do.

side border detail

top border detail

Now to come up with "something fishy" for this top too!  Again, I have a little "seed" of an idea.  Hopefully it'll work out!

Be sure to go visit Lori's blog Humble Quilts to see the link-up for all the participants in the QAL.  There are some wonderfully fun and liberated medallion quilts being made!

Gwennie Medallion QAL Part 3 - Update

Remember that my log cabin border wasn't done on Basket #1 in my last post?  Well, I couldn't let that just sit there mocking me.  Something had to be done.

This is where I was on Monday.  The more I looked at the Courthouse Steps partial border, the less I liked it.  I decided that it might be best to just keep things simple.

Ta da!  I finally have the log cabin border done!  It is a simple log cabin-style border, with two light sides and two darker sides.  I think it gives the quilt some "breathing room" and kind of calms those crazy 9- patches, instead of getting too busy.  And now this will work better with the Star border that is our challenge for August.  I'm happy with this now.  And I already have some ideas of where I want to go next!

This weekend is my DH's big art show out in the garden.  He's been working like a slave to get everything ready, and tomorrow is set up.  Hopefully we'll have good weather, not too hot and not rainy.  We seem to be one or the other every year.  The weather report looks good for not too hot, but we may have some showers.  And I hope we get lots of customers!  Cross your fingers for us!

Have a great weekend.  I hope you have some time to be creative!

Gwennie-Inspired Medallion QAL - Round 2

This month's theme for the Medallion quilt-along's second round was Childhood.  I thought of games I'd played as a child, and two in particular came to mind right away.

Basket #1
19" wide by 17" high

For Basket #1, I thought of Hop Scotch.  My sister and I played a lot of Hop Scotch on our front sidewalk.  It was kind of a silly sidewalk because it just stopped in the middle of the lawn.  We lived outside of city limits and had no curbs, gutters or neighborhood sidewalks.  So the walk from the front door didn't really go anywhere.  But it was just the right length for hop scotch!

Basket #2
11.5" wide by 14.5" wide

Basket #2's border was inspired by Pick-Up Sticks.  It reminds of my aunt's house, which was the only place my sister and I would play Pick-Up Sticks, as we didn't have the game at home.  I do remember we weren't very good at it, but it was still fun.  I loved all the bright colors that those sticks came in.

And then, in the spirit of childhood, I played with my photos.  My smart phone has all kinds of fun effects you can apply to your photo!

This is Basket #1 in "Negative".  Kind of Amish-looking, isn't it?

And this effect is called "Magic Pen".  I like how the seams in the border blocks are highlighted.

Basket #2 in "Negative".  Again, kind of Amish-y.  I like it!

Basket #2 in "Magic Pen".  I hadn't realized, until I saw this, that the border dots were the same size as the dots in that corner square.  Amazing how color can affect how you see the scale/size in prints!

Last one, I promise!  This is Basket #2 in "Posterize".  It really pops in this version, doesn't it?

The round for next month was determined by Cathy at Big Lake Quilter and will be Log Cabins.  Hmmmm, my thinking cap is on!  I love log cabins!

Go here to Cynthia's  Wabi-Sabi Quilts blog to see the link-up of all the QAL quilts for Round 2.

Gwennie-Inspired Liberated Medallion Quilt Along - The Start

OK, I'm a day late, but better late than never, right?

I totally spaced on Lori's Liberated Medallion Quilt Along (see it here on her blog Humble Quilts).   When I saw her post yesterday, I remember that I wanted to do this too!

Lori started out the Medallion by giving us the prompt "Basket" for our center block.  And then I saw all the wonderful baskets popping up in Blogland!

So, after I emailed Lori and got permission to play along, I went and found my basket block that is already done.

Basket #1

I had made this last year after my class with Gwen Marston on liberated baskets the previous year.  (see the post on that class here)  Well, it doesn't fit with the other basket blocks I've made for that project - it's too soon to call it a quilt yet!

my baskets as of March 2015

It's a different size and it just doesn't fit with them well.  So, I thought it would be perfect for the Quilt Along.

Basket #2

And then I found one more (in the bottom left in the picture of all the baskets)  It doesn't match very well either - all the others have a more pastel background.

So, I have choices.  I haven't decided quite where I'm going with this, and options are good. 

The print fabric is a vintage late '60's/early '70's one.

Here are my possible fabric choices to go with Basket #1.  I think I need to add in some of the gold/mustard for some spice!  Oooo, shopping!

This is gonna be fun!  I love a liberated quilt and a good QAL too!  And I just had the Medallion class with Gwen this spring to get me started thinking medallions!

The next border's prompt is "Childhood" and I already have some ideas in my head.  Now if it would just cool down enough that I can go upstairs and play in the quilt studio.

Click here to go to Lori's and see all the other baskets that others have made to get started.  I'm humbled by their creativity!