Quilts

Pineapple Quilt Borders: Progress?

January 8, 2015 Elizabeth E.17 Comments

I laid out all the pineapple blocks on a grey, cloudy, rainy day, but their brightness and color made them fun to work with (Yucky photographs, though.) I thought about all my bee mates and was sending out Good Karma over the universe, thanking them for their work.

But how to get a border on this thing?

I remembered my other quilt with a bold colorful center, Come A-Round, and decided to mimic that idea. This quilt, designed by the Piece O-Cake ladies, is one of my favorites. I remembered that they have terrific border ideas, so after a Google search, found Daisies and Dots, a free pattern, which also had a great idea for a border.

I sewed the border pieces together in two sections, then overlaid them and cut a wavy line with my rotary cutter, freehand. I tried to make sure the seams were kind of matched up.

I put RST and matched up those seams and sewed a 1/4″ seam.

I made gallons of 3/8″ bright green bias tubing and pinned it over the seams.

Now to cut the leaves. I thought the free pattern looked a little small for what I wanted. Besides I already had a baggie full of reject leaves from the center of my Colorwheel Blossom quilt, so I started with that leaf, and morphed it down to make five shapes. (I don’t throw away appliqué shapes. Well, hardly ever!) I traced that shape onto plastic, cut out and traced the shapes onto freezer paper, doing it in batches.

Laying out leaves2

Applique leaf freezer paper

Then I cut out many colors, using the templates for tracing, and am now ironing the leaves to the freezer paper (shiny side up).

And here’s where I am this morning. I had to actually do school work all day yesterday, so didn’t get time to work on this. I am just throwing them up there now for “cluster placement,” and plan to do some fine tuning of color, shape and arrangement later.

So as you all well know, the Random Number Generator hates me and I hate it. So I went to a different website and entered in all your names, and hit “Pick a Random Name.” Which it did. Simone, I’ll be in touch–you are the winner! And thank you all for entering and all your lovely comments. I’m working my way through my email notes and will get them off to you this weekend, after school orientation, syllabus writing and plotting my Course Calendar. I feel like this quilting community is my real joy and delight in life, in terms of an occupation. The other one is to get quilt fabric money.

Just kidding. I love to teach, and this gearing up at the beginning of the semester is a pretty normal thing for us all to be doing. Hats off to my other teacher-readers out there!

Quilts

False Dawn (and a Giveaway!)

January 6, 2015December 24, 2014 Elizabeth E.35 Comments

False Dawn
Pieced and Quilted by Elizabeth Eastmond
#138 of 200 Quilts
41 1/2″ high by 36″ wide

Made for the Modern Quilt Guild Cotton Couture Classics Challenge

Michael Miller, a manufacturer of fabrics, sent members of the Modern Quilt Guild a packet of fat eighths in pastels, for their challenge this year, and to try their line of solid fabrics. I know that pastels only makes a dull quilt, with no contrasts, so I reciprocated MMiller’s kind gesture by buying some darker colors in their fabric line. I had one design all laid out, but then re-read the contest rules and it said it had to be predominantly made from the packet they’d sent. I decided to obey, but in scanning the IG feed of those quilters who had submitted in this category, I noticed most ignored this rule. Maybe I should have too?

This is how it started. This line of solids is lightweight and would be perfect for making French-sewn dresses, or smocked clothing for children. The weight is more like a batiste than a broadcloth, but it is strong and has a lovely finish and hand. Since I’m used to working with Kona Cottons, a more mid-weight line of solids, I had some challenges working with the Cotton Couture line. I found that even though I pressed it and starched it, it was still more prone to wrinkling. The quilt, however, weighs next to nothing when finished, so it would be a perfect line for a lighter quilt, or those in hot climates.

Because of its lighter weight, it quilts up easily so I had fun layering on thread in narrow zig-zags and loopy-loos.

We also had to use Michael Miller fabrics for the back, and I had enough yardage of this Parisian print, choosing a jewel-like print for the binding. I named it False Dawn, hoping to bring to mind that luminous light before the sun rises.

While I did enter it into QuiltCon’s Challenge, it was not accepted. Even though I have no way of knowing what the criteria were, other than “predominant use of the Cotton Couture Pastels” and all Michael Miller fabrics, I’m not that put out. I followed the only rules available to me, I finished a quilt made with gifted fabric (and purchased some more) so I figure I fulfilled my part of the bargain.

Since it’s my birthday this week, and I think that’s a terrific time for gifts and presents, would you like some of these fabrics? I know that many quilters love this line, and like I said before, it has a lovely smooth hand. If you would like my leftovers (about 2 yards in a variety of colors), please leave me a comment below, making sure I have your email address. Since we are all recovering from Christmas, I must limit it to domestic (USA) readers this time around. Maybe your New Year can be welcomed in with a new project? This will close Wednesday night, the 7th of January. I’ll announce the winner in the next post.

Quilts

Queen Bee for Mid-Century Modern, 2015

December 31, 2014November 29, 2014 Elizabeth E.9 Comments

I’m Queen Bee again in my Mid-Century Modern Bee, and I know you are all surprised to see me again so soon. We had a reshuffling of months and I moved from November to this spot. Welcome to our newest members; I know you’ll enjoy the ladies in this bee.

Carlas Quilt-smaller

from *here*

Carla, of Grace and Favour, had us all make a block in 2013 so she could make her own version of a Mid-Century Modern Sampler. I loved her quilt, so I’m asking you all to make a block for me so I can have a quilt like hers. As you can see she has both pieced blocks and appliquéd blocks–both are fun to have. The blocks should be in increments of 6″ or 9″ or 12″ (if you do a 6″ block, maybe you could do two?), and would like them with either a text, or a light background. Just pick your favorite block, in similar colors to the above, and have fun. I do have some fillers in the works, just like Carla. Here’s some color ideas (I couldn’t just pick one):

Roundup of preferred colors: clear tones of yellows, oranges, pinks, blues, aqua, bright greens.
Roundup of colors that aren’t my favorites for this quilt: gray, muddy tones. Darker tones for accents (stems, etc.) are okay.

Bascially I’d prefer the palate of Carla’s quilt with light/brights and clear tones all on a text background, but no blocks that feature grey or “muddy” tones predominantly. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me, or refer to our Flickr page where there is more information. Thank you all very much.

I look forward to Mid-Century Modern 2015!