Neutral Stack and Slash Quilt Top

For years I have wanted to make a quilt for the master bedroom. It is always more difficult for me to decide on a design and color scheme for a quilt with a very specific purpose than for one I am making for fun (well, they are all fun to make, aren't they?!). The quilt that is on the master bedroom bed in the colder months is one that was made by my grandmother or great grandmother. It could have even been both of them as they lived together for many years of their later adult lives.

It is five fifteen inch wide columns of scraps sewn together in a seemingly random way. Some are fairly straight rectangles, some are quite wonky, and others are pieced.

I love this quilt, but it is not quite big enough for the bed. There are only four inches or so that hang down on either side. I had been thinking about replicating this quilt for a long time, and recently we started talking about painting this room. Since I really want this quilt to be timeless, I decided that the wall needed to be the focus for color and that a quilt for this room should remain neutral. That way it can live on through whatever color schemes come our way.

These pictures are a little on the yellow side as it was early morning and the sun was not all the way up yet. My family has been watching skeptically from the sidelines. One bit of advice from one of the teens... mom, don't put too much pee colored fabric in it, okay? Ha. He does have a good eye, and he was correct in his assessment. There is white, cream, gray, brown, black, taupe, and all sorts of other neutrals. There are a few pieces with other colors but not enough to take away from this truly neutral quilt.

This is the largest quilt top I have ever made and it put quite a dent in the neutral stash, and it is made entirely from stash.The amount hanging over the sides is just perfect. This quilt top is made of six fifteen inch wide strips that are around ninety inches long. The finished quilt as it is will be ninety inches square. The width is perfect.

The length may be a bit too much. I'm going to think about that and may trim it back a little. I've never had a quilt long enough to cover the pillows. I could always fold it back at the top. It would be nice to have extra covers to burrow under on a cold night.

See that rose fabric, the black and white one? That came from my grandmother. It had originally been cut out to become a blouse or jacket. I love that there are fabrics old and new in this quilt top.

I am excited about quilting this one. It will be easy to go quilting crazy so I will have to be careful not to take it too far. The original quilt has simple hand quilting. I am definitely going the machine quilting route and will likely vary the quilting design every few segments of the quilt.

I left the quilt top on the bed this morning when I left for work. I'm usually the last one home at the end of the day so we'll see what the family thinks about it now. I am happy to be making progress on this long desired quilt.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Stack and Slash Poinsettias - A Finished Quilt

This little project was a filler between some of the bigger quilts I have been working on. The wedges for the blocks were given to me by my mom, who decided after trying one that these were going to be way too much work to make in a way that would result in a remotely flat block. She was right; accuracy is a must here, and you will see shortly that some of mine are not as flat as they ought to be.

This was a fun little quilt to make. There were twelve blocks in the kit, but I loved featuring the center poinsettia and the three that were left out were kind of boring. I did save one of them to possibly turn into a pot holder.

The fun part was free motion quilting the blocks. I used a light backing fabric on purpose so that the quilting would stand out. Not because the quilting would be great but because it would help me see what it really looks like and show me areas where I needed more practice. The quilt is small, finishing at 27 inches square. That made it super easy to maneuver under the sewing machine. It looks like I took a black ink pin and scribbled all over the backing.

This was my favorite. The secondary design was a nice surprise.

Quilting black thread on black fabric is not easy. Thankfully, none of the awkward scribbling effect is noticeable on the front. I think the loops in the corners look like some sort of electrical connection.

This quilt was washed prior to this photo shoot, so it's a bit crinkly.

Here's a close up of my favorite block. All that circle quilting pushed the extra bulk toward the center. It really puffs up.

You can see it much better at an angle. I should trapunto it so it looks more intentional. There are a couple of other blocks with a little poof but this one was the most extreme.

I had this pretty binding fabric in my stash. It finished off the quilt nicely. The only regret I have is that the cut wedges did not come with a larger piece of the fabric. I would love to know the full design on the original fabric.

I'll be taking this quilt right back to where it came. My mom's. I was thinking it would look nice laying over the back of her sofa. I'm sure she will be able to find a home for it when the holiday season rolls around.

Simmer - A Finished Quilt

The first hint of cooler temperatures was in the air this past weekend so it was the perfect time to finish this quilt full of yummy fall colors. A few weeks ago, I posted about these blocks. This quilt stalled after the blocks were made. I had to set them aside to think about a layout and even if I liked them enough to keep going. Individually, most of the blocks were great, but all together, they became a jumbled mess.

Hello sashing. They just needed a little something to separate them from each other. There is a funny story about the sashing fabric. A fellow quilter was cleaning out and invited me over to assist in reducing her stash. There was a box in the corner with the label "ugly fabric". My reaction surprised me. I was almost offended that any fabric would be relegated to a box with such a label. This stack of neutral solids is part of what was in that box, which I of course had to rescue. They aren't glamorous but they certainly are not ugly and served to be quite useful in this project.

The majority of the fabric in this quilt is by Kaffe Fassett.

There wasn't enough of any single color for the back so these four one yard cuts worked nicely with their similar colors. This fabric was also pulled from the "ugly fabric" box.

Wavy quilting lines cover the blocks both horizontally and vertically. I love the grid that is formed.

A spiral was quilted on each cornerstone. The spirals on the edges and corners spill off the sides of the quilt. This is one corner before binding.

Here's a better look at the quilting from the front.

Each block is just a little over 14". The quilt finishes at 67" square.

The binding is a solid rusty color that is the same as one of the backing fabrics.

This project was the perfect start to this fall quilting season.

This quilt is available for purchase in my Etsy store.

Linking up to finish it up Friday over at crazy mom quilts and My Journey Back's Fabulous Fall Party.

A Quilt That Needs to Simmer

One of the blogs I read regularly is Exuberant Color. She is an awesome quilt maker with a great eye for color and design. By way of Pinterest, I happened to run across this post of hers from 2011 with a tutorial for making a quick quilt top. I pinned it and moved on. A week or two later, as part of my sewing room clean out effort, I came upon this lovely set of fabric.

I immediately remembered that tutorial and decided to try it with these. What I didn't realize is that most of them were too small to get all the pieces I needed for the blocks. That sent me back to the stash to find a few more friends to join these.

This is the final stack. Enough for sixteen blocks.

These blocks. 

Kind of boring if you just stop here. The next step is to cut up the blocks.

And then shuffle them and sew them back together.

I love the block. And then I put them all together.

I didn't like them so much anymore. I arranged and rearranged, but no matter what I did, they just look like a jumbled mess.

I put them away for a day, then tried again. It was no better. One thing I really don't like is the random blobs of light fabric. I think I should have been a little less random in my shuffling and sewing. For now, I've made a pile of blocks I really like and a pile of blocks that I'm not super fond of. I think there will be some unsewing going on soon. Once I get happy with the blocks, then I think I'm going to try a layout with some sashing between each block. There is really no place for the eye to rest and it just makes me tired to look at it as it is.

I'm sure there is something wonderful lurking in there, but for now, this one is going away for a few days. I need to give my eyes a rest before taking the next step. Sometimes a quilt comes easy, and sometimes it has to simmer for a while.