The Any Color Quilt

Oh, the quilt. Oh, the story. I just love this quilt. But it wasn't always that way.

It was my turn to be in charge of the quilt for the Believe Circle of do. Good Stitches in December. I wanted to be extra, extra nice to our great group of stitchers since December is such a busy month for most folks. I wanted the block to be super easy. Here's what I sent to the group:

We're doing some simple improv this month. And, we've all done great over the past few months gearing our quilts towards boys, so for December, think girl, girl, girl. What I'd like to receive from you is one 12.5" block and four 6.5" blocks using a square in a square block. The inner square can be big or small. It can be centered or off set. I would like for them to all be straight, so no wonky squares please. The center square should be a focus fabric and the frame should be a solid.

As you can see from my inspiration blocks, just about any color will work. It would be great if your outer frame was at least 1.25" after sewing (meaning cut at 1.5" so that it would finish to be an inch wide on the quilt. For most of my blocks, I cut the solids much wider than necessary, then squared up the block after sewing so that I could have a little bit of control over where that center square sat in the finished block.

So, perhaps I should have taken the hint when one of our stitchers sent the question, "Any color?". Note to self: some semblance of a color palette is a REALLY good idea.

Everyone rallied to the cause and mailed in their blocks. And they are all great and I'm so excited about getting started. And I start laying out the blocks...design after design after design. Nothing works. There are too many variations; too much chaos. Nothing in common. My excitement wanes. My frustration increases. Walk away. Try again tomorrow.

A new day, a new idea. Depending on the design, there are enough blocks to make two quilts. Two quilts! Awesome. I divided the blocks into two sets, warm colors and cool colors. Much, much better. Still, the warm color version was being stubborn. All of my non-traditional ideas just looked too busy. I finally came to the conclusion that this was just going to be a basic design. Once the top was assembled, well, it was okay. It's pretty, but it isn't stunning. What's a girl to do. Sleep on it.

After sleeping on it, I decided that rather than use an overall design for the quilting on this one, it would be quilted sampler style, using a different design in every block. I thought this might improve the quilt overall and it would definitely provide some much needed free motion practice. This is when this project turned fun for me. I love all things quilt making, but once I got into the quilting of this project, it took on a life of its own. I started with the designs I was familiar with. The first block, the yellow block of love, was quilted with spirals.

Then some leaves on the border and a bit of meandering in this block.

 I know those were the first two blocks I quilted. And I can remember the last blocks. The middle is all just a quilting blur. A very satisfying blur, but a blur just the same. Here are the rest of the big blocks. A simple, wavy border with some outline quilting in the center,

a meander, 

wavy lines and pebble paths, 

and a paisley pattern.

The more I quilted, the more comfortable I became. Finally, I stopped trying to "figure out" what quilt design to use, and drew from each focus fabric. Asterisks, kites, pizzas, flowers...all sorts of quilting designs began to emerge. It was fun, really fun. Here are the small blocks, lots and lots of small blocks. The bright orange block:

This was an attempt to quilt branches for the bird. The upper left is tolerable, but then I got a bit carried away so the rest looks like a bunch of busy lines.

A simple pebble fill.

I was trying to combine spirals and pebbles in this one. The spirals overwhelm the design but it was good practice. 

Some scribbly lines to mimic the writing in the block.

The light orange block:

Rows of asterisks. This is one of my favorites.

Waves for the fishies.

Flowers.

And paisleys. 

The dark gray block:

More flowers.

Rectangles. This is another favorite.

Flowers. Of the flowers, I like this one the best.

Gentle, wavy lines.

The pink block:

Flower vines,

 

apple trees, 

 

scallops,

 

and carnations.

 

The red block:

The center fabric of this block makes me think of beach balls, but when I was quilting the shape on the border all I could think about was cutting a pizza into slices. I must have been hungry.

Dots, circles, and lines.

Fronds. 

Kites. Love the kites.

The yellow block. The red and yellow blocks were the last two blocks quilted for this project. This was the home stretch.

Little posies.

A big flower.

Loopdie-loops. 

A wavy grid.

Each block is surrounded by circles in the sashing.

The back is fun, too, with some Kaffe Fassett Buttons fabric and a panel of solid orange and extra blocks. The busy print on the back is nice since it proved to be quite forgiving for those occasional quilting tension issues. It just all blends right in.

It is finished with a Kaffe Fassett Paperweight fabric for the binding. Headed to the post office next week to ship this quilt off to My Very Own Blanket.

Next, I'll be working on the cool color version of this quilt. The top is finished. Here's a peek.

Have to credit my husband for suggesting the triangles. That got this design off the ground. My intention is to mellow a bit for the quilting on this one. We'll see though. You never know what might happen once the quilt gets under the machine.

First Finish for 2014 - A Quilt for Adam

My last finish for 2013 led straight to my first finish for 2014. Generally, my boys (there are three of them) don't pay much attention to the quilts I make. But when I shared with my youngest son that this quilt

would be a gift to my sister-in-law, he had a few things to say about that. "You can't give this quilt away. I love this quilt!" Wow. I was shocked. He'd never noticed before. I told him that if he liked that quilt that much, I would make him a quilt next. However, it would not be the exact quilt, but one that had all the things he liked about this one. I really don't like to make the same quilt twice. There's usually enough repetition in one to last.

He and I sat down and went through all the quilts on my Pinterest page to find a good design. The only rule was that his quilt had to come from fabric that I already had on hand. The thing he liked most about the original quilt was the colors. Once we found a pattern, we pulled what he wanted to use from my stash. The pattern can be found here.

First, we pulled blues, then he said he'd like some green in it, too. It really needed a second color so to add some interest, so I'm glad he thought of that on his own. Next, I made some test blocks.

He loves wolves, so that's where I started. He was very happy with these blocks so it was a go to move on with the full quilt. I went ahead and paired the fabrics and cut the blocks.

Then put it all together. I thought this quilt would take me into at least early February but once I get started on a project like this, I tend to get a little obsessive. It didn't take long to have all the blocks sewn.

We've had a whole lot of wet and dreary days here lately, which is good for sewing time, but not so good for taking pictures. Here is the finished top. The guy who is getting this quilt is peeking over the top.

I use the garage floor to layer my quilts. Don't let the sun shining on the quilt fool you. I think it was 20 degrees on the day of layering.

The quilting consists of three lines of quilting on the sashing between the blocks and some free motion circles around the inner square of each block.

Adam's birthday is in January and about the time I was ready to start the quilting, I thought that maybe, just maybe, this quilt could be finished for his birthday. Two days before his birthday, I embarked on a binding marathon.

This quilt finishes at 67 x 89, which is bigger than most quilts I make and it did get finished in time. It was washed and dried on his birthday so he could sleep with it that night.

This is the first time he has really paid attention to each step of making a quilt and he made me tell him each time I finished a step. Once the top was put together, he would take the quilt after each step, put it over his head, and do some sort of crazy song and dance. It was really funny.

Another closer look at the quilting.

The back is done in wide stripes.

It's great when stash makes both the front and back of a quilt.

He loves his quilt and I love it that I was able to make something just for him.

His brother has taken notice and has asked for a quilt to be made just for him as well. We've gone through the designs and he has chosen something far different from his brother. I'm sure there will be another special finish before too much longer.