New Prompt

 A good prompt.  I seem to be stuck on the same border idea for all my quilts. Either I have none or four of the same all around. But this one - at least I made them different size.

I've got it sandwiched. Now to quilt it. This I Spy flimsy is for St. Anne's. 

I'll have to get out a UFO to work on some borders.  Blessings.

AHIQ Wonky/Improv Quilt Border Experiments and Progress

Border added, dark purple to the left, yellow/green all around.

Collection of various scrappy borders ready to try out.

Solid border added to my small scrappy improv blocks.

Improv/wonky flying geese border added on the right.

Solid strips added between each row and a yellow/green strip between each scrappy little block.

 

Hello AHIQ friends! Happy fall!

This is a quick progress report on my wonky/improv quilt border experiments. I have piles of scraps in colors that play together well and orphan blocks laid out according to size (small).  I'm making these small quilts up to be used as mug rugs for kitchen or table use for gifts for the holidays.

More to come, I'll be by to visit!

AHIQ New Prompt Idea! Improv Modern Borders! What's Your Favorite Border? Log Cabin Improv by Mary Hogan and The Art of Make Do Quilting by Mary Kerr, Two Excellent Quilting Reads.

One of my finished small quilts with thin borders and improv 9 Patch border.

Mary Hogan's book is full of inspiration and improv border ideas and tutorials.

Two quilts in progress with improv Saw Tooth borders.

Small sample quilt of leftover Saw Tooth border pieces.

 Hello AHIQ's !

What do you think of this new prompt? Borders are an important design feature of our quilts, right?

Have you tried any new borders lately? With what results? 

I checked out a new book from the library, The Art of Make Do Quilting by Mary Kerr. Talk about amazing borders! Her subject on the cover is The Ultimate Guide for Working with Vintage Textiles, but her ideas and inspiration are easily transfered to newer quilt fabrics of course. It's a great book with super examples of her quilt projects.

Have a wonderful quilting day!

cross quilt

 I started an improv quilt simply called 'cross' and the inspiration came from the brilliant "Unconventional and Unexpected" book by @roderick752. 

After a little research, I decided to approach this by using a log cabin block that gets sliced up, it works better for my smaller scraps. I faffed around working out the maths and made up a trial block. Super pleased with how things were looking, so I ploughed ahead with making a few more blocks. 

I am going scrappy with these blocks, using just what I have on hand – a combination of random bits of stash, including some vintage fabrics. I've narrowed down my colour story though with the fabrics that I pulled out, working with a range of pinks-plum, teal, blues, sage, orange, and yellow-golds.

And right now, I'm really enjoying mixing it up with both prints and solids.

Not all my seams are perfectly matched but considering the nature of the original design I'm happy going a bit rogue.

                                                                                                                                                

 

and on the design wall, in no particular order yet...

Until next time, Linda @ kokaquilts

Somewhat late, talking point for May

Thanks, first to all those who shared their inspirational books in posts over the last couple of months.  There were some excellent recommendations and I loved how varied they were.  

This time around I thought I'd ask about your sewing habits and most specifically what you do when you are travelling or away from home.  There is a bit of an ulterior motive here.  If we take holidays in the UK I usually just bundle up whatever I am quilting at the time and take it with me, but I have a couple of things this year where that won't be a sensible option, so I'm looking to see if I can pinch good ideas from other people.

I did, once before, piece some cushion covers in advance and then work on them, just quilting.   But I've made a few of these now and it's not something I would want to keep doing over and over. 

I am wondering now if I should look on travelling as an opportunity to try something different.  Maybe there is a way to make paper piecing work with my messy and imprecise approach.  Maybe I should revisit the joys of stitching on denim.

So, do you just take a break when the holidays roll around?  Do you work in a sketch book, or plan but not sew?  Do you have a travelling bag full of hexies that goes everywhere with you or are you lugging big quilts wherever you go?  Are the holidays an opportunity to try something new or revisit old habits.  As usual, no right or wrong answers so just hop in and tell us what you like to do.

Quilted Jacket

 Oops. Back in January I mentioned challenging myself to make a quilted jacket. The project seemed unrealistic for years but my son's been asking for one a very gentle intervals. What the heck. The worst that will happen is that it all gets tossed. 

Once I actually took it seriously, it wasn't that hard. I posted it on my other blog but forgot to put anything here. Belatedly, here it is.

Quilted coat, front view

And the side view. DS wanted the turn-down sleeves to keep his hands warm when walking the dog. {Isn't that what gloves are for?}

Quilted coat, side view

And the back. 

Quilted coat, back view

Choosing a pattern with raglan sleeves and making a muslin were integral to my success. Raglan sleeves are much easier to sew with these thick layers. The {multiple} muslins insured everything really fits him.

{It's easier to fit a muslin to someone else than to fit it to myself.}

Read more details here. 

Ann

Inspiration Abounds

I have quite a few "favorite" quilt books . . . in no particular order, these photos will show you which ones I pull off the shelf first.

Having started making quilts in the time frame of the Gee's Bend quilt explosion, their work had a huge influence on me.

Both of these books featuring more African American quilts are well worn.

When we visited St. Louis a number of years ago, we visited the Art Museum.  

The Heffley Collection was one of the featured exhibits and, unsurprisingly, this book came home with me.

You can tell how much these have been used given their spiral bindings . . . 

Like so many others, Roderick Kiracofe's book is on my shelf.  I have spent hours studying the array of unique and original quilts he showcased.

I was a latecomer to the work of Roberta Horton - I honestly wish I had discovered her earlier.

I would be terribly remiss if I didn't mention Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran as major inspiration sources.

I absolutely love both of these books and have many (many) others by these two artists.

(Freddy's book is an absolute blast of joy, especially on a dreary day)

Wild by Design has more words than photos but I have referred to it again and again through the years.  I also have another of Janet Catherine Berlo's books, a small paperback titled Quilting Lessons: Notes from the Scrap Bag of a Writer and Quilter which was one of my very earliest inspiration sources (as in there are NO quilt police).

And in 2014 I was privileged to spend most of one day absorbing the Quilts and Color exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts with my friend Lynne.  The quilts in this book never fail to enthrall me.

And if all of these books don't satisfy my inspiration itch, there are plenty more on my studio bookshelf.

* * *

Thanks for sharing this talking point topic, Kaja - it's a great one!

Quiltdivajulie