Inspi(RED) is a Finished Quilt!

 

Inspi(RED) is my quilt 

for the early 2019 RED challenge

and it is finally finished.

There's a complete post for this one on my blog

with more photos and links to the project's back story.

Come on over and visit!

Quiltdivajulie

Living life in the moment

I forgot that I came by, read a couple of posts, got distracted, and didn't respond. Sometimes I do things in my head (only) and in my head that thing is done. Of course, the rest of the world can't know what's in my head. (It's best for the world that things stay that way.) 

So here I am, much later, and I've caught up with all of your beautiful projects. Here are a few of my own projects. The first two were completed tops that have been waiting their turn on the long-arm for quite some time.

These two are more recent makes. Tops made in 2020. Both are improv quilts for different reasons. This first one found its positivity in that it's a donation quilt. The money from its sale will go to my guild and some boy will be happy from its warmth.

This quilt. I didn't know what to do with this insane thing. One day I just tried something new and voila! I loved it. Getting everything to go together was a bit of a struggle but also a celebration when I figured it out. It's my favorite quilt... until the next one. 

Most of my days the last month or so have been spent crafting small items to put in a craft booth at a local artist market. I can't even explain what's happened with that endeavor, but I'm enjoying the short break from quilting "ALL THE TIME," according to my family. 

Thanks to everyone who responded. It's wonderful to know that all are well. 

Ruby Snippets a finish for 2020

This quilt is titled Ruby Snippets. I have no idea why, that's just the only thing that I could come up with. Regardless, it about as improv as a quilt can be. I started with beige scraps and intended that would be the quilt. But just beige didn't work, it cried for some color.  So I relented.

And voila. I'm not sure I can explain my process. Mostly I have a short attention span, when I get tired of something, I make a change. In this case I added red. You remember the red challenge? Well, so did I. What better way to solve the blahs, right?

I do most of my deciding standing in front of the design wall. That was certainly true in this case. These pieces are just that, pieces. Big chunks of squares and rectangles--before I added the larger neutrals. I added those just as I would for HST, except I cut everything into rectangles about the same size. I drew diagonal lines and sewed on either side, then cut on the lines. In every case I pressed toward the solid piece.

The next feeling of "ahn, enough of this" I dug out some larger pieces of beige and used them to turn what was (for the most part) rectangles, into right triangles.

It was while I was trying to figure out how to arrange the new diagonals that I hit on creating these bold lines with the red pieces. In some ways it's meant to look like a log cabin on the diagonal. But I may be the only one to see that. 

I finished it just in time to enter it in the Gulf States Quilting Association's biennial show.

I have no idea

I have no idea where this is going. It was supposed to be a quick little quilt made with scraps just to give me something to do while I was between "real" projects. Sometimes I just can't get going. I resolve that problem with a new project. Every time. I resolve to work on finishing something. Anything. But the new project just happens.

I guess the Red as a Neutral just isn't out of my system, because when I went to the scrap cupboard, they somehow followed me to the worktable. Anyway, there were some large chunks of scrap fabric in both bins, so win! I tried mixing it up a little and put some pieces on the design board. No, that was not working.

So I cut some pieces, trying to tone it down a little with larger pieces of neutral (left), making these rectangles cut on the diagonal and pieced together. No, not really working. I tried to make them into windmills (right). Still not a plan. But now I have a mission. I just don't know what that might be.
I'll keep you posted, both here and on my blog.

inspi(RED) - the Flimsy

The idea for this quilt arrived in February of this year

as I trimmed the strip-pieced center panels for Luminous.

I've always wanted to make my version of

Amanda Jean Nyberg's Birch Trees design -

and this was the perfect opportunity.

I could combine the already-pieced skinny insert strips

with reds from the stash and count this project

 towards the AHIQ Red is a Neutral challenge

from earlier this year.

I've also always wanted to make a RED quilt -

so the collision of timing with all these elements

was absolutely perfect for me.

The finished top measures 48" wide x 60" long

and features 20 different red fabrics from my stash.

I even found a very red reproduction print 

in the stash  that will work beautifully for the back -- 

another bit of fortunate timing.

inspiRED makes me VERY happy!

(and I have another empty project box)

Quiltdivajulie

Red is a neutral challenge MET!

Yes, done. Finished. Complete. Thank goodness.

But it's now Another Red Feather. You can read about it on my blog, Fleur de Lis Quilts.

Update on my "Red as a Neutral"

I'm not sure that's going to be the title, but right now it's all I have. I'd love suggestions. This is where I was this morning...

  and this is where I am now....

The only thing left to add are the borders. I've decided on a five inch border all around to add more red. 
Yes. More. Red. It's a neutral, you know? Plus the quilt needs to be a little bigger, and I am tired of making these fiddly blocks. So borders it shall be. It's about 48" square. I've cut out some five inch strips, so that will add another eight or nine inches overall--just about right. 

Red is a Neutral... five more blocks

I didn't do much this week. (I don't even know why!) But I managed these.

I know I'm dyslexic, but even that doesn't explain the mistakes I made while making the three blocks I needed this week. So why do I have five, you ask. That story is on my blog. Be forewarned: it's not that interesting, but it is typical Mary reasoning.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Always Happy To Finish Another Adhoc. Improv. Quilt!

My Red is a Neutral quilt is finished! I've written all about it over at my blog. It's such a wordy post, I've almost bored with it myself. The post, not the quilt! I'll be having a hard time giving this quilt away though. It turned out so much better than I expected!

Lattice Quilt

Just wanted to pop in over here and give a shout out to Kaja and Ann. They always come up with the most interesting challenges!

Oh, the guilt!

I am feeling a bit guilty about not posting in such a long while. Or reading in weeks. Or commenting on anything I have read. But I try to keep guilt at bay. Life is tough enough at times without adding to the difficulties. So the guilt is really not that bad.

Anyway, I've finally put together some idea of what I could be doing with the Red Is a Neutral challenge. It's taken me a while to get here, but now that I'm on my way, I'm enjoying the challenge. My traditional quilt guild is working on a block of the month sampler quilt. I tried to go a couple of different ways with it: scrappy, then controlled scrappy. Nothing working. Then I ruined the couple of blocks I had made when I power-washed the studio. I figured it was a sign.

That's when it (finally!) occurred to me that I could combine the sampler and the challenge into one awesome project. These blocks are the first five of what I think will be 18. Each month two or three guild sisters present a block for the sampler quilt. We get to see a finished block, get show and tell instruction on how to make it, and get written instructions to take home. The following month we should return with, you guessed it, two or three completed blocks. We started in January. We should finish in July. The quilts are supposed to hang in our guild show in September. Everyone laughs when I say this out loud. Why?

I think I have enough red for a complete quilt. I know there is not enough of this gray and black, but I plan to add more of those colors as needed. I also plan to wait before sewing the blocks together so that I can mix them up enough that the grays and blacks look like they all belong.

The blocks are 12" square except this last one. It's 15" because I messed with the instructions. Nonetheless, this block will be in the quilt. As my mom loved to say, "Somehow. Someway." I guess I'll just figure it out as I go along. Momma used to say that, too.

More about the beginning of this project on my blog, Fleur de Lis Quilts.

Red, Two Blocks, and Chinese Coins Mashup

The border of the Square Deal is finally done. I hope. After a few months in time out, I changed a few blocks in the outer border to get better definition. Now they move from crips delineation at the bottom left to more diffusion at the top right. {EDIT: I retook and replaced the photo. This one is better but now a bit cooler than real life. Sigh.}

The Square Deal quilt top

The center mixed some Chinese Coins that just didn't make it as a quilt with HSTs in every shade of solid red/peach/pink in the stash. The triangles are all ruler cut although {if I'd been thinking} free-hand might have looked better.

The crosses are Sujata's Lattice design from Cultural Fusion Quilts and they were scissor cut. My crosses widen with each set. The first ones were so narrow that the seams overlap after pressing but the last few are superhighways!

Does that mean I finished three improv invitations at once?

1. Chinese Coins {because those were the original units for the striped triangles} 
2. Two Blocks
3. Red is a Neutral (because I played with several fabrics before deciding red looked best with those striped triangles}

"Red" stretches it a bit. These reds all read as foreground rather than background. Must {and will} try again.

Also posted on my blog.

Red is a Neutral has been such an interesting challenge! You can read more about my finished quilt top over here at my blog. I think after a couple other projects get some attention, this is one that I will definitely return to.

#AHIQRED and #UANDUQAL quilt top

My First Attempt at Red is a Neutral!

I've finished with all the Lattice blocks now and am attempting to figure out the proper layout. You can read more about this quilt over at my blog. This particular quilt is a combined effort of trying to play with the 'Red is a Neutral' and also the UandUQAL challenge of making an Unexpected and Unconventional inspired quilt. 

Throwing the first blocks on the wall....

I feel that there will probably be another Red is a Neutral quilt some time after this one. Sometimes there just needs to be a starting point to get the mind going in the right direction!

NOT a Mystery - My AHIQ Red Project Begins

This is the quilt from Unconventional and Unexpected

that Sujata suggested for the U and U quilt along.

I knew from the beginning that I would not

be making mine in the style of the original,

so I've been waiting to see which direction

my version would take.

In the meantime, I ran across this vintage beauty

photographed by Ann Champion and shared on Flickr.

And my brain immediately leaped to a quilt design

I've made twice before.

This version was named Happy Happy Joy Joy 

(or HHJJ for short) was made 

during the 2016 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

And this version, named Girly Girl,

 was made shortly thereafter

to celebrate our great niece's birth.

In HHJJ, I used strings to fill in the side triangles.

In Girly Girl, I used half square triangles.

So with the design method settled,

I moved on to my waiting fabric pulls.

I had pulled these scrappy pieces

shortly after Bonnie Hunter introduced

her 2018 Good Fortune mystery quilt.

I never planned to make her mystery quilt

but I was drawn to the colors and her inspiration.

This photo was taken by our DIL in the Forbidden City 

during one of her Asian business trips.

It captures Bonnie's inspirational color palette perfectly.

(I even used this photo as my desktop wallpaper 

back when I was working at the law firm)

I also had this fabric pull set aside

for the current AHIQ Red challenge.

Once I started looking, the overlap between the two

was obvious and they quickly became one project

that suits both the UandU QAL 

and the AHIQ Red challenge.

With the intensity of my colors,

it was clear the low volume prints

needed an upgrade.

This long-stashed Marblehead was my choice.

  

I pulled these four fabrics from the stash

to use for the quilt's pieced back.

Initially I was not going to add the narrow strips

along the sides of the center insert.

But when I cut one WOF strip of a well-aged red batik

and laid it alongside the first pieced center segment 

you can see the results -- Those rich red 1" strips 

simply HAD to be part of this quilt.

I'm planning a layout 5 blocks wide x 7 blocks long

for a top that will measure 50" x 70" 

8 blocks made, 27 more to go.

And when I trim the center strips to 4.5" wide,

these marvelous lengths are the cutaways.

I already have a plan to use them 

in another small quilt!

Hooray for the UandUQAL 

and the AHIQ Red challenge

and for shopping my stash to create this project.

Quiltdivajulie

Another "Red Is A Neutral"

Here's another quilt where I used red as a neutral. 

Don't Set Sail On Someone Else's Star

72 x 90

(Snow kind of blew all over the quilt while I was taking photos that day.) 

Some of the stars were September 2013 Block Lotto winnings. I made the rest of the blocks and decided on a layout. 

Quilt was finished February 2014. 

February 2014 blog post at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting.

This was the first time I added words to a quilt.  I thought the African proverb "Don't set sail on someone else's star"  was a good one for a high school graduate so put the quilt in the hope chest for a graduation gift for a grandchild. 

Cathy L in IA

Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting

Red is Neutral

Confetti Waves

48 x 64

Started December 2015

Finished October 2018

I finished this quilt last year that used red as neutral and waste triangles in an Ocean Waves layout.

It is in my donation pile now. 

Blog post

I also have another WIP inspired by vintage blocks that uses red for neutral. I'll post more on that later when I finish it.   I continue to work on a couple of quilts for the mapping challenge. 

Cathy L in Iowa

Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting

Red is a Neutral AHIQ Invitation

Kaja and I emailed back and forth discussing ideas for the next invitation. After the extreme challenge of mapping, we wanted something simpler. The new year is always busy with challenges, swaps, QALs, etc. Personally, I've joined Sujata's  U and U Challenge. She and Rod Kiracofe are delightful, generous, and exceptionally open to the beauty of handmade crafts.

In the meanwhile, two venues in Berkeley CA showcase Freddy Moran this month: Hello Stitch and Bay Quilts. Unfortunately Freddy was unable to attend the reception but it sparked further discussion of her many contributions to improvisational quilting. She and Gwen Marston collaborated on two books where she famously stated, "Red is a neutral." Then I pointed out that Rod's show, Red, just closed.

Ode to Gwennie by Freddy Moran

It's a sign! A series of blinking red light signs!

How would you use red? Does it really go with everything? Of course, feel free to combine with other challenges, with your current projects, choose another neutral, or skip it altogether.

Zig Zag by Freddy Moran

We invite you to join us this year. Use #AHIQRed if you post on your blog or other social media so we can find your work.

Are you in?

Ann and Kaja