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

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

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. 

Overlapping Octagons with red centres

As I haven't posted here for some time I thought an update on my Overlapping Octagons was due.  This is a lap quilt inspired by a photo in the book "Unconventional and Unexpected, quilts below the radar" by Roderick Kirakofe The original quilt was made around 1950 in New York by someone associated with the garment trade who used off-cuts of shirt fabric. It was pieced by hand. In line with the invitation to use "red as the new neutral" I used red for the block centres, and neutral, as any other colour in the frames to the red squares.

This is the last photo of my Overlapping Octagons before the final Y-seams to bring it all together.

This has certainly been a challenge reproducing a historic quilt but using a sewing machine. The challenge is not yet over! Because a photo is flat it's difficult to show how the triangle sections between four red squares are refusing to lie flat.

bubbly triangles!

I have re-sewn some of the seams in the bubbly triangles; the rest I'll try to tame by hand when I finish joining all the columns. I think I probably have more control over the fabric when hand sewing, like the original sewer.

Much as I like the effect of the vertical white fissures in the first photo, they are not a design feature; my next task is to join columns 1 and 2, and then to join that section to columns 3 and 4. Lastly I'll be joining the seams between columns 4 and 5. Somewhere along the line I see I need to add a couple of small triangles in the edges, and to add triangles to three of the four corners. I haven't yet decided whether or not this quilt is calling for a border. What do you think?

Happy sewing

Marly.

Red is Neutral in Octagons with Y-seams

For the UandUQAL organised by Sujata Shah I am reproducing the Overlapping Octagons quilt from Roderick Kirakofe's book, "Unconventional and Unexpected". I haven't done much to it over the last few months; this is the present state of this lap quilt.

I have made octagons with red centres, corresponding to the AHIQ red is neutral challenge, and surrounded them by predominantly dark blue strings.  With this choice I aimed to use up most of my blue and red Civil War reproduction fabrics, and with the red I succeeded and have added more modern reds, but the blue were all so dark I soon started introducing flashes of other colours.

At present they're not overlapping, but I have more red squares cut, and here I've positioned them where red squares will go in the final design.

I am pleased that the overlapping octagons have now emerged.

The octagon blocks have Y-seams at each corner, and inserting the second set of red centre blocks will involve more Y-seams. I wasn't happy about this at the beginning, and so tried making hourglass blocks in the corners, as shown here:

This is one of two hourglass blocks I retained, before I gave up on them. At each of  the corners of this hourglass block five fabrics come together making very bulky seams which I couldn't get to lie flat.

Doing Y-seams, however, means joining only three, which will lie much more easily, especially if the last string in the side panel continues into the corner triangle, as here below.

Sorry about the fuzziness!

In this corner above, one of the four string sets ends in a separate triangle; this is one of the string sets I originally joined to an hourglass block. I rejected that method because of the lack of continuity between the string set and its triangular ending as well as the bulkiness of the join.

There was only one thing for it: Y-seams. I dreaded the thought! Now I'm becoming an expert! Practice makes perfect, they say, and I've had a lot of practice! The secret lies in:

1. starting sewing the seam at the opposite end to the Y-join,
2. stopping two stitches before the point of the join and backtracking a couple of stitches. That unsewn space gives you some room to manoeuvre.
3. starting each seam four stitch lengths further than the join, stitching back two stitches to fix the seam and then stitching the seam further until two stitch lengths before the point and backtracking two to fix the seam.

The mistake I made when I first tried Y-seams was to start at the point where everything came together. It's very crowded there! Much easier to keep your distance from everyone else at the party. Approach slowly and stand still when you're close enough. After following a tutorial from Mary Huey on sewing tumbling blocks, it was plain sailing for me! Mary illustrates the process with lots of excellent, clear photos.

I'm not really sure any more if this really fits the challenge "improv", as I'm working from a photo of an early 20th Century quilt; not exactly a pattern, but an example. I am, however, working it out as I go along, which is a characteristic of improv.

If you think I shouldn't post this here, I apologise.

Happy sewing

Marly.

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.

UandU Plus Red is a Neutral Challenges

When Sujata published the challenge to use a quilt from Roderick Kiracofe's Unconventional and Unexpected I jumped aboard immediately. Over the years Rod's books and periodicals have been mainstays of my quilting education. So a quilt inspired by one in his collection was exciting.

Then I waffled. Sujata has a great idea. I like that quilt... especially with the lozenge-shaped octagons and quiet colors. Then Maureen showed her progress. Another quilt I'd like to make. In fact, as every quilter has posted her choice I've wanted to make "that one" too.

I saw a quilt Rod posted on Instagram from Eli Leon's collection that he says is in UandU. I couldn't find it; however, I already have red and white strips cut and sewed. They would also work the Red as Neutral challenge.  The strip sets were a Chinese Coins idea that didn't work out. Since then they've been folded in my stash; sorting brought them to light.

Here's what I have to start {plus some assorted unsewn strips.}

Red and white stripes

My first thought was cutting diagonal strips and then cross cutting diamonds... until I realized the stripes will parallel one of the sides rather than run perpendicular to the long axis. On to Plan B. Perhaps my kaleidoscope ruler will help.

Here's what I have now. Only enough for one star. I don't want to make more of these strips.

On to Plan C.

Enjoy the day, Ann