Improv Piano Key Border Pieced, Binding Pinned Down on my HotMat Small Quilt Project

 Hello ADHQ Friends!

It's almost Thanksgiving, we have so much to be thankful for.

I finished piecing the final Improv Piano Key border on one of my HotMat small quilts and I've sewn down the binding on one side and pinned it down to the back side, almost done! I had to post my progress now because things are going to get busy around here till after Thanksgiving. 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

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