Tag Archives: modern quilt

Modern vs. Reproduction

I am in the middle of a Block of the Month at Quilters Common in Wakefield, MA. Antoinette is offering 3 colorways: Blues, Brights, and Traditional. I love reproduction fabrics, so I went with the traditional colorway, but I am also digging into my stash and making a set of blocks with my modern/contemporary fabrics.

This is what I have so far. I have set up both colorways side by side on my design wall with the setting squares for a comparison. For those folks who think traditional/reproduction is all browns and boring … guess what … it is not!! Old quilts are often brown because the dye in the fabrics has faded. The reproduction fabrics have brought back all the glorious colors that were in your great great (great?) grandmother’s quilts when they were new and they compare quite well with the modern fabrics. Both quilts will be full of color.

My plan for both quilts is to use half blocks for an inner border and also a 9″ outer border. The finished quilts will be 90″ x 90″.

Here is a 48″ x 48″ portion of what the tops will look like. Notice two of the star blocks are the same pattern? I did not like the first one, so I made a second one. The top one will go in the quilt. The other may end up on the back of the quilt.

These will be WIPs for quite a few more months, but I’m glad I got a head start on the setting blocks!

Improvising with Scraps

It certainly has been quite a while, but I finally have time to post again! Back in March I brought my improvised scrappy blocks to the Boston Modern Quilt Guild Retreat and put a quilt top together.

I finished this quilt a couple of months ago on my long arm.

The back of the quilt has a few of the blocks, too.

I am still saving my scraps and sorting them by color, but maybe I should throw them all in together and try a different approach next time! No matter what, it is a great way to be thrifty and also environmentally green. Reuse, recycle, and don’t waste any of your precious fabric!

Jane I Have Not Given Up on You!

Okay, here they are! More Jane blocks.

My Jane Stickle group is concentrating on the G Row to get one entire row done. I am now about 6 months behind, so I decided to focus on those as well, rather than do them in the order assigned.

I completely hand pieced Block G8 and I am happy with the result. It was a bit frustrating at first and I concluded that I am happy the sewing machine was invented! This is not a Kaffe or a Phillip or even a Westminster fabric, but I think it works well with them. Guess I have decided to branch out and mix some other fabrics in. If I have a fabric that works I am going to use it! No one in my group seemed to notice my Kaffe Fassett/Phillip Jacobs departure, so I got away with it!

I did give hand piecing another try with G1. I thought it would be too difficult to try curved piecing on the machine because the curve seemed a bit too tight. I finished this block with the machine.

For block G7 I decided to go ahead and try machine piecing the curves and it went quite well. I pressed the pieces in half to line up the centers and pinned at the center and each side. I put the convex piece on the bottom when sewing. I only redid one of the curved seems and I actually ended up redoing that one twice!

G9 is just straight forward paper piecing and I used an Amy Butler fabric this time (at least it is a Westminster fabric!). I wanted to use this orange!

Finally, I was looking at my progress chart and double checking to see if I had everything in the right place. I found my chart had a couple of blocks in the wrong row and also discovered a block with the wrong fabric! But, aren’t I lucky because the block is D13, which is just about the easiest block you could find yourself redoing. So, I now have a red and an orange D13.

And to wrap things up I will also show you the second B12 that I made some time ago because I was not happy with my first try at reverse applique. The first is really not so bad, but I think I like the fussy cutting in the redo better.

Is this more than you ever wanted to know about my Jane blocks??

Oh!! …. in case anyone is counting I finally got 50 blocks done! WOOT WOOT!!

The Garden Continuum Quilt

I decided to participate in the Modern Quilt Guild’s Michael Miller Fabric Challenge. My plan was to fussy cut some blocks and then improvise from there, although I must admit my improvisation ended up taking place on my drawing pad so that I would have an idea of how much fabric I would need to surround my blocks. Does that mean it is not really improvised? Can there be no planning with improvisation? Perhaps not!

I am calling this quilt the Garden Continuum. It is 48″ x 64″. I used all 6 of the fat eighths provided and I think I made good use of them. I used 2 yards of fabric for the background and the binding, and also added about an eighth of a yard of a solid green fabric.

In keeping with the theme of the quit, I went with edge to edge swirly quilting so that the garden blocks blend in and appear to be floating in the continuum!

Good Fortune in Chicopee

My Good Fortune Quilt with Denyse Schmidt’s Chicopee Fabric is finished! I finished it a couple of weeks ago but have not found time to share this with everyone. This is the quilt top that I put together at the BMQG retreat in March.

I used Patricia Ritter’s Bauhaus pantograph for this quilt. I know, I know, I should have just free motion quilted, but I am a big wimp and do not trust my skills for keeping things even and consistent.

I want more time to practice and play! But, I am happy with what I have accomplished with this quilt.