Tag Archives: Quilters Common

Playing with Convergence Quilts

Ricky Tims published his Convergence Quilts book in 2003. I was brainstorming with Jolene at Quilters Common trying to come up with a good idea for a workshop. She mentioned that she had seen some Harmonic Convergence quilts on the internet, perhaps Pinterest? So of course I did some researching as soon as I got home and discovered his book. I checked a copy of the book out from the incredible New England Quilt Museum research and lending library. (I volunteer there on Thursdays). The book has a lot of interesting projects to try, but the trick is finding the right fabric combinations. I found his original Harmonic Convergence project the easiest to work with. In fact I found it so easy that I could hardly stop picking out fabrics and making them. It is fun and easy to put these stunning little quilts together. Here are the ones I have put together (so far!)

Here is a pictorial overview of the process:

Start with four 16″ squares. Sew them together is pairs, layer the four squares and then cut strips increasing in size by half an inch from 1″ to 3 1/2″. For the quilt in the photos there was enough fabric left over, so I cut an extra 1″ strip and used it as a border.

Open up the strips and then rearrange them as shown here (click to zoom in on any of these photos).

Looking at the photos of my finished quilt tops above, I am going to point out that on my turquoise and red quilt the strips are not arranged correctly! Can you see what I did wrong? Does it matter???

Once the strips are arranged CORRECTLY, sew them all together. When I was pressing the seams, I spun the seams so that half of the seam was pressed to one side and the other to the opposite side. Trust me, do this and it will be much easier to sew the second go round of strips together, because everything will nest together nicely and increase your accuracy. If you want these to end up pressed to the dark side then remember to press to the light side when you are first sewing your squares together in pairs …. I did not do this in the example … live and learn!

Once the strips are pressed, rotate the fabric panel, and cut strips again increasing in size from 1″ to 3 1/2″, plus the extra 1″ strip if you are including the border,

Rearrange them and sew them together again to complete your Harmonic Convergence square.

I finished one of mine on point, two of the others with borders, and the bright solid colored one is finished with some modern asymmetrical negative space.

I am I the process of quilting these, and finding they are a great way to practice my free motion quilting.

I designed my modern convergence in Electric Quilt 8 and printed an outline of the quilt to draw out my quilt plan.

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!

Barbados Bag

I am so glad I found time to take a class at Quilters Common yesterday. Thank you Pat for doing such a great job of guiding us through the process of making the Pink Sand Beach Designs Barbados Bag. We all had great success getting our bags put together during the class. The pattern has lots of pictures and step by step instructions, but it always helps to get confirmation that you are doing the right thing when there are so many details. And, I discovered how to put tabs on the ends of the zippers, which makes for a much more finished look. Can’t believe how easy it is to do!

If you get this pattern the only suggestion I have is to prepare the tabs for attaching the D rings to the bag separately rather than cutting them from the strap, and don’t use the fusible fleece for these tabs. Use the durabond on both sides. This makes it easier to fold the ends over. Also, I used hardware to make my bag adjustable for wearing over the shoulder or cross body.

It’s a well written pattern and makes a versatile little bag with just the right amount of structure to it. I am already thinking of other fabric choices for a second one.

Poor Neglected Jane

After many moths of neglecting my Jane quilt I finally got some blocks put together for the July meeting.

Here are each of my blocks. The Star block was a bit of a challenge, but the method we used for the center was to fold a little square in half which worked out wonderfully.

I did have a bit of a hard time getting one of the background pieces lined up correctly when paper piecing the star. After ripping out three times I grabbed a 6″ width of fabric strip, placed the paper on top off that and ran it through the machine. Plenty of room and no wasted fabric after I trimmed it … how’s that for a new paper piecing method!

Aunt Lucy is Quilted

Just an update regarding my Aunt Lucy Quilt. I have finished quilting and binding her. The fun thing about this quilt is that it has a wonderful collection of Reproduction Fabrics. This was possible because I participated in a block of the month program at Quilter’s Common in Wakefield, MA. Thus I did not have to purchase one bit of fabric more than required and still got this wonderful scrappy quilt.

The quilting was a bit of an adventure for me. I printed patterns that I sized to fit the blocks and borders and used the laser light on my longarm machine to trace them. This is the second time I have turned a quilt to do the borders. I did a test run with a little panel quilt (that still needs a binding). I am happy with the results.

I found the patterns I used in this quilt in May Covy’s Follow the Line’s Quilting Designs, Volume 5, Authentic Civil War Designs and More

Aunt Lucy’s Medallion Quilt

I have a soft spot in my heart for reproduction fabrics and patterns. I love old quilts and enjoy reading about them and have a few old tops that I treasure.

I could not resist Collette’s block of the month at Quilter’s Common for this pattern. I got a bit behind on finishing it but here is the top ready for quilting. I was inspired by Collette to add the striped border. I love how the Green jumps out now. The picture before the outer blocks and border were added highlights the reds. My blue/green border gives it another look altogether.

Piecing this top was a bit of a challenge and I feel that I have really improved my skills quite a bit. So, I am glad I spent the time to fuss with all of these blocks.

Autumn Splendor

Well, the splendor of autumn has past, and now we are faced with bare trees until Spring. I really did enjoy the change of the season this year and was inspired by all of the bright autumn colors in the trees. Also, one of my Block of the Month projects fit right in, because I chose the Harvest Road color scheme for my BOM that I am doing at Quilter’s Common.

So, for one last bit of autumn inspiration in my quilting I put this table runner together for my friends who were kind enough to invite my husband, his Mom and I for Thanksgiving Dinner. I picked three of the block patterns from the BOM and stayed close to the colors that Antoinette chose for two of them, but decided to go with green instead of yellow for the center block.

Now I am going to have to be inspired by the colors of the Holiday and also the ice blue skies of winter.

Kerryn Bag Class

Yesterday I taught the Kerryn Tote Bag class at Quilter’s Common in Wakefield, MA.

I had two students and Colette also joined us to work on a shop sample.

Joyce and Nancy finished their bags, and Colette almost finished hers. I have to thank Colette for a couple of great ideas …

1. Add fusible interfacing to one of the lining pocket pieces to add more stability to the inside pocket section.

2. To shape the bottom of the bag: After sewing the pocket sectioning seams from “pocket top” to “pocket top”, sew two seams from one side to the other of the 36″ x 21″ bag and lining pieces. The seams should be 3″ apart in the center of the bag and lining pieces.

It was great fun spending the day sewing with the ladies at the shop. I may be teaching the class again sometime in the future and will post when that is scheduled. In the mean time the pattern is for sale as a downloadable file in my Craftsy Shop.

Midnight in Bali BOM

I am working on finishing a Block of the Month quilt from last year. This one was with Quilters Common in Wakefield, MA. I have finally gotten the blocks and center medallion sewn together and now all I have to do is add the borders. The pattern is from Beyond Tradition by Pamela Culo.

Here is the top with the Borders waiting to be added. I think the finished top will look spectacular.

This was one of those BOMs where you would get the kit free each month IF you completed last month’s BOM … which motivated me to get them done. I also made a commitment to make a second block each month using reproduction fabric. My motivation for this was all the ewws and ahhs that I got from my fellow BOMers each month!