Greater than/less than

Hello! It’s a beautiful spring-like day here today and I have a bright cheery quilt to share! (and as luck will have it, I actually remember how to write a blog post…)

I love me a good all solids quilt, and I knew once I saw Heather Ross and Annabel Wrigley’s new solids line, Ruby & Bee, that I had to order some to see them in person. The colors are just beautiful! Such a great mix of bright colors (lots of pinks, my favorite!) but also some darker colors to balance it all out. I knew I had to see what I could make with this selection.

I ended up ordering a few additional cuts of some of my favorites, and I removed 3 of the yellows. Then I was challenged to find a design to show off these lovely colors. I struggled and tried several different options before ending up with this. I hate to say it was a struggle, but I felt like I wasn’t doing the fabric justice. And then I was frustrated feeling like I was wasting the fabric while trying to come up with a design. I’m glad I kept at it though, because I’m so happy with how this turned out. I can’t wait to get this one quilted so I can put it to use!

Originally the plan was for the triangles to be oriented the other direction, but I failed in my measuring and the quilt top ended up wider than it was long (oops!). I thought about making more of the blocks to get it to size, but then realized that I quite liked it going the other direction. And there you have it!

I used up most of the remaining fabrics on a fun scrappy backing, so hopefully this one will be finished in the near future!

Happy Spring!

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scrappy solids

Well hello! It’s funny how you can stop blogging for a few days and then suddenly find that it’s been months… or a year or more! You know what though, I still love having this record of my projects online, so I’m going to attempt to be better about posting them here.

This quilt came about suddenly – I hadn’t had much motivation to do any quilting… possibly due to too much mask-making all summer, or perhaps just feeling burnt out and unmotivated. I kind of missed it though, and kept trying to find some easy way to ease back into it. One day I remembered all the bags of solid scraps I found stored in the basement. I decided to challenge myself to create something, anything!, out of them.

After pulling them all out, I realized that most were longish strips, so I just started piecing them into pairs. Then I pieced those pairs together. I found that many were long enough to allow me to trim them down into large 16″ blocks. And when I came up short, I just pieced in extra solids.

Since it was basically just piecing strips together, these blocks came together quite quickly and it made for a very satisfying project!

For the backing, I found several yards of this old Amy Butler print I had been hoarding, and it seemed perfect. I always love having the chance to actually use something I’ve been holding onto for so long!

I quilted it with double straight lines on the diagonal, and bound it in a dark solid I had on hand. I can honestly say it felt good to make something again. Hopefully this will be what I need to feel like starting another project… sometimes that’s all it takes, right?

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Diamonds in the Outback

Happy Friday! Today I finally have photos of this finished quilt! I loved this one from the start, but I must say, quilting has really changed it for the better. You may remember when I posted about this quilt top (here, if you’d like to take a look). It’s made out of fabrics from the Outback Wife collection by Cathi of gertrudemade. These fabrics are inspired by vintage barkcloths and have such a wonderful texture.

The fabric base is heavier than typical quilting cotton, so I knew from the start that this was one I wasn’t going to want to attempt to quilt on my own. I’ve had Rachel of Stitched in Color long arm quilt a couple of my other quilts, so when she announced that she was moving with her family overseas and had a couple spaces left for long arm quilting, I jumped at the chance to have her work on this one.

Once again, I let her take a look at the quilt top and give me her suggestion on a quilting pattern to complement, and once again, she nailed it with her first suggestion! This is crystal ball, quilted vertically, and I just love the way it looks on this quilt.

Just look at it on the mostly solid chambray backing!

I’m sad that I won’t be able to send any other quilts Rachel’s way, but luckily for those in Europe, she will soon be accepting quilts again. You can sign up to be notified when quilting services will be available.

I added an olive green solid for binding and ta da! It feels good to have this one finished! Thanks to Rachel for making that happen!

Posted in Fabric, Finished Quilts, Posts about Quilts, Quilts | Tagged , , , , | 15 Comments