The same, but different

Take a look at these two quilts made using the same amount of fabric and the same basic techniques.

Both are made from a jelly roll ( pre-cut 2.5 inch strips of fabrics from a single manufacturer's line) so construction was fast and easy.  I arranged the strips on a design wall in an order that I liked, stitched them together, then sliced the finished piecing about 1/3 of the way in.  And no, I didn't measure - just eyeballed what looked about right and cut carefully with a long ruler.  The inset piece features some appliques using the same fabrics.  In the top quilt, Sunnyside, I happened to have a charm pack (5 inch squares) of the same line, so that worked well to make circle appliques.  The second quilt, which I call Furball, features a dog and cat motif in a Basic Grey line -- name escapes me at the moment.  With this one, I only had the jelly roll strips to work with, so I made orange peal appliques just the right size; the orange peal motif just happens to tie in with a repeated design in the fabric print.  With both quilts, I found that adding a thin border to outline the inset panel pulled the overall design together better.

Because the jelly roll strips translate to a very busy design, I just did a loose stipple on both quilts.  But in the applique panel area, I chose to do a more detailed, specific free motion quilting approach.  On the Sunnyside quilt, I did pebbling, which works well with the circles.

On the Furball quilt, I mostly echo quilted, which in turn created its own secondary pattern.



These finish as  large crib quilts, or a pretty standard lap or throw size.  No pattern -- you don't need one.

Next up for quilting -- I spy

I found an Ikea duvet with a fun alphabet print to use as a backing -- the quilt features black and white novelty prints that match up with every letter of the alphabet, so that ties in nicely.  I'm still debating how I will quilt this one.  Quite honestly, though, I can plan to do something, but once I get going with the free motion quilting, it just takes off in an unexpected direction -- witness the wip in the foreground, my flying geese quilt.  I thought I'd be very precise and use a lot of straight lines, but the reality has turned out to be the exact opposite.

Works in progress this week . . .

I worked on the following quilts, in some capacity or other, this week.

I think this answers the question -- do you multitask?

Ummm. Yes, I do.

Gravity Quilt along: Cosmic block

Continuing with my scrappy, unplanned, batiks and blenders version of the Jaybird pattern. . .

This block would be one instance where I don't love how the stash fabrics I used worked out in this particular block.  But I'm going with the theory that the quilt as a whole, with all the blocks together, is going to be awesome.  I was really scraping the bottom of the scrap bin a bit with these blocks, and had almost caved to buy some more fabrics for the upcoming blocks, when, happily enough, I came across a box that had a bunch more scraps in addition to a couple of UFOs.  So, the resolution to use only what I have on hand holds.

Check out the quilt along at Busy Hands Quilts. 

Gravity Quilt along -- Block 6: Ultraviolet

Finished my blocks in my scrappy batik version of the Jaybird Gravity quilt.  What had looked like a huge pile of batik fabric scraps covering every shade in the spectrum turned out to be not quite enough in some color families.  It's hard to see, thanks to the busy textures, but in a couple of places I had to piece creatively.  These two blocks fill my magenta spot, and either the pinky-yellow or the orangey-pink.

Check out the quilt along at Busy Hands Quilts. Generous prizes, and lots of tips for construction, as well as inspiration of seeing other people at work on this gorgeous design. ">

Gravity Quilt along Blocks

Jump start your scrap-pile into a coordinated scrappy quilt

I'll share a tip for those of you who would like to make a scrappy quilt but who feel like you don't have the knack. It's also a great short cut for those who are pro and experienced at fabric mixology, but just want to jump-start a scrappy quilt project.

Start with a pre-cut pack, charms or a jelly roll are easy to work with. Fan out all the fabrics and get a good look at them. If there is one colorway or design that you don't like, go ahead and set it aside, but don't be too exclusionary-- this is going to be scrappy, after all.

Then, with the fabric line freshly in mind, go through your stash and scrap bins and pull everything you think could work with the pre-cuts-- either based on color or style. The more the merrier. It's fine if you use a little piece that will only make one appearance in the quilt. I give myself a couple of rules: If I add say, more green, I need to add at least 3 more greens, so that it becomes a range of related greens, not just one mis-matched green that shows up and kind of sticks out from the matchy bunch. Also, often there will be one or two prints that incorporate all the colors used in the fabric line -- you can use that to help you find the scope of scraps to pull from you bins. While there might be a lot of read-as-solid-pinks in the fabric line, when you look at the mother-lode print, you may see that a couple of shades of red work too.

Now that you've pulled a tonne of scraps, it's time to do another edit and maybe refine the direction that your project is going-- you might add more of a certain color or delete a whole color family. More than once I realize that I'll be happier splitting this into 2 quilts, say one done in cool colors, the other in warms. Or one done with pastels, the other with more vibrant fabrics. Sometimes I decide to keep everything and add even more variety.

When you like the color/print fabric range you have out, you can choose a neutral background fabric or collection of scraps. I like to audition not only the expected white and beige, but also greys, black, or a solid in an unexpected color, just to see if a surprise background might be called for.

I have several quilts where I've used this short-cut-to-scrappy with good success.

Here's one where I got lots of compliments for my color selection--it;s a Dresden Plate using just one charm pack of Vintage Modern by Bonnie and Camille. I chose to minimize (though not completely delete) the pinks and add more green and aqua from my stash. I took the green range pretty extreme, but still within the palette established by the inspiration fabric line. Then I added a fairly intense aqua blue for plate centers and corner blocks and binding. I like the end result because it's a scrappy yet coordinated quilt, and while someone who knows her fabric lines well may recognize the Vintage Modern line, the end result is unique, not exactly like any of the other dresden plates made with that line.

It's also a thrifty way to make what feels like a very contemporary quilt -- the color scheme is very "now"-- but I only used one charm pack (on sale for $8) together with my big stash of older scraps.

I've had a lot of people look at that quilt and marvel that "all those colors and patterns work together-- you wouldn't think they could." Honestly, I probably wouldn't have picked all those colors and patterns out of a basket on my own, but by working off an established collection, and editing repeatedly, I got something I'm quite pleased with.

Some other "rules of scrappy design" *

• Color value is more important than shade.  Using a camera and converting to gray scale can help you spot places where the value selection is off.
• If you aren't happy with a fabric on your design wall, either cut it smaller or add other fabrics that are close but not exact matches.  The smaller the pieces, the more liberty you have in mixing unexpected elements
• Remember that any 3 yellows (or insert color of your choice) may clash, but any 30 yellows will pretty much work -- so add more diversity to get a better blend.
• Sometimes your quilting will be the thing that melds the whole discordant collection of colors and patterns into a unified whole.  Sometimes it will just take a lot of washing in hot water and time in the sun to make them all work together.  (heh-- joking there)
• An unexpected background fabric color can pull a quilt together wonderfully.  Audition a variety of backgrounds -- not just neutrals (though they are often what I end up with).
• Also try out a variety of border and binding treatments.  I've had some excessively scrappy quilts that didn't quite gel until I added a narrow inner border in black.  While I'm not a huge fan of big border treatments or the classic 3 layer border approach I was taught way back in the day, I have found that sometimes a scalloped or wave border is just the perfect thing to pull a scrappy quilt together.

*Not rules, more like guidelines.

Gravity Quilt-along June and Block 5

Some more random thoughts re. my experience in making this quilt strictly with fabrics from my stash:

• My batik stash (supplemented with some tone on tone and subtle textural prints) is working out fine, but one thing I find is that my color selection for each block is dictated by the shapes and quantities I have on hand, not any approximation of the colors used in Jaybird's pattern.

• This block goes together very easily, despite looking a bit more complicated.  I see myself adapting the central "flower" shape and using it in another project, maybe a crib quilt or a table topper.  

• I'm glad to have the specialty rulers-- super sidekick and the hex n'more.  They make accurate cutting so fast and easy.  The only times I run into issues with matching key points is when I've got variation in weave of the fabrics -- so for example, a tight, smooth batik next to a kona solid -- sometimes the fabrics are are responding to pressing and manipulaton differently and that's giving me tiny imperfections.  I tend to be of the "Never mind if it won't be noted from a trotting horse" school of thinking, so no worries.

The quilt along by Busy Hands quilter, complete with good tips and prize drawings is worth checking out -- click here:

Gravity Quilt along -- June

I've been adding to my batik, scrappy, strictly from the stash Gravity blocks steadily in the last few weeks. Check out the quilt along hosted by Busy Hands Quilts at this link

Quilting along with Busy Hands Quilts block of the month: Gravity

I've heard it said that Gravity, by Jbird quilts, is a design that is all about color placement and careful planning.  I agree, but I'm going rogue and doing a completely unplanned, scrappy, batiks and tone on tone texture prints ,stash and scraps only take.

A few random thoughts on striking out on a different take like this:

• I use my design wall to try out color placement a lot more than I would if I were following the directions.
• I may not like the end result, but I figure that there's an equal chance that it will be pleasing in the end
• I reserve the right to change the finished assembly -- in other words, maybe not all my blocks will end up in the same project. I may just make a table topper with 6 diamonds. I'll wait to see what I think.
• I'm going to believe that quilting will pull it together if it feels a little too disjointed right now.
• One of the benefits of using a pattern or batik is that there is just a tiny bit of forgiveness for points that don't completely, perfectly, absolutely match as they should -- solids show every flaw.
• I have an amazing array or batiks, and it's almost ludicrous how most of them are from the blue/green/purple colorways.  I guess my tastes are consistent. 

Check out the quilt along I'm following.  Lots of great prizes, I'm told. Click on the image below to check it out.