Sometimes a sale inspires

My design wall is not a cohesive space.  My Max and Whiskers jelly roll quilt is up there this week, as are these Dresden plate blocks, made with a very different pallete.

I had 2 charm packs* of Vintage Modern by Bonnie and Camille somewhere deep in my stash, and I always thought they would make a nice quick baby quilt with just basic squares.  But then two sales happened.

JoAnn had a 50% off quilting tool sale, and for some reason I felt compelled to buy an EZ Quilter Dresden plate ruler/template because a) I don't have one and b) it was only $5 and c)I've never even liked Dresden plate blocks, so it makes total sense that I would get one, right?

The other sale-based inspiration came from scrolling through the 50% off fabrics online and seeing some yardage that I instantly recognized as Vintage Modern.  This pattern-recognition super power of mine is both an asset and a curse. But once again -- 50% off?  Obviously I need to buy some to make a completely awesome matchy matchy all one fabric line quilt. And what better pattern to use than the Dresden Plate, since I've got that new ruler thing.

Problem is, I don't like matchy matchy, and while this fabric line does have some really fun color pairings, it looked almost "canned" and mass-merchandise to me until I pulled in assorted fabrics from my scrap pile. So about 30 % of the spokes are miscellaneous fabrics.  Even when the color is slightly off, I feel they blend ok, since each individual piece is quite small.

I've got spokes enough for 12 plates, which, when assembled with sashing and borders, makes a good sized twin quilt.  I reserve the right to do something entirely different once I get all the blocks assembled.

There's something about the traditional Dresden plate arrangement that just feels too predictable and prissy to me, so I may have to do something different-- stay tuned. This constitutes a cliffhanger in the world of quilting.

Design Wall Today

This is a quick and easy quilt made with a jelly roll* of Moda's Max and Whiskers line.  I picked it up because it was on sale, and at the time I thought it would be fun to try a jelly roll race**.  But then, after looking at the strips and watching a tutorial on jelly roll racing, I had doubts.  A lot of the fabrics are directional -- the dogs and cats definitely have an up and down orientation.  Looking at a whole bunch of google images for jelly roll race quilts clinched it -- I don't think that this line is one that is best suited to a happy end result for a JRR.

So, Max the dog and his little friend Whiskers languished in my stash for a couple of years.  I pulled this jelly roll out because I wanted to steal some of the distressed white and black fabrics for another project, and while I had it out, I decided this jelly roll had moved to category Use-it-or-lose-it status. Life's too short and my space is too small to keep everything forever.

Here's what I've come up with -- I sewed all the strips together, alternating the direction of my sewing to avoid excessive bowing of the strips. I made sure to keep all the little dogs and cats oriented the same direction, and tried for an even distribution of color, but I didn't overthink fabric placement.

 It would have been a good thing to press after each seam, but I didn't -- I just pressed when the entire thing was assembled, and it turned out well enough.

I folded the pieced strips into quarters and smoothed it all, squaring as much as possible on the cutting board and sliced off the selvedge edges. Then I made a cut 10 inches in from the left edge.  I cut a long 10 inch panel from brown fabric I had in my stash, which will be inserted between the cut strips.  On that panel, I'm adding applique petals which echo a print in the fabric line. Each petal was cut from the jelly roll strips which read as solids--I reserved from the pieced portion.  I'm still working on spacing and orientation of my petals, but I've got my general concept figured out.  I'll probably machine applique, since that's a technique I need some practice with.

Oh-- here's my super precise method for making petals.  I had to work with 2.5 inch strips, and I didn't want the two petals end to end to exceed the 10 inch panel, so that defined size.  I cut a piece of construction paper to 2.5 x 5 inches, then folded that in quarters and cut a smooth curve.  Unfolded, it ended up as the blue shape on the right.  I used that as my template to mark petal shapes on water-soluble interlining (looks like regular light weight non-woven interfacing, sold in the notions department). I stitched on those lines as I sewed the interlining to the jelly roll strips, with right sides facing.  While waiting in pick up line at my son's school, I trimmed all the shapes with a very narrow allowance, then sliced the interfacing carefully and turned the shapes right side out.  A quick smoothing with a blunt plastic knitting needle  yields shapes ready to applique.  When I wash the quilt the first time, the interlining dissolves completely, leaving me with appliques with smooth, secure edges and no extra stiffness.  It's a nifty applique technique.

I'll post when done with this one.  While I've had my doubts about it numerous times during the construction process, I think it will end up being a cute toddler quilt.

* Jelly rolls are collections of 2.5 inch strips cut from the width of fabric, so 42 inches long. They usually include 42 fabrics from all the designs and colorways of a single collection.

** Jelly roll race -- the speed event in competitive quilting. You can google and see lots of video and photos. I've never done one. I'm not very competitive. And while I don't spend inordinate amounts of time thinking about fabric placement, I do like more control than the completely randomized JRR method.