How Hard Can it Be?

Years ago I spotted a Christmas quilt that I wanted to make in a catalog (Keepsake Quilting, I think).  I cut out the picture for future reference because I didn't want to spend $12 on a pattern made up entirely of squares and rectangles.  After all (she said), how hard can it be?  I can now tell you, if you ever hear me say that, tie me to a tree until I regain my senses!

This is the picture from the catalog.   It looks like a Nordic sweater.

First I tried to do the layout in EQ8.  But I haven't really gotten up to speed with it yet, and wasn't sure of the best approach to making several different blocks and aligning them in a quilt.  So I copied the picture and penciled in the rows and columns.  Judging from the size of the quilt, it looked to me like the squares were all about 1" finished, except for the smaller ones around the pointsettias and, of course, the ones needed to make the half square triangles.  As I look at it now, I can see that they vary in size, but the photo in the catalog was small, so it seemed straightforward.

I wanted the quilt to be "controlled scrappy," so there are several colors in the poinsettias, both reds and whites.  I did these first, because I'd already made one block a few years ago as a small hanging quilt.  Funny, it was too big for my little quilt hanger.  That should have set off an alarm.

I made each of the rows according to my (incorrect) calculations.  When it came to putting the rows together -- whoops!!  The upshot was that I had to add blocks to each row until they were nearly equal in width.  The poinsettias were unchanged, as were the reindeer.  I had to add several tree blocks and fiddle with the checkerboards.  I also had to add some filler strips to even things out.  Here's how it turned out:

Two 1" strips (finished) on either side of the poinsettias did the trick.  I didn't have have more of the green that I'd used in the blocks, but found one that fit in well.  The reindeer row required 3 extra strips.  Apologies for the grayed-out photos below.  I guess the afternoon caught up with me!

It took some quilty math to figure out how many additional tree blocks were needed for the rows, but they came out great.  I was able to use up a bundle of Christmas fabrics that I'd picked up at Jo-Ann years ago.

So here's (most of) the final product.  I wish the poinsettias had been smaller in scale compared to the other blocks, but it still looks OK.  And it was good to use the various Christmas fabrics that were killing time in my stash.  It was intended to be a wall hanging, but now it's a good-size lap quilt.

Spending the $12 on the pattern would have made so much sense.  But I learned a lot, and in the end it was rather fun.  Now to quilt it.  I think I need to complete a course on free-motion quilting in order to tackle this.  There's time...

At Long Last, a Return

Unbelievable!  It's been nearly a year and a half since I posted to this blog.  There are numerous drafts waiting in line to be completed, but somehow it hasn't happened.  To get the ball rolling, I'll share with you some beautiful quilts made by a new friend.  Talking with her this week and seeing her quilts has been such an inspiration!  So rather than hitting the rewind button, let's start with Linda and her beautiful quilts.

Linda lives in Pinehurst, NC.  She's been making quilts since the 1990's and has a Gammill longarm ensconced in one of her two bedrooms.  She has shown her quilts at several prestigious juried shows (Paducah, Houston) and has won many prizes.  She had a quilting business for some years, but is now closing that down to spend more time travelling in her beloved RV and making art quilts.  

She recently finished this blue beauty.  Believe it or not, it's a Block of the Month.  There are enough flying geese to make my heart stop!  The entire quilt is custom-quilted, even the borders.  So much texture!

The half-rings of flying geese were paper-pieced, but Linda said it was still difficult to make everything work out exactly right.  She's making the same quilt for someone else, but she's going to use a single strip of fabric in place of the pieced rings.  Also note how she's used dense quilting to make the flowers and star blocks really pop.

Another traditionally-patterned quilt she made using stencilled fabric (unfortunately, I couldn't get a picture of the whole quilt).  Of course, like most of us, she had to make it her way!  The blocks between the square-in-square blocks bordering the panels were all the same (booorrring!) so she used all different blocks instead.  She embroidered the panels but her quilting really brings each one to life.  Do you see all the different snowflake designs in the squares?

... and the furrowed fields, snow-filled clouds and frozen creek?

The quilt reminded her of Robert Frost's poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," so she decided to add the first lines to the border.  She searched the web for just the right font, used it to print the words on fabric, and appliqued them to the border.

She had the quilt in a local quilt show, and a man named Robert Frost contacted her and asked if he could buy the quilt.  She didn't know if he just liked the quilt, or if he was a relative of the poet, checking to make sure she didn't violate the poem's copyright by selling it.  She said No, but she'd wanted to keep it for herself anyway.

Now for her art quilts!  Maybe this one doesn't exactly count as an art quilt, but it's definitely fiber art.  The quilt is not very big, so you have to look closely to appreciate the handwork.

The bird is thread-painted, copying a photo.  She said it was much easier than she'd expected (!).

Some leaves were made with crochet (must have been a 0000 crochet hook!), beading and thread-painting with heavy thread.  The blue centers of the coneflowers are made of dozens of French knots.   And there is a lot of hand embroidery.

 The circle around the bird's picture is crocheted, too. 

This beautiful quilt is the view out the kitchen window in her previous home.  The squirrel sign was giving her trouble (she said), so she went outside and took a photo of it, then printed it on fabric and appliqued it onto the quilt.  Ingenious.

I love the way she created the texture and depth of the birdbath by using different fabrics.

Finally, you know how much I love a pretty quilt back!  To combine her loves, Linda made a quilt for her RV.  It's a panel, pretty but not terribly original.  But check out this quilting!  You don't really notice it from the front, but she found the perfect pantograph!

Next time, in about a week, I'll turn to the projects I've finished, those under the needle, and some yet to come.  Thanks for visiting.