Quilting Mod

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Quilt Market: An Eclectic Assortment of Favorites

Today's Market coverage is bit of this and a bit of that---a collection of random items that I want to share because they're pretty. Hang on for a bit of a spastic ride.

Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl asked me to catch a photo of her Beacon quilt. Seeing the quilting in person was a real treat.

I also got to see Sarah Elizabeth's Folksy Fish. I just love it! Except my warped childhood is causing that dumb and catchy "Fish Heads" song to play in my mind. I'll spare you an embedded YouTube video in case you didn't have the same bizarre upbringing.

The Eye Candy Quilts booth was chock-full of beautiful quilts. Then again, I'm a sucker for Alison Glass prints and a navy background.

The Tonga Gypsy Block of the Month is flat-out pretty.

Erin Wentzel could be found promoting her Doll Days book.

And check out this wall of dresses from the book!

I loved this display. I'm pretty sure my husband's unfulfilled wish is for me to organize his engineering books by color. Yeeeaaaaah! That's it.

This stellar quilt by with Victoria Findlay Wolf fabrics caught my eye.

Mmmmm....Donuts are my one weakness!

Latifah Saafir brings a heavy does of awesome to Hoffman fabrics. I love these quilts using her modern batiks, Me + You.

If that wasn't cool enough, how about some clamshells with her new Grafic fabric line? The astute observer may notice a new form of pre-cut in the photo too.

I also ran into the delightful Amber of Gigi's Thimble.

Thanks for joining me on my jaunt into the Land of Random today.

Friday, July 1, 2016

Quilt Market: Free Spirit/Westminster

Some of my favorite artists design for Free Spirit. Brilliant minds like Tula Pink make sure my fabric shelves stay well-stocked with a rainbow of lovelies. The Fandango quilt, quilted by Angela Walters, really drew me in.

I could just stare at Tula's booth featuring her new Slow & Steady line all day!

You might remember this quilt from my post about Angela Walter's visit to the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild.

These over-sized blooms were just spectacular!

Amy Butler did not disappoint with an exotic and vibrant booth.

Anna Maria Horner fans will be pleased to see her upcoming fabric line, Mod Corsage, and two stunning quilts, Folk Flower and one that combines her Mod Corsage techniques with a border that uses her Flight Map quilt.

Anna Maria's daughter, Juliana Horner, has joined Free Spirit, and introduced the world to rainbows, technicolor faces, and arms in her Fast Friends collection.

Denise Schmidt has Stonington coming out in August.

Tim Holtz was a pleasure to meet in person, and his booth was a wonder. The more you looked, the more there was to see. Objects of fascination abounded. Tim's latest collection, Correspondence, coordinates with his Wallflower and Eclectic Elements lines. Amy Friend made the Transatlantic Quilt in the first picture.

Free Spirit and Westminster have such a varied assortment of fabrics, but they are quite fantastic. Do you have any favorites?

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Mini Quilt Swap

I don't often do swaps, but when I do...

I throw in paper-piecing, curves, and dense free-motion just for good measure. Just kidding. Maybe...
Renee, Yvonne, Sara and I decided to do a mini quilt swap using Moda Ombre Basics by V & Co. I chose a Nancy Cabot throw-back to 1935 quilt block called Cocklebur. I mean, how can you go wrong with something named after a weed? I wanted to the colors to transition diagonally. Except, the reversing phenomenon of paper-piecing made things go a bit awry given that I had labeled my color plan on the paper-side, resulting in the need to build the top face-down.

The arcs were paper-pieced; then I assembled the curved seams traditionally.

I made the bold decision not to use blending thread colors. Instead I pulled colors from the piecing to select thread hues for the gray background. I echoes 1/4" around the piecing and then did whatever fills struck my fancy at the time.

I used Aurifil 1148, 2810, 2783, 1147, 4020, 2588, 4030, 2615.

In retrospect, I should have started by stitching in the ditch around the pieced shapes because my crisp points got a bit lost in the puffiness of the less-densely quilted areas.

I would have also selected only free-motion designs that did not require any back-tracking, as this drew unwarranted attention to certain areas of the quilting.

For the binding, I used a Benartex ombre that I had in my stash to emphasized the raimbowy goodness.

I chose a neutral gray thread for the bobbin, so that I wouldn't have to keep changing it, and it would go unnoticed from the front side. The backing was so busy that you would really have to work to see the quilting.