City Blocks Quilt

*Boom shakalaka* Finished this City Blocks quilt. Years ago I took a photo of my friend's dog leash because it had this awesome cityscape-esque pattern. I hunted down an online pdf pattern that closely resembled it. I'm not sure where the link is anymore, but it helped me create my vision of what I saw.

And this is that: City Blocks

Transparency Quilt

When I first got started with quilting, a friend asked for me to sew a quilt for her friends getting married. I jumped at the chance to get paid for making a quilt. I bought the book Transparency Quilts by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr. I bought a sampling of fabrics to try out some color blending techniques. As I tried it out, I just wasn't satisfied with the general look. So I scrapped it, and I made this one.

And here, three years later I finally revisited the pieces I had previously sewn and finished it! Woohoo!

Check out the mixed binding fabrics

It's the rare backing where it's mostly solid/ one fabric.

This and That

This and That Quilt

For Beth and Erik

Kept some selvage for added interest

 Last summer I started working on these awesome layered triangles. I loved them. A lot. And then I added some goldenrod fabric to make them into rectangles. And I liked them a lot less. So I folded them up and set them aside. I'd get back to working on them later... much later.

Then I read The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters by Sherri Lynn Wood and was struck with the idea to adapt some of those techniques to my triangle-rectangles. So I cut off lots of the golden rod and began adding strips of scrappy beiges and yellows. I tried to not be too picky about symmetry, about the "perfect" colors, about wonkiness. I was just going to go with the flow. 

Used up lots of scraps for this small bit 

Three triangle-rectangles managed to get this treatment and then I just didn't have the energy or the heart to cut into the last one. It looked perfect now. I hadn't necessarily ruined the others. I just altered them. Significantly. 

Again, I folded them up, set them aside, and hid them from my view. Out of sight out of mind.

THEN I came across this Instagram link-up party called a Finish-Along. The goal was to share a any projects in the works that you wanted to finish by a certain date. If you met your goal you would be entered in a raffle for lots of nifty sewing/fabric prizes. Done. I was sold. The raffle would be great motivation, but really just the easy encouragement of publicly sharing my goal was what lit a fire under my tush. 

I finished one quilt, Modern Elegance, in January and then in March I finally finished this random, nearly-chaotic, scrappy gem. 

Whole backside

Closeup of scrappy addition

Recipients:

Throughout the entire process I knew this quilt would be for my friends Beth and Erik.  They work with their bodies. They work long hours.  They feed us. They are some kickass farmers! 

Now they have a quilt with lots of prints and busy-ness so if it becomes a comfort quilt out at their farm and gets dirty that is a-okay by me. ;) Please, quilts are a useful form of art. 

Modern Elegance

Modern Elegance

for Megan

The front

The back

My new fave quilting style: squares on point

Color choices
I chose a bold navy blue and rose fabric and paired it with a gorgeous near-white print. The ladies at Boersma's helped me choose the white fabric. We were pairing pinks, purples, greens and a soft yellow all because I was against using white. But when we paired the "painter's canvas" white with the navy blue, this very elegant tone was set. I was surprised to love the combination.

Process
When I chose to teach a couple friends how to quilt, I needed to make the quilt myself so I knew what they'd be getting into. This was my sample quilt. I took notes along the way to gauge how long it took me to do each step. So much time for squaring those half-square triangles! The backing used up scraps-- something I always feel is "true to quilting." Making do, you know?

As always, a label

Result
I love love love this quilt. Thanks to a sewing day with a friend I managed to finish the quilting in one day, followed by a day at home in which I watched movies and hand sewed the binding on.

Recipient
Megan, one of my best friends also quilts. She's given me two quilts which I use and love. It's been on my mind to eventually make a quilt for her and my "Quilt Camp" was the best excuse to do it. I'm so proud of the finished product.