Borders and more borders

If you are stopping by during the Canadian Quilt Blogathon, welcome.  Take a breather, put your feet up and sit a spell.  Have a look around and when you are done, stop and visit some of the other Canadian quilt blogs here in British Columbia.  You've got the whole week.

It took a while, but I finally managed to cut up some fabric that I bought a number of years ago and made a start on a quilt that utilizes pieced borders to dress up the focus fabric.  Here is a picture was I mean.

 

The picture is not that great, but you get the idea don't you?  There are three blocks there.  From left to right, there is a Seminole border, a checkerboard border and a star border.  These will eventually join 7 other blocks and are set randomly into a quilt. 

Now I'm off to finish up some "Paper and Stitch" project for our "Group of Seven Stitchers".

Exciting News!

I recently sent a submission for the Canadian Quilters Association National Juried Show.  I have been waiting to find out if my quilt had been accepted.  It was the first time I had entered a quilt into a national show and one that is juried.  Imagine my excitement when I found this in my mailbox:

"I am pleased to inform you that your entry has been accepted in the CQA/ACC National Juried Show 2013"

Let's just say, I spent 20 minutes dancing around the house!  Now I just have to calm down enough to fill in the required additional documents and figure out how to package the quilt so that it arrives safely for display.

On another note, I finished up a quilt that consists of blocks made by some friends.  Here is a picture.

I've called it Scraps of Value.  Each of us were given instructions to select dark and light scraps; we could choose any colour and had to precut our scraps to predetermined sizes.  We also didn't know what colours the others had chosen, nor were we given the pattern for the block until we got together.

After setting all of our pieces out to share, we discovered that the majority of the colours chosen were within the "cool" spectrum.  We were given block piecing instructions and each of us made a "dark" and "light" block.  Here is a closer picture of what I mean.

 

Look closely... the block with the dark star has a dark border; the light star, a light border.  Initially we thought that the blocks wouldn't work well together, but when put up on the design wall all of us noted it was the value that created the pattern.  Of course it helped and was an added bonus that we had picked colours from the cool side of the colour wheel, but I think it would have worked even with multi colours.  It just would have projected a more vibrant mood rather than the calm one these blocks did.  Its the value that did the work!  Who would have "thunk" it.

 

Till the next time... pieceful sewing!

TST #39 - Friendship Stars

During one of our small quilting group's annual get togethers we decided to exchange friendship stars.  The stars were to be 6-inch blocks and constructed with jewel tones and black.  Each of us were to make sufficient number of the stars to be able to trade with every other person in the group.

Okay so some of us didn't know what "jewel" tones were.  Perhaps some of you out there aren't sure either.  Well think of jewellry and the colours of gems like emerald, ruby, topaz, amethyst, sapphire, etc.  Those are "jewel" tones; the colours are clear, not dulled down or greyed.

Now put those colours with black and you've got POP!  I mean things just sparkle!  This is the quilt that I put together with those friendship stars.

 

Unfortunately the picture doesn't do the quilt justice.  It does sparkle more than the picture shows.  I donated it to a care home and I'm told that the recipient's eyes sparkled just like the quilt.

TST #36 - Two Stripey Stars

Here is an example of what a person can do when you change colour, fabric and size in a pattern.

This pattern was another handout from Quiltsitters, consisting of nine patches and stars.  The first one I made adjusted the size and used a very vibrant striped fabric.  The background colours were pulled from the feature fabric.  Here is the sample of the feature fabric that I used.

Here is the result.  Don't the stars just flame!

TWith some help from my friend Lyn, I resized the pattern for smaller blocks and used a more subdued palette.  Here is a sample of the second set of fabrics I used.

And this was the result.  A bit more calm, wouldn't you say?

Both of these quilts were donated to our local seniors long term care facility.

TST #33 - Not Saturn's Rings

My Quiltsitters group is always coming up with unusual patterns that offer piecing challenges. One of those patterns called for piecing diamonds and nine patches together in such a way as to give the impression of forming a circle.

Here's the lap-sized quilt I created.

The diamonds were pieced of the dark purple and striped fabric.  Can you see the nine patches?  By placement of the light purple squares diagonally and then turning of them sufficiently you get the impression of circles.  Isn't that "cool"?