Art Deco sampler design process

Today I thought I’d share some of the design process that I went through in creating my Art Deco sampler quilt and pattern!

Inspiration: I go for lunchtime walks in downtown Ottawa (where I work my “day job”). There are a lot of buildings that have an Art Deco flair that I really like. I sometimes bring my sketchbook and draw little motifs of things I see, or I take a quick (inconspicuous) photo with my phone.

Getting it on paper: I keep a sketchbook with me, and so I will often draw ideas I have, or start to sketch them out. I had the idea for an Art Deco inspired quilt for a while, but it wasn’t until the fall of 2016 that I drew something out in earnest.

Converting to an image to share: I use Adobe Illustrator (and more recently, Affinity Designer) to design on the computer for submitting to magazines or for writing quilt or sewing patterns. I mocked up a version of my sketch and coloured it. I liked the idea of it being a sampler for various techniques - from strip piecing, to curved piecing, to foundation paper piecing. 

I sent this over to Love Patchwork and Quilting with an explanation of the concept. We went back and forth and decided to add the pink accents:

Construction: I made templates in Illustrator from the mock up that I’d created and got to work. 

I made this quilt top when I was off on holidays at the New Year… It was tough juggling between holiday travels, a new puppy and a deadline, but I did it! And I was so happy with the quilt top.

I had decided due to time constraints (and, the fact that my vision for the quilting was not anything that I would be able to do myself) - that I would send it to be longarmed. 

More on that up next time!

Quilt Canada recap

Last weekend I went to Toronto for Quilt Canada!

I have only been to three Quilt shows before - Quiltcon 2016 in Pasadena, then two local shows in Ottawa. So I was really excited to check out Quilt Canada, which includes the National Juried Show, several special exhibits and a show floor of exhibitors.

The National Juried Show was amazing! There were 126 quilts from all over Canada - a mix of traditional, art and modern quilts - and all of it was so inspiring. I hadn’t ever seen many art quilts, and so I saw a lot of completely new-to-me techniques. 

The Best of Show Quilt by Colette Dumont was incredible! Check out the detail on her quilt and the stitching, below … it was also covered in thousands of beads and crystals – and the entire thing was done on a domestic sewing machine… wow!

My rainbow Quilt “Cumulative Effect” was juried into the National Juried Show… it happened to be near the front, as people moved into the “Modern” section.

(Here’s my mom and I in front of my quilt!)

The Ottawa Modern Quilt Guild had a separate special exhibit at the show. This included many of my favourites from members of our guild (including Katy’s “Shards” that was recently featured on the cover of Make Modern Magazine)!

My “Dusk to Dawn” quilt was also hanging in this section.

Our guild’s display included a wall of the mini quilts made for the Essex Linen Challenge (mine is over there at the top left!)

Around the show, I also had the chance to try out some new things, like the new Janome longarm machine… (love!)

And I won some thread at the Aurifil booth! (it was a race to see who finished a puzzle the fastest!)

Throughout the day, it was lovely to meet quilters and shop owners in real life that I’d “met” before on Instagram or online, and also to see some work in real life that I had only previously seen online!

Overall I had a great time spending the day with my mom at the show. I hope that I’ll get to go again sometime!

Greenery scrap quilt: Finishing up

So about a week and a half ago, on a bit of a whim and on a deadline, I decided I wanted to enter the Pantone Colour of the Year Quilt Challenge being hosted by Sarah of No Hats in the House and Rebecca of Bryan House Quilts.

I finished piecing and quilting it over the last week! I started with scraps - sewn together in an improvisational, unplanned way - then built these bits into larger panels…

… until I had a finished quilt top!

There were a lot of seams in this quilt - I used about 3 bobbins’ worth of thread, which seemed kind of a lot for something this small (it was about 32″ x 34″ before trimming). See some of the “innards” below!

I got right to putting the quilt together. I press and starch my quilt tops before basting. I find that it helps keep everything together for the whole quilting process.

Then, I pin-basted it…

I planned for straight line quilting on the diagonal. As I often do - I used my Hera marker to draw out my first line, then I just went from there using the bar on my walking foot to follow along for each line after that.

Unfortunately, my machine was skipping stitches a bit so I ended out having to rip out a few lines of stitching. (I hate when that happens!!) But I figured out what the problem was, and so was able to just keep going!

I first did a pass over spacing 1″ apart, then another in between - to finish at a 1/2″ spacing between each line of quilting.

I used Susan Brubaker Knapp’s “Non-Mitred Faced Binding Tutorial” again to finish up. This was my second time doing faced binding (the first was my Essex Linen mini), I was really happy with it again!

I finished hand stitching the back just in time to snap a few pictures and get it up on my Instagram to enter into the contest within a few hours of the contest closing! 

I would have liked to take some nice outdoor photos with some real greenery in the background - but that will have to wait for a nice weather day! (It’s been rainy around here this week).

This quilt finished up at 31″ square.

So glad to have been able to make it in to the Pantone Colour of the Year challenge in time! Voting is on now over at No Hats in the House or Bryan House Quilts, so you can go check out all of the Greenery quilts! (And there are a lot of beautiful projects – so don’t feel obliged to vote for mine! Ha ha!)

Also linking up this week with Finish it up Friday!

Greenery scrap project

This weekend, I started a new scrappy project!

Bloggers Sarah from No Hats in the House and Rebecca from Bryan House Quilts are co-hosting a Pantone Quilt Challenge for 2017. The rules are basically - make a quilt using Pantone’s color of the year, “Greenery”. Quilts, mini quilts and quilt tops can be entered for prizes - and winners will be chosen by an awesome panel of judges! But, the contest closes next Monday, so I don’t have much time!

Although I had lots of ideas for what to make, I decided last minute to do a scrappy quilt. It’s been a while since I’ve worked with scrap improv and I have missed it. So, I decided to get to work by pulling out green and white scraps in my bin. I decided on a few constraints for myself related to fabric, scale and piecing:

(1) Fabric / Colour: Solids only (or just about solids). Green in any shade, plus whites / ivory / cream / light grey.

(2) Scale: Small scraps. Most the scraps I’m selecting are thin or small (e.g., 2" x 3"), very few are longer than 5" long. For me, paying attention to scale is important in these scrappy compositions - I wanted to choose scraps that are fairly uniform in size so I could create a focal point with colour rather than scale. (i.e., I think that mixing in larger scraps would draw your eye to look at them - if I’d included in a mix of big and small pieces, it would have created a different focal point). I also like having a really SCRAPPY scrap look, you know? :) 

(3) Piecing: Use scraps in the state they’re in – without cutting them – as much as possible. For example - if there were long triangular scraps, I am using them as long triangles without cutting to strips or squares. I find this kind of fun because I know which pieces are off-cuts from various projects. Some of the green triangles are from the Christmas tree skirt I made a few years ago, and many are from cutting the petals for my Meadow quilt. I also have a ton of angled Kona Cactus scraps, mostly from my Block of the Month quilt (which I’m calling green for the purposes of this project!) I feel like using triangles of various sizes mixed make the whole composition more interesting!

The process: 

I started out with the concept of wanting to have a cluster of green scraps floating in white. So, I started by piecing together green scraps. Then, I made some bits of greens mixed with whites. 

I kept all the “blocks” of patchwork small, because I didn’t want to commit to anything too soon. I put it all up on my design wall. 

Then I moved on to piecing just white and low volume scraps. I added it all to my design wall and played around with the layout a little bit. 

I think I’m at the point where I can start committing to the design by sewing it together! My strategy will be to start with the centre and work outwards for the most part, in chunks that make sense. I’ll have to piece in additional scraps as I go to even things out. I haven’t taken a rotary cutter to any of it yet (just scissors), so there are a lot of uneven bits that I’ll have to trim before attaching together.

I’m a bit addicted to this project right now! I think I’ll just keep working through until I finish it up – plus, I only have until Monday to finish and enter it into the Pantone quilt challenge. Hopefully I’ll make it in!