The Great Outdoors

Escape on a camping adventure and stake your tent in the great outdoors full of fresh air, green trees, and a mountain lake!

My son's camping quilt, The Great Outdoors, is a spectacular finish, and I can't wait for him to see it. He was off touring Crater Lake this weekend, but the view was a hazy mess off smoke with an air quality reading of 200 at dawn.

Certainly not the wonderful mountain vista views he's used to, like his visit to Columbine Lake. 

Hopefully, The Great Outdoors quilt will remind him of better backpacking trips he's taken.

He has seen the quilt in progress, and picked out the tent fabric in his favorite color, orange. We got so lucky that it's the complement of blue-green, 

the color of the Kona Aqua background.

He was also very happy when he discovered I had given him a beach to go along with the small water feature he requested, as one always needs to camp near water, you know. Personally, I would have left out both because I find it distracts from the tent, and it is completely optional in the pattern. 

There's lots of different greens making up the trees, ranging from medium dark/dark, and up to medium light/light. I put the lightest value on top because the sun is shining down on those tree tops.

And can't you just feel the gentle breeze and smell that fresh mountain air? The pantograph Windswept, stitched with Glide Sea Foam, was a perfect addition to this quilt.

Ready to escape and make your own Great Outdoors camping quilt? The approximately 58" x 73" lap quilt pattern is geared toward the intermediate quilter, familiar with paper piecing. The pattern includes detailed instructions and diagrams, and is not overly complicated though it is involved with 4 different sized trees, a paper pieced tent, and the water feature with a beach (optional).  

For a limited time, The Great Outdoors lap quilt pattern is available at a special price in my QuiltFabrication Etsy store, now through September 13. Get it while there's still time to go camping!

Happy Quilting!

 

Zen Garden

It may have taken two months, but I have certainly fallen in love! Have a look at my finally finished Zen Garden quilt and tell me you aren't in love too!

Made from the Zen Garden pattern in Jo Avery's book, Patchwork & Quilting Basics (affiliate link) from C&T Pub, 

I'd say this is one beautiful garden quilt!

Using the multi-colored floral fabric as my color inspiration, I pulled oranges, reds, yellows, and greens from my stash. 

And this pattern is perfect for including those bold striped fabrics. Paired with quieter blenders, they all play well together. 

As for construction, once I had all the pieces cut, the two different sized blocks were easy to put together,

especially during an early morning chain piecing session!

When it came to the layout though, I didn't follow Jo's exact instructions. Instead, I put all the blocks on the floor following the quilt diagram in the book. That way, I could be sure I wasn't putting the same fabrics together, OR putting too much visual weight in one area by value, OR creating pattern clashes. I want the crickets to chirp and the birds to sing about my garden quilt - can't you hear them? 

Once I had the top assembled, the idea of how to quilt it didn't take long. Though the blocks are along the lines of a traditional log cabin, the overall layout of this quilt says modern, which meant Zen Garden needed a modern quilt design. And I found the perfect pantograph, Bebop, full of repeating circles, which is not only a modern design, but in itself is quite zen.

Just look at the contrast those circles create with the squares on the quilt - the perfect pantograph indeed!

Can you tell I really have fallen in love? I'll be keeping this one as another summer/fall quilt for display in the living room, and for the occasional snuggle when the nighttime temps fall.

As for Jo's Patchwork & Quilting Basics book (affiliate link), I just can't say enough. Patchwork & Quilting Basics (affiliate link) is not just for those who are new to quilting - it's perfect for any quilter. The book is full of simple patterns using traditional techniques and blocks but with a modern twist - the types of quilts I'm drawn to, and the style of quilt I try to design. I found several of her quilt patterns I'd like to make, such as the Stream Quilt,

or Dancing Pandas. Both are simple, yet eye-catching.

Even though you may have plenty of quilt books on your shelf, if you're looking for a more modern quilt sewn with traditional techniques, this book is for you!

Happy Quilting!

My Favorite Patterns

Monochrome Quilt

Introducing Monochrome, 

my newest quilt design for the Cool to Be Square Blog Hop hosted by Carol of Just Let Me Quilt. Thank you again, Carol, for hosting another great themed blog hop!

This quilt was inspired by the monochrome fabric line at Connecting Threads, and a design on a neighbor's fence, though this block is a modified version of it.

Combined with another super easy block and together they make a really classy monochromatic quilt design - even a beginner could do it!

Full of grays, from blue to green to taupe and gray, I made mine in a lap size. The Monochrome quilt pattern also comes in 5 other sizes - baby, crib, twin, double, and queen - that's a lot of quilts!

                             

With such a bold geometric design, I decided on a curvy/spiky pantograph design, Happy Times, in Glide Silver.

And look at that backing! The quilt gods were once again smiling upon me, as this almost-black squares print was just waiting in my stash for a project like this.

Want to make your own Monochrome quilt? The Monochrome quilt pattern is available in my Etsy shop. Stitch up your own, and send me a picture to show it off to everyone!

Before you go - don't forget to visit all the other Cool to Be Square participants today.

May 22

Just Let Me Quilt.

Vroomans Quilts.

Patchouli Moon Studio.

Den syende himmel.

Quilt Fabrication.

Samelia's Mum.

Happy Quilting!

Just Batty!

It's getting to be that time of year when all things Halloween creep out of the shadows. My newest quilt creation - Just Batty - fits in just fine!

Above, a rare sight of bats hanging out in the wild during the daytime, and below, seeking the shadow of a tree,

while here, the bats got spooked and are taking flight! 

Ahh, reminds me of our visit to Noosa Heads, Australia a few years ago. Every night before sunset, the parrots would squawk like crazy while flocking to the trees, en masse, to settle into sleep. Then silence. And as the sky darkened, small, careening black shapes flew overhead as massive colonies of bats took flight in their search for food. We never tired of witnessing the brief moment of mass movement of birds every night - it's really quite the sight!

So, I have to say - I'm in love with this quilt!! Have you ever made a quilt that made your heart sing when laying out the blocks? Or feel such joy when the quilting brings it all to life? Well, that's this quilt for me, and it will be going onto my All Time Favorite list at the end of the year.

Suitable for the confident beginner quilter, Just Batty is composed of one block, and uses the same background fabric for each one. The fun part is creating a variety of bats from different blacks, and adding sparkle with several oranges - a great way to use fat quarters! 

Because I want Just Batty to be one of your favorite quilts this Halloween season, the multi-sized pattern (wall, crib, lap, twin) is available at the QuiltFabrication Etsy shop. And with super easy block assembly, there's plenty of time to add bats to your Halloween decor!

Now, how about some close-ups? The background is a silver colored print, and the backing another grey full of swirls to go with the quilting.

The quilting uses a dark grey Glide thread called Anchor, and the redrawn, by me, EZ Loops pantograph. 

I loved the loops and hook element in the original pantograph, but not the repetition - way too boring for this quilt!

                                                     
So, with the help of the photocopier, I singled out one motif, mirrored it, rotated it, re-positioned it, and joined it to two identical motifs to create my own pantograph. I'm calling it Loops and Hooks.

Complicated, yes, but oh so worth it! These new all-over loops and hooks really accentuate the flying bats for a perfect pairing. BTW, did you know I offer longarm quilting services? I would be happy to quilt this pantograph on your Just Batty quilt - just shoot me an email: quiltfabrication (at) gmail (dot) com to discuss prices and shipping.

Yes, I'm Just Batty over this quilt - 
Happy Halloween!

My Favorite Patterns

Going In Circles Quilt

Welcome! It's my day to share my kid's version of the Going In Circles quilt from the Modern Art Quilt (affiliate link) book by Sue Bleiweiss.

All I can say is - love it! And I hope the new mom and her boys do too, cause I can see a fun game of Twister happening on this quilt!

On Friday's post, I went over how I changed up this quilt, from it's construction, to the background choice, and even the accent strip choice. Do check out New Directions for the Going In Circle Quilt to read how I arrived at the chartreuse background and yellow-orange strip decision - it's a great lesson about color. Though there were those changes, the basic idea of this quilt still remains from Sue's original. 

Ah, but my color decisions weren't finished there. Next up was the thread choice for quilting. Laying out a couple feet of thread on the quilt top for each color always gives a good idea of what the thread will look like after quilting.

First, I tried an orange-yellow.

It's okay, and looks good on the blue circle, but the quilt will definitely take on an orange cast over the chartreuse.

How about a green?

Unfortunately, the green just disappears, both on the blue circles and chartreuse background.

All right, how about yellow?

Much better! It looks great on the blue, and actually looks green on the chartreuse. You would never guess it's yellow, unless you look really close.

I also wanted a pantograph on this one, opting against the wavy lines that Sue quilted on her version.

Though my quilt has an overwhelming star theme, more stars would really be too much. Instead, I found this cool panto called Calder, which has points like stars, and curves to go with the circles - perfect! It really brings the whole quilt together.

For the backing, it's a fun, colorful check print, that works great because it contains green, blue, yellow, and orange - another perfect fit.

Teri Lucas of Terificreations does a fantastic review of the entire book - no need for me to repeat it all here. I've really been inspired by Sue's designs, as they are fresh, creative, and engaging. Because of this, I will continue featuring Modern Art Quilts (affiliate link) as my Book of the Month for both February and March. Look for a few more art quilts in the upcoming months.

Happy Quilting!