The Brighter the Better - Project Quilting challenge 8.4

I love bright colors.  My fabric stash is full of bright colors.  And the brighter the better.  So when this week's challenge for Project Quilting was announced as "The Brighter the Better" I thought I had it made in the shade.  But for some reason I was initially stumped.  Not good when I knew I'd be away from home for two days this week and had a few commitments that would eat into my sewing time on the other days.

By the end of the first day, I did at least have a pretty good idea of the fabric I wanted to feature.

 Malka Dubrawski is one of my favorite fabric designers and I had two charm packs from her last line with Moda as well as some coordinating yardage.  I also have a pattern for some quilted slippers that uses a charm pack.  The slippers have been on my future project list for quite some time now and so I figured if I didn't come up with an original idea soon, I would make those.

But before I could do anything, I needed to spend Monday and Tuesday in Tucson as one of the volunteers to help at the quilt judging for the Tucson Quilters Guild show.  Part of my job was to stand by the tables as the judges were going over each quilt and then move the quilt to the appropriate spot depending on if it was held as a contender for an award or released from further judging. Which means I got a good look at most of the quilts that had been entered.  There were several that featured arcs of flying geese in the borders.  Which gave me an idea.  I would make some free form curved flying geese.  I decided to only use the green, yellow and blue fabrics with a black background so they would really glow.  I even had the name figured out.

First thing Wednesday morning out came the freezer paper and I began sketching out my idea.  First I drew curved lines to outline the path my flying geese would take.  Then I traced those lines onto a new piece of freezer paper to use as my pattern to paper piece my geese.

After I got them all traced and the pattern marked, I remembered that using freezer paper for a foundation is not a good idea.  It is too thick and can be difficult to remove.  So I took my first drafts to my printer/copier and copied them onto regular copy paper.

It wasn't until I was ready to start sewing my first set that I realized I had forgotten to make my patterns as mirror images of my final design!  When you paper piece, the fabric goes on the back side of the paper, not on the side with the marked lines.  When you turn the piece to the fabric side, it will be a mirror image of the marked side.  So the marked side needs to be the reverse of what you want to end up with.  Which meant I needed to retrace the marks yet again on the other side of the paper.  Not difficult to do, but time consuming.

All of that took up most of the day so I was only able to complete one set of geese before it was time to pack it in for the day.   Thursday I was able to get the rest of the geese done.  My friend Sheryl says it looks like octopus tentacles now.

Next step was to add the pieced strips to the background.  My preference would have been to piece the strips into the background.  But that would have taken some figuring and probably a couple of test runs as well.  So with only two days till deadline I went with turned edge applique instead.  It looks a little rough with all that bulk at the edges but I was hoping the quilting would smooth it all out.  The next morning it occurred to me I should have used a reverse applique technique to reduce a lot of that bulk, but too late now.  Next time.  Lesson learned.

Once it was quilted, I decided to try a new (to me) facing method to finish it off.  I saw the method here on the We All Sew Blog about a week ago and I'd been wanting to try it out.   In this method, you use four squares folded on the diagonal to make triangles for the corners.  I started with 5 inch squares. Then cut four 2.5 inch strips a few inches shorter than each side of the quilt and press them in half lengthwise.  On the right side of the quilt, place one triangle in each corner, then put one strip on each side, aligning raw edges.  Stitch all the way around with a 1/4 inch seam allowance.  When you turn the facing to the back, the triangles will cover the ends of the side strips.  It was so easy and it turned out beautifully.  I'll definitely be using this technique again when I want to do a facing.

Night Flight

For Project Quilting The Brighter the Better challenge - February 2017

Size: about 18" x 18" 

I create in Casa Grande, AZ

Check out all of the wonderful and creative challenge entries at Project Quilting

2/11/2020
I also just added this quilt to Sarah Goer’s Show Me Something linkup challenge for February, 2020.   Sarah is hosting a fun little challenge on her blog where she asks us to post new or old projects that fit the theme.  This month is Show Me Something with Triangles.

Designing "Blessed Tiles"

Once the third challenge for this season of Project Quilting was announced, it didn't take me long to decide I was going to make a whole cloth quilt inspired by the ceiling tiles in my old church.  But bringing that vision to life was another story.

First I had to create the design for one tile.  I wasn't able to find any photos that showed the tiles in any detail, but cropping and zooming in as far as I could before it got too blurry on one of the pictures I did have showed me enough to get started. 

I began with a design grid.

 And used that to start sketching out various options for my tile design.   The grid lines helped me to keep the design elements consistent and evenly spaced.

I actually went through three different versions before I finally decided on a sort of hybrid between two of them.

Even though I used the design grid to draw my tile, I knew it wasn't perfectly symetrical and if I just made multiple copies as it was, not all of the elements would line up when placed next to each other.

So I had to redraw it one more time.  I used a technique I had seen demonstrated awhile back on an episode of The Quilt Show.  While I remembered how to do the technique, I can't remember who the guest was who demonstrated it.  Sorry.

As you can see, the design grid I used is made up of 8 identically shaped wedges.  So to create a symetrical tile, I really only needed to draw one wedge of the design and then trace that multiple times.

Using a piece of tracing paper, I drew a square the size of my tile.  Then I folded the square diagonally, taking care to make sure my lines matched up corner to corner.  Fold that in half two more times.  

When I unfold the paper, it looks like this.  Notice the fold lines are the same as the wedge lines on the design grid.

So now I can trace the wedge I drew onto a wedge of the tracing paper.  

Once that first wedge is traced, I fold the paper in half on the diagonal and trace the design onto the next wedge.  And now one corner is complete.  

I continued folding and tracing until all the wedges we filled and I had one full tile drawn.

The rest was pretty easy.  I made 4 copies of the completed tile on my home printer, cut them out and taped them together.  

I taped this to the table and placed my fabric on top and then taped the fabric to the table too.  Now I could trace the design onto my fabric without worrying about it slipping and having to line everything up again.  

Once the fabric was marked, I layered it with my backing and batting and then used water soluble thread to baste around the tiles to be sure they stayed square once I started stitching.  I then stitched over all the drawn lines.

Then it was just a matter of stitching all the extra details. 

Blessed Tiles
For Project Quilting Tune in to Texture challenge - January/February 2017

inspired by the ceiling tiles at Immaculate Conception Church in Fairbanks, Alaska

Size: 18" x 18" 

I create in Casa Grande, AZ

Find my full blog post for the Tune in to Texture challenge is here.

Check out all of the wonderful and creative challenge entries at Project Quilting

Tune in to Texture - Project Quilting challenge 8.3

For the third challenge in the Project Quilting challenge series, we were asked to be inspired by texture.

When I think of quilts and texture, for me that means the quilting.  And where is the quilting more highlighted than in a whole cloth quilt?  The designs on many whole cloth quilts remind me of mosaics and tiles.  From there my mind went immediately to the beautiful pressed ceiling tiles in the church my husband and I belonged to when we lived in Fairbanks, Alaska.

I think all of this went though my head in less than a minute after I read the challenge post.  Inspiration rarely comes to me that swiftly, easily or completely so I was super excited to get started.


I thought I had some pictures from my wedding that were taken from the choir loft of the church and would show the ceiling tiles.  But I was not able to find them.  I still have friends who live there so I sent messages out asking if they might be able to pop in to the church to get some pictures for me.  My dear friend Lori W. took up the call and made a special effort to go that very day.  Unfortunately, by the time she was able to get there, the church was closed and locked up for the day.

Luckily Immaculate Conception Church is a historic building and frequently visited by tourists, so I was able to find some images online.  None of them showed the detail of the ceiling as much as I would have liked but I was able to use a couple of them along with my memory to make out the basic shapes/design of the tiles.

I have written a separate blog post detailing my process for creating the tile.  You can read about it here.

But basically I started with a design grid to sketch out the main elements.  Once I decided on the design I made a symetic tile by starting with one wedge of the design and then tracing it multiple times.  ,Then I made four copies of that on my home printer, cut the tiles out and taped them together.  I used that to trace the design onto my fabric.

After stitching all the drawn lines, I went back to the paper copies and sketched ideas for adding detail to the tiles before I stitched them out.

Referencing the church photos, I added an arched border to the tiles and then crosshatching beyond that to finish it off.

Because it was inspired by the church where my husband and I were married, this quilt has a lot of personal meaning to me and I am thrilled with the way it turned out.

Blessed Tiles

For Project Quilting Tune in to Texture challenge - January/February 2017

inspired by the ceiling tiles at Immaculate Conception Church in Fairbanks, Alaska

Size: 18" x 18" 

I create in Casa Grande, AZ

Check out all of the wonderful and creative challenge entries at Project Quilting