River of Light, Beautifully

 

This is the River of Light quilt. It's a wonky rail fence inspired by Sujata Shah in her book Cultural Fusion Quilts (?). The blocks are designed to be sixteen blocks four by four. I thought, why? Then I rearranged them in long diagonals, and had a lot of fun making them crazy, irregular and over-the-top. It's definitely over the top, but when something heads in that direction, you'd best let it go. (In the photo above the quilt is sideways.)

This is such a fun quilt.

I made the backing with leftover bits from the front and from my stash. I love the back too.

This is an example of a beauty shot that didn't look like it was going to work when I saw it in my camera. I took only one photo. I figured I'd need to come back earlier in the day to get the shot I wanted, but the more I looked at it afterwards the more I liked it.

After I take beauty shots of my quilts outside I always bring them home and run them through the washer and dryer to make them soft and wrinkly. More than once I have discovered a tick on a quilt, so I never put this off. At any rate, the photo above is the three Color Catcher sheets that came out of the washing machine AFTER I washed the quilt. Now I wash every single piece of fabric that comes into my house before I bring it to the studio, so that this happens ought to be reason enough for everybody to wash their fabric first, and then when the quilt is finished, use Color Catcher sheets whenever a quilt gets washed. While these used to be easy enough to find at the grocery store, in the last few years I have bought mine on Amazon.

The Stairway to Heaven

A year or so ago, Julie sent me a box of fabric she was no longer in love with. In it was five of these Marcia Derse fabric rectangles, each about 20" x 32". I hadn't known what to do with them at the time, but as I was rummaging around my stash it occurred to me that these would make a good backing for the Yellow and Blue rail fence quilt, which I am now calling "Stairway to Heaven," after the song.

Actually, there were six pieces, but one of them had a chunk taken out of it. No matter, I can work with that.

What to do to fill up the spaces in between? 

I thought you'd never ask! 

I had been sewing all my leftover blocks together.

I had six long strips about 62" long.

I'll add my other strips to the top and bottom, and I might fill in the empty space with some of them. I haven't got that far yet, because once I saw this on the wall I liked it. I'll also have to add fabric all around so there will be enough for my longarm quilter, but oh, gee, darn. Like that's even hard.

So guess what I'll be doing this Fourth of July weekend?

 

Blue Zig Zags

I have finished sewing the blocks together for the blue and yellow zigzag quilt. One of my readers suggested the name "Lightning Strike." 

I mention this because..

In 2015 I made this version of Sujata Shah's Rail Fence quilt for my nephew's high school graduation. He chose the colors - purple and orange - and I would choose the design. When working with purple and orange - two strong vibrant colors - it seemed obvious to make them electric. My friend the Selvage Fairy gave me the name for it - Lightning in the Night Sky. My nephew loves the quilt and still sleeps under it every night.

So Lightning is out. But maybe such a kooky quilt needs a name like "The Electric Blue ZigZag."

Maybe.

Anyway I think the Electric Blue Zigzag will get a yellow border and then be bound in blue. I'll have to think about it.

One Plus One Equals Two...

 One and one is two.

Two and two is four.

Four times four is sixteen.

That's how I'm sewing the blocks together. And then when they are done, I'm pressing the seams open.

And yes I use pins. Lots and lots and lots and lots of pins. Like I say, if I want something to stay exactly where it is supposed to go, a pin will help make that happen. Since this way of making blocks means a lot of slightly curved seams, and blocks that aren't exactly on the straight of the grain, using pins helps keep everything straight and keeps things from stretching.

The right half of the quilt is all sewn together. Now I am working my way down from the top on the left side.

Each unit finishes out at 4".

This quilt needs a name. Suggestions, anyone?

Sewing Units Together

 

I've started sewing the units of the blue and yellow zigzag quilt together. As you can see it looks really good. I am quite happy with it.

A Sassy ZigZag

Here is the first go-round for the blue and yellow quilt. If you click the photo to enlarge it, and look closely, you will see that the blocks are not arranged as predictably as you might expect. There are several shades of blue, and also of yellow. While the blues are the predominant element, I have tried to arrange the blocks so the yellow zigzags are not too choppy. Yes, I am playing with your head.

As I have said, this is the first go-round, which means that now the blocks are up on the design wall, it's time to tinker and fine-tune. What I love best about Sujata's method of cutting the blocks is that the zigs are all wonky and fun and not at all regular. I want to emphasize that as often as I can.

The lighter blue zig that goes from the upper left corner down to the right, and the two darker zigs along either side of it show that off.

Yes, this is a totally crazy quilt. I can imagine some viewers thinking it is WAY TOO MUCH, but that is what is so much fun about this. Because Yellow and Blue are primary colors, they are very intense and bright. There is no yellow in blue, and no blue in yellow, so they stand out. Yes Linda S, blue and yellow is a very traditional French combination, but not quite this intense. Because blue is darker than yellow (because yellow is the lightest color) there is also a strong Light/Dark contrast here. I knew that was going to happen when I chose fabrics for this quilt. And as I always say, if you're going to go for it, go all out. Don't lose your nerve halfway through and don't complete the thought.

My son said something to me once that I just love. "You know what I love about you Mom? When you go over the top, you just keep going."

If sewn together right now with all the blocks on the design wall the quilt would be about 60" x 72". It will need a border (probably a blue one) to hold it all in and calm in down a bit (a tiny bit), but I think this is fun as hell and makes me smile every time I look at it.

Blue & Yellow

 Late last year I bought some blue and yellow fabrics, intending to make a wonky rail fence quilt. I cut the strips, but didn't get much farther.

In the last few days I sewed the rest of the strops together and cut the blocks.

This is the way they are supposed to be fitted together, but I had an idea to rearrange the pieces.

That was a good idea, but as soon as I started moving the blocks together, I got another idea...

Which was instead of arranging the small units into larger 16-unit blocks, just arrange them in long diagonal lines from one side of the quilt to the other. Of course, this required a little thinking...

To create one long diagonal row, as in my drawing above, requires 32 unit blocks. When I conceived the original quilt, it was 20 blocks - each block having 16 units. I had cut enough fabric for 20 unique blocks.

As if that would stop me!

So I'll be having more than just a little bit of fun with this!

Now that I know where I am going, I took the blocks off the design wall so I would know how many different pairs I had. Turns out I have 26. Since the design wall isn't wide enough for the full quilt design (it's two units too narrow) I need to figure out how I'm going to arrange them. 

In other words, I am PRETTY SURE I know where I am going, but not 100% sure, so I need to do a bit more thinking and tinkering.

Stay tuned!