Monday, September 26, 2011

Perseid August 2011

Perseid August 2011 by LaurenRikrax
Perseid August 2011, a photo by LaurenRikrax on Flickr.
This is another one I've been working on. It's a mini quilt for auction at my guild's fundraiser. It's about 25" square. The name refers to the stars and when I made it: Perseid is a meteor shower in August.

It's a traditional pattern but has a modern color palette. In fact I chose the colors using a paint swatch collection I received in the mail in an ad from Ace Hardware. It sure made it easy to coordinate.

Most of the fabrics were from my stash but I bought a few to round out the chartreuse green selections. Some of the fabric was from the giant quilter's yard sale I attended in June (the orange and the lighter gray). The quilting is mostly straight line patterns enhancing the piecing.

This had way too many pieces!! OMG, when I started it I didn't realize how complicated it was. It looked easy in the magazine... famous last words.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Peter Rabbit Patchwork

Peter Rabbit Patchwork by LaurenRikrax
Peter Rabbit Patchwork, a photo by LaurenRikrax on Flickr.
I am still sewing even though I can't seem to get my act together to post about it. Here's the first project I finished.

This is a baby / crib quilt for a coworker who is pregnant. She is due with a little girl in October. I had found the Peter Rabbit fabric at a garage sale (only 1 yard) and thought this quilt was a terrific way to use it up. See the 6th square from the left in the top row. I had previously purchased another print from the same line of Beatrix Potter prints, and that one is in the mix too: see the first square of the second row.  I picked all the fabrics based on color matching to the inspiration print.

This pattern is from "P.S. I Love You Three" by Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith (of Great American Quilt Factory and Possibilities fame). I really didn't need a pattern for this, after all it is a bunch of 4" squares, but I was lazy and wanted someone to do all the math for me. I made two modifications: I stuck in the red/hot pink piping around the patchwork, inside the border, and I made the border much more narrow. Basically I didn't have enough fabric of any one color for the border.

The red color looks more like hot pink in some lights. It's supposed to add interest and coordinate with the Peter Rabbit print.

I gave the quilt to its recipient on Friday night at the baby shower, and they loved it. They were impressed because I made it, even quilted it myself, and that it's so cute. I'm glad she likes it...or at least was polite enough not to say anything. Not everyone likes handmade.

Funny; in that group I was a quilting "expert" but when I go to KC modern quilt guild meetings, I feel like a goof. There are so many women there who are innovative quilters and blog and sell original patterns and hand made items, and all that stuff. I do patterns, occasionally come up with a modification to a design, or design a quilt using existing block styles, and I'm nowhere near as prolific as these other quilters. Truth is, I'm somewhere in between goof and superstar.