Tuesday, February 7, 2012

2012 #12 - Flower Patch

The 12th quilt top of 2012 is a Sunday is for Scraps project from January.  The pattern is "Flower Patch," the August feature quilt in the 2011 "Quilts" calendar from Current.  The designers of the quilts in the calendar are Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobson -- that's right, "Me and My Sister Designs!"




Most of these floral prints are from a collection of "state flowers," and from Hoffman's "A Year in the Meadow."  The background is my favorite Kona lightest blue.

I didn't make the pieced border because I am in a hurry to deliver this to a friend who is temporarily living in a nursing home.  Now if I can just persuade one of my long-arm quilters that I should be at the top of the list!

Monday, February 6, 2012

Another Mystery Monday

Here's an oldie but goodie. This mystery was a class at Quilt Colorado 2010, taught by my favorite mystery writer, Debbie Caffrey.  It's the first mystery I made with scrappy fabrics, and I was chagrined when I found out the quarter-square triangles that form the opposite sides of the "star" were supposed to be the same fabric.

My friend and classmate, Barb Shie, convinced me no one would know that if I didn't tell (and now I've told!).  But I agree, with my floral fabrics, there is no need for the fabrics to be the same within each block!

Here is another view:


The 1 1/2" sashing with cornerstones was kinds of a pain, but I really like the pieced border.  This quilt went to Washington where it will be a fund-raiser donation for my DG's preschool.

And even though I finished piecing this quilt in 2011, I didn't include it in my "count" (I forgot all about it as it was buried in the "needs binding" pile). So I'm thinking it's OK to count it as #11 for 2012?


Sunday, February 5, 2012

January Color Palette Challenge

Last year I followed a blog that assigned a "monochrome quilt" challenge each month, a single color with a background color.  This year a real colorist, Vicki Welsh of Field Trips in Fiber will create a color palette for quilters (or painters, knitters, crafters!) each month.

Her January inspiration, some antique English tiles:

Vicki writes, "This is a photo that I took in the V&A Museum in September. These are tiles from an English ship made in 1882 by Architectural Pottery Company, Poole, UK."

Aren't they lovely?  My own interpretation of this color palette is inspired by a favorite Vera Bradley handbag:

I was surprised how close the colors on my bag were to the antique tiles.

I used my colors for the February Fat Quarter Fun group at Ruth's Stitchery.  Our pattern this month is by Cheryl Witt of sew-be-it in Billings, Montana.


"On the Slant" is a really fun design and it was interesting to see what colors my classmates chose.  Here is my finished top:

And a closeup.  The solids are all Kona cottons ranging from lightest blue to navy.  The border is "Japanese Chrysanthemum" by Philip Jacobs for Rowan, Westminster Fibers.





I'm amazed how well the border fabric goes with the solids. Usually I would choose the print first, then select other fabrics to go with it.  This time the border came after the top was mostly pieced.  The only thing I would do differently (always second-guessing) is to put the light yellow in the very center, so there would be less of it.

By the way, this is quilt top #10 for 2012!