More fun in the studio

I really get upset when I can't get the colors right on the screen.  Oh well.  This is really much cooler in person.  The teal in the stars is much more vibrant, and the red in the strips is not so vibrant.  Very frustrating.  Anyway, here it is so far.

The other thing I worked on today was for the International Round Robin.  Here is what I started with.

After looking at this for a long time, I decided to make some diamond stratas and add another piece of applique.  See that piece of KF, third wedge up on the bottom right?  I had another piece of that so decided to make a curvy shape to put on top of the border to bring it all together.  Here is the result of that idea.

This piece goes to one more participant before it goes back to the originator.  As it is with round robins, it has been really interesting and fun to see each piece change from beginning to end.  I already have the last piece I will work on for this robin.  I have no ideas about what to add, but I am sure something will come to me after I look at it for a while.  If you want to see all the pieces, just hop over to our flickr page.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Joyful quilting, everyone.

Seeing stars

I don't know if you can see how stunning this fabric is from the photo.  It is "Flowering star of Ghana" from the 2001 Alexander Henry collection.  When I was visiting my friend Sharon in her studio, she was pulling fabric from her basket of silks and brocades when she casually set this one aside.  I fell in love with it, and she gifted it to me.  It was a one yard piece, with a small 9" square cut out.  Not her colors, she told me.  I have been looking at if for a few weeks now, pulling other fabrics from my shelves and putting them back.  Then, I found a 1/4 yard piece of the teal flowers from Sandy Gervais Tranquility and knew that was it.  I spent a few minutes doodling, and then set to work.

At this point, this is what I have.  These will all come together as a liberated medallion of sorts.  The hsts are left overs from the stars I showed in the last post.  I am also going to use strips of the orange fabric to fill in.  I may use some narrow strips from the dark teal in the hsts.  I want to make sure the liberated stars really stand out when all is said and done.  I have only made these a couple of times before, and I really like them, even though they take much longer than regular stars.  Sometimes, it takes more thought to be liberated.

This is going to be another one of my process, or intuitive, quilts.  So far, all I have is a seed of an idea for the middle.  I have to dig through my stash and see how much teal and orange I can find.  That will dictate the final size of this piece. 

 Joyful quilting, everyone.

Something liberated, something traditional

As I looked at this traditional red and white center on the design wall, I could see where I turned two four patches the wrong way.  Since it doesn't affect the overall circular illusion, I decided to leave it.  At this point, this piece is 18" square. I am going to add at least one blue border to make this a red, white, and blue piece. 

After I played in the traditional world for a while, I decided to play with my liberated medallion some more.

My quilting friend, Sally, who has gifted me with wonderful fabric scraps in the Provencal color, gave me these wonderful roosters, and I had to add them to this piece.

One of the things I like about this liberated method is that I can use traditional pieces to create something really whimsical and fun.  I decided to make the quarter square triangle blocks scrappy instead of matchy matchy.  I wanted to keep the scrappy feel I started in the center.  I also used what Gwen Marston refers to as the Martha Washington corners.  If you don't have a long enough border, just add fabric strips at the end.  One of the skills I learned recently was how to measure properly for attaching borders so they don't get wavy.  I measured precisely across the middle both ways, up and across.  I created the borders to be exactly that measurement and made them fit.  It really worked well.  I think the next border will have some liberated triangles.  I also want to bring that red back as well as some of the bright blue.  But it will have to wait a bit.

Why?  Bella's birthday is at the end of the month and she has asked me to make clothes for a couple of her favorite dolls.  It is really fun to make doll clothes, but it is time consuming.  All that pinning and cutting, and making tiny seams.  Can't wait to get started.

Check back tomorrow to see who won the fat quarter bundle of Flea Market Fancy from the H2H drawing over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. 

Until then, joyful quilting, everyone.