Palette Parade: Red and White

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This is cheating.  Does one color plus white really equal a palette?  I don’t know, but I have always loved the classic red and white quilts, so I’m giving myself a pass.

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image source: decorpad.com

What I love is that, a red and white quilt made 100 years ago looks just as fresh as one made this year- and it’s often hard to tell from photos if a red and white quilt is old or new.

Did you hear about the fabulous exhibit of red and white quilts that the American Folk Art Museum put on in NYC back in 2011?  These 650 quilts are all from the collection of Joanna Rose and, if I remember correctly, the exhibition was a gift from her husband to celebrate a milestone birthday, and was made free to the public.

I wish I could have seen that.  I’m sure it was a once in a lifetime chance.

At the PA National Quilt Extravaganza (held outside of Philadelphia) last year, there was an exhibit of small quilts inspired by the exhibit in New York.  I photographed a lot of them.  I don’t have info on the makers of all these, but they are all from members of the Olde Kent Quilters Repro Bee of Chestertown, MD.

(Many more red and white minis on my Flickr Page)

I have always wanted to own a solid red and white quilt, but I wasn’t sure I would have the patience to make it. I tend to get bored making the same block over and over.  Now as I am getting older I think maybe I would be able to do it.

Like the process might actually be soothing instead of mind-numbing.  I could keep it around for a while and work on it any time I wanted to sew, but not wanted to think.  That’s most nights these days, after the wild things are all tucked away :)

Lately I have been seeking out blocks like this one:

It seems so simple, but you can build up complex patterns by spinning them different ways as you assemble the quilt.  I think it would help to keep the construction process interesting, because as you complete more and more blocks, there is the fun of putting them together in different directions to see what patterns you can get.

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2

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Which layout do you like?  I’m partial to 2 and 3, myself.  2 especially, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.

Palette Parade- Candy Hearts

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In general I like to pull my color palettes from nature, but these were just too tempting!

chalky pastels

touch of red

sweet shapes

1.Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton Lemon 2.Robert Kaufman Spot On Medium Dot Pink 3.Lizzy House Pearl Bracelet Sandbox 4.Michael Miller Fabrics Cotton Couture Bubblegum 5.dear Stella Cleo Bargello Sand 6.Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton Petunia 7.Free Spirit Designer Solids Chamois 8.Moda Bella Solids Cheddar 9.Michael Miller Fabrics Cotton Couture Spring 10.Alexander Henry Mecca For Moderns Mercer Dot Red 11.Michael Miller Fabrics Cotton Couture Soft White 12.Denyse Schmidt Shelburne Falls Fine Stripe Willow

It’s all half-square triangles.  I love half-square triangles!  I would bind it with the red dot.  Would you throw in a few red pinwheels, too, just to break up all the sweetness?

I guess the photo shoot ends here :)

New EPP project…

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I’m starting something new…

I was out of waiting-in-the-airport type projects so, (oh darn,) I had to start something new!  So excited about this one!  It’s my new favorite color palette: fuchsia, thistle, red, plum.  A little flash of tangerine.  So intense.  I’m thinking it will be a table runner, English paper pieced and appliqued.  Can’t wait to get started!

Palette Parade: Rosy

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When Evelyn Bea was just a wee babe, we took a day out to visit Hershey Gardens, to enjoy the sights and take some pictures.  It was a hot summer day and the sun was high in the sky by the time we got there, but as a mom-of-a-newborn I was just happy to be out of the house and in a beautiful spot with said newborn sleeping cozily in her sling.

The roses were in their full glory that day and even though I’m not usually a rose kind of person, I do love the colors I captured that day.

Soon Evelyn will graduate to her own big girl bed and I’d love to make her a new quilt using sweet girly prints and rosy hues.   A little bit of pale sky blue would ground all that pinkiness and add depth.

1.Free Spirit Designer Solids Dark Coral 2.Robert Kaufman Essex Linen Linen 3.Kate Spain Honey Honey Apiary Coral 4.Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton Flesh 5.Bonnie and Camille Marmalade Sugar Raspberry 6.Liberty of London Tana Lawn Suria 3161-D 7.Patty Sloniger Les Amis Star Pods Coral 8.Sandi Henderson Fresh Cut Flowers Poppy 9.Laurie Wisbrun Olive The Ostrich Scroll Red 10.Lizzy House Pearl Bracelet Glacier 11.Sweetwater Noteworthy Bucket List Blue Mist 12.Tula Pink Salt Water Ocean Ponies Coral 13.Kate Spain Cuzco Citadel Fuchsia

And lots of white would keep it light and fresh for a little girl’s room.

All fabric images courtesy of Pink Chalk Fabrics

This quilt would be so easy to cut and piece.  When I piece by machine, I like it to be something I can just sit and chain-piece without thinking too much and this definitely fits the bill.  If I want to fiddle with a bunch of little pieces that have to go together in just the right way, I’d rather be in a comfy chair away from the machine, English Paper Piecing.  Nice and easy, that’s my machine piecing style!

Palette Parade- Linden Hall

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Linden Hall, PA

This picture was taken in central Pennsylvania, where I grew up.  The rolling hills are so lovely there and the lavender mountains were always there in the background, something I never really noticed until I moved to Maryland and there weren’t any.  I miss them terribly.  Now when we drive back home, I watch all the scenery go by my window and I try to soak every minute of it in.

All Fabric images courtesy of Pink Chalk Fabrics
1. Patty Sloniger Les Amis Faux Bois White 2. Kaffe Fassett Shot Cotton Ginger 3. Michael Miller Fabrics Cotton Couture Fog 4. Moda Bella Solids Feather 5. Lizzy House Pearl Bracelet Hiho Silver 6.Sarah Watts Timber & Leaf Playful Fox Blue 7. Joel Dewberry Notting Hill Historic Trail Citron 8. Patty Sloniger Les Amis Star Pods Green 9. Moda Grunge Basics White 10. Sweetwater Noteworthy Sing Out Loud Cloudy 11. Denyse Schmidt Chicopee Ziggy Medallion Black 12. Sarah Watts Timber & Leaf Tree Rings Blue 13. Alison Glass Lucky Penny Bike Path Chartreuse

As I’ve been making this palette I’ve been dreaming of fixing up the little church and making it my studio.  What an inspiring view of the valley I would have!  I could build a little deck off the back and have coffee and paint the sunset.  But I have these fantasies about every derelict old structure we see, from something relatively intact like this church,  to the house  I used to pass on my way to work that had nothing left but its stone shell.  Something in me just wants to save them.  Because someone else put so much of themselves into making them.  If I retire a billionaire, I will save old houses for fun and sell them to people who will love them.  But anyway, the quilt…

I was in the mood for a very low-volume quilt this week.  Nice and soothing.  So I based the quilt on the white and greys of the church and added the chartreuse and ginger  just as  little accents.  And I would bind it with this Chicopee print.

Sarah Watts Timber & Leaf Playful Fox in Blue

Aren’t these foxes wonderful?  I can totally picture them slinking around in this scene.  I had never heard of Sarah Watts before, but I love her Timber & Leaf collection!  I would sew a big piece of these guys into the back of this quilt.

And it would remind me of home.

Palette Parade- Market Bouquet

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Last week I did a snowy winter palette, and honestly I’m not sure I would ever get tired of rich neutral, wintry palettes.  But this cheerful palette is for my friend Anjeanette, who doesn’t think the mid-Atlantic winters are so awesome.  I got this bouquet at a farmers market in the dead of summer, and photographed it just as the sky was trying to rain. The cloudy sky made the cerise really pop and gave the greens a moody bluish cast.

I am so grateful that Pink Chalk Fabrics has granted permission for me to use their images to mock up quilt patterns!  I have long admired their carefully curated collection of modern fabrics.

1.Free Spirit Designer Solids Red Plum 2.Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton Berry 3.Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton Cerise 4.Michael Miller Fabrics Cotton Couture Cherry 5.Etsuko Furuya Echino Ni-Co 2012 Cycling Pink 6.Carolyn Friedlander Architextures Hatch Plum 7.Jay McCarroll Center City Portland Uptown 8.Alison Glass Lucky Penny Bike Path Magenta 9.Carolyn Friedlander Architextures Map Grass 10.Patty Sloniger Les Amis Faux Bois White 11.Metro Living Circles Fuchsia 12.Moda Grunge Basics White 13.Lizzy House Pearl Bracelet Swiss Chard

This quilt pattern is called Maltese Cross.  If you use 15″ blocks like this, it will finish 64×85, perfect for napping on the couch or for my little girls’ beds!

Because I wanted to

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And not because there was nothing else I should be doing :)

I indulged in a little improv patchwork with my growing pile of Jasmine Tea scraps.  And a little of the Fuchsia Echino birds that perfectly match my Fuchsia Tile print.  I set my machine up on the kitchen table and let Evelyn and Violet hand me scraps to sew together.  I finished it up this morning while Garrett vacuumed which was altogether a very pleasant morning.   I intended it to be a cushion cover, a one-and-done sort of project.

Echino Birds matched my fabrics perfectly- I was literally obligated to make the purchase :)

But since this 20×20 square did not diminish my pile of scraps at all, I am thinking it needs to become something bigger.  And so another quilt is begun.

Palette Parade- Snowy Canoes

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Hi folks,

One of my most favorite things to do is put together color palettes.  Here is one from a favorite winter photo I took last year.

I designed a quilt to go with it!  And I was going to pull some fabrics but my both my stash and my local quilt shop were lacking in the shadowy periwinkles.  So.  Time to shop.  but here’s the quilt:

The block is called Castle Walls.  There are a couple of different ways to put the “castles” together, and if you like the more asymmetrical layouts, I think that a handful of these clustered in one corner of a quilt would look just smashing.

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I’m ready to watch the playoffs.  I can’t sit and watch TV without a project to work on, so I’ve got this quilt all prepared for hand applique.  I pieced the background the other day, and last night I basted the flowers down.

As you can see, I was lazy and didn’t feel like calculating anything, so I just put up the old quilt on the wall and kept cutting pieces of the grey until the whole thing was covered up. Pathetic!  But it worked.

Now I am ready for some couch time with the family.

(We are from Steelers Country, but they had too many injuries to have a chance at advancing this year, so I’m rooting for the Seattle Seahawks.  Because  I have always loved the deep blue- green of their uniforms.  They kinda look like lizards.  Oh and because Gar and I both work for companies based in Seattle and we sort of dayderam about someday ending up there… )

And there was happiness in the land…

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So over the weekend, our mailman brought not just one, but two big boxes, stuffed to the brim with fabric!!

The first box was from In The Beginning, and it held my sample cuts of my new fabric collection.  That means that it’s only a few weeks until it hits the stores!  All that stuff that I drew, like a million years ago when Bea was a baby, is finally printed on fabric.  Yay!

The second box, which may possibly have been even more exciting, was all the fabric that I ordered from Pink Chalk, to go with my own designs…

Yes! Boxes of fabric!

I have to be honest here, I don’t like making quilts with only one collection of fabric, and that includes my own collections.  I love the richness that begins to accrue when you use fabrics from different designers, different companies.  The colors are going to be slightly different, the style of the prints and the line weights are a little different, and it all adds up to be so much more than just one designer’s variations on a theme.

So, in order to make stuff from all the yards of my own fabric that are taking over my sewing space,   I needed to buy more fabric.  You understand.

I hope to share some of the combinations that I’m really excited about over the next few weeks.

Here’s the first one I am working on- using the Fuchsia and purpley-blues from my collection plus a few precious Liberty Tana Lawns.

Another giant Dresden/Chrysanthemum quilt somewhat like this one:

which I did for Stitch Magazine summer 2012,  but I think I’m going to shake up the chrysanthemums in a different way this time.  I always wanted to see it done in prints.

Now you all know what I’ll be working on at Saturday’s DCMQG meeting!  In between working on the Austin charity quilt of course.   I can multi-task.  Can I ever.