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Another Quilt As You Go Quilt

I've started working on my second QAYG quilt.  The scrap one I made is still awesome, but it is a tad small for my bed and I have a whole bed plan going on right now. 

Right after Christmas there was a night where I was awake the ENTIRE night.  It was ridiculous and so loooong, but I did get a lot of work done!  I don't generally have trouble sleeping, so I get burned out quickly if my sleeping schedule gets off.  The no sleeping was a combination of being really busy and not getting enough exercise to counteract the over-stimulation. 

So I'm working on the quilt blocks whenever I get the chance, or start getting bogged down with too many "what to work on next" type thoughts.  It is very centering to just sew the blocks and ignore everything else for a while. 

The bed plan consists of getting a new bed this spring and having a new quilt to go on top!  I need a few months to find the right bed and put aside the cash.  In the meantime, I bought latex pillows with some birthday/Christmas money.  They are SO AMAZING.  They are very rubbery feeling, but in a fantastic and super comfortable way. 

Besides the quilt, there are lots of things happening around here.  Something brand new is coming this Friday!  It is VERY practical, and to make it fun, we are going to make it beautiful too. :0]

Come back Friday to see what I'm talking about...

Quilt Binding - Pink, Brown and Turquoise

I like making binding...

RockDots by Umbrella Prints

 

     

 

RockDots from the RockGarden Quilters Cotton Collection

Using Color Palettes for Quilt Color Selection

This morning I finished binding this small quilt. The top has been done for a while now, but I got sidetracked by life. 

If you are like me, and just buy individual fabrics, rather than buying several prints--or all the prints--in a collection, when it comes time to put together a quilt it can be a challenge to figure out what color scheme you want to use!

I don't know much about color theory and tend to just wing it. In the past, picking one print with lots of colors and then using it as the basis for the rest of color scheme has been my method.  But it was still very challenging, and there were always lots of doubts and swapping out of various prints.  I don't like to get bogged down in the details of fabric selection too much, or I tend to get bored and wander off to another project. 

If you stop by pinterest regularly, or perhaps obsessively, you've probably noticed lots of pins for color palettes.  They are lovely to look at, and they are also awesome for color scheme inspiration.  By the shear number of color palette pins, I'm sure I'm not the only one using them for quilting!  You can see my color board here.

For this quilt I used the Design Seeds "wooded tones" color palette to give me some direction:

I didn't have these exact colors, so it was just a good place start.  I added in blue and purple.

I really like how this quilt turned out.  The color mix is interesting, and pairing these fabrics would not have come to me naturally. 

More QAYG Blocks

I'm up to 4 finished blocks for my second Quilt As You Go quilt.  Only 52 more to go! 

Quilting with Linen & Silk

Last night I whipped up this small sample of quilting using blue linen and piece of washable silk.  The linen has been in my fabric stash for some time now, and the silk was recently purchased from a seamstress having a moving sale.  

I'd like to make a quilt using these two fabrics, but wanted to answer some questions first:

Q. How difficult is it going to be to sew with these two fabrics?

A. It wasn't hard. Both have a lot of drape, but I didn't find it unreasonably challenging.

Q. How will the finished quilt feel?

A. I plan to use Quilters Dream cotton batting in the Request version.  It is super light, easy to sew and gives the finished quilt a nice drape.  The thinner batting also makes the finished quilt look more modern.  This batting is going to be perfect.  The finished piece feels divine!  

Q. How will the silk look with the blue quilting lines.

A. Looks fine to me. Lately I'm feeling interested in high contrast quilting.

Q. How well will these fabrics wash?

A. I washed/dried the sample by machine and it turned out lovely.  The linen gives even extra crinkly quiltiness to the washed piece.  I like it when quilts are wrinkly and old looking (can you tell I want it to look both vintage and modern at the same time?).

Q. How hard is it to use linen for binding. 

A. It is not easy and will probably be the hardest part of making this quilt (when I get around to actually making it...).  But it is going to be ok.  Using lots of spray starch on the binding pieces will probably make it easier to handle.

It was definitely worth the small investment of time and materials to make this small sample. 

For anyone who might be interested in quilting with linen, but maybe isn't quite ready to work with the fabric, here is something I discovered:

Robert Kaufman makes a whole line of "Quilter's Linen".  It is cotton fabric printed to look like linen!  Maybe this has been around forever, but I just stumbled across it while researching quilting with linen, and found it interesting.

I will still use my linen, since I have it and already went through my experiment. But this Quilter's Linen fabric looks like a great idea for anyone who wants a linen look, without the extra sewing challenge or expense.