Scrap Quilt Inspiration
I’ve been inspired by some over-the-top quilts recently and I’d like to share them with you. My local guild met this week and the show-and-tell lasted for an hour. I asked for permission to show you some of the quilts my friends made.
Carol started this Four Patch/work quilt during the Olympics when Temecula Quilt Co. offered the pattern for free.
This quilt was made by Carol, who started it during the Olympics when Temecula Quilt Co. offered the pattern as a freebie.
As Carol pointed out, it wasn’t difficult to make, but it was an exercise in how to use a variety of fabrics together as she thought about value and scale.
I think she did a marvelous job. The design is called Four Patch/work; find it on the patterns page of Temecula Quilt Co. I’m going to make one of these! It will be perfect in my guild program “Make Extraordinary Scrap Quilts.”
I’m also toying with the idea of developing a new lecture that’s all about super easy quilts. Maybe I’ll call it Easy Peasy Quilty Squeezy. What do you think?
LeeAnn with her finished 365 Challenge quilt, made in 2016.
My friend LeeAnn presented a delightful program on her machine quilting journey, and she wowed us with her finished 365 Challenge quilt. Have you heard of the 365 Challenge? Australian Kathryn Kerr hosts it, posting one free block pattern each day for a year. If you make the block every day, at the end you’ll have this dynamite sampler quilt.
I started the project at the same time LeeAnn did, but I only lasted about a month. It’s definitely a challenge, but one I’d encourage you to try.
It’s entirely rotary cut and machine pieced using quick-piecing techniques. Most blocks are 3″ or 6″ with a few in larger sizes. Kathryn says the project is suitable for confident beginners, and becomes progressively more complicated. Tutorials for each technique are included. What’s not to love?
At one point LeeAnn sent me a text. “If I just made a 3″ block with 37 pieces and it came out at just the right size, can I do a happy dance?”
You really have to pay attention to value, because that’s how the illusion of borders is formed. Value is the lightness or darkness of the fabrics; using different values creates contrast.
LeeAnn sewed mostly from her stash. The main thing she purchased was the white solid. And my bet is that she hardly made a dent. Sound familiar?
LeeAnn’s finish inspired me! Today I’m going to dig out the blocks I made at the beginning of 2016 and re-evaluate. I didn’t love my colors, so maybe I’ll start over, or maybe I’ll figure out a way to move forward with them. Stay tuned.
Tags: 365 challenge, inspiration, scrap quilts