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Archive for August, 2009

The Golden Year

Aug 30

Posted by lastpiner in Quilting the Process, Quilting, General, Quilts & Patterns | No Comments

The Golden Years Quilt
Original Design: Ellen Marie Mislo
Block Quilt, Machine Pieced and Quilted including 12 Embroidered Blocks

The Quilt is made up of 21 – 10″ blocks.
12 of those blocks where made by starting with a 6″ embroidered rectangle. A 2″ red patterned border was sewn around the block and then another 2″ block of background fabric was added to create the 10″ block.
The other 9 – 10″ blocks were cut from a repeating design patterned fabric,(They could be created by sewing together strips of fabric).
The assembled quilt was created by starting with 3 embroidered blocks, then  alternating rows of embroidered/patterned/embroidered then patterned/embroidered/patterned.
A 4″ complimentary red border was added around the entire quilt, then finished off with a gold/green/red binding, tying the quilt together. The finished quilt measures approximately 39″X79″.
Ellen Marie has shown with this creation that very simply made blocks can become something very unique.

The Golden Years

The Golden Years

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Choosing Fabric Color

Aug 17

Posted by lastpiner in Quilting Fabric, Quilting the Process, Quilting, General | No Comments

So you want to make a Quilt – Fabric Part 3
Choosing your Fabric Color

In my last post on Fabric we looked at some basics in types and texture of Fabric. Perhaps a bigger part of choosing Fabric, whether we realize it or not is in the color of the fabrics we choose to use in our quilting projects. There are people who devote entire life times to doctorial studies on color and its affects in painting/fabric etc.
I plan to touch on a few areas to hopefully help – not muddy,  in choosing Fabric colors for you next Quilting project. I had heard about the Ives  Color Wheel. As it turns out that’s not easy to find, what there is out there are many interpretations of of Dr. Herbert Ives color research.
I found the following info in an article by Janet Wickell on color theory. The first wheel has the Prime colors – yellow/red/blue or yellow/magenta/cyan in printer ink talk. If you mix any two Prime colors in 50/50 you will get orange/violet/green which are your Secondary colors.

http://z.about.com/d/quilting/1/0/m/1/-/-/primary_secondary_combo.jpg

The next completed wheel shows the Tertiary colors which you get by mixing any two adjacent colors from the secondary wheel in 50/50, such as 50/50 yellow and green for yellow-green

http://z.about.com/d/quilting/1/0/U/1/-/-/full_colorwheel.jpg

primary secondary combo Choosing Fabric Color

Choosing colors to put together in a Quilt is where all the fun begins!  You have some of the following color combos:
Analogous Colors – Take your main color choice the two colors on ether side it of the wheel those are Analogous
Complementary Colors – Take your main choice and the color directly opposite on the wheel is it’s complementary color.
Color Triad – If you take just the three Prime colors and think of that triangle, now turn that triangle around the wheel the three colors at the triangle points are all part of that triad.
Monochromatic Colors – This is fabrics all in the same color theme – ie. all blues
Confused? I hope not. There are three other considerations (notice a trend 3′s) that affect your colors.
Shades – This is adding black to darken a color
Tones - This is adding gray to make a color less intense
Tints – This is adding white to lighten

After you numb your brain with lots of color theory, it all boils down to pick the colors you like and go with them! Color choice all depends on what are you doing for a Quilt project – you may want quiet earth tones, for a soft warm quilt, or you may want your colors to clash and stand out,

iggy 150x150 Choosing Fabric Color

so as I said find what you like and -

QUILT ON!
Next time Thread.

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Lady of the Lake Quilt

Aug 15

Posted by lastpiner in Quilting the Process, Quilting, General, Quilts & Patterns | No Comments

Lady of the Lake 1980
Wall Hanging: Machine Pieced, Hand Quilted
Pattern: Georgia Bonested’s Lap Quilting and More Lap Quilting

Georgia Bonested’s books have a similar basic pattern called Saw-Toothed Square. The Lady of the Lake uses more colors.
This wall hanging predates, rotary cutters, and any easy half-square triangle sewing tips or aids. With today’s easier more accurate way of constructing the half-squares you can get a much more uniform resulting squares. I know if I was to do this pattern wall hanging or bed quilt again now, lots more of the points would match up better! Not all of them mind you, that never happens!
The concentric squares of quilting result from throwing a “square” rock into the center of the lake.
Again if you arrange the half-square blocks differently and use a different color theme this would turn into a completely different quilt, so think outside the “square” as it were and have fun!

lady of the lake 286x300 Lady of the Lake Quilt

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So you want to make a Quilt?

Aug 2

Posted by lastpiner in Quilting the Process, Quilting, General, Quilts & Patterns | Comments off

The Quilt Pattern-Where it begins

I have been trying to come up wit h a theme in Quilting, since starting this site over a year ago, to give me something to write about for these posts. At the moment I have caught up with all of the quilts that my wife and I have made, a wall hanging and bed quilt still in the works. So what I am going to attempt to do is walk through the making of a quilt from beginning to end. Along the way I hope to provide you links to other sites I have found in my searching for information and references. So here goes……..
Every quilt has a pattern, whether it’s highly intricate or very simple there is a plan that is followed to come up with the final quilt. Quilters I find are very individualistic, and their patterns reflect that for an unlimited rage of finished projects. I did some digging on the internet, an as with everything else there are thousands of sites offering patterns, many of them for free, when I searched “quilting pattern directory” I was given: Free Quilt Patterns Directory, Free Baby Quilt Patterns Directory, and Ask.com “Quilt Patterns”, also Penny Halgren’s Quilt Block Library. As I said there are thousands of other choices but these four will give you hundreds of patterns, many to download for free, or at least ideas to help create your own pattern if that’s what you like to do.
Don’t forget your local library for pattern ideas, there are usually quilting books, perhaps magazines, and articles. Your local Quilting Club or Guild will also, not only provide pattern help, but a connection to quilting “pros” who can help all along the quilt making process.
If I gave ten quilters the same pattern and told them to make a quilt, with the fabric of their own choosing, the final quilts would all be very different. So don’t over think it when it comes to a pattern, sometimes the fabric comes first, sometimes the pattern says “this is it” just enjoy the process!
Next time The Fabric – Types & Uses

Original design with stash material

Original design with stash material

Classic design

Classic design

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I Spy Kids Quilt

Aug 1

Posted by lastpiner in Quilting the Process, Quilting, General, Quilts & Patterns | 1 Comment

I Spy Kids Quilt

Pattern: Original Design by Ellen Marie Mislo
Material: Fussy Cut Blocks collected for about 5 years
Quilt size:  28″ x 36″ Machine Pieced and Quilted

Ellen Marie always wanted to make a I Spy Quilt but could never find one that she liked so she designed one herself to incorporate the blocks she had been collecting for years. The Quilt was inspired by a friend in her vet”s office and so she made it for her.
The pattern is 42 – 4-1/2″ by 4-1/2″ fussy cut blocks connected with 2″ sash and arranged  6 rows across and 7 blocks down ..The first row down is sewn by alternating a block an sashing to the bottom then repeat again adding a block and sashing to the bottom until you get 7 blocks in the  row. The second row down begins with the sashing first then the block, so forth down the row, until you have 7 blocks. Once you have the 6 rows sewn together with the alternate block then sash first, you assemble the rows – again with the sashing between. Having the top of each row alternating -block then sashing gives you the offset appearance in the finished quilt. Ellen Marie used the same color sashing to boarder around the quilt. The Quilt backing was a piece of material bought special for the quilt that carries the theme to the back as well.  This quick an easy to assemble project is a fun Quilt that any child would love to have!

i spy quilt 300x199 I Spy Kids Quilt

i spy quilt back 199x300 I Spy Kids Quilt

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