modern quilts

Way back in April I purchased the spring issue of Modern Patchwork magazine and as soon as I saw the Lava Lamp Revisited quilt by Jacquie Gering I knew I had to make it !  Lava lamps are way cool and this quilt was very quick and easy quilt to make.

When it was finished I was a little shocked at how washed out it looked - I don't think I've used so much white in a quilt before !  I'm planning on using a bright varigated thread to quilt with or maybe using a few different colours to put a bit of colour in that white !

Of course its not at the quilting stage yet as I haven't organised the backing - I'm thinking of using this fabric from Emily Herrick's Technicolour range - I think it may have been made just for the Lava Lamp quilt !

Also in the magazine is the Retro Rubies quilt by Alyssa from Pile O' Fabric.  Alyssa used Oakshott fabrics in this quilt and as I have a big box of Oakshott I thought it was about time I cut some of it up so I made the Retro Rubies as well.

I was kind of making both quilts at the same time and I didn't read the instructions fully for putting the rubies together so I ended up sewing half of them the wrong way !

lesson learnt to make sure to read the instructions every step of the way !!  lucky I love my quick unpick - lol ! apart from my little mistake, the quilt went together really quickly and I really like the design.

I've ordered some thread to quilt the Retro Rubies and as its a wall hanging I'll just use a solid for the backing.

Hope to show these quilts all finished sometime in the near future - I think my free motion quilting is improving a smidge :)

quick charm pack quilts !

back in January this year I decided to tackle free motion machine quilting so I thought I'd buy some charm packs on sale and make up some practice quilts !

my idea was that charm quilts would be quick and easy to make and wouldn't cost that much !  I wasn't really thinking about the added cost of the batting, backing, and bindings !

I purchased 5 lots of 3 charm packs and after searching for patterns for a while at the Moda Bake Shop I finally did some mockups in EQ using different solids so I could see what the final quilts would look like.

This pattern is called Honey Honey Layer cake.

I decided to go with the poppy as a solid for the Tapestry rather than the snow but when the solids arrived I discovered the poppy was entirely the wrong colour so it was back to the drawing board !  I finally found a solid from the Tapestry range which was double the price of the kona solid I chose for the others so there goes my idea of a cheap practice quilt !

Thankfully the other solids seem to work well - I purchased Ash for Kissing Booth, Carrot for Serenade, Charcoal for Odds and Ends and (not shown here) Chocolate for Oh Deer.

I still haven't worked out which pattern I'll use for the Serenade charms - my first choice was this giant star that I'd seen on Jeni's In Color Order blog but using half square triangles instead.

when I ordered the carrot for the background I didn't order enough so I've come up with these other two patterns !

 

the one above is based on a pattern from the pillow I received in The Pillow Swap - I can't seem to get away from half square triangles - which I love to make but they are time consuming - and these were supposed to be quick and easy !

for the Odds and Ends charms I'm using another Moda Bake Shop pattern - Happy Weekender quilt.

 

Hopefully when I start this quilt it won't take too long to put together !

I'm going to use the garden fence pattern by Hyacinth Quilt Designs which I love for the Oh Deer charms but as it only needs one charm pack I'll have to find a use for the other packs.

I chose the chocolate for the background of this quilt - it seems I like bold colour rather than light backgrounds !

I'm using another Moda Bake Shop pattern - charming stars - for the Kissing Booth charms with kona ash as the background.

After 6 months of searching patterns, getting the right backgrounds, and generally stuffing about - a few weeks ago I finally made the Tapestry quilt and I love the celery solid !

Unfortunately I only have backings for the Serenade and Oh Deer charms so I'm still no closer to having some quilts for practice!

At this rate I think that 2014 is going to be my year for free motion machine quilting - LOL :)