Plaids & Ginghams & Checks Oh My!

An experiment with a variety of checks & squares.  All yarn dyes (woven patterns) except one print, as opposed to prints, not fabrics most quilters would use.  Shot in outdoor light in front of my home.

I'm quite pleased how it came out.

Hard to see, but upper left & lower right blocks are lime green gingham.

Was designed during a recent Disappearing 9 Patch Obsession over last winter.

Also, older shirting fabrics, the navy & white stripe.

Crazy fun, most of these were home spuns (yarn dyes), except the blue green checkered in above pic lower right.

Pretty rewarding & practically free.  

Crazy Cats on Cavalcade

This was a small quilt I made from scraps, mostly cat themed. Several fun novelty fabrics which I put together with scraps from other projects.  

It came out pretty fun; I sent it out to a call for charity quilts for kids in Toledo after some tornados. 

I smiled at these fabrics while working on it, hopefully it's made some little kid smile a bit too. 

for Irina - Pastel Baby Quilt

I recently made this from some fabrics I've collected & some other bits & pieces that have come my way.  Was obsessing over this pattern called Disappearing 9 Patch.

It's in the geometry & in the particular placement of the colors & patterns, cutting & then rearranging them further.

A simple layout resulting in a more complex looking pattern. 

Outdoors, in natural light.

More detail, caught by the breeze ...  Outdoor light after a snowstorm. 

a peek at the back.

Am so pleased with the results.  Will be giving to a neighbor who has been helpful & kind to me, for his new baby girl.  Thanks Max!

Radical Pink

Radical Pink, squares playing with gingham check

Sometimes fabrics end up together as sheer happenstance.  It’s up to us to notice these happy accidents & make good use of them. 

I was coming home from a Quilter’s Guild meeting with a fresh collection of scraps.  One fabric literally fell on top of another & I noticed it & admired the combination.  It was a light gray blue & pink paisley print which fell on top of a pink & white gingham check.  These looked so nice together & I liked the squares motif in combination with a gingham check (a woven).

Sometimes fabrics let you know clearly when they wish to play together; so I tend to give this type of design play wide berth.  It’s invariably productive, even if I don’t know where it’s going at the time.

The backing fabric is this beautifully muted pastel wash. At first I thought it a garish print, but after working with it I’d come to realize it was a wonderfully modulated piece. 

Finished off with my favorite binding a reversible one.  This one is a tiny purple print on the front & turquoise blue print on the backside’s binding.

Let’s see if I can post a picture which shows the binding’s two sides.

Turned out to be a nice experiment, I enjoyed it more than I expected.

Fuschia Liberty & Shirting Friends

These fabrics were given to me at my Quilt Guild by the Service Committee, asking that I do something with them.

This first group is shirtings

The central block here is a Liberty of London print, a finer gauge woven of lighter weight, more finely woven cotton fabric than the Shirtings.

I don’t know that other folks would even Quilt with these materials. But they're donated to our Guild, so recognizing how fortunate that is, I am grateful.

Trying out various arrangements against a Mocha colored piece of Kona cotton.

The Featured Print this Fuchsia colored Liberty print with this cream colored pigment printed overlay.  It's a complex fabric with a woven Indian Madras-type plaid, intensely colored, finely woven cotton.

Just moving the fabrics around, getting used to seeing them together.

In hindsight, after this quilt is done, I can see this kind of design exploration play led me to the checkerboard border around this quilt.

For me, this kind of play is always useful & constructive.

Again, moving things around in the border by sections, I came upon a nice arrangement which transitioned smoothly from one group of colors to another & moved the Viewer's eye around the perimeter of the Quilt.

Next, the back, pieced from a lovely blue print a quilting colleague shared with me, seeing how much better it blended with my project than hers, she offered me the fabric.

Pieced together around a block of the Featured Print from the front, with some more checkerboard for good measure; once I made it I liked it & found it fun to use & see.

Here is the Quilt in final form after bindings were put on.  I am very satisfied with this Quilt & how it came out.  I learned a lot doing it & had a good time too, the best of both.

I got a little checkerboard crazy, that alone was fun!

Good fun & so satisfying to see it completed.

HH Baby Boy Quilt Commission Summer 2015, 2nd BQ commission by Denise

Done using a commercial panel called Urban Zoology. Really fun motifs, I thoroughly enjoyed working on this.

 

Individual blocks, fabrics were charming & good fun.

  

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A corner inscription block, deliberately askew.

A view of the back, a fun fabric, spotted in the shop by a friend.



On a park bench outside in natural light.