Posts tagged: Finished projects

Shakespearian Bars—An English Interpretation

After I posted this top back in January, I went a bit incommunicado about it, as I decided to submit it to the Great Lakes Seaway Trail “Beauty of the Byways” show this year. I finished it with nary a minute to spare, so I don’t have many photos of the details, nor of it hanging, but here’s an overview.

Shakespearian Bars Front — “Shakespearian Bars—An English Interpretation”, Rachael Arnold, February 2013, 52″×58″

Each submission to the show must have a story:

While some say you should travel a byway to see the “simple life”, my journeys on byways around the country have been for the opposite reason; sometimes I need a break from the repetitive, “simple” driving of the Interstate System and long to see the complexities of agriculture, forests, seaways, rivers, and hundreds of small towns. Driving on Ohio’s Amish Country Byway may find me slowed by a horse and buggy, but the leisurely pace gives me time to admire the rows of corn in fields or meadows of flowers along the road.

The piecing of my quilt is not intricate, but to call it simple belies the involved process of creation—from choosing the colors of fabric and thread, to the complexity of each stitch holding the three layers of cotton together. It is plain, but sometimes the monotony of life’s daily bustle calls for slowing down and enjoying the “simple” complexity that you can find when you turn off the more often-travelled path—whether it be a break from quilting projects of many pieces to work on something inspired by the Amish or taking time to drive along a byway and admire the sights.

The pattern is mine, but it is strongly influenced by quilts made by Amish women in Pennsylvania and across the Midwest in the late 19th Century, now in museum collections.

The title comes from the color scheme, one I found for yarn somewhere on Pinterest. They called the scheme “Shakespeare”, so I ran with that. It’s “an English interpretation” because English is what the Amish call non-Amish. The colors are Kona Coral, Kona Regal, Kona Hibiscus, Kona Moss, and Free Spirit Citrine.

The back is another Amish-inspired composition using the purples from the front (Regal, Hibiscus) and Moda Bella Thistle. It’s a little off-center, but not crooked, so I call it a basting win. Considering that I cut 7 of the 12 pieces incorrectly when putting it together, I should also call it a miracle.

Shakespearian Bars Back — “Shakespearian Bars—An English Interpretation” (Back), Rachael Arnold, February 2013, 52″×58″

I hastily applied a handwritten label to one side, but once I get it back, I’ll put a better one on.

It’s quilted in a charcoal thread that I had leftover from the Cyclist quilt; many sources on Amish quilts say that their quilting was done in black at that time, so I chose to use a dark thread rather than matching to the colors of the quilt.

Pellon Nature’s Touch in the middle gives it a nice drape and warmth factor. I didn’t wash it before the show, but can’t wait to do so once I have it back in my hands.

The binding is wide and non-mitered—another nod to the Amish tradition. I chose Hibiscus, as I wanted to put it next to the Regal as a way of giving the inner pieces more contrast. In certain light, the Hibiscus and Regal photograph very similarly to each other when they are in different areas of the quilt.

It’s also Moof approved, but I’m starting to think he’s just a sucker for soft quilts on wood floors.

I don’t think this is the last of my experiments with color schemes and Amish Bar quilts!

Impressions Baby Quilt

Posted in Quilting

Baby quilt two of the fall rush is complete and delivered.

I was inspired by all the diamond HST quilts in blogland, and decided to throw in a heart just for good measure. It finished at around 41″×45″.

It’s backed with a solid piece of Minky fabric. It’s wonderfully soft and cozy.

Because of the Minky backing, I didn’t want to quilt it too closely. So, I just echoed the diamond inside the middle of the HSTs, and made a couple of echo lines inside the heart. Her initials are also in the middle of the heart. The density (or lack thereof) is pushing the limits of the 80/20 batting I used, but I think it will be ok.

Because of the lack of pieced backing, I didn’t make a custom label. I just used one I had printed from Spoonflower, and added a few details in handwriting.

To complete the set, I made another modified Simplicity 2613 dog out of the leftover Minky, along with a small scarf of leftover top pieces and some other fuzzy purple fabric I had in my stash. I like how the pattern goes together with the Minky… it will be used again, I’m sure.

Now it’s on to new projects…

Wrapping Up at Market

Posted in Sartorial

I was not at Quilt Market in Houston last week, but something I made was.

Perhaps you saw this:

or maybe this:

while you were there (on a person, of course, not my decrepit, listing dress form)?

It was a simple reversible wrap skirt made from this tutorial on Sew Mama Sew. The purple side is the cheater print from Asbury (available in January), the yellow is a print from Frippery (in stores now), and the waistband is another Asbury print, all by Thomas Knauer.

And, because I’m supremely lazy and technology-savvy, rather than draw out the pattern on paper like the tutorial suggested (which required finding my roll of craft paper, a straight edge, etc), I just mocked it up in real-size on the computer and printed it out. You reap the benefit: here is a downloadable pattern for a 34″ waist, approximately knee-length (20″) skirt. Well, if you’re 34″ waist ± an inch or two (it’s a wrap skirt, after all). Cutting instructions are included based on what I did. You’ll have to refer to Sew Mama Sew for the construction instructions, though.

I foresee a skirt or two of my own from this pattern in the future… I just have to decide what to make it out of—oh, the options!

A Ruffled Baby Quilt

Posted in Quilting

I have the need to make a couple of baby quilts for friends and family in the coming months. This is the first, which started as me wanting to play with a few new things and ended up as a finished quilt that I’m pretty happy with. It was also very quick—the binding took longer than the rest of the quilt, I think.

I started with a designer roll of Wrenly (Valorie Wells), but ended up only using nine strips in the quilt itself. The marbled fabrics are flannels, the thin border is Minky, and the outer border is something I picked up from the sale bin at the LQS.

The Big Reveal: Cyclist

Posted in Quilting

Source: jaybirdquilts.com via Pinterest

I’ve been in love with Curious Nature—and every quilt I’ve seen made with it—since it was released this past Spring. When the ebook Geared for Guys started making rounds, and Julie of Jaybird Quilts showed us the “Gamer” quilt, I was inspired with the perfect project for Curious Nature.

See, Carl just turned the big three-oh. He’s having a bit of an existential crisis about it, and we all know how cuddling under a hand-made quilt can help with that. But, he’s not a gamer (we have a Game Cube… somewhere… that gets used for Mario Kart maybe once a year). He is a cyclist, so I give you “Cyclist”:

It is larger than Gamer: around 70″ square (because there are more letters and because he likes square lap quilts). The background is Quilter’s Linen in Charcoal.

Simplicity 2245—A New Dress/Tunic

Posted in Sartorial

With my sister’s graduation coming up, I realized that I need something dressy–yet–casual, and nothing in my closet fit the bill. So, since I loathe clothes shopping and love fabric shopping, I decided to make Simplicity 2245, view A—a Lisette dress.

Superfluous Tula

Posted in Quilting

When I purchased the fabric for my Tula kaleidoscope quilt, I went a little overboard—mostly due to trying to match blenders and solids while online shopping. Then, I went a bit crazy making kaleidoscopes, because they were so much fun. Ultimately, there was enough leftover fabric and blocks for a full 60×60″ quilt of 7.5″ finishing squares, plus binding and backing (with a bit of stash throw in for the back).

Tula Does Up the Walls in Pah-ree

Posted in Quilting

This accidentally ended up in my feed a few days ago, sans images. Here’s the full post!

Did you ever hear about the Kiwi couple that named their daughter “Talulah Does The Hula In Hawaii” (or possibly ‘Tula…’)? I ask, not to vilify them, but to explain the title of this quilt. See, I’d heard about that well before I found out about Tula Pink, and every time I hear the name ‘Tula’, that other name comes to mind. So, an imitative name seemed perfect for this quilt (seeing as the focus fabrics are Tula’s Parisville prints). Thus, “Tula Does Up the Walls in Paris” where ‘Paris’ is pronounced en Français, of course, to get that nice “ee” sound at the end. Yes, yes, enough talk, more photos:

1812 Finished, Shown, Undocumented

Posted in Quilting

The Great Lakes Seaway Trail 1812 Quilt show was this weekend, and it seemed to be a resounding success. We went up today and enjoyed the quilts, the speaker, some of Sacket’s Harbor’s delicious food, and absolutely beautiful weather.

There were so many amazing quilts and talented quilters represented. I gave up voting in the viewer’s choice, because there were at least five quilts that I just couldn’t choose between. I hope they all end up in the selection that is traveling around the country in the next year so that more people will have a chance to see them.

Star of Bethlehem

Posted in Quilting

It’s Christmas week and we’re on vacation, but it’s time to unveil the finished Strip-pieced Lone Star/Star of Bethlehem quilt. You got a sneak preview last month, when I reviewed Nature’s Touch batting, so without further ado, here is the full quilt.