Pattern inspirations- Quilt magazine.

I love digging through quilt magazines for inspiration. I've spent several hours at a bookstore looking for the perfect idea. I have several quilts that were done as color variations of patterns found in magazines.

I had dug up a couple of examples of my quilts to show you but for the life of me I can't reference the magazines they come from because I can't find them. Usually my magazines go in a stack in my room or I will give them to my mom or grandmother to look at later. Most likely that is what happened to the ones I'm looking for.

The first one is a quilt done with a fun Alexander Henry fabric "A Ghastlie End". I fell in love with the fabric because it reminding me of the artistic style of Edward Gorey.

The second one is a pattern called "Equilibrium" it is either from the summer Modern Patchwork or Modern Quilts Unlimited (fall or summer?). It was done from their recent issues. They used solids and pastels in purple, pink with a peach background.

I used a recently purchased mermaid fabric from Alexander Henry and shopped my stash for the rest. I found a large print floral fabric, a beautiful turquoise and had some Kona solids left over from when I my row by row prize of 2015. All of this fell together very nicely and I'm quite happy with the results. The original (I wish I can find the magazine) flowed but blended with an analogous color scheme. I used a split complementary to spice things up a bit.

Now that I'm blogging I will have to remember to take photos of my fabrics before I start. It would be easier if I thought to do that. But good news is I'm working on choosing fabrics for my next project idea. I'll have a better shot of what I actually use. My newest project is coming from Modern Patchwork's fall 2016 issue with the Deco Daybreak quilt by Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill.

WIP - Patio Pavers Quilt

Still can't remember the magazine I got this out of. As of right now I'm about halfway through.
I have two of the long panels quilted and am starting on the third. It's been a slow process because of distractions and also how much I'm quilting it on my domestic machine. Once I'm done I can put together the panes and do a binding.
I'm planning on going for the same grey as the background color because with the amount of pattern and colors in the quilt already it doesn't need anything else competing with what's there.

Today's tea is a Jasmine Green Milk Tea. I haven't had this brand before. It was one I ran across in the asian grocery store and decided to give it a try. It's very good. Adding milk kinda defuses the flavor of the tea so I imagine it would have to be brewed stronger to get the same richness. I swear I don't always buy teas from there but my favorite is Jasmine green tea, and the hint of orange tea from Petros would be my second favorite.

UFO weekend project- Patio Pavers Quilt

So if you remember my last Harry Potter quilt post you will have seen this stack of unfinished quilt tops.
On the top there is three pieces that are actually part of a single quilt. It was done in panels so I can do a quilt as you go method with it.

The original quilt pattern came out of a quilting magazine I got a few years ago. I can't even remember which one it was, but I thought it was a fabulous way to bust up some of my scraps. I put it together in 5 panel pieces and decided to use one of the panels as the backing for another one.
I had enough batting but ran out of the solid grey I wanted to use as a backing for the other three panels I wanted to do. I decided to start on the one I had pinned and ready to go and had an unfortunate color choice for my thread.

The quilt goes from one brilliant color to another in a nice rainbow effect and I originally thought a bright colored graduating thread would look fabulous with it. Once I got have my panel done I decided I hated the color choice in the thread. With that the project got put down for later when I can get more material and my interest immediately jumped to something else and the quilt was sent to the unfinished project pile. Things get lost there, so almost two years later I decided to pull it out and give this a go again.

I have some solid grey fabric from a recent purchase and just need to get my panels up and running again. First thing is to pull the thread out with the unfortunate color choice and then start quilting with a grey thread I found that worked better. It doesn't compete with the bright color fabrics as the other thread did.
Sorry the lighting in that last picture is terrible. Once I finish quilting I will begin connecting the panels and hopefully see an over all finished quilt.

AQS Quilt Week 2016 in Chattanooga

Wednesday was my birthday so I took the day off to go to Chattanooga and see the show. I have been to Padukah's quilt week but not the one in Chattanooga. Usually I don't have the money for a trip so soon after Dragon*con but I figured I can stretch it this time.
It was fun. Mom and I spent the day running around playing Pokemon Go and it's big brother Ingress as well as oohing and Aching over all the quilts. I got some fabric and ideas for new quilts. I always see things I want to try or that looks so fun. The quilt to the right was done by the ladies of Spool. You can find them at the Badass Quilter's Society. I've got a couple of my favorites from the show below. I did catch the name tags in the photos. I'm sorry it they're too small to read.

They had a few special showings like one with a theme of the Lion King and another with the them of unusual materials. There were quilts made out of chicken wire, duct tape(below), tin cans and more. Over all a blast was had and it was a fabulous birthday.

Harry Potter quilt complete!

So I'm thrilled to have another actual project done. I mean if you have seen my quilting habits you'd be thrilled also. I'm terrible about doing a quilt top then getting tired of looking at it so I put it away for a while. That while can be over a year on average. So when I get motivated to actually complete a project I'm thrilled.

I wanted to make sure I finished this quilt in time to go to the AQS show in chattanooga so I can show it off to the ladies at Spool. They were the ones to design the castle pattern I just worked it all into a lap quilt. It's almost a twin size so it can be used on the bed, but it's just a little short. I didn't manage to get the binding on it in time but the quilting was complete. I actually finished putting the binding on today.

Now to grab another one out of my to do pile. I've a few patterns and new fabrics to play with from the show (which that will be a different post), but I think I need to do at least one other before I start a new top. We'll see how my momentum is going. Sad to say my to do pile is still so much larger then my done pile. You can see below the two piles. I have 11 unfinished quilt tops waiting to be done and in possession of only 4 finished ones. I have done more quilts but most of those were given away to family and friends as presents.

WIP - Harry Potter part 2

So I have finally finished quilting the first half of my Harry Potter quilt. Sad to say it's not that big but I was distracted. Dragon*Con is labor day weekend and I went to that. Had a blast and saw lots of great costumes but I'm off to finishing this quilt. My goal is to have it done by the 14th and I'm almost there. I keep getting distracted.
The second side features the row by row license plate from spool and a mirrored reverse of Hogwarts from the last row. The background to the castle isn't as colorful because I didn't have any more of that fabric but I think the goes well with the fact that this one is on the slytherins side of the quilt.

And for some more non quilting stuff:Today's tea is Chrysanthemum tea. It is a light tea made with just the chrysanthemum flowers and water. This version is sweetened. There is a large asian grocery store nearby and I can get this easily.
I like this one but it's not my absolute favorite so I don't buy it that much. It's a nice treat. I was watching a videos about asian drinks and this was on it. I'm going to share the video below because it's got some of my other favorites in it, and some I hadn't tried before.

WIP Color Wheel hanging

So the idea for this started from a complement on my color choices for fabrics and bloomed into an artistic hanging that highlights some ideas in color theory. I plan to write up a pattern for this but I wanted to show off what I've been working on.

It started off with me raiding my scrap pile for colors and sorting them in red, green, blue, orange, yellow and purple.

I then cut them into and sewn them together strips to highlight value from light to dark. I actually pulled enough to make two different color wheels. For this project I decided to use my Hex N More ruler from Jay Bird. I've had the thing for a year now and haven't pulled it out. I even got the Gravity pattern, which I still plan on doing eventually. I just haven't cracked the thing out to do anything yet. I also got the regular sidekick ruler. I've managed to use that one some but until now not much.

The final part was to sew coordinating strips on the sides for the different color schemes. I plan on using each side as a backing to the other so that it is reversible. This has been a good exercise and a fun way to use up some scrap.