It’s been a productive sewing week, and with another chunk of uninterrupted sewing time today, I was able to complete the Pink & Grey Baby Plus Quilt I’ve been wanting to finish! I definitely will incorporate more solids into the mix the next time I make a plus quilt, but I am very happy with how this quilt turned out.
My adventures photographing the quilt top were a reminder as to why I really need to buy some washi tape! Blue painters tape does the trick, but doesn’t really add to the aesthetic. Blue bits aside, here are some photographs of my finished flimsy:
I was inspired by Michelle Bartholomew’s quilt photography, especially for her Barn Door Quilt, for this photo shoot locale. My quilt is hanging on the side of our shed, which is not exactly a barn, but the “X” door complements the plus quilt so well, the math geek in me just couldn’t resist. I think the grey in the shed also brings out the grey in the quilt. It was a match that was just waiting to happen.
I love when seams match perfectly!
Now that the quilt top is complete, it’s all set to go to Stephanie & Michelle in Austin for some longarm quilting. Once Stephanie is finished working her magic, this quilt will be posted for sale in our Late Night Baby Etsy shop. It will be my first contribution, so I’m excited to finally get it finished.
This week’s color inspiration brings us back to the garden and the late summer blooms that abound. There always seems to be something flowering in our garden, and even with the harvest of fruits and veggies swelling, now is no exception. Color palettes are created using Play Crafts’ Palette Builder 2.1 and my own photographs, taken today.
Corresponding Kona cottons from left to right: Sunny, Yarrow, Gold, Black, Corn Yellow, Paprika
I don’t think I’ll ever tire of these beauties. Bright golden yellow black-eyed susans are scattered throughout our garden and fields and seem to flower for much of the summer. While I can’t see myself making a quilt that’s entirely yellow, it’s an awfully cheerful color palette.
Corresponding Kona cottons from left to right:
Charcoal, Purple, Magenta, Violet, Dark Violet, Cerise
This palette features my favorite seasonal colors: radiant orchid and magenta. I love the range of purples in this palette and can definitely see it making its way into a quilt of the future!
Corresponding Kona cottons from left to right:
Palm, Laurel, Coal, Crocus, Iron, Raffia
This year I’m thrilled that I got my dahlias into the ground in time for flowers. The gorgeous blooms have been brightening our kitchen table for the past week or so, and they just keep coming. These colors are stunning together, but my favorite part about this photo is the inch worm explorer; do you see him?
Quiltspiration 365
For those of you who are looking for quilty inspiration for every day of the year, I’ve teamed up with a group of quilting bloggers to provide exactly that. Search for tag #quiltspiration365 on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to see new inspiration each day, or visit these Quiltspiration bloggers:
This week I’m focusing on finishing my pink & grey baby plus quilt, made with an assortment of Michael Miller It’s a Girl Thing pink & grey prints. I’m so very close to completing the top, with only four more long strips to sew together.
This is my first quilt to be listed for sale in our Late Night Baby Etsy shop, which is primarily run by Michelle & Stephanie, my Late Night Quilter soul sisters. I bought a Michael Miller pink & grey fat quarter bundle over a year ago, since I am totally in love with the color combination. I love grey in general and am typically not a huge pink fan, but together it works so well. When Stephanie, Michelle, and I started talking about opening an Etsy shop in which to sell baby quilts and other sewn items, I was immediately excited to finally make a quilt from this bundle. I added a tiny splash of Moda solids, and if I were to make this quilt again, I think I would add more solids, but overall I’m very happy with how this quilt is turning out.
I love the guitar prints!
I’m doubly excited because once this top is finished, I will be sending it to Stephanie for longarm quilting.
In case you haven’t heard, Stephanie and Michelle recently joined forces at Late Night Quilter to kick off their longarm quilting and pattern design business. They also released a new, free pattern as part of their kick-off, so go check it out, especially if you love triangles. Visit their post to see some closer details of Stephanie’s awesome quilting. I love the shadow triangles the most, I think, but the movement created by the quilting is awesome and unexpected. I’m definitely excited to send my quilt top off to Stephanie so that she can work her magic. They are offering free batting to all customers in the month of September, too, so if you have some tops you’ve been sitting on, now might be a great chance to get them quilted!
Do you send your quilts to a longarmer, or do you quilt them yourself? So far I’ve quilted all of mine, but I’m silly excited to have my first longarm experience. I’m trying to decide how I want Stephanie to quilt this Plus Baby Quilt. Their design gallery has some great options. What design would you choose? I think I’m leaning toward Retro Revolution…
I don’t always enter giveaways on Instagram since I don’t want my feed to be swamped with reposts, but every once in a while there’s one so gorgeous that I just can’t help but enter. A couple weeks ago, I reposted, tagged, and followed @fabricshoppejody in the hopes of winning this lovely Carried Away bundle. And I actually won! Carried Away was designed by Zoe Ingram for Robert Kaufman Fabrics and features some of my favorite colors, not to mention feathers!
Thus, my fabric stash grew a little bit last week when the lovely bundle arrived in the mail. Thank you so much to Jody from the Fabric Shoppe for this awesome giveaway, and for adding the very first feather fabric to my stash–I know, hard to believe I haven’t bought any feather fabric yet!
This weekend, we finally had a somewhat sunny day on which I attempted to capture its beauty.
Of course I had my usual helpers around, and my son wanted to be in the thick of the action more than usual.
I just love the feather prints and I’m trying to decide what to make out of this bundle. I’m dreaming of finally attempting a Sew Together Bag, but I’m also terrified. Four zippers?! How many pockets?! A BAG!? I’ve only really attempted quilts and one extremely basic, somewhat flimsy shoulder bag. We shall see. Either way, I’m super excited to add this bundle to my slowly growing stash.
What would you make with this bundle?
I’ll leave you with one last photo of my little helper, since he’s awfully cute. Then again, I’m biased.
Maddie’s rainbow jellyroll quilt top is finally complete! It only took me a bit over three hours to sew together, but with a fairly large summer sewing hiatus in the middle. I decided to focus on completing this quilt over a month ago, and sewed the first jellyroll strips into pairs. This past weekend I was graced with a rare chunk of uninterrupted sewing time, during which I finished sewing all of the strips together. This quilt is made entirely of strips from an Andover Fabrics Color Collection Jellyroll. Easy peasy! Go ahead and get a cup of tea or coffee (and a snack) because here comes a deluge of rainbow photographs!
I was so excited to finally finish something, I immediately dragged my husband outside for a photo shoot upon completing this top. It was a bright sunny day with a decently brisk breeze, but I just couldn’t wait. Here’s Maddie’s gorgeous rainbow on a sunny, bright blue sky day:
Blowing in the breeze.Sun shining through to the back as the quilt turns momentarily into a kite. I love the look of the back of a freshly pieced quilt, especially with the illumination of the sun!Quilt top-turned-kite in its resting place: crumpled on the ground next to the fence.Rainbow from afar.
My husband Garrett was quite patient as I dragged him around the yard, trying to find a spot where the lighting was decent and the photos were not too washed out from the bright sun. The wind didn’t always agree with our plan, but it made for some fun outtakes:
You would jump up and pretend you’re a bull fighter, too, right?
As evening began to set, I decided to go out and try a shady photo shoot, since in the past I’ve captured better color richness in shaded photos. With my kiddos back at home after an adventurous day with Grammy & Great Aunt Ellen, they of course wanted to help:
The colors definitely are richer in the shady photos, although I miss the crispness of the sunny photos. With this photo shoot, I think I prefer the sun for the full-quilt photos, and the shade for the close-ups. What do you think?
I love the look of the back of a freshly pieced quilt, even with kids flopped on it.Rainbow jellyroll quilt top front.Rainbow jellyroll quilt top back.
So pretty! I am quite pleased with how this came out, even if it’s a bit off-kilter on the edges. I plan to quilt it and then square it up after it’s all quilted. For those of you who have quilted rainbow quilts before, do you have any tips? I think I am going to try to match general colors of thread, and do simple straight line quilting along each strip. I guess that means I will need to buy some more Aurifil since I don’t have a full rainbow spectrum of thread (darn. wink wink).
I need your help!
My biggest question is with the bobbin: I only have two bobbins for my machine, and thus far I have quilted only in grey. When switching colors often in your quilting, do you just wind a bobbin a small amount, and hope to get lucky with how much you will need? I don’t want to waste a bunch of thread, but once I am finished quilting in a certain color, I will need to unwind the rest of the thread from the bobbin to make room for the next color. Any tips are greatly appreciated!
I’ll leave you with one last cute picture of my helpful kids, posted on Instagram last weekend (follow me @nightquilter).
Welcome to Color Inspiration Thursday. It’s a two-posts-in-one-day kind of day here, so I will keep this one aesthetic. Color palettes are made using Play Crafts’ Palette Builder 2.1 and my photographs. Your inspiration this week comes from two very different locales. The first photos are from more of my garden harvest. We have had tomatoes galore, which means fresh tomato on everything, salsa, salsa, more salsa, and tomato sauce!
Corresponding Kona cottons from left to right:
Black, Poppy, Chocolate, Smoke, Taupe, Paprika
Add a helpful two-year old and your palette changes a bit:
Corresponding Kona cottons from left to right:
Black, Taupe, Earth, Coal, Paprika, Mahogany
The next photos are from Holbrook Island, off the coast of Maine.
Corresponding Kona cottons from left to right:
Coal, Steel, Ash, Black, Windsor, Pewter
Sometimes simple, “plain” things are beautiful. I found this roof-to-wall transition quite aesthetically pleasing, and I love the combination of violets and seafoam greens that result. The seafoam green is a bit lost in the Kona matches, but I might tweak my fabric choices if using this palette in the future so that the green is more prominent.
Corresponding Kona cottons from left to right:
Basil, Grass Green, Moss, Spring, Espresso, Steel
With beautiful beaches on the outskirts, deep dark pine forest on the inside, Holbrook Island Sanctuary State Park is a gorgeous place to explore. The forest floor was covered with moss and lichens, which created another little world best seen from an inch or two away while laying on your belly.
Corresponding Kona cottons from left to right:
Steel, Charcoal, Ash, Buttercup, Deep Rose, Denim
These rainbow strings were washed up on the rocky beach, which adds a fun pop of color to an otherwise stony palette. I kind of love this one!
Yesterday I dropped two small, machine quilted wall-hangings at the Blue Hill Fair in Blue Hill, Maine. This is my first time ever showing anything at a fair, and will be the first public display of my quilts. I’m excited and nervous all at once!
Entering my quilts in the fair was surprisingly simple. The website simply said to bring the quilts to the fairgrounds on the Tuesday or Wednesday prior to the fair. I sought out a woman from my church who is very well versed in the local quilt scene and active in the local quilt guild last Sunday, and confirmed the simplicity in entering quilts in the fair. I was worried about getting the quilts ready to hang or display and she gave me a priceless tip: they don’t need to have a hanging sleeve or dowel since they will typically display quilts with clips. That saved me a good hour of hand-stitching!
It took only about five minutes to hand my quilts over and give them the necessary information. It almost seemed too easy, but I suppose when they have hundreds of people entering all sorts of handcrafted everything, efficiency is key.
I went with my mother-in-law and aunt, since 1) they had been to the fair before and knew generally where the quilt display building was, and 2) it was about 45 minutes away so we decided to make a day of it with the kids at the local park and beach. After submitting my quilts, we headed to Blue Hill Park for a picnic, and then the kids played on the playground while I got some rare mommy time. I sat in the shade and worked on the knitted Katniss cowl I’m making in exchange for a logo design, enjoying the cool breeze and the gorgeous view of the harbor.
My gorgeous view of Blue Hill Harbor.Swimming in the harbor at Blue Hill Park.
This morning I read a post by Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl about her experience entering quilts in her local fair, and now I’m even more excited. I didn’t realize that judges actually filled out a score card and left comments about your entered quilts. The Blue Hill Fair begins this evening and runs through Monday, September 1st, and I think my family will be going this evening. I will be sure to take photos of my quilts on display, and I’m eager to see the other quilts, too!
As for what quilts I entered, you will just have to wait and see, since I didn’t get good photographs before drop-off.
As summer drags to its end, harvest time picks up speed. We’ve been picking veggies galore from our garden over the past weeks, and preserving as much and as fast as we can. Our garlic and blueberries have done especially well this year, and are slowly filling our pantry and freezer. We’ve made a batch of salsa from garden tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, and cilantro, and I’m hoping to make pickles soon since our pickling cucumbers are multiplying quickly. Green beans and kale have been (or will be soon, in the case of kale) blanched and frozen, and we’ve eaten garden broccoli a few times already. I love this time of year.
This week your color inspiration comes from some of my garden harvest photos made into color palettes with Play Crafts’ Palette Builder 2.1. May you be inspired to quilt, create, and grow healthy goodness in your own backyards!
Corresponding Kona cottons from left to right:
Ash, Steel, Baby Blue, Dresden Blue, Regal, Regatta
I love this palette, but I’m already a huge fan of blue. The grays paired with the range of beautiful blues makes this a palette that is sure to be seen in a project of mine someday in the future.
Corresponding Kona cottons from left to right:
Mushroom, Steel, Black, Charcoal, Shadow, Slate
Corresponding Kona cottons from left to right:
Black, Evergreen, Ash, Silver, Ivy, Mushroom
Corresponding Kona cottons from left to right:
Parchment, Mocha, Espresso, Coal, Stone, Taupe
Earthy palettes galore today. Kona earthy neutrals have really been prominent in my garden photos, and I love it! I’m all about a bright rainbow quilt any day, but there is something sophisticated and soothing about an earth-tone quilt with just a tad of natural color.
Have you made an earth-toned quilt? Do they make you as happy as brightly colored quilts?
On the coast of Maine, lobster buoys freckle the harbors and are often seen hanging on the sides of buildings, sheds, boat houses, and even near mailboxes further inland. Many of my patterns are inspired by the Maine coast, and my latest works in progress are certainly not exceptions. I’ve finally completed and posted all three of my buoy foundation paper piecing patterns in my Craftsy store.
Lobster buoys come in all shapes and sizes, and definitely many different colors. I tried to create patterns for at least the three most commonly seen shapes, and I am happy with how they turned out.
The patterns are super simple and extremely versatile. While testing these patterns, I accidentally sewed the 4″x8″ of the middle buoy, instead of the intended 5″x10″ version. I’m not quite sure what I will do with the little buoy yet, but the larger ones will be made into a pillow once I make a 5″x10″ of that pesky middle one.
I love the detail and precision of foundation paper piecing. There’s something about the exactness of seams and the ability to create anything with fabric that makes me happy.
Buoy 1 foundation paper piecing pattern detail.
Since I still need to remake a larger version of the Buoy 2 pattern and stitch these all together, I’m linking up with Freshly Pieced’s Work in Progress Wednesday. Stay tuned to see the completed pillow, and stop by my shop if you have an inkling of making some nautical lobster buoy creations!
Sometimes there’s a saying that is so commonly used that you don’t even think twice about it. Last month, while on vacation with my family, my brother Steven commented on how cool my specifically planned cutting looked in my English paper piecing project. I told him how in the quilting world it’s called “fussy cutting”, and how much fun I was having with this, my first foray into it. He looked at me with an almost offended air, repeating with disdain, “fussy cutting”?!
Fussy cutting in practice for my Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses center.
Steven is an artist who lives in San Francisco among many other artists of various trades. Perhaps this is why he was so taken aback by the terminology paired with quilters’ practice of selectively cutting a fabric based upon a particular element or design. He reasoned, “You wouldn’t call Michelangelo a “fussy” painter. You might call him meticulous, or careful, but never fussy.” He has a point.
It’s true; the definition of the word fussy holds a decidedly negative air. “Petty details”? “…a fussy, cluttered look.” Losing the thread of the story because of the fussy writing. None of these definitions or examples are very flattering. Personally, I think that fussy cutting in quilting is a skill and style that deserves a more complimentary, positive name. Then again, it’s just a word, right?
This conversation got me thinking: who coined the term “fussy cutting” and when did it start getting popular? I wonder if it was a saying created by the quilters, or by those seeing the completed work. A bit of googling uncovered the fact that the first evidence of selectively cutting motifs from fabric was the development of Broderie Perse in England in the 1700’s (from answers.com, so take it for what it is). The article goes on to explain that “…this technique was used by women of wealth, who had the leisure time to devote to this style of applique. Their goal was to make a “best” quilt that would be shown off to friends or used on special occasions.” In other words, it was women of wealth who could afford the time and fabric to select only very specific features to make a “best” quilt, leaving the fussy cut refuse to waste or other small, non-functional projects. Was the term “fussing cutting” created by those of lesser social status out of semi-contempt of those who could afford such fabric waste and leisure?
In searching more, in an interview with Eleanor Burns conducted in 1999, she casually mentions that she and her sister may have coined the term “fussy cutting”. Here’s an excerpt of the interview:
Brenda Horton (BH): Now you called your sister the fussy one but you “fussy cut” sometimes on your patterns, is that where you got the term?
Eleanor Burns (EB): Yes, she told me “fussy cut.” What’s really interesting, we may have coined the word “fussy-cut” but now it’s a standard in the industry. And that’s really fun to see something you started as just common terminology.
MF: Explain to us what “fussy-cut” is.
EB: Fussy-cut means you would have a large floral design with a lot of flowers. You might just specially cut out one flower and use that one flower repeat throughout your quilt, so it’s just specially cut out of the fabric to use in a certain piece. It puts together a really pretty design– fussy.
It doesn’t sound very disparaging, although between sisters, perhaps there is a bit of a teasing tone? What do you think?
Assiduous cutting with Amy Butler’s Lark fabric.
For me, I can no longer say “fussy cutting” without thinking of my conversation with my brother. Here’s my IG post from the night of the conversation:
I wrote: Testing out my fussy cutting choices for my next #patchworkofthecrosses. Talking with my artist brother, we decided that “fussy cutting” is quite pejorative. So now, it will be punctilious, meticulous, assiduous, deliberate… but never “fussy”. Who’s with me!? #assiduouscutting not #fussycutting 🙂 Thanks, @vanfremdling and thanks to@goinghometoroost and @amybutlerdesign for the fantastic fabric for my @kickassiduouscutting !! #epp
I’m sure that “fussy cutting” will still be part of my quilting lingo, since when in Rome! However, I will also be using “assiduous cutting”, “meticulous cutting”, and “punctilious cutting” interchangeably. Personally, I lean toward “assiduous cutting” since then I can say I’m doing some “kick-ass-iduous cutting” tonight!
What do you think? Do you think “fussy cutting” has a derogatory inclination? If you are a quilt historian and have any more information regarding the origination of the term “fussy cutting”, I’d love to know!
Until then, have fun with your punctilious, meticulous, assiduous, deliberate, and okay… sometimes fussy… cutting. I know I will!
I grab a needle and thread once the kids are in bed
Now that the quilt top is complete, it’s all set to go to Stephanie & Michelle in Austin for some longarm quilting. Once Stephanie is finished working her magic, this quilt will be posted for sale in our Late Night Baby Etsy shop. It will be my first contribution, so I’m excited to finally get it finished.
Night Quilter 