Blue Baby 'Geo Pop' :: Top Complete

It's been a while since I sat down and got a blog post on the books!  It's not that I haven't been busy making and sewing, it's just that I haven't taken the time to share.  There are many things that I make that I never share.  Most are intended for my Etsy Shop and are made to replenish my stock.  I would bore you to death if I showed everything! 

Then there are things that are well worth sharing if for nothing else that to inspire!  

It seems much longer than a month ago when I share my pink/coral/peach 
Baby Geo Pop quilt:  Girly Delight.  When my sister asked if I'd make a baby quilt for a friend using blues, I couldn't resist doing 'Baby Geo Pop' one more time!

What I love about this design besides the graphic nature, it can be completed in less than a day!  The most time consuming part is cutting, sewing and trimming the half square triangles.  I happen to enjoy the entire process of HST making.  I think because I know that whatever color, whatever print, whatever layout or whatever size...they are always going to look great.

For a smaller quilt using solids, I try and use 10-12 different shades or colors so that I have a good variety.  I'll cut 2-3 squares from each of those colors along with the exact amount of the accent color and begin by pairing the squares together.  You know the rest...sew, sew, cut in half, press.  I almost always press my seams to one side, that way I can use my 
Bloc Loc Ruler.  It makes the process easier and saves a lot of time.  I doubt I'd make so many HST quilts if I didn't have that ruler.

The good news is I finished the top!  There isn't really any bad news!  I've got a good month or two before it needs to be finished for the baby arrival, so for now I'll set it aside.  Quilting it will happen, I just don't know when.  I like that feeling!

I like blue.  I don't love it, but I like it.  When the top was finished I have to say I went from like to love!  Crazy how that happens, but I'm sure glad it did.  

You might not believe this (or it might not be a surprise at all!), but I think I want to make another one except a lap size!  When was the last time I used yellow for a quilt?  I guess stay tuned is in order!



The Geo Pop pattern is available in my Etsy Shop:  'Geo Pop!' .  Now it's time to plan my next adventure in HSTs!

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Making Waves :: Improv Curves

There isn't anything more humbling or satisfying than watching the waves from a beach.  The pure power of the water, the serene sound of the waves and the warmth of the sand beneath your feet.  It is my happiest place to be on earth.  

However, being land locked in Tennessee and not being able to travel to the beach often I have to make my own paradise through my quilts.  I've made several versions of this quilt throughout the years and absolutely love the process.  So, why did I stop?  Not an easily answered question other than to say there are only so many hours in a day, days in a week and weeks in a year!

CATCHING WAVES
17 1/2" x 19 1/2"

That's not to say it hasn't been on my mind!  The tough part is making myself do it.  Then with many other things, once I start I can't stop and wonder why it took me so damn long!

I was contemplating whether I should quilt some of my finished quilts, clean the house again or do something different.  I choose something different!

The first step was pulling every blue I had on hand.  With these improv curves you need to make sure you have a good length (whatever size your are after), a wide enough width (because you want to make sure you can get good curve action) and a huge variety of shades.  



You don't have to have all the strip widths the same, but a comfortable width for me is 1-3".  Some strips may be thin curves, some will have a gentle curve but wide, and then there are some that are wide and have deep curves.  

One thing about these curves is you cannot be worried about waste!  Oh waste will happen, but you have to look at the big picture.  Trust me when I say I like to use every scrap and hate to waste the tiniest of pieces!  Its a compromise and a dance with the devil!  If you are like me...you'll find a way to use some of the excess waste for another project.  



Which is exactly what I did with my scraps!  After making some of the waves, I had scraps that could easily be used for this mini quilt!  Waste not want not! 



Now is a good time to give a couple stats for this quilt.  The large wall quilt is 17 1/2" x 19 1/2" and features 30 shades of blue.  The mini quilt is 6 1/4" x 5 1/4" and has 13 different shades packed into that small space. 

I'm including a picture of all the seams on the back.  I'd say 99% were pressed open which is something I don't normally do when I work with curves.  This time I thought I'd give it a try.  You might think that by doing that your seams might pucker, but I didn't find that to be true.  I did encounter a slight amount of puckering when I made deeper curves, but I also knew that after quilting it wouldn't be an issue.

As you can see, pucker power nearly eliminated with dense quilting!  Hooray for that!  I like to quilt dense curves on these Wave pieces.  It fits the theme, it's so satisfying and believe it or not...so much fun!  I can't be sure how many different shades of thread I used, but I'm guessing 10+.  I had a few colors that I could only get a few passes from before it ran out.  So what ever you do, don't toss spools of thread when they are nearly empty!!



The texture is amazing!  Beware!  Once you start dense quilting you cannot stop!  That could mean you can't stop because you started or it could mean you can't stop because it's so addicting!  In my case it was addicting, fun and after quilting a large quilt...so satisfying!  



The earlier versions of my wave quilts all received pieced bindings.  Take a look here:  Improv Mini Wall Hangings to see what I mean and to see the different variations that I've done before.  It's a difficult and bulky way of finishing off one of these quilts.  Over the years I've learned a few things and one of those things was a faced binding.  

I learned how to do a faced or knife edge binding from this tutorial: 
Knife Edge Binding by Bloomin' Workshop.

I attempted using this method on a mini curve quilt, Mini Waves, but I didn't think it was very successful.  I learned faced binding for larger quilts and do not do it on mini mini quilts!

MINI MINI WAVES
6 1/4" x 5 1/4"

This time I wasn't taking any chances and went with my usual method for mini mini quilts. 

I'm pretty sure you noticed from this mini mini and the faced quilt that I haven't actually sewn the bindings on yet!  I was so excited to share something different that I ignored the usual protocol of sharing a true finish!  Tonight will be spent happily hand stitching on both of these!  



My plans are to make another using blues/turquoise/aqua/teal for a tropical version very soon.  And...hopefully...I can do a more in depth process/tutorial on how I do it.  I will say that improv curves is something that comes with trial and error.  I taught myself how to do it and how to make it work for me and my skill level.  Something that has been fine tuned throughout the years.  What I can share is my version of curves and hope that it spurs you to try, and is the catalyst to let you discover and learn what works for you!!

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BRAG ABOUT YOUR BEAUTIES ● FINISHED OR NOT FRIDAY

Improv + Paper Pieced

I mean, why not?!  We combine peanut butter and jelly, eggs and bacon and rum and coke! Some people might think those combinations are weird and shouldn't be done...I'm just saying, let's have an open mind here!

In all honesty, I'm sure I'm not the first to use paper piecing and improv.  Is there anything new out there?!

Approx. 18" x 27"

It seems to me it's been far too long since I took on some thing wild, crazy and improv. Maybe a set of pot holders or two, but nothing larger.  I've been immersed in cute and normal for so long, I almost forgot how much I enjoy improv.  So, when I was asked if I could make a piece for an end table...you betcha...I jumped!  There's no better way to get back to it than a custom quilt!



While I usually don't plan my improv, this time I had something in mind.  I wanted to have the outside of the quilt to be more of a structured, controlled improv. Not the way I usually think of improv.  I had a paper pieced block I designed for my 'Art With Fabric' Blog Hop quilt and decided it had all the elements I was after.  



My intentions were to cut up the paper templates and with reckless abandon, add pieces of fabric without worrying if they would fit.  You can see that A5 is a bit short...



No problem, add an extra piece!  You might notice that there isn't a stitch line across A5. Well, that's because when I folded the paper back to line my extra piece up I decided I didn't have to stitch through the paper.  I'll adopt the freezer paper method and stitch next to the fold.  



Because I just want the basic shapes included in the template, I was able to play around with the technique of paper piecing.  It was rather fun paper piecing and not worrying about having everything line up!



These are a some of the paper pieced shapes I was going to work with.  Border before center? Kind of a crazy way to do this, but that idea...surly it'll work?!



We'll find out!  But first I needed to clean up my scraps for round two.  It's surprising how much carnage happens when improv and paper piecing comes together.  



That's better and more acceptable!  It doesn't matter what size your work space is, it's never big enough!



And we have a border!  I added a strip here, a triangle there to fill out the border to the predetermined approximate size (18" x 27").  Now on to the center.  



My method of madness when it comes to improv is piece a bunch of pieces, then add more and more until I'm left with a pretty little stack.  After which I'll start combining the first stack of blocks to make bigger blocks.  It's not complicated, but you do have to be able to set aside your perfection tendencies.

Unlike normal piecing where along the way you can see how perfect a block is going to be, or how exact your points line up.  Improv to me, doesn't always give you that 'oh this is going to be perfect' feeling along the way.  Many times I have my hand planted on my forehead wondering what I was thinking!  I've learned through the years not to give up.  You never know how it will turn out until it's finished!



This didn't come out as I had originally planned or how I saw it in my mind.  I was wanting more definition between the center and the border.  I'll get it next time!

I hope to get it quilted in the next few days.  I'm thinking a lot of straight line quilting would be appropriate!  

Improv can drive some people 'InSanE', are you one of them? Or maybe you have to have a little CraZY in you to love improv!

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