Negative Space Swap

This was from a fun little swap between SBAMQG members. The goal was to make a small swap item featuring negative space. We wrote down hints of inspiration on scraps of paper to get our partners started. Some wrote down colors they liked and some wrote down items they would like to receive (pot holders, mug rugs, mini quilt). Then we blindly chose our partners names out of a hat. Or was it a bag? Anyway...

I picked Sharon's name and she wrote down blue, green and melon. I really liked the addition of the dark grey and chalky white. Without knowing what I wanted to make, I pulled out this stack of solids.

Once they were on my worktable, I got my inspiration and I knew I wanted to make a mini with floating triangles. They are all cut identically, but isn't it interesting how some of the colors seem larger than the others?

I quilted dense lines all over it to give it lots of texture. The thread I used is a medium grey which I chose to both compliment the background and not overwhelm the lighter shades of the triangles.

The binding fabric is so awesome! It's from Moda and it has ruler markings all over it. I knew a fellow quilter would love it. It's printed on canvas, so it wasn't the easiest to hand stitch on, but for a mini quilt it wasn't too bad.

Flurry for Breakfast

Liberated Star

Flurry for breakfast...or lunch, or dinner. I made these placemats for my guild's holiday swap. A little patchwork, a liberated star and a lot of happy holidays!! I used Flurry by Kate Spain and Moda Bella Solid in Christmas Red and White.

This corner makes me happy.

I'm always looking for ways to improve my corners. I tried a new (to me) technique and it worked out pretty well. Instead of stopping 1/4" from your corner and ending your stitching line, you turn it 90 degrees and sew right off of the edge.

Flurry Placemat

Kate Spain sure has a way with Christmas fabric doesn't she? Did you see the sneak peek of "Joy" on Kate's blog?? I LOVE it! It's so JOYful. Bah-dum-ching. ; ) Zig zags? Snowflakes? and Winter Mint? Yes please!!

Here's a closer look at Joy from Moda (pdf).

I know it's January and Christmas is over. I'll get there. ; )

Photo Credit: Jaye from Artquiltmaker

Here are the BAMQG swappers (I'm at the bottom left, kneeling and holding my awesome aprons from Jen).

Pillow Talk Swap 6

I participated in the latest round of the Pillow Talk Swap on flickr.  The deadline to mail our pillows was November 1st.

This is the pillow I sent out on... November 1st.  : )

After stalking my secret partner on his/her blog, through his/her flickr projects and favorites I put together this stack of fabrics I thought he/she would like.  Sorry for all the he/she stuff.  It's a secret you see.

The fabric sat around awhile, marinating, waiting to become something. Narrowing it down to one idea is hard.  There are so many possibilities, so many things you could do.

Image Credit: Seven Island Fabrics

One of the fabrics is a cheater print and I started thinking, what if I cut those squares apart and treated it as separate fabrics?  I remembered how much I loved Erin's scrappy Swoon block.  If I made one Swoon block a little smaller, it would be a great pillow.

I liked the idea of it, but I wasn't sure how it would look.  My friend Jaye says, "make visual decisions visually".  So I drafted the block in EQ and colored it with a similar color palette.  I LOVED it.

I bought the pattern Swoon by Camille Roskelley and started piecing the blocks.  I made some changes as I went.  For a scrappy look, I broke up the big rectangles into squares.  The cheater print and linen were so great together I decided to not use any of the other fabrics.  I also changed the center square from a colored block to plain linen one.  Slowly I'm learning to listen to my instincts as I go.

Pressing the seams open helped match up all those points.

I had a few extra blocks and I added them to the back.  Now my pillow is on it's way to it's new home.  I hope my partner likes it as much as I do.

The Pillow Talk Swap

The end.  : )
-A