Christine and I spent last weekend at the South Western Ontario Modern Quilt Guild retreat in Ingersol, Ontario. There were over 20 quilters at the retreat and it was great fun to meet everyone and drool over their projects!!! As is usually the case, I brought way more fabric than I could use and more projects than I could ever do in one weekend. I like to keep my options open...LOL!
Those of you who read my blog on a regular basis will know that I have been working on a paper pieced pillow for a few weeks now. The pattern is from this book by Jen Kingwell.
This is a picture of the pillow from the book. She used scraps to piece her arcs and then added scrappy sashings.
Before the retreat, I had all of the arcs completed and the other pieces cut out. One block was completed and three others had the quarter squares added--they are hand sewn as the curve was too tight to sew consistently on my sewing machine. I spent several hours completing the blocks and then I had to decide how to arrange them for my pillow.
My first attempt was just a random placement of the coloured arcs. I liked the idea of a circle in the middle. Did I want sashing? cornerstones?
I rearranged the arcs into colour groupings...I liked this arrangement. I consulted with other quilters...we thought a coloured square in the middle of each grouping would look good. Would you believe that in my whole suitcase of fabric, I did not have a red scrap that would work for the upper right block??? Luckily, a few other people had some fabric with them....Karen donated a 1.5" square to my quilt and I set to getting the blocks put together.
After putting the blocks together, I quickly realized that this pillow was going to be too big for where I intended to put it, BUT it was the perfect size for a wall hanging! I added some borders and voila!--it is ready for quilting. I will be quilting this on my DSM with my walking foot. I need to let the quilting ideas percolate for a few days first...
I will be blogging about the retreat again...stay tuned.
I will be linking up to Kathy's Slow Sunday stitching and Finish it up Friday.
I love how you made your design decisions. Each clearly improved the final result which is perfect!
ReplyDeleteThis turned out so cool! Great job!
ReplyDeleteLove it. Thanks for including your thinking process; doing so brings your decisions alive.
ReplyDeletePillow or wall hanging...either way, it will be beautiful! I know exactly what you mean about carrying too much to a retreat!
ReplyDeleteThis turned out quite beautifully! :)
ReplyDeleteOh wow, I do love that block and how you made a rainbow pattern with it! I may have to pick up that book myself - its going on my wishlist right now.
ReplyDeleteThe arrangement you selected is lovely and as a pillow or wall hanging it is sure to be a stunning piece.
ReplyDeleteI love how you combined those beautiful blocks That quilt top is so pretty. I look forward to seeing how you quilt it.
ReplyDeleteYour wall hanging is perfect. Love the rainbow affect.
ReplyDeleteLove hearing how your wall hanging came to be. It is beautiful. Can't wait to see it finished.
ReplyDeleteGreat design. And I never have the right bit of fabric with me, nice that someone else had!
ReplyDeleteSo fun to watch the progression on a project... thanks for sharing that for our enjoyment!
ReplyDeleteLove your final layout... makes my eyes sooo happy :)