squares, Squares and more SQUARES!

i've been quilting for 25+ years now, and over those years my quilting style has changed. before I was mostly making matchy-matchy quilts, (with no borders!) in fairly traditional styles and colors. in the past few years, I've been drawn to white and black backgrounds, and very bright colors in unexpected combinations. old habits die hard, but my quilts have certainly changed recently.

 

one of the quilts that I really like was (is) Film at Five. I had been wanting to make this quilt for awhile, but with the busy gardening and growing season, that just wasn't happening.

 

this quilt has a bit of a funny story to it. we work so hard in the spring and summer planting, weeding, tending and harvesting our LARGE garden for our CSA that there is not much time or energy for me to sew. finally I began this quilt as a leaders/enders project, and got far enough that I was excited to push through and finish it. I had a nice amount (1000+) of 2" squares that I had begun collecting for a watercolor quilt about 15 years ago. I lost interest in that quilt, and had this bag of floral squares for a LONG time and never did anything with it. I had even taken the bag of squares to our quilt group yard sale, in the hopes of selling it. when it didn't sell, that's when I got the idea to make a Film at Five quilt with it. however, I thought it would be easier to do as a leader/ender project if I did a 16 patch instead of a 25 patch. it wasn't until I went to put the sashings together that I realized it HAD to be a 25 patch for the sashing math to work out properly... so I improvised. all the squares are florals, and in honor of our extensive gardening/farming, I put in a few squares of my favorite stone fabric. I LOVE how this quilt turned out!

 

my two (sweet) little girls, A and B do not have a full size quilt for their beds. they both have several smaller quilts, but not matching full sized quilts for the beds in the room that they share. I had promised them that when we put the gardens to bed this fall, we'd start on their quilts. A's quilt has yellow, green, pink and orange squares.

B's quilt has yellow, green, blue and purple squares. both quilts have the exact. same. yellow and green fabric, but it's amazing how different they look. now we know what they mean when they say pinks and oranges are "warm" and purple and blues are "cool"! we'll take these to our long arm friend right after Christmas.

 

all 3 of these quilts are very different than what I would have made 20 years ago, but I L.O.V.E. them all. thanks for stopping by!

some exciting progress to share on mysterious quilts!

it's been a busy week- and I know we've ALL been busy. I'm enjoying working on Bonnie's mystery Celtic Solstice. clues #1 and 3 are done. clues #2 and 4 are ¾ done. not too bad, considering all that's been going on this week.

just a couple guesses as to the layout of some of the squares. I especially like the one in the upper left; I hope that's how it will be in the quilt. and also hoping for more blue and neutral. (a blue and yellow 4 patch would be ideal!)

here's my completed carpenter's star. I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

and here's my completed Mystery Medallion from 2013, sponsored by Judy (and Vicky) at patchwork times. she's doing another mystery, Tell It To the Stars for 2014. I have my fabrics pulled, and I'm looking forward to starting that one, too. it's not too late to join in...

thanks for looking! have a wonderful Christmas- it's extra special here at my house- all 6 of my children are home! it's the first Christmas that they've all been here in 5 years!

making progress on those mysteries!

the second clue for Bonnie Hunter's mystery came out on Friday. (you can also see the progress of all the other beautiful quilts here. ) I was away for part of the weekend, but I managed to cut out my pieces before it was time to leave, and took along my trusty featherweight. so Friday night in the hotel, it was just me, my machine and good ol' HGTV for company. I got a bit done, but was tired from driving. also, I had already finished last weeks' clue #1. however, since this is my first mystery with Bonnie, I didn't realize What.A.Big.Deal.the.Mr.Linky.Is.  I love the alternate colors that others are doing- especially the ones with black/grey and teal. I would have loved to do other colors, but my stash didn't really allow for that- I was able to pull all the colors for the Celtic Solstice from my stash.

 

I've also been working on a carpenter's star. this week 3 friends came over, and we all worked on making one of these- mine was the smallest, and the brightest, too! it's almost done now, but this is the most recent picture at the moment.  

  

 

 last winter we received this junk magazine from our electric company. I don't think I even read it, but the colors on the front immediately caught my eye- and it's been hanging on my bulletin board in the sewing room ever since. recently it dawned on me that it would be perfect to translate it into a carpenter's star with all solids, and a black background. (Kona cotton, of course!) I'm very happy with how it's turning out. (and my daughter A tells me that she likes it very much, and would like it for her own...)

 

the carpenter's star quilt is actually the 4th quilt I've done in black/solids. (you can see my calendar quilt here.) the others I've not blogged about, but should really try to get those pictures up soon!

and the last clue is out- and just in time, too!

 

last January I (we) began a mystery quilt with Judy. it's been lots of fun, and the last clue just came out this morning! just a purple and teal border to add, and then it's done! with the exception of some funkiness in the center star (I keep debating if I should rip a few seams, and reverse the green and yellow star points- what do you think?) I love it! i'm happy with my color choices, and it's a different style than what I normally gravitate to. with the clues coming out only once a month, it's been very manageable... be sure to pop on over and see the other quilts!

 

here's a few more pictures of what I've been up to while holing up in the sewing room:

 

I've made 2 of these Film at Five quilts: one for A and one for B. this is A's. the quilts are similar in color, but A's has pink and orange, and B's has purple and blue.

here are some of my fabric choices for Tell it to the Stars. (another Judy and Vicki's mystery quilt). I auditioned several fabric stacks this week, but I think this is what I'll go with. shown are # 3- royal blue, #4- light, #5- medium, and #6- dark. #1, the background, I plan on getting white. and #2, which Judy tells us is a very dominant color, I'm going to go out on a limb and get yellow. since the quilt is named Tell it to the Stars, I'm going to guess there are some stars in it, and choose yellow. i'm excited about starting another mystery quilt with these gals!

last night the little girls and I made this quickie plus quilt for an unknown friend in need. it was super quick (I machine stitched the binding) and A and B had fun helping to lay out the pluses on the design wall.

hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, a huge turkey, and lots of leftovers! thanks for stopping by!