Another quilt with curves

Do you sometimes look at your borders and think they are a bit bland.  Fabric might be nice; stitching good but they can be better.  So I decided to make a small quilt showcasing borders with  curves so the quilt is actually rows representing borders.  Top and bottom are just regular border strips quilted with curves.

Then, there are borders with curves like small strips of colour.  I have done this before and quite successfully.  It was a crazy quilt and is one of my posts.  The colours in that instance broke up the dark border fabric.  It is my post Serendipity and other things.

Here I alternated white with colours and a batik with coloured strips.  The outer boarders are quilted to death (great way to deal with a bit of waving)  And two strips have a curved piece through the whole border.  I like the contrast.  And of course it is fun to quilt what you want where you want and to try things. Thanks to Angela Walters. http://www.quiltingismytherapy.com/  I love her attitude.  It actually improves your quilting when you don't stress.

In total I have taken ideas from a show on The Quilt Show  https://thequiltshow.com/from a couple of years back and Cheryl Arkison and her curves.  http://www.cherylarkison.com/

Now to finish off I am going to make some fabric based on a show with  Victoria Findley Wolfe.  http://vfwquilts.com/  I saw that show a couple of years ago on The Quilt Show and recently  and have used the idea to make fabric from scraps and it looks like a really crazy quilt but done with just a rotary cutter; no ruler except to square up the finished 'fabric'.  Good for scraps and for just relaxed creativity.  Colour, colour and more colour.   Guess what I like.

Taking time to breathe

We all need such times.  Time to just do things we love and ignore the pesky chores which do not generate the same pleasure.

I am going to teach something to a small local guild that  I saw and have to credit Cheryl Arkison
 http://www.cherylarkison.com/ who showed a quilt on The Quilt Show https://thequiltshow.com/ using her free form curves.  I just loved the verve of the free form curves.  I had been taught a version of free from curving originally by Becky Goldsmith https://pieceocake.com/ at a class and truly enjoyed the freedom of cutting fabric in curves with just a rotary cutter.  I did a whole small quilt at that time and this one carries on from both experiences.

First of all curves seem so difficult but are not and curves are so much a part of what we see.  I love the detail of paper piecing and the geometrics of traditional quilting but curves are so ever present in our lives.  Just look at the curves in the letters we use when keyboarding or writing with a pen.  Actually with a pen, my writing is totally unrestrained curves, illegible, almost.  Our bodies are made up of many curves, some of which we strive to contain.  But we certainly do not look like boards.

This quilt is the first of the demonstrations and with luck today will have an almost finished small quilt with another application of free form curves.  This is in my head, but not made so we shall see what the finished product is.  I have an idea built on an existing technique and will see if it works.

I also tried something different with this quilt.  I have done it before but this was with a thicker batt than I had on hand. So, I doubled the batt.  I had some spare from a larger quilt and it was not quite as 'fluffy' as I wanted for the curves I was going to quilt so I doubled it.  It did present a challenge as the sandwich was quite thick and with the pieced back it required quilting a bit slower because of the seams and the bulk.  But it certainly enhanced the quilting.  I love piecing backs particularly on smaller quilts but there is a challenge when seams on top and below are right together.  That combined with continuous curves was a challenge.

Time to get the ideas in my head into cut and sewn fabric.  The day is fast disappearing.

Quilts and Canada 150

If you have not yet heard about the efforts being made by quilt guilds and quilters across Canada to help Ronald McDonald House by creating 1000 quilts as part of the celebration of Canada's 150th Birthday then here is a picture of a child size one.

The blocks were a few of the ones made by a group of quilters belonging the the Mahone Bay Quilters Guild a few weeks ago. Mahone Bay Quilters Guild  I volunteered to put some of the many, many blocks together.  The ladies had pieces of the Canada 150 fabric being sold by various quilt shops and the rest were fabrics brought in by the quilters.  It was a huge scrap swap and a fun day.  The blocks are called Slabs.  This is a  name coined by a Canadian quilter from Alberta Cheryl Arkison at  Cheryl Arkison .  If you have not see Cheryl on The Quilt Show  The Quilt Show or one of her books or her blog, do so.  You will be infected by her 'can do' persona.  If you want to see the show she did, there are a limited number of free shows available.

The blocks from guilds and individuals will be put together and quilted before or at the big Quilt Bee in Toronto this June.  Dates and details can be found here.  CQA  Quilt Canada Bee  I so hope to make it there.

Quilters are givers.  Doing a quilt for charitable reasons is a double pleasure; first in the making but most of all in the giving.  Quilts are for celebrations; comfort; caring and prayer where each stitch is a prayer for the recipient.

If you do not belong to a guild who is holding a day to make slabs for this cause then try to make a few yourself (great scrap busting) or get a few friends together.  For those who do not sew, they can pick out fabrics and cut and press.  It only takes one sewer and one sewing machine.  Details on how to contribute your slabs, see the CQA site above.