Category Archives: quilting

Super Geeky (Not Sci-Fi) Quilt Idea

quilting,

A friend of mine commented that when he read the title to my last tutorial on hemming napkins, he thought it actually read, “Hilbert Napkins,” referring to the Hilbert curve.

 This is a Hilbert Curve:

Attribution (also cool use for Presidential Candidate travel map)
I laughed when I saw the pattern because it reminded me of a free-arm quilting pattern known as a stipple.  Stipple can be large or small, depending on the scale to fit the item being quilted.  The Hilbert Curve is known as a filler curve; so appropriate for quilting, don’t you think?
Talking this over with my husband, he then mentioned the Sierpinski Triangle.  Here’s the logic to the Sierpinski Triangle in quilting terms:
Start with a 9-patch comprised of only two fabrics, white and a patterned fabric.  That is the base to work from.  Now, consider a 9-block wall-hanging.  Using the same pattern as used in the single, 9-patch block, wherever you used the patterned fabric, in the 9-block wall hanging, you would use that 9-patch block.  Let’s say your original block had this:
White – White – Pattern
White – Pattern – White
Pattern – White – White
The blocks would be laid out like this:
White – White – 9-patch
White – 9-patch – White
9-patch – White – White
Get it?
Expand that to a larger quilt, comprised of 9 wall hangings, and you’d see:
White – White – Wall-hanging
White – Wall-hanging – White
Wall-hanging – White – White
That makes for a LOT of white, right?
Here’s the thing:  you could really use ANY 9-patch pattern, just repeat it per the Sierpinski Triangle logic and you’d have a HUGE variety of quilts that would be very cool (not to mention very simple to put together).  In the example, I used white, but you really could use ANY fabric setup, as long as you chose one of the original 9-patch fabrics to represent the location in the grid where that pattern would repeat.  
Below is an illustration I found on Wikipedia that immediately made me think quilt.  Not only did it make me think quilt, it made me think quilt using different values of the same color wherever you see red, so that it would start with a strong color in the upper right corner and fade into the white, so to speak.
Quilt it using a stipple in the form of a Hilbert Curve, and, my friends, geek your heart out over that.

From Wikipedia article on Sierpinski Triangles

Another mosaic

quilting, sewing

Since people could enter the Emerald mosaic contest twice, I decided to take another gander at putting fabrics together.  I was too late to submit this particular mosaic, but I thought I’d post it on my blog anyway, because I enjoyed having a different approach and drastically different result.

Instead of starting with a solid green, I started with the three greens you see.  I had originally been working on a complete collection of kind of airy green fabrics that had green in them, but were mostly grounded in white or cream.  I wasn’t liking how they were fitting together, so I started over.

This time, though, I started with VisiBone Webmaster’s ColorLab.  It’s a great tool for those doing web design to get an idea of how colors will mesh together.  I chose colors opposite from each other on the color wheel first (green and purple), then another color close to purple, then another close to green.  The result was a green-purple-orange-yellow combination that I really liked!

Above is the resulting set of fabrics I chose in those colors.  My only qualm is the top purple fabric.  It seems too heavy for the rest of the fabrics I included, but I had a surprisingly difficult time finding a good purple!  It seems there are plenty of browns, greens, blues, reds, PINKS, and oranges, but not too many yellows or purples — at least not in the theme of simple patterns that I was looking for.  What do you think?  I’ve really enjoyed working with color combinations and then trying to hunt for fabrics that matched.

Thinking Green

quilting, sewing

One of the sewing blogs I follow, Stitched in Color, is hosting a contest using green as the main color theme. The idea is to go to the Fat Quarter Shop online, peruse through their MANY fabrics, and put together a 9-fabric mosaic using emerald green as the main color.

I decided to try this for a few reasons.  First, I love these types of contests!  Second, I’ve never entered one like this before.  I’ve matched up fabrics at the fabric store on my own, but never have I sat down and played with patterns for so long to come up with 9 different patterns to put together.

I originally started with a main focus fabric for the center of the 9-patch mosaic, and tried to build from that.  Then I found a few shades of the emerald green that I loved and decided to work from there, instead.  I tried finding airy patterns for the other 5 blocks that would still keep a green motif, but I couldn’t find just what I was looking for to help it all blend together.  I slept on it, then came back and tried again.  It’s funny how from day to day, your tastes change.  This time, big florals were catching my eye!  I was struggling to find a set of patterns that matched again when I found the center piece that brought the other florals together.  I have a Word file with a VERY long list of patterns and their URLs that I really enjoyed, but here is my final submission.

To me, this says SPRING!!!!  I loved the greens, and with the polka dot fabric in the center, it helped lighten the floral patterns.  I went with florals that had a white background, because I have fallen in love with white backgrounds on quilts.  It makes them so bright!  

Food Quilt Finished!

quilting

A couple of months ago, I found a great charm pack (set of 5-inch pre-cut fabric squares) at Pacific Fabrics, one of my favorite fabric stores.  It was a pack of photo-realistic food-themed fabric.

My mother is a gardener, and this fabric seemed perfect for a Christmas gift for her, but I was stuck on ideas for how to use it.

Then I came across this fantastic charm-friendly pattern from Moda’s Bakeshop, and thought it was perfect!

Here’s the top so far (I’m still working on the border).

I should have taken pictures along the way, but I keep forgetting to take photos as I’m working on my projects!  I tried to go with a zig-zag rainbow color pattern and I think I more or less achieved it.  It was tough to implement simply due to the overwhelming lack of yellow and blue, but I like how it worked out (except for the white-value blocks in the lowest left corner, but that’s okay).

I think for the border, I’m just going to use more white fabric.  I bought some more food-themed fabric, but I think having a print on the border would just be overwhelming, so I think I’ll save it for the binding, instead.

This is my third Christmas project done!  (Pajama pants and another gift are the first two completed, but I forgot to take pictures of the pants and I’ll post about the other gift after Christmas so the recipient doesn’t get a surprise early reveal!)  Next projects in cue:  two more quilts, and one fasteners quiet book for little G.

Update: I just realized I made a modification to the pattern while piecing the rows so that there was more white together than in the original pattern. When I had laid it out per the pattern, I didn’t like the way it looked. The print seemed a little too busy. So I flipped the 2nd and 4th rows to match up white sashing pieces. I like the extra white space.

Quilt in Progress!

quilting, ,

I’ve been busy working on Christmas projects lately.  I’m working on a pieced quilt for my mother using this pattern:

I bought a charm pack of 40, 5-inch squares of food-themed fabric that I’m using (reminded me of my mother’s gardening).  Funny enough, it was late in the evening as I was pairing these with the white blocks, and I started feeling hungry, though I was full from dinner.  It finally dawned on me that I was hungry because I was working with this photo-realistic charm pack!  Yum – salad!

I’ve also been learning about values (ranges of colors) from a blog I’ve recently started following, Stitched in Color. It makes me want to make this quilt to play with values of different colors:

But before I do that, I have a few other quilts, a bag, and a serving set to finish for Christmas gifts!  I now understand the idea of starting home-made Christmas gifts in July…