Tradition Made Modern - Part Four

This is a continuation of 3 previous posts about the making of the Modernized New York Beauty for the Mod Squad Challenge for 2024.  I decided that I wanted to get it done and enter it into the QuiltCon show of the Modern Quilt Guild in February 2025 in Phoenix.  The deadline is in the fall, which is months before the deadline for the Mod Squad.  

I decided to start making the applique circles for the center pieces in the peach and yellow fabrics.  Since I machine applique, I didn't want to piece the entire top and then wrestle it around the machine for all of the little circles.  It'll be a different story for the applique circles on the outer edge since they will be placed exactly where they should line up.  Anyway, I made the circles and pinned them in place, measuring the angle and the distance with a protractor and ruler.  I think I might change the placement so that it is more random, though.  I like the idea that they could look more like freckles instead of concentric circles.

I cut out all of the circles for the outside in shades of purple to pink.  I pinned those in place.  I thought they looked kind of heavy, so I changed them to some lighter versions.  I didn't like that either and here is the final placement of the the circles.  My husband didn't like the peach and frankly I didn't either.  But it has to sit and marinate for a while.  

Stay tuned for what I decided to do.  

Tradition Made Modern - Part Three

This is a continuation of two previous posts about the making of my modernized New York Beauty quilt as part of the Mod Squad challenge for 2024.  I finished piecing the inner arcs and sewed them to the inner black arc.  Up on the design wall, it looked like the pieces wouldn't fit together.  But, then I realized I was sewing everything to the backside of the freezer paper.  So, the whole design will be flipped when it is sewn together.  I better be VERY careful when I'm putting pieces up on the wall, taking them down, and sewing them together.  It could be a disaster if I sew them together incorrectly, since the foundation pieces are my pattern too.  I don't have another copy!

The next part of the pattern that I tackled was the next set of pieced arcs.  I did a little bit of shopping to enhance my fabric shading in the peach , orange, and maize colors.  I've heard that peach is the color of the year.  Have you heard that too?  I checked it out and yes, it's peach fuzz: Pantone Peach Fuzz.   Here are the pieces in that next arc.

 

I like that layer a lot!  

The next thing that I cut out was the background pieces from the Ombre fabric and the center pieces.  Its pretty turquoise heavy, but I'm fine with it.  I put up some black and some dark gray to see what I wanted to use for one of the middle arcs.  Here are the 2 choices.  

I chose to continue on with the black and white print.  Even though it looked a little bit like a bulls-eye, I liked the continuity.  Here is it with the pieces pinned up, and the whole thing rotated back to the original position.

I hope you like it so far!

Tradition Made Modern - part Two

This is a continuation of a previous post about the making of the challenge quilt for Mod Squad, which is a modernized version of the New York Beauty block.

I foundation pieced the inner arcs, using my freezer paper pattern as the foundation.  It makes things so much simpler for me to precut the shapes with a template piece that is 3/8" larger than the finished size.  You can see that the background wedge is larger than the colored wedges.  Here are the precuts from my hand dyed fabrics:

And the precuts from the background gray and white fabric (Smol Tweed in Dove) designed by Kimberly Kight of Ruby Star Society:

Here are two of the arcs pieced and placed back in place on the design wall.  I will keep using the freezer paper pattern to piece and cut the rest of the circular pieces.

I had a great idea for the background.  It's an ombre fabric from Moda called "Lipstick Cowgirl" designed by Shari Jenkins, and it fades from turquoise to gray.  I bought a little bit of this at  Sharon's Attic a month or so ago, but I needed 4 more yards.  So, I called the store and they had just 4 yards left on the bolt.  What luck!  Now it's on its way to me and I'll be able to use the background that will be just the ticket for this quilt.

I hope you like it so far!

Duckworth Charity quilt - Final

This is a continuation about the making of the Duckworth charity quilt as part of the Mod Squad challenge.  I kept making improv log cabins until I had about 60, then I tossed them up on the design wall.  It's bright!  

I thought that I would try to insert a solid (ish) block here and there to give some rest for the eyes.  I liked that idea, and ran with it.  Here's the completed top.  It's 48" x 60".  

I hope you like bright quilts!

Graduation quilt presentation

Our 3rd grandchild graduated from high school on June 7th.   It was actually a fun graduation ceremony, complete in about 2 hours with over 500 seniors!  It was a fine summer evening and so special to be there.  

Her party was held a week later and that is when she was presented with her high school graduation quilt.  Oh, to be that age again with all your hopes and dreams ahead of you.

I hope you get to celebrate milestones with your family too.

Mod Squad 2024 Challenge - "Traditional made Modern" - Part One

This is a follow up to the post about the Mod Squad 2024 Challenge.  I posted 15 pictures of quilts that were in this category at QuiltCon in Raleigh in 2024.

I decided to work with  a large improv curved pieced New York Beauty.  I've made the pattern many times before and thought that I would make this as one as a huge block.  Here is a sketch of my idea:

I pulled out some fabrics in the hot pink to maroon to purple colorway, along with some black, gray and white, and a couple of shades of turquoise.  I don't know if this is what I'll end up with, though.    I printed the sketch a few times and colored them in.  Here are the colors that I decided to use.

I will probably start on making the foundation pieced arcs first.  I've drawn them on the paper pattern and I'm pretty sure I'll use the colors from the sketch.

So, stay tuned for how that section turns out.

 

Little Hearts for "I Found a Quilted Heat"

One of the ladies at our quilt retreat showed us how to make little hearts with hand work on them.  The idea is to leave them in public places for someone else to find.  "I Found a Quilted Heart" is an idea very similar to the painted rocks that people leave around.  I decided to make a few; its nice to have a little bit of handwork while watching TV at night.  Here are three that I made recently:

I plan to make some more and leave them here and there for other people to find!