Crisscross quilt

I watched an episode on The Quilt Show that introduced me to an improv way to make a crisscross quilt.  I think the quilter used smaller blocks than I did.  I made it with some of my hand dyed and ice-dyed fabrics and a wonderful Marcia Derse fabric called "Spotted Graffiti". Anyway, here's the quilt and the instructions.

CRISSCROSS QUILT

51” w X 59.5” h

Made in improv style, this quilt uses large and small scraps to make a striking colorful quilt.

Materials
10 to 12 different fabrics, at least large enough to cut several 10” squares

Instructions
Cut 4 different fabrics @ 10” square
Lay them right sides up and cut a diagonal line free hand starting and stopping at 1” from the corner
Cut a second diagonal line parallel to the first one and starting and stopping at 1” from the corners.  Make it slightly curved, but not super curvy.

Take one of the center pieces and rotate it from the top to the bottom of the stack
Sew the triangular pieces to the center pieces, making sure that the triangular pieces are the same fabric
Press away from the center strip

Trim to 9” square

This stack yields 4 blocks
Continue stacking 4 fabrics at a time, making sure they are mixed up and different than the first pile
Make a total of 36 blocks (9 stacks of 4 fabrics)

Cut 4 different fabrics @ 5-3/4” square
Lay them right sides up and cut a diagonal line free hand starting and stopping ¾” from the corner
Cut a second diagonal line parallel to the first one and starting and stopping at ¾” from the corner
Take one of the center pieces and rotate it from the top to the bottom of the stack
Sew the triangular pieces to the center pieces, making sure that the triangular pieces are the same fabric
Press away from the center strip
Trim to 4-3/4” square
This stack yields 4 blocks
Continue stacking 4 fabrics at a time, making sure they are mixed up and different that the first pile.
Make a total of 24 blocks (6 stacks of 4 fabrics)

Sew the top together
Lay out the squares to your liking, leaving 6 spots for the smaller squares
Use 4 of the smaller blocks to fill in the 6 empty spots
Arrange the stripes all in one direction, or in a crisscross way.
Sew the horizontal rows together and press alternating rows in alternating directions
Sew the vertical rows together and press the seams all in one direction
Baste around all of the outside edges to stabilize the seams

I found a picture on Instagram that I thought would be a fun way to use this pattern, with smaller blocks and different fabrics on each side of the center cut.  It's 9 blocks x 11 blocks.

Anyway, have fun using up your larger scraps!

Garden Lady #10 -- Final - Wintergreen

This is a continuation of 5 previous posts about the making of Garden Lady #10.

The final few steps were to add a facing around the edges, sew on a sleeve and a label. 

The finished quilt measures 40 "W x 55-1/2 "H.

She's called "Wintergreen".  And she is the final quilt in my garden lady series.  

I hope you like it.

Garden Lady #10 - Part Five

This is a continuation of 4 previous posts about the  making of Garden Lady #10.

I decided that I wouldn't add a lot of distracting flora and fauna to this piece.  The idea of a bird feeder and a chickadee would have been a stand-alone figure that didn't seem to fit with this piece.  I still wanted the holly and red berries, but not much else.

I quilted the piece on both my longarm and my domestic sewing machine.  I find that I can use more delicate thread on my sewing machine for the face and finer details.  After it was quilted, I stitched down the wings and added the belt.

I made a small sprig of holly by sewing together 2 shades of green fabric and fusing and gluing them to a solid back piece.  

The berries were made of two layers of red fabric fused together.  I embroidered a stem and glued the applique pieces down.  then I made some tacking stitches.  

I hope you still like it!

Garden Lady #10 - Part 4

This is a continuation of 3 previous posts about the making of Garden Lady 10 - Winter Interest.

I wanted to produce the background by painting the fabric and then embellishing it this time.  I started with PFD white fabric, laid it out on black garbage bags and using Inktense blocks, diluted fabric paint, diluted acrylic paint, and splatter techniques, I did the first pass, and let it dry for a couple of days.

I put this up on the design wall after it dried and put the pieces already made on top.  I'm sorry to say that I was stuck for days trying to figure out where to go from there.  My quilting friends, relatives, and searches on Pinterest gave me ideas, but I didn't have the inspiration I needed. 

After another sleepless night, I had the genius idea to take it back off the wall and do some more painting to darken the lower section to make it grounded.  I put it back up on the design wall and liked it much better.  I still had to decide what to add that would be of winter interest....holly, chickadees, bird feeder, red belt, red berries.... 

Anyway, stay tuned to see what else I did for Garden Lady #10.

IMPROV OMBRE - QUILTED VERSION

There are previous posts about the making of the Improv Ombre quilt from leftover "Lipstick Cowgirl" fabric.  But this one is all about the fabulous quilting by Corrie Coldwell of C2 Quilting.

Here's what she posted on Instagram:

Well, her quilting is what makes it gorgeous.. just take a look!

I finished it with a facing and just love it.  Don't you love it too?

Garden Lady #10 - part 3

This is a continuation of two previous posts about the making of Garden Lady #10 - Winter Interest.

Face and hands were the next components.  I tried a technique recommended by Kestrel Michaud to eliminate/reduce the fraying of  the edges of fused applique.  She uses a diluted Mod Podge that she paints on the fabric and lets dry overnight.  I didn't know if this would work with Steam-A-Seam because she uses a different fusible product.  Well, I tried anyway.  I cut out pieces of the 4 values of fabric for the face and hands, fused it to Steam-A-Seam, then painted it with dilute Mod Podge and let it sit overnight.  The pieces curled up when they were wet, which they were supposed to do. 

Then, I prepared the face and hands the normal way.  When I pressed them together, they buckled a little bit, so will have to see how they look when applied to the background!  I decided to give this lady bright red hair~

Not sure if I like it so far, but I hope you do!

Garden Lady #10 - part 2

This is a continuation of the making of Garden Lady #10, Winter Interest.

I tackled the dress next.  I found a commercial fabric that was off-white with flecks of gold that seemed like it was perfect for this quilt.  The top of the dress and the bottom of the dress were made as two different pieces.  I used freezer paper underneath the fabric and traced the lines with a water soluble blue pen.  Then I used two different colors of Tombow ink pens to draw the seam lines and shadows.  

When the inking was done, I pressed an interfacing to the back, sewed on the outside lines, and glued the seam allowances to the back.

I put the pieces up on the design wall and liked the way they turned out.

I also bought a couple yards of an off-white tulle and placed a double layer on top to see how I liked the effect.

I like it, but think that I will wait until the piece is quilted and add it at the very last.  (That was a suggestion from one of my artsy quilting friends!)

I hope you like it so far.