Blogger Quilt Festival 2016 Entry 2

Here's my second entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy of Amy's Creative Side. Such fun!

What do you do when you want a scrappy quilt and don't have what you need in your stash? You create a stash! I wanted a bunch of low volume fabrics for the background of the quilt, so I went around to all the shops in my area and bought some fat quarters along with many, many 1/8 yard cuts and built a stash! It worked!

The quilt is a wedding present for my niece and (now) nephew. The colors are based on a favorite poster they have, and the pattern is a resized version of Tone It Down by Lissa Anderson for American Patchwork and Quilting (February 2014). The block is also a traditional one known as Burgoyne Surrounded. My niece told me they preferred a vintage look, and this quilt design seemed just right. 

I constructed the quilt block by block using my design wall to distribute the "scraps." My blocks are 18 3/4 inches. 

The solid fabrics are Kona cottons. I used half yards, which gave me enough "scraps" to piece the back. I couldn't resist a more modern vibe. 

The whole quilt measured 71 inches square--66 3/4 inches square after washing. I pieced it on my Singer Featherweight with Superior Masterpiece thread and meander quilted it on my Singer 115 Treadle Machine with Superior King Tut Thread. The monogram block on the back was paper pieced.

Here are some more pictures. If you want to read more and see more pictures, click on the 2AM Quilt label at the bottom of this post or on the sidebar. There are only two posts because it was a secret project.

I'm linking this post to the Scrappy Category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival. Click on over and see what else there is. I hope you like (love?) my entry. 

Wedding Gift Part II: 2AM Quilt

And now for the finish. If you haven't already read Part I, you might want to now--or later--whatever you wish. First, the on-the-neighbor's-fence shots, because, well, nearly every one of my quilts ends up there at some point. I wasn't thrilled with the lighting here. It was overcast, but kind of harsh, but it is the best way to show the whole quilt. You'll notice that I meander quilted it (on my treadle). I thought that was best since there was so much going on in the quilt already. I was planning to bind it with a low volume print, but realized that I had enough of the solids to make a scrap binding. 

And here's the back. I couldn't resist a more modern vibe on the back using the leftover solids (plus a Moda feather).

My only rule for the binding was that the colors would be randomly distributed with no color touching a backing patch of the same color. See that monogrammed square at the lower left? It's paper-pieced shorthand for the initials of my niece and her husband. She's taking his last name, and their first names both start with A. How fun is that? I hope it doesn't predict any sleepless nights on the couch for either of them!

Not content with fence pictures, I tried some in the yard. 

(Ooh, see that dry grass back there? Most of our grass looks that way this summer, except under the maples.) This photo is a good representation of the actual colors in the quilt. 

How about a tree picture?

Still not satisfied, I decided to take the quilt to our local university. I'll save those for last--They're my favorites. But first some post-washing crinkly photos. 

If you look closely, you can see my initials and date. But, really, I'll be the only one that knows they're there.

Our university has carillon concerts on summer evenings under the ancient trees on campus..It's a lovely place to enjoy a picnic, watch children play and listen to music from around the world. So I took my quilt with one evening to do some on-location pictures. Here's one of the massive trees:

And with my quilt:

 And three more on a nearby bench:

, 

Now some quick stats, and then I'm done. 
Quilt pattern (resized): Tone-It-Down, Lissa Anderson, February 2014 American Patchwork and Quilting. Original back and monogram
Block size: 18 3/4 inches
Quilt size: 71 inches square; 66 3/4 inches square after washing (about 6 % shrinkage)
Materials: Solids, mostly Kona; various low volume prints.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Cotton Select
Binding: 3/8 inch; machine-sewn to front, hand stitched to back
Piecing Thread: Superior Masterpiece in Granite
Quilting Thread: Superior King Tut Cotton in White Linen
Pieced on Singer Featherweight and Free Motion Quilted on Singer 115 treadle. 

I'm linking this post with Crazy Mom Quilts and Free Motion Mavericks, but they're both on blog-cation, so those links will come later. Also with Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop and Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday. You can hit the buttons on the sidebar when those links become active.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! 

Wedding Gift Part I

Ah, today is the day I can write about a project I've been working on the last few months. The gift has been delivered and opened, and very soon the happy couple will be married. As I was weeding out all the photos I've taken, I realized that this could be a very, very, very long post. Usually, the information about the quilt dribbles out as I make it. But I haven't shared anything about this one before. So instead, I'm doing two long posts--focusing on process in this one and the photo finish in the next. So here goes...

My first decision was to make a throw-sized quilt. I collected some ideas on a secret Pinterest board then asked my niece and future nephew for some preferences for color and style. My niece sent me a photo of a framed poster of a map of Austin Texas, where they had met during their university days.  

She said they'd prefer a quilt with a vintage look and colors similar to the ones in the poster. I looked for a image of the poster online and quickly found one that I could print out and use to match to my Kona swatches. 

I looked over the quilts I had saved from Pinterest and kept coming back to one that seemed just right: Tone It Down by Lissa Alexander in the February 2014 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.  This quilt was part of a Quilt Along in 2013-14. Many of you are probably acquainted with it. But that was before I was blogging or reading many blogs, so I wasn't aware that it was so popular. I'm always a little behind. Anyway, the block is actually a pretty old, well-known block (I know it as Burgoyne Surrounded), but the tone-it-down aspect and, of course, the directions for construction, are Lissa's design, so I ordered a digital copy of the magazine and am giving her appropriate credit. The low volume coloration of the quilt was what really drew me to it. 

Lissa's pattern is four by five blocks. I had an idea of the size I wanted for this quilt and it worked better for me to do three by three blocks. I increased the block size from 15 inches to 18 3/4 (subbing in 1 1/4 inch for every inch on the original pattern).

For the foreground of the blocks, I chose Kona solids. I had a few in my stash and ordered the rest from these chips:

I ended up eliminating Orange, Jade Green and Wine and added in Sunflower in the end.

For my low volume fabrics, I visited the four fabric shops in my area and standing back about 20 feet from the shelves, I picked out any fabric that looked whitish or tannish or a pale version of the colors above or had a print in similar colors. What fun for me! What a pain for the poor sales associates that had to cut 1/8 yard from each bolt. I am definitely not the customer they want to see approaching the counter!! But I needed to build a low cost extensive stash as I didn't have these types of fabrics at home. Here they are all lined up on my couch. The fabrics across the seat in the front are actually pre-cut fat quarters. Hey, I tried to save a little time with the cutting!

I think there were maybe 48 fabric bits in all. Here they are with the solids:

I did my cutting in batches as I constructed the quilt. I didn't want to overcut any one fabric, but I needed enough pieces to try out various patches on the design wall. I made one block at a time and then left it in place on the wall and built the next one so that I could see how everything fit together. 

 I made a mini design wall with an old poster frame and some leftover batting to transfer each block to my sewing area for piecing. 

After I finished the blocks, I laid out fabrics on the floor to determine how to arrange the sashings. (My design wall wasn't big enough.)

When I cut the sashings for the outer edges, I left extra width so that I would have room to trim the quilt without losing any design when binding it. 

After auditioning several ideas for cornerstones, I chose one with mostly rose/red patches, then put them together, again leaving extra fabric on patches that would line the outer edges of the quilt. This seems like a lot of extra work, but not doing it might have robbed those squares of their "squareness" as I squared up the quilt for binding. (Does that make any sense at all??)

So here's how the quilt top looked in the end. Do you see the extra fabric at the edges?

Okay, I'm going to stop there. In the next post, I'll try to go lighter on words, but I will include some stats, and of course, you'll get to see the quilting and binding. It will be mostly pictures though. Maybe.

I'm linking up this post with Freemotion by the River, Sew Fresh Quilts and My Quilt Infatuation. If clicking on the link doesn't take you to the party, click on the buttons on the right sidebar. I'll link up Part II with the usual Friday finish parties. 

I hope you're having a great quilting week!