Liberated Stars Catch Up

Hi sew along gals, I didn't forget about this but time did slip away while I was dreaming of what to make of my lovely solids. Finally I got a day to just sew and I used the new Gee's Bend Solids for Gwen's liberated stars...
I am not quite done as I need suggestions for the borders, corners etc...and I'll have to wait on those until we get back from South Carolina to pick up our dear daughter from college this next week. I added just a touch of some Kaffe roman glass on a couple of the small stars...maybe I'll work that into the borders, etc. I can't help but think that if those lovely Amish of the past had met Kaffe they might have had a few exceptions to their rules! I can see that these little stars do "twinkle" as Gwen says in her book...I really loved making them and will definitely encourage others to do so too!

Done!

I've finished the LibAmish quilt. Thrill! Thrill! I love, love, love it! Thank you, Tonya, for putting our group together and providing the impetus to make this! This picture is a little fuzzy, but of the ten or so that I took, this one shows the quilting in the black the best.


The gridlines in the burgandy border were a bit free-rainging. In fact, they became downright unruly toward the end there. Still, I think it lends to the personality of the piece.

If I have enough time between other projects, I'm going to try another different one.

-Wendy

Crazy Star borders

Well, here's the finished top. I went with all the suggestions and used yellow and purple both. I think this is by far the best of the three. I have new respect for working in a series- it really has improved my work. So much fun to see what everyone else is up to!

A Makeover Revealed

I couldn't stand it ~ even though I had sent Waste Not Want Not off for quilting, I e-mailed Chris and asked her to send it back. Those fused letters just had to go!

Here is the now fully-liberated flimsy ~ MUCH better!

Quiltdivajulie

just right

hi all! Victoria here,
just to say I haven't completely fallen off this project...
The last time I posted was when I had started my letters,
and ran out of navy to proceed.. ABOVE PHOTO
Well, I have my navy, but the letters just have not been floating my boat...
The way I have them going around is EXACTLY what I want.
But the style of the letters, I really wanted them to really
reflect more the half square triangle look....

It's taken me a while to figure it out...
But I think I got it...

Now just to DO..
Perhaps I should have take my words of wisdom slightly closer to heart?
(don't need to be perfect...!!! ha ha!)
oh well. It just feels right...
not perfect, but right.

quilting.

I started quilting yesterday!

Yeah!

Perle cotton. 20 wieght.
wool batting.

I'm loving it!

PlaidtasticTop done!

Wow! everyone has come along way with their projects and they look fabulous! I left mine for so long, I almost forgot about it....but I was in the middle of projects and I thought I should do my letters...I really like the way the block pops and the letters just become part of the background...I love staring at this and am so pleased the way it is, but now I am afraid to quilt it...I would like to keep the main yellow squares clean and free of quilting...

One thought I had, was to machine quilt with invisible thread, lines through the plaid parts, criss-crossing, leaving the corner blocks and yellow outer blocks free of quilting, then grid quilting in black the borders. I could hand quilt it, but I have so many other projects that need to be hand quilted, that I don't want to add to that pile. I also want the block to be the main focus and not the quilting.

No Words Needed ~ Finished!!

The unlettered side.

The lettered side.

It doesn't work to assign front/back to this quilt ~ it works either way!

MAJOR kudos to my longarm quilting friend, Chris, for her custom quilting work ~ all I can say is WOW!!!!

You can see lots more photos of this quilt, including several showing details of the quilting, here in a Picasa web album (if you haven't tried their slideshow feature, it's worth checking out!). [outdoor photos taken at The Dixon gardens]

So how did the quilts showcased in Amish Abstraction inspire NWN?

The front came from the Roman Stripe c. 1930 of Plate 34 mixed with an altered setting of the Log Cabin Barn Raising c. 1925 of Plate 61. The borders of NWN echo the layout of those in Plate 61, with corner blocks added (of necessity as there wasn't enough of the border fabric).

The liberated-lettered medallion-based scrappy back incorporated ideas from Plate 51 Back of Ocean Waves and bits and everywhere else ~ like making do with what I had in my stash and using the leftover strip set ends from the front to create pieceable squares.

In the end, it just all came together . . . and I love the results.

Thanks Tonya for organizing this get-together!!!!!

Quiltdivajulie

Thank heaven for borders...

I finished the center of my quilt top yesterday. I decided this week I was going to get all of my UFO tops done at least... they might have to wait in line to get quilted (on my new mid-arm and frame wheeeee) but I digress. I was holding it up and looking at it when my husband came in and said (as he always does) in a preternaturally cheerful voice "Do you like it?" To which I replied "No". Actually I hated it.... so much that I wadded it up and threw it unceremoniously into my UFO box. After a good sleep I decided to dig it out and at least finish it. So this morning I put the borders on. I am so glad I didn't give up... I actually like it now. It may not be my all time fave but I do like it, which is so much better than the unadulterated hate I was feeling for it last night. Oh... the Bs kinda suck but I figure not too bad for only being 3" :)

This Sort of Counts

I'm doing a quilt top swap with Lynne. She's working on a secret project that just blew me away and I wanted one too. So I made this for her. She wanted something very me. Which this is. 

Back when I was playing with Rumspringa quilts in Paris, I made lots and lots of extra L-O-V-E blocks. And I can't even remember what I was working on that I made some I's for Lives as well as Loves. (Definitely did that in the last year after Pokey got sick.) Anyway, it was easy to just put this top together with letter blocks I already had. The border is actually more purply than it looks here.

I have to admit, I have been struggling with a quilt for this challenge. I know, I know it should have been easy. I get started and then lose focus.

Meanwhile you guys are making some amazing quilts. I'm so proud of you all. Send me photos of finished quilts if you want them on the UnRuly Quilter website. Right now I only have Laura's.

New Direction

Nancy again.  Thanks for all the nice comments about my quilt.  Everyone has been so helpful.  
I thought about putting these letters on the quilt but I really like the suggestion of naming it New Direction so I may change my mind.
I see I have the a in necessary up side down - have to change that.
What about the quilting - are we supposed to hand quilt these?

New Direction

Nancy here.  Turns out those fans weren't as inspiring as I thought.  I really didn't enjoy making them so I have decided to go in a different direction.  I am using #25 as my inspiration now. 
I used the layout I had planned for the fans and think I got a similar look.
Now my big problem - the letters in the border.  I have no idea what I want to put there.

Inside Out Crazy Star No. 59

 

This was fun. It is the opposite of the Crazy Star in Plate 59- the crazy is in the star, not the back ground. I like this method of making a star- it somehow makes more sense to me. I have to decide borders- it is 50 inches by 65 inches right now, so a bit big for the lap but too small for the bed. Yellow? Just more purple, in other shades because that is what I've got?

"Perfect" Amish quilt

Thanks so much, Tonya for letting me join in this fun blog! My quilt was inspired by the book "Amish Abstractions." There are several string quilts in the book, a Chinese coin quilt, and a baby quilt called "Joseph's Coat." And I learned how to do the free-pieced letters from Tonya's blog


http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/

I've been enjoying the free-pieced letters for some time, and I've made wall hangings and a quilt incorporating them. This quilt was made using only solid fabrics. Over the past year or so, I've been collecting an assortment of solid fabrics. I purchased the hot pink especially for this quilt. The quilt is hand quilted except for the outer borders, which I sewed on the machine. I enjoyed doing the hand quilting very much, especially because in a liberated quilt, you can stitch with some abandon. If you are doing hand quilting, I advise getting a good light. I purchased an inexpensive reading lamp because the lamp that I've been using all along malfunctioned, and had to be disposed of. Now, about the binding. I make a straight of grain binding, which I cut 1 3/8 inches wide. I sew it to the quilt front in a 1/4 inch seam, then I turn it to the back and hand hem it.

Bow-Tie Blocks

It took me a while to decide where to start, but I finally settled on the bow-tie quilt #21. So here are the first blocks:

At first they didn't look all that "liberated" but then I added some slivers to the triangles in the block, which you can see on the top left. It does add some movement, don't you think?
Next I want to try a few variations in size and color contrast because right now the pattern looks a little "chunky" to me. Back with more soon!

More stripes!

 

I got inspired during our moovie marathon yesterday and made this top. I thought the stripes might look nice as a block, and I'm pretty pleased. I'd like to quilt this top and the other solid top as a two sided quilt- I have only been quilting a few years, but I am running out of room for quilts. What is the name of this pattern? I have seen it, but don't know the name.

another finished top

I have finished my top and I'm happy with it. It sort of took on a life of it's own from what I first envisioned. It was very liberating for me. I decided to use my original words instead of being my usual unliberated self and making new ones. I was very happy with my words when I first made them but then as I started to see everyone else's, mine didn't seem so great anymore. Sometimes, envy isn't such a good thing.
I'll be quilting this by machine since it a good size....I'm thinking baptist fans. Not sure what color thread to use.
I think all the quilts that have been posted are awesome.....it's so inspiring to see how everyone else has made their words and used the different patterns and colors. I'm very glad to be a part of this challenge. I wish everyone a very Happy Easter.

Top Finished

I finished the top for my Lib Amish quilt today. It was a lot of fun to make. I have bits and pieces left over (and lots of HSTs), so I may make another. I also have the giant pinwheels I originally wanted to put in this, but wasn't able to find a place I wanted.    It says, "Faith" "Hope" and "Charity".  What do you think of it?

-Wendy

Decision Made

I have decided to use Figure 5 - page 16 in the book - Fans Variation as the inspiration for my quilt.

These are the fabrics I have now the colors don't show all that well in the picture. Some of the ones that look black are actually brown and Burgundy.

I really liked #51 Ocean Waves but just couldn't get my head around all those half square triangles.

Borders are Decided!

 

Well, I went with some of the words, not all of them. I don't know what I'll do with the other words, because it damn near killed me making them. The olive fabric has gradations of color, but it was almost solid, so I went with it. I have no ideas on how I will quilt it. I do know that it will not be meander quilted, but it may be machine quilted. It mighr be fun to run quilted vines all around the borders,but what to do in the middle? I will ponder for a while.

First Letters

I made my first ever letters, and they were fun! I think the two "H"s need a lighter strip across the middle, but I love that "A". I can't wait to do more.

-Wendy