All Quilted

I've had my small Bars top done for some time, and now the simple quilting is finished too. I washed the quilt, because this deep dark Kona indigo simply grabbed every little fuzzy in the air-and I like the washed appearance. Wish I had made this a bit larger for a small lap quilt (I am a rather small person!).
The best part of this Get Together has been seeing how everyone has interpreted their choice of pattern, the colors they have used, the words they have chosen for their quilts--and reading the great stories that go along with each quilt. I definitely want to work more with solids. Thanks, Tonya!

Quilt Top Finished

My liberated Amish quilt became a Chinese Coins design, even though I meant it to be a liberated version of Bricks in Bars in the Brown Collection. I had decided to put my initials or words on the back of the quilt, because I wasn't pleased with my initials on the front. Today when I was cutting the outer borders, I cut one too short, with not enough fabric remaining to recut.

This could have led to interesting and colorful liberated solutions, but the strip with my initials was sitting nearby. It was just the right length, so I stitched it onto the border. The quilt top is 30" x 32". I may try freehand Baptist fans on this quilt; I am practicing them on a square of fabric with borders attached. Thanks to Tonya and Clare for tips on doing freehand fans.
Kathleen C.

Making Progress

I've just put the first border on my sort-of liberated Bricks in Bars quilt; the outer border will be the dark indigo used for the bars. I say "sort-of" because I strayed further from the original quilt than I intended. My quilt is basically a chinese coin design, whereas the original has a very different feel to it.
I think I'll put my initials in the border, centered or in the lower corner, though I'm still considering words. In my home (as opposed to on the computer), the colors in the quilt are more muted--that's what I wanted to play around with in this quilt.

My first Blog Post

That was the first time I put a photo in a blog post-so apologies for the tiny, faraway photo. And for some reason the link to the Bricks in Bars Amish quilt isn't actually a link. I'll get better at this.
Kathleen

Started Bricks in Bars

I've stitched some bricks together in a limited palette using fabrics I already had. I think the bars will be a deep dark navy, though for now I've put the bricks on top of a navy print that I have on hand. I'll also try black for the bars, as Clare suggested to me. I originally had bricks made of 2 marbled fabrics-I took those out, and I'm going to also take out the light navy mottled. (The colors always look much clearer and brighter in photos than on the design wall in my studio).
The original Bricks in Bars (http://www.pbase.com/brownsf/image/85044737) has a wonderful life to it and a uniformity in the bricks that I really like. My version is missing that, and it is now becoming a Coins quilt. I've been in a "navy mood" which is why I started out with these fabrics; I think I'll continue to play with this-and maybe add more colors.

Narrowing My Choices

Thanks, Tonya, for challenging all of us to make these liberated Amish quilts. I'm trying to decide between #71 Variable Star, #27 Roman Stripe, and #99 Bricks and Bars. I'll be using a variety of navy solids and almost-solids, brick reds, tans and brown--Putting navy next to another navy will be a challenge for me! My quilt will be on the small side, because I may not buy any new fabric. Adding my initials and date will be a fun challenge, too.
Kathleen C.