New Work for Workshops

This weekend I'll be teaching in Nanaimo, B.C. for the brand new Nanaimo Modern Quilt Guild ! On Saturday (Feb.25), we're going to have some fun with Speed Date with Improv and on Sunday (Feb.26) it'll be time to play with my Quarter Round block and create some fun secondary patterning. There are still a few spots available in both workshops if you are on Vancouver Island and fancy a day in Nanaimo hanging out with modern quilting enthusiasts learning new skills playing with colour, shape and pattern. Contact & workshop info is on their blog.

Here are my latest creations using the versatile Quarter Round block. In the green pillow, I really changed things up by substituting electric lime green and green for the 'background' strips and ombre grey in the main strips. It turned out a little different from the the digital drawing I initially posted here due to mixing up my greens during cutting.  You can see that half square triangles are used instead of a solid corner square and I rotated the blocks so each half square triangle is in the centre, creating a pinwheel. This gives the composition a concentric square effect with the green background strips meeting along the central vertical and horizontal seams.

I used up my strippy scraps to make an improv backing for this pillow and quilted both the front and back with parallel lime green lines using Aurifil 40 wt. thread.

I installed an invisible zip along one edge of the pillow. You can see that even though this was a 20 1/2" block sewn together with a 3/8" seam allowance, a 20" commercial pillow form isn't quite enough to puff out the entire pillow cover. Before gifting this, I'll stuff a handful of polyfil into each corner of the pillow.

And this is my attempt at an abstract rose. Yes, this is the same block! In my Round Peg, Square Hole pattern (link to my Craftsy shop at the top of my right sidebar), this is referred to as the "Basic ombre Block". In this 20" mini quilt, I constructed 4 identical blocks, however 2 have reversed ombre strips. In this one, you can see that the blocks are rotated so that each corner square of "background" white fabric is on an outside corner of the quilt top and all of the widest strips meet along the central vertical and horizontal seams.

I taught this workshop for the first time last weekend for my traditional guild and it is so fun to see how people work with colours and prints in this pattern. I can't wait to see some quilts come together!

Heartland Horoscope Pillow

Hello and welcome to my stop on the Heartland fabric blog tour organized by Amy on behalf of designer Pat Bravo and Art Gallery fabrics.  My post marks the end of the tour, but if you're just finding out about it for the first time here, then check out the other beautiful projects made with Heartland at these great blogs:

November 7 Debbie

November 8 Jess and Charise

November 9 Jade

November 10 Amanda

November 11 Kari

November 14 Stephanie

November 15 Christopher

November 16 Kerry

November 17 Nichole

November 18 Krista (you are here ; ))

HOROSCOPE PILLOW 24" x 24"

I decided to re-make my 24" Horoscope pillow pattern in a two-colour version using the Sapphire Sparkle Metallic for background and Honeycomb for the star points. I loved fussy cutting Trekant Rows for the binding (I think this is a fantastic print for binding and you effectively get three different colour options in one print: yellow, pink and dusky blue/grey) and the pillow is backed in Hus Hoot Gul in canvas.

  
  

You can fussy cut 2 1/4" binding strips from the Trekant print! I chose to use the coordinating yellow prismatic row on my pillow (below).

The prisms of Saphire Sparkle Metallic are printed with metallic silver ink that I had no trouble ironing from the right side. So good! I love the hand of Art Gallery fabrics - it's true that they really don't feel like other quilting cottons. The hand is more like a voile and it is gorgeous. I prefer to piece this fabric with a microtex needle as it is very finely woven.

I stuffed my pillow case with a squooshy down-filled pillow form and gifted it to a special friend celebrating a milestone birthday recently.

My pattern includes instructions on how to conceal your zip with an integrated flap. I much prefer this to an envelope closure that gapes open. The canvas owl print is excellent. The substrate is heavy and seems very durable compared to other fabrics called "canvas" from quilting fabric producers.  The canvas would be perfect for designer pillows, duffels, totes, zip pouches, box pouches, back packs...etc.  

Here's some great news! I have enough of the Hus Hoot Gul canvas leftover for someone to make their very own project, or back their own Horoscope Pillow! I'd love to share this with one of you (open internationally), along with a paper copy of my pattern. Just leave a comment below to be entered and I'll choose a random winner on the evening of Sunday, November 20. 

GIVEAWAY NOTE: I must be able to contact you. More and more comments are left on the blog by folks who do not have their email linked to their blogger ID (and I cannot respond to wordpress users at all). If I can't contact you with one click, I'll pick a new winner. Please check that you are not a "no-reply blogger" and remedy that, or leave your email addy in the comment written out like this: poppyprintcreates(at)gmail(dot)com.  Google "no-reply blogger" for info on how to check and steps you can take to change that status so that you can receive emails replies from blogs you comment on.


ETA: the giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Sue, comment #11! I've emailed you.

Icy Improv Pillow

Made over my weekend of teaching a year ago in Inuvik, this pillow cover has been accompanying me to trunk shows and workshops as a sample of my Improv Under the Influence piecing technique. It was the launching off project for my Ice Road quilt.  I finally completed a simple envelope backing and bound the pillow cover last week on retreat.

It is quilted with unmarked, improv straight line quilting with a walking foot. Just following the X seams in the central portion of the pillow using the presser foot edge as a spacing guide. Unlike concentric circle quilting, I began the concentric triangle from the outside (I started sewing beside the X seam) and worked my way into the middle of each pieced quadrant.

It would have been too difficult to keep the triangle lines parallel to the piecing (without marking) if I'd started in the middle of each quadrant with a tiny stitched triangle; by the time I made it out to the long seams, the lines would've been skew to the white sashing and really noticeable.  The beauty of quilting a small item like a pillow top is Pellon fusible fleece (I don't bother wasting fabric and adding a backing, I just quilt through the pillow top and fleece).  The fusible batting stays put, so you can actually quilt from the outside in, without worrying about shifting.

The white border is stitched with white thread in improv zigzags that end up looking like wonky triangles.

...and of course I love a longer stitch length for straight line quilting. I set my Pfaff and Juki to 4.0. The binding is machine sewn to the back via a stitch in the ditch along the front seam.