Quilts by Julie Ramsey
Archive for August, 2009
A tentative design
Aug 30th
Prior to buying the set of charm squares, I’d considered doing a flying geese quilt and picked up a ruler to do so. Lo and behold, I just remembered that you can make four flying geese at 2″ x 4″ using a 5.5″ square of colored material and a larger square in white. Perfect!
So after a bit of playing around, I think I’m going to do something along these lines, though with more “scrappiness” in the geese. (I was lazy with EQ and only used four colors for the blocks, but I’m going to have far more than that in my packet of fabric.) I tried it without sashing, but the effect was too busy, so I think that I’ll be doing 8″ blocks with 2″ sashing. The finished result should look something like this:
Design process: potential reproduction patterns
Aug 30th
I’ve been looking at lots of antique quilts and playing with EQ for a bit and I’ve come up with a few ideas for my 1930s fabrics. Lots of bright fabrics on white backgrounds, and plenty of applique– which is a pity, because my applique skills are nonexistant and I’m not sure I’d want to practice on this project.
Here are a few ideas, mostly cataloged for my own reference.
I like the colors in this quilt, and the pattern doesn’t look too crazy:
Design: Fairly quick and dirty, 9-patch blocks alternated with four-triangle pieces. Blocks would be 6″ square, so it’d probably have more blocks than this when finished… assuming I’ve done the math right and I’d have enough fabric!
Or I could skip the setting triangles altogether and go for the straight “postage stamp” look:
I’m not sure what this pattern’s called, but it’d be easy enough to whip up!
My version: I could whack each of the 6″ squares in half and trim them to 5.5″ finished blocks, I’m sure it’d go quickly.
I really like this block, though I wonder if I’d have enough fabric for it. Maybe if I used two colors in each block, I could make it fairly large?
Unsurprisingly, the final product turns out very busy, even when set off with sashing. Not sure how much I like this.
Simple would be better. And I’m seeing a lot of very simple nine-patch quilts put on point, so I’d have the authenticity going for me. I’d like something with piecing that’ll keep me busy for a while, but I suppose something like this would give me a place to practice my machine quilting. (White on white so my mistakes aren’t so obvious!)
Finally, inspiration strikes!
Aug 29th
…Well, sort of. I’ve wanted to do something with 1930′s reproduction fabrics for a long time now, and even though I’m still not sure what to do with it, I just ordered a whole bunch of fabric. 50 different 6″ charm squares should be headed my way soon!
I know I’d like to do something traditional (obviously), and I’m sort of thinking about bowties set on point, or maybe pinwheels? I need to sit down with EQ and start making some “sketches” to see what I can come up with. I really like this disappearing nine-patch pattern, maybe I’ll give that one a shot.
I’ve got a big quilt using similar fabrics made by my great-grandma (who made something ridiculous like 700 quilts in her lifetime) hanging on the wall of my sewing room. I’m wondering if I can do a bowtie pattern without set-in seams like this and set it on-point, rather than having that staggered sashing that would require even MORE Y-seams!
One down, what next?
Aug 16th
The Morse code quilt is officially bound off and finished! I’ll be mailing it off for photography ASAP, and with any luck it’ll photograph better with a pro doing it as opposed to my quick shot on the living-room floor.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with it. I do wish the borders were a little bit wider, and the corners aren’t terribly straight, plus there’s a pucker or two in the backing fabric… but overall, I’m pretty happy with it. Besides, it certainly turned out a lot better than the last secret-message quilt I made, craftsmanship-wise!
I’m not sure what to do for my next project. I’m just not “feeling it” with the basket of FQs I bought lately, but I don’t have any inspiration for a new project. None of my quilt books have projects I’d like to do right now, and I don’t have the energy to try the paper-pieced Escher quilt I’ve been thinking about (re-) doing for quite some time now. I spent several hours wandering around the fabric store, and still don’t have any grand ideas.
I did fall in love with this kitty-print fabric, though, and I’m sure I’ll come up with something out of it. (The striped fabric says “Goldfish <3 tunafish <3 any fish <3″ and is absolutely adorable!) Time to go poke around Quilter’s Cache and see what I can find!
scrappy pinwheels
Aug 10th
Spent a couple of hours today playing with a couple of FQ’s from the bundle I purchased last weekend and came up with this. Not sure what I think of it, but since it’s going to be a small top (36″ square before borders), I think I might as well assemble the whole thing just to have it done.
Up next
Aug 9th
It never fails: I’m working on one quilt, and already have ideas for two or three of my next projects. Here’s what’s up the ramp once the morse code quilt is bound off:
I picked up a basket of fat quarters last weekend, and I’ll be starting off with a Fun With Bricks pattern from Quiltville. I picked six quarters, 3 blue and 3 brown, for the strip blocks and I’ll use some plain beige fabric for the solid blocks.
Also, I picked up Bargello Quilts With a Twist today, and I’d love to make something out of there. Much more complicated than they look! I’m thinking of something like this, but with a red-and-white color scheme.
Crazy cabin quilt blocks
Aug 1st
I dug into my scrap box and tried making a few blocks using a crazy-quilt ruler I picked up a few weeks ago. It’s a five-sided shape, and the goal is to add various-sized strips around it, log-cabin-style.
I think I like the effect, but I’m not sure if I like it enough to go ahead and make a whole quilt out of it. Maybe if I added more strips and made 12″ blocks instead of these 9″ ones, it’d look better? Or maybe if I set it on black sashing?
I’m not entirely sure where to go with it, but I do know that I really like the colors!
