Colorplay I and Colorplay 2

Here is the beginning of the series of my Colorplay quilts, even though they are spaced out over 12 years or so. The first quilt was inspired by Nancy Crow and I just began cutting and piecing with no rulers and very improvisationally, using some Cherrywood hand-dyed fabrics from a scrapbag I bought at the Houston Quilt Festival.

I hand quilted it with variegated thread, using the 'big stitch' and circles. Here is the back.

Here is a close-up view of the front of Colorplay 1.

And now, Colorplay 2, mostly hand-dyed fabrics in brighter colors, some of which I dyed myself. I used the baptist fan quilt pattern on my domestic machine and it was so terribly quilted I thought I'd never show it but with a little shrinkage when washed, I've actually displayed it and never heard a comment about the awful quilting. I think the bright colors overcome the quilting. I'm thinking I may do the baptist fan pattern on my Colorplay 3 but now I have templates and a longarm to make it so much simpler!!!

Colorplay 3 and Bed Quilt

I have finally gotten the bedskirt made so we could put our new quilt on the bed. It was funny how many quilts I found in my closet with colors that went with this bright colored quilt, one made as far back as 1994 on the cedar chest. The bed quilt is Floral Checkerboard Quilt by Kaffe Fassett in his Quilt Road book - on the cover, in fact.

Here are a couple of pillow shams I made using scraps from the quilt!

And, drum roll please.........!!! here is my Colorplay 3 top completed! Wohoo! It's taken long enough but I finally needed to get it off my design wall so I could make another baby quilt. I ended up putting black and white fabrics and then sashing with more hand-dyed. And, yet, I still have enough fabric left for another quilt. It just seems to multiply in those plastic shoe boxes!! Now how will I quilt it??

Colorplay 3 - And Yet Another Round

I've added one more round with the Colorplay 3. As you can probably see, it really is playing with color and fabrics. I just grab a strip, try for it to be different than those on other sides of the block, try to keep a seam from hitting another and just lay it down and stitch it. Somehow I'm going to have to add some more strips - wider - to get my blocks squared up eventually so they will sew together in rows.

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers! I was so truly blest to have the absolute best Mother in the whole world! She taught me so much and always cared, loved, encouraged, was interested in anything I did and thought it was fabulous! I owe so much of my love of sewing to her. Even though she did not care to sew, when I became interested at about age 12, she made sure I had the best sewing machine available and would buy whatever fabrics I wanted to further my love of sewing and creativity. Thank you, Mother!! I think of you every day and miss you tremendously!