Liberated Quilting!

Wahoo! Tonya Ricucci's new book, Word Play Quilts, arrived via UPS today. So colorful and looks like it'll be fun to read and to use! Afraid all there is time for now though is to read it.

Colorplay 3 - Finished!!

Colorplay 3 is now finished......binding, sleeve and all!! Yeah! I enjoyed the process but am now ready to move on to some more projects, like UFOs and new ideas!

Here are a couple of close-up photos. I used a swirly design with a variegated thread to calm the sharp straight lines in the quilt.

The backing is a Picasso print I bought in the early nineties. Now how's that for stashbusting?? The colors went perfect though and I had just the right amount which is unusual since I don't buy large pieces of fabric often.

More UFOs being finished daily!!

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 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!

Colorplay 3 - Another Round

I took a few minutes yesterday to even up the edges of my Colorplay 3 after I had added some darker strips. I did not have enough hand-dyed dark blues so added some solid black. With my improvisational quilting, I just add what I have, decide as I go, never knowing for sure how it will turn out. Next I'm thinking to add some pieced strips. When I get to the last round, I will square up the blocks before I sew them together.

Colorplay III

Here are some really cool hand-dyed leftover fabrics that I've been storing in a plastic shoebox for quite some time.......like years! I finally decided to get them out and play a while, sewing very improvisationally and planning as I go. So, here we begin with very odd-shaped four-patches that will be the center of my wonky log cabins, or courthouse steps.

Okay, here's one row of color sewn around the centers...........just letting the fabric strips dictate what size the blocks will be.

And now another round of color, all in shades of green. How did I choose green? I had more greens than any other color in my leftover hand-dyed fabrics!!

And then I spotted a really cool stripe in the shoebox. Not hand-dyed, but such vibrant colors that I felt it would be the perfect choice. I literally came within inches of having enough. In fact, I pieced some of the strips to make it work. I'm thinking the next color needs to be navy or dark to bring these brights together and give the eyes a place to land. This is fun! No points to match or preciseness needed. We'll add more and square up later!

And the name, Colorplay III, comes from the fact that there are two other similar quilts I made years ago, all inspired by Nancy Crow. I'll show them another day!