A New Favourite

Looking for a good quilty read? Try The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters by Sherri Lynn Wood. I won it in a giveaway from The Quilting Edge (thanks Marianne!) about a month ago. I've read it from cover to cover. Every single word.

I love how Sherri Lynn organized the book with 'scores' rather than patterns. The scores fully embrace the spirit of improv quilting, giving you enough guidance without being too prescriptive. Genius!

I'm not a novice when it comes to improv and I've read a number of books on improv quilting, but I still learned so much from this one. Especially how to fix issues or problems, which I think is the most challenging part. If you are interested in improv quilting, this is the book to get.

And no, no one asked me to review the book and this isn't a sponsored post -- I just really like the book. I'm knee-deep in other projects right now, but there will be projects from this book in the future. Oh yes, there will be projects...

Have a great weekend!

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Scrap{Bee} 2.0

I was planning on sharing the results of my minimalist quilt exercise today, but when I started taking pictures this morning, there were some rather noticeable water stains from removing a stain the other day. So it's in the wash right now. Fingers crossed! Lesson learned - don't bother spot cleaning a white quilt, just wash the whole thing! Barring any other quilty hiccups, I'll share it tomorrow.

No worries though because the Blogger's Quilt Festival starts today! Woo Hoo! I love this festival and always come away inspired and motivated to try something new. Thanks to Amy for organizing such a great event!

I decided to share my Scrap{Bee} 2.0 for the festival. It certainly feels like my biggest quilty accomplishment (literally and figuratively) over the last few months and I'm just so happy with how it turned out. :)

This quilt began as a challenge to use my more traditional fabric scraps in a modern design. I enlisted the help of my Don't Worry {Bee} Happy bee mates in 2012-13 for making most of the blocks. Huge thanks to these wonderful women:

Katie @ There & Back
Charlotte @ Twelfth Zodiac
Chelsea @ Pins and Bobbins
Elyse @ ElyseSusanDesign
Alisha @ A Squared Craft Affair
Marian @ LookWhatLadyFaceMade
Heather @ Winding Bobbins
Rebecca @ Sew Festive
Bianca @ Sweet Diesel Designs

Previous posts about this quilt and how I made it can be found here, here, here, and here.

The full frontal:

Each coloured square is quilted with a different motif in the coordinating colour. The background was improv quilted using a cream coloured Aurifil thread (thread colours below).

The backing is pieced with scraps from the front and some beige yardage from my stash.

This quilt has been a test at almost every step of the way, but I've learned so much and tried some new things throughout the process. My lessons learned can be found here.

Fabrics: Colours - scraps, Neutrals - Kona Parchment, Raffia, Bone, Oyster, Ivory, Natural, Cream, Eggshell, Champagne, Putty, Tan, Wheat, Sand and Essex Linen. Backing - Scraps

Thread: Aurifils 2000, 2314, 2140, 4093, 1243, 1320, 1135, 2581, 2740, 2460, 2870, 5017, 2875, 5124, 1104, 1100, 2885, 1240 and Gutermann 2626

Batting: Hobbs Heirloom

Finished size: 86.5" by 86.5".

I'm putting this in the ROYBGIV category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival. Hope you get a chance to check out the inspiration at the Festival and participate!

TGIFF! - Purplelicious

Purplelicious enjoys Winterlude on the Rideau Canal

Joy. That's what I feel when I look at this quilt and I've been looking at it a lot since I put it up a few days ago.

I just love purple, although it's not a colour I've been successful in decorating with in the past. Lesson learned: Do not paint a small room, which has little natural light and dark wood accents, eggplant purple -- it feels like it's always night. BUT, you can make a quilt with those colours and hang it on a light neutral wall. Much better. :)

This quilt has been a journey, hasn't it? We talked about it here and here and here.

I'm excited about this piece because it feels like all the colour, design and composition reading I've been doing over the past couple of years has come to fruition in something that didn't feel forced and that reflects me.

New to me in this piece - wonky edges and improv quilting. Okay, two wonky edges; let's not go crazy here. The sides are parallel.

The improv quilting was a challenge. I looked closely at Jean Wells' work for ideas. I didn't have the appetite for changing threads to match each purple fabric so I picked sections of similar toned purples to use either a warm purple (Aurifil #1240) or cool purple (Aurifil #2581). Very happy with that decision and something I'll do again. I also used Aurifil #5009 and #2277 for the oranges. I left the whites and greys unquilted.

So what do I mean by improv quilting? I wanted a bit of an organic, irregular look to the quilting to complement the improv piecing.

Some wobbly lines, wonky square spirals, loose aztec motifs and general wonky circuit board-like motifs filled in the purple areas to give it texture and invite the viewer to come closer to see where the quilting goes. I've spent so much time trying to make my quilting motifs look perfect (not that it is ever achieved), that it felt very odd to intentionally make it look wonky. Does that make sense?

Purplelicious finishes at 24" by 36"-ish. :)

Isn't it fun to see where playing with fabric takes you?

I'm linking up with my favourite party TGIFF!, which is over at Amy's Crafty Shenanigans. Come join us!