TGIFF! - Welded Links

Things have been going a 100 miles (or kilometres) a minute around here lately. The joys of September. Even though there's not a lot of time for quilting, I'm happy to say that the start-itis I've been suffering from these last few months is officially over with this project -- must be a TGIFF! miracle.

Of course, it always helps when you have a deadline. This deadline? The AGF Stitched with Kimberly Welded Blog Hop hosted by the Fat Quarter Shop and sponsored by Art Gallery Fabrics.

The Fat Quarter Shop provided the free Welded Quilt pattern and a great video tutorial and Art Gallery Fabrics provided the fabric love. The Fat Quarter Shop also has a Welded Quilt featuring Pat Bravo's Artisan line and a backing set available.

For my version of the quilt, I wanted to play with navies and greys so I picked out fabrics from Katarina Roccella's Imprint, Indelible (Spirodraft Carbon), and Recollection line (Cuneiform Script Cast), as well as a few prints from the Art Gallery Studio Maker line. Mmmm!

I modified the Welded pattern a bit and replaced some of the blocks with background fabric, making the negative space more prominent and giving some asymmetry to the fun on-point block design of the quilt. I'm so happy with how it turned out!

For the quilting, I used a light grey Aurifil and echoed the sewing lines. Simple, but effective and I love the extension of the lines in the negative space. 

For the backing, I took the leftover greys and paired them with the I'm a Maker print (sooo love that fabric!). 

I find the navies and greys make Welded look like links in a chain so I'm calling it Welded Links.

Here's Welded Links enjoying some sun by the Rideau Canal. ;)

Finished size: 60" by 60".

There are a whole slew of fabulous bloggers participating in this hop so be sure to check out what they've done with the pattern.

• Cara of That Crafty Cara
• John Q Adams of Quilt Dad
• Kitty Wilkin of Night Quilter
• Dana Bolyard of Old Red Barn Co.
• M-R Charbonneau of Quilt Matters (oui, c'est moi!)
• Corey Yoder of Little Miss Shabby
• Christina Lane of Sometimes Crafter
• Sinta Renee of Pink Pincushion
• Jess Frost of The Elven Garden
• Erica Jackman of Kitchen Table Quilting
• Svetlana Sotak of Sotak Handmade
• Jemima Flendt of Tied with a Ribbon
• Katarina Roccella
• Caroline Hulse of Sew Caroline
• Riane Menardi of Vessel Quilts
• Megan of Quilt Story
• Kaye Prince of Miss Print
• Natalia Bonner of Piece N Quilt

You can also check out #Weldedquilt and #AGFStitched on Instagram (and Twitter) for more inspiration.

I'm also linking up to TGIFF!, which is over at Simply Pieced this week, because it's been a long time since I've had a finish to celebrate. :)

Going Fractal With AGF Stitched

Welcome to the Fractal Blog Hop hosted by the Fat Quarter Shop and sponsored by Art Gallery Fabrics! The Fat Quarter Shop provided the free Fractal Quilt pattern and a great video tutorial and Art Gallery Fabrics provided the eye candy. Oh, and the Fat Quarter Shop has a Fractal Quilt Kit too!

For my version of the quilt, I picked out fabrics from Frances Newcombe's Utopia line, from Katarina Roccella's Indelible line (Spirodraft Carbon), and from Katarina's Recollection line (Cuneiform Script Cast). It's not a great photo, but I love, love, love how these fabrics play together!

The Fractal Quilt Pattern uses Y seams. Yeah, I know what you are thinking because that's what I thought. Y seams? Usually, it's a no thank you, but the pattern looked so fun that I had to give it a try. Conquer my fear of Y seams, I must!

The pattern uses the Creative Grids Kites Plus template ruler. It was the first time I'd used that template ruler shape for making Y seams and I have to say that I was pretty impressed. The Creative Grids template has a little hole in the ruler where you can mark your 1/4" seam. 

It worked beautifully. Look that that Y seam! :D

And that join! 

The centres aren't all that perfect, but most of them are. Woo hoo! Happy dance!

Despite my vow to 'stick to the pattern', I took a little detour. I decided to do three by three colour wheels and used more of the Spirodraft Carbon for the background. I think the Spirodraft is perfect for the background. 

I also decided not to add pieces to square up the corners of the quilt. I think that will be a first for me.

And there's my little helper trying to hold it up to show the full top. The top finished at 73" by 54" - a great large throw quilt.

Since I changed up the layout of the front, I wanted to use the 'leftovers' for the back with this Utopia print.

This was like putting together a puzzle and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. 

The top and backing layered...

Wouldn't it be fun to do a spirograph-style quilting on this? I have a few fun ideas for the quilting so I better get cracking!

Check out what the other participating AGF Stitched bloggers have done with this pattern:

Katarina Roccella
Erica Jackman of Kitchen Table Quilting
Christina Lane of Sometimes Crafter
Natalia Bonner of Piece N Quilt
Riane Menardi of Vessel Quilts
Afton Warrick of Quilting Mod
M-R Charbonneau of Quilt Matters (oui, c'est moi!)
Jess Frost of The Elven Garden
Caroline Hulse of Sew Caroline
Rachel McKeeman of The Floral Suitcase

I can't wait to see what they did with it!

Oh, and Y seams? No more fear, baby! :)