Two wedding quilts finished

This summer I finished two wedding quilts, both of them for couples who were married last summer.  I spent the first half of 2016 preparing for my August exhibition, and ever since then, I've been spent most of my quilting time catching up on gifts for others.  The two quilts in this post are the final ones in the line-up. You can see earlier posts about this red and gray log cabin quilt here (earliest post at the bottom). I dyed some light gray fabric for the back, and used some of the same for binding.  I sent this quilt out to Mary Walck for long-arm quilting.  I had her do a diagonal wavy line, with circles scattered in every once in a while.   The detail photo on the left below is before washing.  The circles were more prominent that I wanted, so I decided to go ahead and wash it, to soften the look a bit, which shows in the 2nd photo.  If you double-click on the photo of the back, you'll be able to see the overall quilting design.

 The second wedding quilt was a four-patch posie pattern, done from a fabric with colorful swirls.  I used hand-dyed fabric for the sashing and cornerstones. At the time of the wedding last summer, I gave the couple a couple of cloth napkins from the fabric, as I had a half-yard extra, so they'll be able to see that all the blocks came from the one fabric. (The log-cabin couple got a pot holder made from one sample block.) I also incorporated a narrow rectangle of the original fabric is incorporated into the back of the quilt. I also gave this quilt to a long-armer to finish, with a simple meander design. Both of these quilts are a generous lap-size.

 Now that all the gifts are done, I'm taking a break, and just letting myself go wherever my inclinations take me.  For the last couple of days, I've been getting back into the Photoshop Elements class I'm taking with the Pixeladies, the 3rd course I've done with them. In this course I'll learn how to make repeat patterns out of a design motif, something I've been wanting to learn for a while.

Log Cabin finished

I posted this a few days ago on my "In the Kitchen" blog by mistake.  Repeating here, where it belongs.

I finished the blocks back a few months ago, then put them aside, knowing it would be a good project to bring with me to my annual quilting retreat in the Chicago area.  Here's the completed top, which I like very much.  Only after it was completed and up on the wall for a while, did I notice that one of the blocks is off in the piecing. The mistake was also visible when I had the blocks on the design wall, but I didn't see it.  No problem, though--I like it even more with this bit of free spiritedness.

Even though I haven't posted anything for a while, I have been finishing some things up and starting others.  Perhaps I'll do a few more posts to catch up.

And the winner is. . .

Matt and Autumn chose the medallion setting for the log cabin blocks.  I think this will be striking!  Above are four blocks extra blocks, sewn together.  I'll use eventually use this for trying out quilting patterns.  Below are the other 80 blocks up on the design wall, in the final layout.  I have numbered them and put them aside, as this will be a good project to bring with me to a four-day retreat with quilting friends in May.  The final quilt will be about 60" x 75."

Scarlet and Gray

Beginning in January, I took a ten-week 2-D Design class at the college where I used to teach, which kept me away from blogging for a few months.  I did continue to work on textiles as well (the course work was mostly in the computer lab), but I didn't have the time/motivation to write up what I was doing. I plan to do a post about some of the work from the design class, but right now, I want to get up some photos of log-cabin blocks in different settings.  I've made 80 blocks, which will go into a wedding quilt for one of my son's best friends, Matt and his wife Autumn.  They chose the colors from their wedding (which was some months ago)--scarlet and gray.  I had a large trove of hand-dyed gray fabric leftover from "Holiness," but gave them a choice between commercial prints and hand-dyed fabric for the reds. They chose the hand-dyes.

hand-dyed fabrics versus commercial prints

Today I've been playing with different settings for the blocks.  Many different arrangements are possible for log-cabin quilts. I tried a few others beyond those below, but these 5 are my favorites. Now Matt and Autumn get to choose!  (I haven't used all 80 blocks in any of these trials, so the actual quilt will be expanded from these.)

Diagonals

Medallions

Barn Raising

Triangles

Zig-zag

Thinking about a red and gray log cabin quilt

I'm at the early stages of planning a quilt that will be a wedding gift for one of my son's best friends.  He and his fiancée really like scarlet and gray, so I'll work with those colors.  I'll have a good deal of hand-dyed gray fabric left over when I'm done with my current quilt in progress, so it will be nice to use that in another quilt.  I'm thinking of a log cabin quilt.  Here are some early trials for blocks.  The first group of three below is made of "logs" that finish at 1.5", with the block 3 logs deep on each side out from the center.  The grays are my hand-dyed fabrics; the reds are commercial prints.  Here I'm comparing three different fabrics for the center square.

light gray center

white center

black center

Then I did another block using all hand-dyes, a light gray center, logs increased in size to 2", and only two logs deep out from the center.  (These are reds I had on hand; if I go with solids, I will dye reds with less orange in them.)

I'm leaning towards a block that is just two logs deep, but I'm not sure on the width of the log or on solids versus prints in the red.  In the comparison below, I've folded under the last log in commercial print block, so both are just two logs out from the center.

Now I'll ask the couple what they prefer. . .  They decided on all hand-dyes (like the block at the left in the last photo).  How nice to have someone else make the decision!