Quilting Inspiration

I really don't want to make another quilt, but these might make me change my mind.

via Modern Quilt Guild

More Photos of the Hammock Quilt

Well, although the weather is cooperative, the hammock is put away for another year. But the hammock quilt is ready! Final dimensions: 54" x 56" [approximately].

It seems like there was a majority of the middle aqua tones. This is mostly random; I did "cheat" and try to mix up the colors and prints in each long strip. But I just stitched the long strips together willy-nilly. Here's a close up of the mix of patterns and colors, which shows off the wrinkles in high relief.

And here's a shot of the back. Yes, the strips are crooked. They are just applied to the surface of the darker fabric. I am super-lazy! Anything worth doing is worth doing fast just to get it done. I really rushed on cutting and sewing the backing. It was the home stretch and I could see the finish line.

I'm debating quilting along the long strips. And then would I use the light aqua thread or coral thread? Or a mixture? See, it gets all difficult.

Aha!

It was 2009 when I bought the jelly roll. Quilting takes a lot of time and space. I can see the attraction of mini quilts. You get to play with color and pattern, but it doesn't take as much space. Perhaps I will try that.

Thoughts on the Hammock Quilt

I don't even want to think about when I picked out the jelly roll for this quilt. I'm going to say it was 2009, but it might have been 2008. I chose a pattern for it and started cutting the strips to size. Then a year passed...

via Amy Butler

I put the strips in order of color value, light to dark, so that each band of the quilt would at least have the same number of light and darker pieces. I didn't want to end up with a bunch of one value or pattern left at the end.
Putting the pieces together into long bands didn't take too long once I got started. Then I needed to press the seams, and that took some time to get around to. More months passed...
The seams were pressed, and then I needed to figure out how to arrange the long bands. I tried laying them out, but I didn't have enough room anywhere to really tell how it would look. My next strategy was to bravely sew the bands together randomly. That also went quickly, but then more pressing was required.

detail of my hammock quilt top

Originally, I had thought about using a small duvet from IKEA for the batting and an IKEA sheet for the backing. The small duvet worked, but none of the colors for the sheets worked with the fabrics. By now, the whole jelly roll fabric line was discontinued. So I took some extra strips to the fabric store to find something for the backing. I found two watery prints that worked, so I could piece them together along with some of the leftover bits of the jelly roll to tie the front and back together.

The pattern calls for making a kind of "sandwich" of the front, back, and batting. I wasn't sure about this...I thought that it might look better with binding. But I didn't want to make my own binding and none of the colors of pre-made binding worked with the jelly roll fabrics, so I went ahead with the "sandwich." Now I'm stuck at the point of top-stitching around the edges and closing the hole I used to turn the quilt.

And I need to figure out if I want to quilt it or not, and if I quilt it, what pattern? Decisions! Choices!

Quilting + Friends & Family Sale

Chronicle Books has the perfect book for those who are addicted to Jelly Rolls, etc. but don't know what they want to make out of them. Little Bits Quilting Bee has lots of great ideas and inspiring photos. Plus, Chronicle Books is in the midst of a Friends & Family sale, so take a peek and get inspired!

via Chronicle Books

Quilt Thoughts

Maybe I will make the quilt without binding...It doesn't call for binding, but I thought it looked a bit unfinished. I picked out some binding, but I'm not completely happy with it. And then I saw this tutorial, and if I stitch along the edges real close...maybe that will work.

After Pressing

Nothing like a freshly pressed seam...now I need to make the binding/border for the top and sew it on. Currently the top measures 52" x 54". I really need to win this.

Hammock Quilt Progress

All of the strips are now sewn together! I did this completely randomly. And without really being careful about the seams or using pins. I'm not a quilter. :-)

Now I need to press the seams open and check to make sure that I didn't catch any of the cross-seams in the stitching.

It's great to see progress! I may work slowly, but if I like the project I'll eventually finish it.

Quilts 'n' Curtains

Time to press the seams open on my continuing project, the hammock quilt. In review, it is a "brick road" quilt based on an Amy Butler pattern made from a jelly roll of now-discontinued "Neptune" fabrics.

I figured I'd put some of the strips up on the curtain clips to see how they look. But it's not the best way to test combinations.

Maybe a quilt curtain...nah, the sun really wrecks the fabric. But I do like the shorter length so the dogs can run in and out without getting tangled up, so I'm using the bottom half of the curtains from the dining room.
:-)