roman tile: a finished quilt

For a few months, I've been playing with ideas for interlocking blocks -- that is, a quilt designed of two or more different blocks, that, when joined together, work to make a continuous design. I love the illusion of it -- these diamonds that are really created from two simple 10" square blocks. Definitely a new challenge for me, working in shapes that demand more accuracy was tough, but it felt very rewarding to break free from my straight-edged comfort zone.

In fact, all sorts of new frontiers got explored in this quilt. I bought my first green fabric -- can you believe it?! -- , and so must beg forgiveness from the poor abused colour green for all of the harsh words over the years. You are not always pond scum.




I also tried out a new quilting pattern -- diagonal lines that intersect in the centre, and then radiate out from there. What a pleasure! Especially on a square quilt, this was really effective, and surprisingly fast given the closeness of the lines.



A few other, older quilts tagged along for the photo shoot. Both were made last year -- a log cabin quilt that I made while feeling homesick for the English seaside, and a toddler-sized subway quilt made while I was pregnant (and certain Penny was a boy) -- and have now been added to the gallery of quilts page.

the quilt that entertains your kids: an eye-spy tutorial

An eye-spy quilt is simply a design that features a large range of novelty prints, from animals to vehicles, people to plants -- anything that can be "spotted". For this latest quilt, though, I decided to take the game one step further and make a physical, hold-in-your-hand checklist of some of the quilt's landmark prints.



In case you'd like to use the idea for your next eye-spy quilt, too, here's how I put mine together.

Materials:
Several squares of novelty fabrics to be used in the quilt
Printer paper
A scanner
Laminating supplies (optional)

What to do:
1. Place your fabric squares in the scanner, face down. Scan each one, and save them on your computer.



2. Open Pages (or your word processing program of choice). Create a new blank document.

3. Drag in each of your scanned fabric images. I chose to lay them out in a grid, but it would also work to have them positioned vertically, like a list.

(Tip: In Pages, you can add one image, and then save your document as a template. Close and reopen your document. Duplicate the first image as many times as necessary, and then drag each subsequent image onto one of the duplicates. This makes each image the same exact size. You might know an easier way to do this already, though...!)



4. (Optional) Add a textbox under each image, with a description of the fabric.

5. Print. I chose to laminate the sheets, so that the images can be crossed off with a dry-erase marker when found, and then the sheets can be wiped clean and reused.

Perfect for rainy-day or sick-in-bed entertainment!

sunshine and clouds

Usually, I'm very controlled with my colour choices, allowing myself one or two main colours only, and a generous portion of grey and white. For this quilt, though, the request was for "randomly colourful" -- a delight to have free-reign over all of my fabrics, and yet a challenge to my controlled aesthetic. Several times, I sent off a preview of the layout, and my lovely friend responded, oh-so-kindly, with encouragement to randomise it further.

In the end, what I found it helpful to do was to create an image in my head -- a cool, cloudy day, with glimpses of the blue sky and rays of sunshine smiling through. And then, surprise! A hot air balloon appears on the horizon, and then two, and suddenly the sky is dotted with colour.

Backing this one with a giant piece of Lotta Jansdotter's new line, Glimma, felt very extravagant -- I loved the touch of grey binding with all that yellow. And, as a special little addition, I made an eye-spy sheet (or three -- one for each little boy) to accompany the quilt. With so many animals, vehicles and little people prints, there's a lot to be found!

A pleasure to work in so many colours, for a change!

{ideas of a geometric kind}

Angular, modern, minimal, simple -- these are the designs I'm drawn to at the moment. A new quilt, a just-for-us quilt, is brewing.