To be a bit cliché, this shoemaker is a professional Web Developer and her child is this blog, but it was past time to launch what I have of a new design. All the content is still here, everything else is a work in progress (kind of like most of my sewing projects)!
This year, my quilt guild is supporting a local chapter of an organization that provides bags packed with a quilt, necessities, and toys to children who have been removed from their homes. After finishing Human, I pulled out my stack of Thomas Knauer’s Frippery and a couple of stashed blue solids, then sliced everything up into 10″ blocks for a quilt inspired by Amy Smart’s Star Baby Quilt. This straight-forward design with large blocks was perfect to quickly piece.
“Brilliant Frippery”, Rachael Arnold, May 2016, 52″x52″. Photo by Carl Pfranger.
Instead of a single 2″ border like the original quilt, I added three borders to make the quilt 52″ square—a nicely-sized lap quilt for an older child. When I was cutting, it seemed like a brilliant idea to construct the opposite corners with a series of partial-seams so that I could reduce seams in the long strips. It turned out great, but would have been far easier to just construct the corner as a 8″ block instead of a continuation of the strips on either side.
“Brilliant Frippery” (detail), Rachael Arnold, May 2016, 52″x52″.
The design of the borders had a lot to do with using up the fabric as I’d cut it rather than with aesthetics (although there was a lot of waste since I started by slicing 4 10″ squares out of my half yards, and mostly needed 9.5″ ones except for the central star half-square triangles). I like the surprise of half-square triangles in two corners instead of the expected border all the way around. We’ve started talking about what makes our quilts modern by the MQG definition when we share at guild meetings. To a lot of people’s eyes, the asymmetrical borders take this from plain modern traditionalism to slightly-more-modern, but it isn’t uncommon to see something like that in extant antique quilts.
“Brilliant Frippery” (detail), Rachael Arnold, May 2016, 52″x52″. Photo by Carl Pfranger.
The back is a solid piece of fabric from my stash (Erin McMorris Summersault, 54″ wide), used for convenience. In between is cotton batting (I think—it’s pieced from stash).
“Brilliant Frippery” (detail), Rachael Arnold, May 2016, 52″x52″. Photo by Carl Pfranger.
I couldn’t decide on how to quilt this, but knew I wanted to keep it simple (especially after just finishing something that was matchstick quilted!). Echoing seams with straight lines seemed too bland, so I selected a long serpentine stitch (E4 for other Husqvarna Viking Ruby owners), and stitched over the seams, then eyeballed a line down the center of each block. I used a variegated yellow-orange thread for all of it. After such little time to sew lately, it was comforting to me to whip up an entire quilt over the course of a few days.
“Brilliant Frippery” (detail), Rachael Arnold, May 2016, 52″x52″. Photo by Carl Pfranger.
The light is all over the place on these photos, since yesterday wasn’t the best day for photographs. The detail shots with wood showing are probably the best representation of the color. I was on a compressed timeframe due to donating it at today’s meeting. The finishing touch was a cute little label we’ve ordered for guild charity quilts.
“Brilliant Frippery” (detail), Rachael Arnold, May 2016, 52″x52″.
I hope it provides a child a bit of comfort as they settle into unfamiliar surroundings.
Just as 2015 kicked off with a baby quilt, so has 2016. The recipient of Disappearing Seven Wonders is now a big brother to a baby sister who needed her own quilt.
“Pear Tree of Life”, Rachael Arnold, January 2016, 48″×48″
After pulling out a bundle of Pear Tree and coordinating fabrics a few months ago, all progress stopped. I couldn’t settle on a design for the quilt. Then I came across the Into the Wild pattern and was inspired to cut into the stack. I wasn’t incredibly faithful to the pattern (although it was great visual inspiration), but I like how it turned out with the fabrics I used.
“Pear Tree of Life” (detail), Rachael Arnold, January 2016, 48″×48″
The most obvious change to the pattern was adding a square in a square (in a square) to the center, highlighting a motif from the eponymous print in the line. I also added in a few more half-square triangles where the original pattern had squares, and dropped the top and bottom rows in favor of a square quilt due to the amount of fabric I had.
“Pear Tree of Life” (detail), Rachael Arnold, January 2016, 48″×48″
It’s backed with blush-colored, star-embossed Minky, using 70/30 Cotton/Poly blend batting in between. The batting is a bit higher loft than I normally buy—I bought it a few months ago for a different project, but decided to use it for this quilt instead, knowing that the high poly content works out fine with the polyester cuddle fabric. It gives the quilt a good texture in the looping quilting.
“Pear Tree of Life” (detail), Rachael Arnold, January 2016, 48″×48″
I quilted it with pink 40wt Aurifil in alternating free-motion patterns, building out from the center. My ability to free-motion stitch in the ditch has not improved since my first attempts, from what I can tell, but my consistency with feathers has improved. It’s bound in a textured green print. I’m very happy with how the quilting stands out on the back.
“Pear Tree of Life” (detail), Rachael Arnold, January 2016, 48″×48″
After a few months of not sewing (much), it was nice to jump back in with a relatively simple quilt. I hope it keeps the baby warm through her first winter and beyond.
The embellished fabric bin I made two years ago has been taunting me to use the remaining fabric from Thomas Knauer’s Savannah Bop line that was sitting inside of it. Even after using strips to make the 1 + 1 = 4 charity quilts and the bin, I had about 1/3 yd. of each print in the line in my stash. Finally, the need for another baby quilt gave me reason to pull it out.
“Puzzle Bop”, Rachael Arnold, February 2015, 48″x56″. Photo by Carl Pfranger.
I settled on the idea of a puzzle—because what is quilt pattern design if not a giant puzzle to solve? As tempted as I was to throw in solids and a yarn-dyed once again, I decided to use up most of the prints in the line and only added in the Michael Miller Kryptonite solid for a bit of contrast. (Here’s my tutorial on how to make the puzzle block.)
“Puzzle Bop” (detail), Rachael Arnold, February 2015, 48″x56″. Photo by Carl Pfranger.
Then, because the design needed a little something more, I appliqued on a few extra puzzle pieces to fill in the negative space. I especially like the one on the top corner that wraps to the back of the quilt over the binding. (I posted a description of my process back in February.)
“Puzzle Bop” (detail), Rachael Arnold, February 2015, 48″x56″. Photo by Carl Pfranger.
I free motion quilted this all over in a loose meandering pattern, using a Gutterman green that matches the Kryptonite. The back is Minky Cuddle Pine Ridge in Olive. I tried out Pellon’s Eco Batting this time, a 70/30 cotton/poly blend. It’s bound in Kona Sunflower.
“Puzzle Bop” (detail), Rachael Arnold, February 2015, 48″x56″. Photo by Carl Pfranger.
This has been a slow year for me, quilting wise (at least considering I don’t have wedding planning to blame). I finished the quilt in February, but just now got around to photographing it and dropping it in the mail. It’s my only finish yet this year, but that should change soon.
“Puzzle Bop” (detail), Rachael Arnold, February 2015, 48″x56″. Photo by Carl Pfranger.
At least spring finally decided to grace Vermont!
“Puzzle Bop” (detail), Rachael Arnold, February 2015, 48″x56″. Photo by Carl Pfranger.
