Birth of a Quilt — First Steps

I have been meaning for months to tell you about making the quilts that I have for sale on my web site, and I am finally going to get around to it! I’ll start with the very first quilt I designed for my company — the Not So Straight and Narrow quilt.

Not So Straight and Narrow Quilt
Not So Straight and Narrow Quilt

This quilt was based on the Pick & Choose quilt that I started in the Improvisational Patchwork class with Denyse Schmidt last summer. I love that quilt, and I love the improvisational style. However, what I wanted to do this time around was create a design that incorporated improvisational aspects that would be different every time around, but would still be recognizable as the same design every time. That way customers could order this quilt and have some reasonable expectation of what they were going to get, while still getting something completely unique. Make sense?

Pick & Choose Quilt Front
Pick & Choose Quilt

I started by sketching out the blocks from the Pick & Choose quilt and making notes about what I did or didn’t like about them for this new quilt. From there I decided on some basic principles for the piecing of the center strips that I could use as the basis for the blocks in this quilt.

Block sketches for quilt design

Next was to decide the colors. For the Pick & Choose quilt I was forced to use what was at hand. This time I could make some decisions up front.

I still wanted to use the Prints Charming Paisley Garden print that I had used in the Pick & Choose quilt, so I started with that and my RK Kona Cotton color card. I ordered up a bunch of cuts of fabrics that I thought might go and started testing out various combinations. This is one set of colors that I looked at (not the final version).

PIcking Fabrics, color version

And here it is in black and white. This is something I do *a lot*, and that you will see a lot of pictures of as I take you through the making of these quilts. There are a lot of things that are more apparent in black in white than in color, like the pattern or repetition of a fabric within a design (though that’s not relevant at this point in the process, of course).

Picking Fabrics, black & white version

I also have this thing about varying the values (I did a post on values a while back). It’s just part of the way I design. I am not particularly drawn to color combinations where everything is the same value. Colors tend to look kind of yucky together if they are all the same value, but will “sing” a bit more if there is some value contrast. And my eye is not trained well enough to always distinguish values accurately, so I use the old black-and-white photo trick to give me an accurate read on the values.

So, once the design parameters and the colors were (mostly) chosen, I started to sew. I’ll show you my initial design testing in the next post, so stay tuned!

Slow Sewing — Hand Applique Edition

Hand Applique Circle

Working on a quilt that requires this one little hand appliqued circle….

Hand Appliqued Circle, Detail

….aaaaahhhhhhhh.

New Bias-cut Skirt For Me!

Well, I finished the hand-stitched hem on the skirt I was making, and I wore it on our little trip to Hart’s last Monday!

Bias Cut Skirt, Front

Can you believe that this MoMo Wonderland twill fabric has lasted in my stash this long? This was two fabric lines ago for this designer. I

… Want to read the rest of this post? Go to New Bias-cut Skirt For Me!

Hart’s Fabric, Santa Cruz, CA

I finally made it to Hart’s Fabric in Santa Cruz on Monday with my awesome coworkers from the Bobbin’s Nest, Maria and Dolin. This trip was crazy fun and guess what — I’ve prepared a shop tour just for all of you. Let’s go!

I took a TON of pictures. Way too many to include in this post, so if you want to see more, the entire set is on

… Want to read the rest of this post? Go to Hart’s Fabric, Santa Cruz, CA

Slow Sewing

In the wake of the discussion last week on hand versus machine quilting, I was making myself a skirt (photos to come). I had intended to use the blind hem on my sewing machine to do the hem. But when I tested it on the fabric, I was really unhappy with how much it was going to show.

I knew I didn’t want to just topstitch it. That’s how I’ve hemmed pretty

… Want to read the rest of this post? Go to Slow Sewing