Lisa Berentsen

The doctors say my husband is color blind.  Clearly, his color tastes are different than mine because his experience of color is different than mine. (I think it is true of all of us, even those the doctors don’t label.) My husband, Tom, sees warm colors vividly, but has trouble distinguishing blues, blacks and grays. When he chose fabrics for a quilt, I decided I need to “fix” his color choice, and an interesting process ensued. I simply replaced his oranges with greens and experimented with the placement of colors and voila, he couldn’t even tell the quilts were the same pattern.

To me, these quilts really illustrate the importance of color choice and placement. The complete design process has been documented and is posted in the Gallery Library in the app. The quilt is easily constructed from strips. We’re writing the pattern and will post that, as well.

Live well. Quilt well.

Lisa Berentsen is the founder of Quilter’s Thread.

 

 

 

 

Don’t throw the past away

You might need it some rainy day
Dreams can come true again
When everything old is new again

-Peter Allen from “Everything Old is New Again”

 

These days, every quilting eye is drawn to the bold design of Modern Quilts. What’s so innovative about this genre? Clearly, it isn’t the pattern.

Here are two very old quilts, a classic snowball design, made by Shakers around 1800 and a traditional log cabin design made by Amish in 1871.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at the design and coloring. The fabrics very much reflect the clothes of the community that made them. The Shakers wore dower, dark unadorned clothing, a clear reflection on the celibate, pacifist, simple lifestyle believed to pay homage to God.

The common theme among the Amish is plainness. Nothing should call attention to the person. Even today, the Amish wear clothing made from solid fabric, with a good deal of emphasis on black and blue.

Today, the simple, straightforward designs are driving Modern Quilting. But don’t think these modern quilts are reruns. Modern quilters are reinterpreting these traditional designs with modern colors and fabric.

Here is a modern snowball (with a nice how-to if you follow the link) and a modern log cabin. The log cabin is called “Brook’s First Quilt,” you can find the pattern in the library in the Gallery section of the app.

http://www.modernquiltingbyb.com/2014/07/single-block-quilt-tutorial-series_6.html

Using current fabrics to make old patterns new has been happening for generations in quilting. For me, the rule is always: whatever I like is the right choice for my quilt. It’s nice, though, to know that my tastes won’t be out of style before the next birthday or wedding gift goes out. In the next few posts, we’ll be looking at the “colors” of the season. These are the colors fabric designers are focusing on and making available in your local quilt shops.  Stay tuned.

Live Well. Quilt Well.

With the holiday of love and compassion just around the corner, instead of grabbing a Valentine’s Day card and a heart-shaped box of chocolate at your grocery local store, make a trip to your stash and make a gift that will last longer than flowers or candy.

What better way to show that special someone how much you really care, and love them then by making quilting a valentine for them. It’s personal, unique and made just for them by you. Here are some ideas for making a great Valentine’s quilt.

 All Heart

Batiks make this striking, but any simple color combination will be visually appealing. The quilt finishes approximately 15″ x 15″. Complete instructions for this quilt are in the app in the Gallery section under Library.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patriotic Hearts

These quilt blocks are foundation pieced, the pattern is in the app in the Gallery section under Library. It’s easy to make 20 heart blocks then finish the quilt.

Approximate fabric requirements are: 1/3 yard white, ¼ yard blue, and 1/3 yard (total) of various red fabrics. You’ll put a ½” white sash between and around the blocks, a ½” blue border, a 2” red border, and bind it in blue. Finished size will be about 23.5” x 28”.

We all have scraps and unused blocks from previous projects. If your New Year’s resolution is to use those, gather scraps, orphan blocks and “too small” pieces of
fabric and make an intricate looking quilt. Here are some tips and examples to help get you started.

Iron Scraps

Before getting started iron all your scraps and orphans to keep them neat and wrinkle free. This will help you save time and make it easier to pick through pieces of fabric when designing your pattern.

 Order by Color

If you have a large amount of leftover scraps, a great way to organize them is by color. This will make it more efficient for you when getting started. Once organized you can make a rainbow pattern by combining similar shades of the same color together. By pairing scraps of fabric that are the same color will give the quilt a consistent pattern as shown in the images below.

 

Use your Selvages

If you’re trying to be really frugal, or simply like the look, you can use selvages to create your quilt blocks. The key to sewing is to use a foundation fabric. Cut your quilt piece from muslin, then applique, zigzag or stitch your selvages to the foundation with each overlapping the previous selvage. Position each so the woven edge of the next piece covers the raw edge of the previous piece. This technique can also be used with your narrow leftover strips, but you’ll want to stitch the fabrics to the foundation right sides together then press open and add the next strip, thereby covering all raw edges. (If you’re confused, look up instructions for paper-piecing in the Reference Library in the app.)

 

Here’s a nice design suggestion: use of a solid or small-scaled fabric for the background with these pieced blocks will make your pieced blocks pop out.

 

Stripped Lines

If you have much longer pieces of scrap fabric, you can quickly piece them into a larger piece to make a baby quilt, a colorful table runner, or the base fabric for a tote bag.

Now it’s your turn to start getting creative with your scraps of fabric to see what you can design. Make sure to share with us your finished project by posting an image of your quilt to our app.

 

Happy Quilting.