Fabric Recipes
As Victoria's recent quilt retreat approached I gave a lot of thought to
devising a fabric recipe for my quilt project. I was planning to use lots of
green leafy prints. What I started at the retreat was too controlled to be
fun, so after making only two blocks, I abandoned that plan and switched to
a random arrangement of my favorite fabrics surrounded by a saw tooth border
of dark triangles on a light scrappy background. I was inspired by a quilt
that I saw on Bonnie's blog, The Scrappy Bee. Now this was fun! I love
fabrics with words, polka dots, big leafy florals, and fabrics with
surprises like the large bird. I also love Victoria's fabrics, whatever they
may be! Haha. I have 13 blocks made so far. I'll post my finished quilt on
the Selvage Blog soon.
A big part of the fun and inspiration was Victoria's 7 boxes of scraps that
we could help ourselves to. Paradise! We also brought scraps to add to the
pile. At the retreat I saw that Bonnie was using many of the scraps that I
brought. Thinking that we were some kind of kindred spirits, I said
something like "Oh Bonnie, we have the same taste in fabrics!" She replied
"Oh I didn't bother to select fabrics, I just grabbed a handful. That must
have been the spot where you emptied your bag of scraps." Haha. Oh well, her
quilt blocks looked very good to me!
So I progressed from the controlled green leafy project to the beautiful
random collection, and finished up using the Chinese cartoon fabrics in a
Gee's Bend style quilt top (last photo). Now I'm "stoked" as the kids say!
Thank you Karen for contributing! Your work constantly inspires me...
It was great fun to see how focused you get when your working.
Tomorrow's Guest Blogger is LeeAnn, from Nifty quilts.
And hopefully , I am on my way to Machu Picchu today!
HUGS!
-Victoria
I could learn a lot from you free spirited quilting ladies. Love the random, "fly by the seat of your pants" play.
ReplyDeleteActually Karen, I may have chosen randomly, but I loved everyone of your fabrics. I was just too lazy to chose. Your blocks are absolutely fabulous too. I thought about stealing them, but then I realized that you would probably notice there disappearance since there were only two of them at the time.
ReplyDeleteYour beginning of an intuitive quilt is great too. I loved the center fabric. Hope it grows to be a bigger quilt. Bonnie
Funny, I loved all your green fabrics and came picking through them!! So I guess I was glad that you abandoned your original plan. I loved what you were working on and am looking forward to see it all complete!! Thank you for bringing me into NYC, I couldn't have done the driving myself, Jason was fabulous!! Victoria, Got an e-mail from Rosa!! So glad you are there in Peru, safe and sound and a BIG thanks for giving the quilt to her for me!
ReplyDeleteHey! how did I miss that cartoon fabric! Not only were you focused you were prolific! How many blocks did you get made while there?
ReplyDeleteYour work is a great inspiration, I so enjoy your blog and I hope you get up and running again soon.
Happy sewing
Look forward to seeing the finished quilt; I love tose sawtooths!
ReplyDeleteAwfully glad you broke free and discovered the beauty of diversity. Each one of your blocks hold together by some magic. Each one a little masterpiece!
ReplyDeleteI love the sawtooth borders around each block too!
ReplyDeleteHa ha! Funny about Bonnie thinking about stealing those green blocks! They sure were lovely too.