Improv on Point ~~ finished!

This quilt is already one of my favorites. It was a struggle for a while, but once it started coming together, I fell in love. 

Turns out, all it wanted was to be turned on-point, which made it a little more difficult to piece together. 

I made large chunks of red pieces and larger chunks of neutral/brown/gold with a little red mixed in and built most of the chunks using a modified log cabin technique.

Since the front is all improv, the back should be. Right? So it is. I used more of the linen, but didn't have enough for this 71" square quilt, which means I was forced to add other fabrics. Those cute cherries and a burgundy paisley were just the fit. 

I had such fun quilting small improv motifs across the quilt. No rules, all improv! And then I bound it all up with a burgundy solid that I've had for a long time. That means I made "Improv on Point" entirely from scraps and stash!

		Quilt Stats
	Name:	Improv on Point
	Size:	71" X 71"
	Fabrics:	scraps from stash
	Pattern:	my design
	Backing:	cotton and linen from stash
	Batting:	100% Cotton
	Binding:	burgundy fabric from stash
	Quilting:	improv with various motifs
	Completed:	2020

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: Red and Black

 Four years ago I wrote this SQI post because, as I mentioned, I was deep into making these red and black headbands for students at our school. The end of football season is generally a couple of weeks of miserably cold, damp wind. Ear coverings are especially nice if you're sitting on a metal bleacher.

Uniforms are khaki pants with either red or white polo shirts, so the girls are looking forward to having something that matches their uniforms but still can add a little contrasting color.  These headbands are reversible, which makes them especially useful for that purpose. 

It's interesting that this particular SQI is still especially popular and that the red/black colors are even more popular in buffalo checks and winter cabin colors.

Red and black quilts? Well, of course!

Here's wishing you a wonderful week and lots of quilting! 

Ruby Snippets ~~ first finish of 2020

Yay! A finish and we're still in January! Of course, this is a top that I made last year, though I don't remember when, exactly. Anyway, I loaded it on the long-arm and away we went, despite the shoulder injury. 

We are getting the dreariest of weather this week, so going outside to take photos is not happening. That requires trekking through a mini-marsh of soggy grass and mud. These photos were taken inside on the living room floor while I stood on the coffee table, trying to avoid the ceiling fan. 

Ruby Snippets is made from scraps and large pieces of fabric. At some point I realized that there was a diagonal / angular thing going on. So I ended up cutting most of the already nicely stitched rectangles into whatever those long triangles are called. Maybe right triangles? 

Anyway, I paired those angles with neutral pieces and scrappy neutrals and filled in the holes with more neutrals. Some of the reds are intermixed with yet more neutrals and create a fractured, broken glass appearance. 

To make the reds more definitely angular, I quilted uneven straight lines at about 60 degrees, which follows the shape of the red. The neutrals I quilted in rounded or circular motifs to soften the hard edges. 

 I backed it with some of the linen that I've been using. This is a pale apricot color. At 60" wide, it was just a little too narrow, so I added this off-white flower linen that had been left from a previous project. I think there was an 8" square left after I pieced it in. Close, right? 

The solid color of the back shows the different quilting motifs much better than the busy front. Still, I like playing with different motifs and quilting improvisationally, so even if it doesn't show, I play.

In my mind this is the correct orientation for the quilt, but honestly because it's mostly square, it could be placed however one would want. 

		Quilt Stats
	Name:	Ruby Snippets
	Size:	62" X 65"
	Fabrics:	various neutral and red fabrics from stash
	Pattern:	my design
	Backing:	reclaimed linen from stash
	Batting:	100% Cotton
	Binding:	neutral fabric from stash
	Quilting:	Long-arm--round motifs and straight lines
	Completed:	January 2020
	AFU:	7½ to 8 yards from stash

What the heck is happening here?

I have no idea where this is going. It was supposed to be a quick little quilt made with scraps just to give me something to do while I was between "real" projects. Sometimes I just can't get going. I resolve that problem with a new project. Every time. I resolve to work on finishing something. Anything. But the new project just happens.

I guess the Red as a Neutral just isn't out of my system, because when I went to the scrap cupboard, they somehow followed me to the worktable. Anyway, there were some large chunks of scrap fabric in both bins, so win! I tried mixing it up a little and put some pieces on the design board. No, that was not working.

So I cut some pieces, trying to tone it down a little with larger pieces of neutral (left), making these rectangles cut on the diagonal and pieced together. No, not really working. I tried to make them into windmills (right). Still not a plan. 

An attempt at taking the lazy way out and not ripping what was obviously a mess, I started making more of those half-rectangle triangle thingys. Are they right triangles? Whatever. They were keeping the seam ripper at bay. So I continued.

So now my theory became if I just keep going something good might happen. And I started to see something of a pattern emerging. I can't tell you how many times I moved those pieces. Actually I can: 15,000 times!

But I got here and I like what I have. It's a long way from done and red is not the neutral but why not just keep at it, right? 15,001 might be the magic. And I think I have some kind of magic going.

Red is a Neutral becomes... finish

Another Red Feather. So named because, though there were other titles in the running, this quilt wanted red feather quilting. And more red feathers. And more red feathers. In fact, every inch of red is quilted in feathers, with a few scrolls to break up the monotony. 

Detail of the back...just enough
pattern to make the worst of
the quilting less noticeable.

This one serves in all manner of challenges: the Cotton Quilters' Guild block-of-the-month, in which different quilters presented a block or two from January through July, and as the AHIQ "Red Is a Neutral" challenge. 


With encouragement from Kaja and Ann at Ad Hoc Improv Quilts, I decided to combine the two. So here we are with, finally, a red quilt made from guild blocks.

Detail of some of the feathers in the red sections.

Like everyone else I started in January and worked to keep up, especially since I set the parameters for the BOM. This setting just seemed to want to be this. I tried other ideas: putting the center medallion on point and surrounding it in red, kicking it off center and adding red there, considering making other blocks to work it all out. It was not having one bit of my ideas. Then flying geese flew in and saved the day. 

Detail of some scrolls

When I say finished, I mean quilted, bound, labeled. Ready to go straight to the quilt show if it were due tomorrow! Which is good because I have tons of things to remember and to do between now and the show.

The quilt has an off-center medallion surrounded by 12 inch blocks. I decided to keep the quilting in the blocks simple since there's so much fancy stuff outside of them. I used an improv style and decided things as I drove the long-arm. 

That is the best way for me to be really happy at the machine. Just play, figure it out as I trip along, change my mind. I often just stop somewhere along the way and search my phone, or cards, or books for new motifs. I've even walked to the bedroom to look at the quilt on my bed. That's my kind of improv!

		Quilt Stats
	Name:	Another Red Feather
	Size:	54" X 54"
	Fabrics:	Fabric yardage from stash
	Pattern:	Guild BOM block patterns
	Backing:	Linens from mom's stash
	Batting:	100% Cotton
	Binding:	Red yardage to match background
	Quilting:	Feathers and straight lines
	Notes:	Made to meet AHIQ “red is a neutral” and Cotton Quilters’ BOM challenges

Getting back to LINK UPS!

I've been missing out on link ups for a while but 

decided to remedy that. At the same time 

Alycia of the Alycia Quilts - Quiltygirl blog 

is taking over Finished Or Not Fridays 

from Myra at Busy Hands Quilts. 

Best of luck, Alycia!