Design Play

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I’ve been perfecting my skills lately at the game “How Can I Make That Into A Bag/Quilt/Mini Art Piece.”  Are you familiar with my favorite game?

My Pieces and their sources of inspiration in picture order:

-The Doctor is In Second Edition:  A new bag design I made up out of cotton, wool and leather inspired by one of the quilts featured in soon to be release book by Heather Jones. (Quilt Local: Finding Inspiration in the Everyday (with 40 Projects): Heather Jones: 9781617691768: Amazon.com: Books)

-Stitch Sketching everything I can imagine including a drawing of feet by the Louise Bourgeoise.  Uneven tension never looked so good.

-A Baby Quilt Top using the Glam Clam pattern ( Glam Clam Quilt (8″) by Latifah Saafir – Crafts ) I adapted to look like flooring in the Tate Museum.

I am also really enjoying the black and white #beesewcial and #inspiredbybeesewcial blocks following the guidelines set out in my last blog post many of you are displaying on Instagram.  Keep them coming!!

Lastly, although I was quite looking forward to a deadline-free September, a wonderful opportunity came up this week and it looks like I will be designing a piece for an art exhibit in Seattle.  My mind is swimming with ideas.  Time to focus and make.

Hillary

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I Heart Minimalism

Let me introduce you to my Minimalist Baby Quilt.

9L4A32459L4A3246My son who was riding his scooter all over the property was kind enough to stop and hold up my quilt for a picture.  It tickles me to see a quilt with he and his scooter in the background. 🙂IMG_1001IMG_0749I got the idea for this design from a modern poster that I saw somewhere but can’t remember the exact source.  Yep, I’m all about cirlces these days.  I must admit this was a pretty darn easy design to make with a large pieced circle that I then cut in half and inserted a strip of Kona white.  The striped fabric is Ikea canvas.  The tight quilting I used with the design made up for the ease in piecing.  I used my walking foot with aurifil thread and tried to emphasize the simple pieced shapes.  I don’t know that I have ever done such tight quilting before and it was interesting to see how it changed the feel and form of the quilt.

It felt great to finish this lovely up before I embark on a busy work week.

Have a good one.

Hillary

I’m Done Breaking the Rules

Ha, that would be a no! I am done however with my Break the Rules Baby Quilt.  Like most quilts, this one started as an image in my brain that was made into fabric without much planning. There’s some magic for me cutting and sewing without putting it on paper first.  I explain the origins of this quilt in a previous post here:

Let’s Break the Rules. Shall We? | Entropy Always Wins.

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You might hate me if you knew how easy this quilt was.  No question it is a design that could go a few different ways.  This is the third quilt I’ve made with canvas which gives a definite matte look and also adds weight.  I think it will hold up to the rigors of a baby/toddler well.

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My recent love affair with minimalism is reinforced by the fact that I like the back as much as the front.  Though the substrates may have been “low brow” (ikea canvas, remnant bin denim) it was quilted with “high brow” Aurifil thread.  (Oh my, I love that stuff.)

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I’m hoping to break out my newly purchased fabric dyes later this week.  There are a few projects in my brain that “need” hand dyed fabric.

Hillary

Let’s Break the Rules. Shall We?

Let’s break the rules.  Let’s deviate from the pattern or not even use a pattern at all.  Let’s create with nonconventional/non-flavor of the week fabric. Let’s repurpose when we can.  Let’s think outside the box.  Anyone with me?

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Ha!  I sound like such a rebel don’t I?  Obviously I’m being a bit dramatic but must say I’ve been pondering a lot recently on the substrates I use for creating. I don’t know if anyone else feels this way but I am often left overwhelmed by all the newest fabric lines that seem to appear every hour.  And don’t get me wrong, I cherish my designer fabrics and special threads, etc.  Sometimes though, I feel like bucking the system and deviating from the norm.  This theme helped in the making of my latest baby quilt pictured above.  Not surprisingly, I named it “Break the Rules” baby quilt.  It garnered this name as I used nontraditional fabrics (ikea canvas and denim and cotton from the remnant pile off my local fabric shop), made up my own design that is pretty modern and nontraditional for a baby quilt.  I also mixed techniques making this using both traditional piecing and needle turn appliqué.

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I followed the same theme with a cowl I made yesterday.  Once again though the beautiful green yarn was lovely, my rebel streak made me add a postage stamp splash of orange.

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For some real rebels check out Luke Haynes who often makes his quilts with repurposed clothing.  His fiber art is off the hook cool.

LUKE! – Luke Haynes.

Also check out my friend Bianca who sews almost exclusively with vintage patterns and fabric. She is amazing.

Thanks! I made them!.

Now I need to play with some of my plentiful designer fabric and work on a sweet toddler girl sweater because we modern girls are allowed to be girly and traditional too.

 

Hillary

The Backstory Quilt Completed

I quilted up The Backstory Quilt today.  It is on it’s way to one of the only girl babies (and her mama) in my sphere.  I loved using the back of the Kaffe Fassett fabric so much for parts of the front that I flipped the fabric over for the back and the binding.  It is so soft and girlie.  I quilted it in straight lines following the rectangular shape of the quilt.

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This quilt was small enough I was able to display it from the mantel in our bedroom. My husband has designed and made most of the wood furniture in our house as well as both our fireplace mantels and the vanity in our bathroom. A few years ago when we were remodeling part of the house I drew a picture of the mantel that I wanted and he constructed this for me.  So grateful for my guy.

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Baby and Mom Gift Trio in the Mail

I think I’m done with red for a bit.

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I finished quilting up my simple triangle baby quilt (https://entropyalwayswinsblog.com/2014/01/16/a-modern-baby-quilt-top/) and have packaged it up along with a bag for mom (https://entropyalwayswinsblog.com/2014/01/18/a-momma-bag/) and Rufus the dog (https://entropyalwayswinsblog.com/2014/01/10/introducing-rufus/) for baby.  I did some simple geometric quilting for the quilt and used a vintage cotton/linen fabric for the back.

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PASTELS, HERE I COME!