Pandemic Porch Quilt Show, Days 14 - 19: Altered Cowboys and Beyond

My show is going strong! Here's the third batch. 

Pandemic Porch Quilt Show, Day #14: Cowboy Quilt

This quilt was made circa 1998, when my adorable little boy wanted to be a cowboy.

At the time, I was not only enchanted with my growing baby humans, but also my growing baby fabric stash, especially this brown border print:

As a new quilter, I did some reckless things. In this case, I cut the outer edges, on the sides and bottom, into hanging diamonds. What's worse, I chose a relatively thick red denim bandana print to bind them. (On the far left).

Binding and mitering up and down those sharp angles, with heavy fabric, took approximately 7000% more time than binding a straight edge. By the second diamond, I regretted it, but didn't want to rip, so I plodded onward.

The quilt has randomly strewn fussy-cut rodeo scenes, to break up some of the squares - broderie perse with a satin stitch.

I also stitched buttons, in assorted tans, browns and greys, on many squares.

Hot peppers count as cowboy fabric, right?

On the back, I placed all the bandanas I could find in my house, including this very unusual orange-and-turquoise one that my husband's had since high school, at least.

Today, my little boy no longer wants to be a cowboy. He's happy as a 26-year-old scientist in a big city - no horse, no car - but he does have a bike and a dog.

Day 15: Altered Squares

This quilt hung at Quiltcon 2018 in Pasadena, CA - the town next to mine - on my friggen' birthday! Friends overcame many obstacles to attend the show, and line up obediently in front of it when I forced them to. (I'm in the middle back). That may have been the best birthday of my life.

Day 16: She Exclaimed!

This is my exclamation-point shaped quilt, made this year. It's improv paper pieced. Instructions are in my new pattern booklet, "Modern Paper Pieced Log Cabin Triangles," here. Below, it's photographed against a grey background.

Detail:

To my happy shock, this quilt was awarded a second place prize in the Midcentury Modern category, in Mancuso's online Visuals #1 international show. (Find all the winners here.)

Day 17: Counterclockwise

This 32" x 44" quilt, made in 2015, started with an improv circles game in Diane Hires' fabulous book, "Vivacious Curvy Quilts." For the arrows in two borders, I made up my own game - my tutorial is in a couple of blog posts that begin here.

Detail:

At some intersection, I tucked dimensional folded points, to make a whirligig:

Day 18: Dresden Variation

This quilt is an oldie, maybe from the early 2000s, when I was entranced by even older, 1930s-era quilts, particularly one with this unusual color scheme - a hard teal, plus lots of soft pastels. My pastels are reproduction 1930s fabrics. The motif is called a Dresden Plate. The quilt's gently ridged outer edge wasn't nearly as challenging to bind as on my earlier, sharp-angled cowboy quilt.

I do kinda regret the salmon colored fabric between the fans. (I happened to have a lot of that fabric, which, all too often, isn't the best reason to use a color!)

Day #19: That's a Lot of Yellow

I made this quilt in 2012, by playing a game in one of Karla Alexander's "Stack the Deck" books. The basic idea: Stack squares; use a rotary cutter to cut all layers, creating multiple stacks; shuffle each stack; stitch the pieces into multi-fabric blocks. It's perfect for when you don’t want to think much, and just want to sew.

The game that produced this particular quilt is "Razzle Dazzle," from Karla's book New Cuts for New Quilts, More Ways to Stack the Deck. I took my fabric choices not from book's sample (unfortunately), but from the fireworks print in the borders. But I amplified their intensity to a degree that might have been un peu trop.

When finished, I had a fascinating mound of scraps - so I glued them to a felt circle, attached those to extra-large pipe cleaners, smacked orange buttons in the middle, and,- voila! - hyper-daisies!

Shouldn't Your Bouquet Match Your Quilts?

Karla Alexander is a well- known quilt teacher and book author, who developed the 'Stack the Deck' book series. Her method/game nicely combines planning with serendipity. The basic idea is to cut a stack of square blocks; subcut blocks  into different pieces; shuffle each pile of pieces differently; and stitch the pieces back into blocks.

You do have to read through the directions a couple of times, but once you grok it, it’s a lot of fun – perfect for when you don’t want to design too much, and just want to get to the sewing.  From her book 'New Cuts for New Quilts, More Ways to Stack the Deck,' I made this quilt, which she calls 'Razzle Dazzle.' Her model quilt was made from multicolored batiks, with sashing in black-and-white checked fabric. I used print fabrics, and a black-and-white square sashing.

A little loud, no? I don’t know why I like purple and yellow so much. I keep coming back to it. Or maybe I cured myself with this project.... 

In any case, once I was done, I liked the quilt, but I liked the pile of scraps generated from trimming up the blocks to size, even better. I mean, this was one heckuva great-looking scrap pile, consisting of slivers from ½” to about 2” wide, each sliver made up of several fabrics.

They were a little too narrow for a scrap quilt…So I decided to turn them into flowers. I cut out backing circles from felt, using my pinking shears. 

The felt circle is a couple of inches shorter than the slivers. Flipped to the front, I piled  a bunch of slivers on each backing, setting each strip at a different angle, like an asterisk. Added a couple of strips cut from the black-and- white sashing to fill things out. 

Stitched them together in the center, added a coordinating button. Then I drenched each flower  in “Stiffy”, and laid it to dry on waxed paper. Stiffy keeps the slivers more or less pointing outward. The final step is to hand-stitch on the extra-long pipe cleaners (aka chenille stems). I wound a couple of the stems together to make them stronger. 

And voila! A raggedy bouquet that matches my quilt! (Just what my house needs: MORE crazy yellow and purple explosions everywhere!)

Karla’s latest book, 'Dynamic Quilts with Easy Curves,' uses her shuffle approach to cut curved shapes. One of the great things about her books is that you don’t have to buy the first one to understand the system – she re-explains it in every book.