Category Archives: color

Rails II {Aerial Railroad – a finish}

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I am not sure why but I was so apprehensive making a second Rails quilt. A few years ago now I created Rails for RjR Fabrics with Fat Quarter bundle they supplied. The quilt was made with 1-1.5″ strips and I bent them into shapes as I sewed to make it represent the railroad junctions. There was little planning and the whole quilt took a couple of days (I procrastinated so much with the idea in my head to the point that I had no choice but to make it quickly so I wouldn’t miss the deadline).

I landed up selling this quilt to a company art collection, in fact it hangs in my husband’s building. A couple of years later, I decided I wanted to teach a class using the same strip piecing techniques. The only problem was I had no sample for the class. To be honest, I was not sure I could really reproduce a similar quilt using the techniques I pulled together last time. When the class was canceled due to COVID, I decided to let it sit a while.

I found an Anna Maria Horner print in my stash, which was rust with pops of yellow and blue. This was what I wanted the palette for the next Rails quilt to be. The bundle then sat on the floor for another year.

Finally, I decided that the worse that can happen is it doesn’t work, so I started out with a plan of 3-4 areas of color.

I was pleasantly surprised how well it came together. This one was a much larger quilt but still based on Neuostheim Railroad junction in Germany.

Once the top was complete, I had a very clear direction I wanted to take to the quilting. All the areas of colored strips, I wanted hand quilted/ embroidered with “X”s (like railway crossing signs), with the crosses forming a diagonal 1/2″ grid pattern. In the neutral areas, I had machine quilted variable grid lines – 1/2″ to 1” lines.

This meant color matching all the strips and switching thread colors often. In total 15-16 colors were used. The back has amazing texture as well from making these crosses.

The hand quilting took a long time, so this quilt also became a travel project. It saw a lot of NC, Germany and Morocco. In someways it made it easy to work on being a travel project.


When making the top, I had assumed I would square up this quilt and have straight edges. Through making and quilting it though I loved the uneven quality of the final edges and wanted to maintain the shape as much as I could. I decided to face the edges of my quilt (using Cotton and Bourbon Facing Tutorial). I did change things up a little as I couldn’t cut the edges without making sure I had secured the hand stitches. So before I cut, I stitched the binding to the front, then cut at the 1/4″ edge with scissors, then zigzagged the edge securing the thread. It seems to have worked well.

The finally finished the quilt almost a year after starting. It was a lot of work all those hand stitches. I love the colors. I love the texture. I am thrilled that I was able to push through and repeat the technique.

Details

Name : Rails II (#aerialrailsquilt)
Design: Original Design
Fabric: Oakshott Cottons and Kona Cotton
Backing: Scraps and Carolyn Friedlander Print
Binding: Faced with Neutral
Dimensions: ~52″ x ~45″
Quilted: Hand Stitched Crosses and Machine Quilted Grid
Start date: 12 February 2022
Finish date: 8 February 2023

One of these things {a finish}

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Idea

I have trouble expressing my feelings and thoughts into words and talking about it. This quilt represents my wish that human nature can embrace difference. Different is beautiful, wonderful, inspiring and makes life and things around us interesting. It saddens me that often being different is used to divide us, introduce fear, hate or violence. We need to do better.

Design

The design and name of this quilt was inspired by the Sesame Street Song “One of these things“. It teaches that things are different and says “one of these things doesn’t belong” so are we teaching children that those that are different don’t belong??? I hope we can teach children and people to accept people who are different from themselves and listen, learn and understand each other.

I designed this being 4 panels, 3 being the same and one being different. I choose simple shapes, squares being on the three panels and a circle (quarter of a circle) in the different panel.

The color choices came of the squares and circles being used and reminded me of the childhood toy – Tupperware’s Shape-O Toy. I used blue as the background and yellow as the shape on the 3 square panels and reversed these for the circle panel. The red was added as the border to tie the 4 panels together and used to frame them.

Create

Most of this quilt was simple measurement and piecing. The most complex piece was how to get the large curve (5″ radius in the middle with 15″ on the outer circles. Luckily, I purchased a wood working compass for my husband a couple of years ago. I used this to mark and cut my circles (maximum radius for the compass was 15.5″).

The other big step for creating was matching the binding which I do often. I really like the effect. I matched some of the quilt while adding the red to a blue area. The best tutorial out there for block matching binding is from A Quilters Table.

Quilt

So for each panel I did decide to quilt them exactly the same way.

Outside of the shape – horizontal 1/2″ straight lines
Inside of the shape – vertical 1/2″ straight lines
Shape itself – 1 x 2″ grid lines

There was a bit of effort to bury threads so that you get a neat look where lines stop in the middle of the quilt. See previous post for some pictures.

Details

Name : One of these things
Design: Original Design
Fabric: Kona Cotton (Bright Light, Blueprint)
Backing: Ruby Star, Rashida Coleman-Hale, Stella, Moon Hills (blue and yellow)
Binding: Kona Cotton (Bright Light, Blueprint, Valentine)
Dimensions: 30 x 20 in. (total 60 x 40 in.)
Quilted: Straight lines walking foot quilting, Aurifil #6738 and #2120
Start date: 21 July 2018
Finish date: 21 April 2021

Mod Squares {free pattern}

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This is the second pattern I am releasing here as a free pattern, as it is no longer available on Sew Mama Sew (published 2014). Mod Squares is basically using a traditional 9 patch block, where I played with both size and color placement of the pieces.

This was an early quilt I had made (so not perfect), I think it was the first time I tried free motion quilting. It is, however, one of the most loved lap-quilts and lives in my son’s room. I hope you enjoy the pattern too, as it would make a great baby gift.

How it started…

The original color palette (Design Seeds) was very vibrant and strong, but highlighted different ways color can be used to make a block very different.

For this quilt though, I wanted a softer look. After playing with the fabric selection and introducing the use prints, low volume prints and several neutral solids, the look of the design completely changes. 

Quilt Details

Size: 54” x 54”

Terminology

WOF – Width of Fabric
RST – Right Sides Together
Seam Allowance: 1/4” seam allowance

Fabric Requirements

Fabric A (Variety of Low Volume Fabrics): 1 yard (largest 2 pieces must be 24″ square)
Fabric B (Variety of Neutral Fabrics): 1 yard (eg. Kona Cotton inBone, Parchment, Silver, Stone, White PDF, largest piece must be 24″ square)
Fabric C (Kona Oyster): 2 yards
Fabric D (Doiland Gloss in Plum, Indelible, Katarina Roccella): 1 yard
Fabric E (Floret Stains in Tealberry, Indelible, Katarina Roccella): 1/2 yard (18″ x WOF)
Backing fabric and Batting: 60” Square 
Binding: 226” (of your desired binding width, I use 2 1/4″) 1/2 yard

Cutting Instructions

FabricCutting Instructions
Fabric ATwenty-four (24) 5” squares
Five (5) 2 1/2″ squares
Fifteen (15) 2 1/2” x 5” strip
Two (2) 24” square (for the Back)
Fabric BNine (9) 5” squares
Three (3) 2 1/2” squares
Eight (8) 2 1/2” x 5” strip
One (1) 11 1/2” x 24” strip (for the Back)
One (1) 24” square (for the Back)
Fabric CTwenty-four (24) 5” squares
Five (5) 2 1/2″ squares
Twenty-seven (27) 2 1/2” x 5” strip
Two (2) 2 1/2” x 54” strip (for sashing)
Five (5)  2 1/2” x 50” strip (for sashing)
Twelve (12) 2 1/2” x 11 1/2” strip (for sashing)
One (1) 11 1/2” x 24” strip (for the Back)
One (1) 24” square (for the Back)
Fabric DTwo (2) 5” squares
Two (2) 2 1/2” squares
Thirteen (13) 2 1/2” x 5” strip
One (1) 24” square (for the Back)
One (1) 11 1/2 ” x 23 1/2” strip (for the Back)
Fabric E Five (5) 5” squares
One (1) 2 1/2″ squares
One (1) 2 1/2” x 5” strip
One (1) 11 1/2” x 24” strip (for the Back)
Table 1: Fabric Cutting Instructions

Preparation

It is important to plan your layout for your blocks. You can also available for download your own planning map here. Once you have your placement as you want it, take a picture.

Fabric Layout Map (by assigned letter)
Fabric Map Placement showing Print placement

TIP: Once you cut your blocks and decide on placement, pin and label all block pieces until you are ready to sew them together.

Block Assembly

  1. Each block consists of four (4) 5” squares, four (4) 2 1/2” x 5” strips and one (1) 2 1/2” square. The layout for all the pieces is represented below.
  2. Sew the pieces of each row  together. Press your seams. NOTE: My preference is to press my seams open.
  1. Sew the rows together (Row 1 to 2, Rows 1,2 to 3). Align the seams and pin in place to hold the alignment. Press seams. NOTE: To hold seam alignment in place, an alternative pinning method is glue.
  1. Repeat steps 1-3 for the other 15 blocks, keeping in mind placement of fabrics for each block.

Quilt Top Assembly

  1. Add the 2 1/2” x 11 1/2” sashing strips to the 11 1/2” blocks as depicted below. Press the seams.
  1. Add the 2 1/2” x 50” sashing strips to each of the block rows. Press the seams.
  1. Final step is to add the top and bottom 2 1/2” x 54” sashing strips to finish the top.

Quilt Back Assembly

  1. The quilt back is a larger version of the smaller blocks that are used in the quilt top. The back consists of four (4) 24” squares, four (4) 11 1/2” x 24” strips and one (1) 11 1/2” square. 
  2. To construct this block follow steps 1-3 above in section Block Assembly.
Back of quilt

Final Quilt Assembly

When the top and back are completed, baste and quilt your sandwich as desired. Square your quilt and bind it to finish your quilt.

This is a great quick quilt top to put together, perfect quilt for your sofa or for a kids blanket. Also, you can have fun with the fabric choices, color and placement. I would love to see the final quilts on Instagram, so feel free to share with #modsquaresquilt. Have fun!!