Tag Archives: black and white

Mothers Day Sewing

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I hope you all had a great Mothers Day. My day started of wonderfully at a local french patisserie.
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I indulged in coffee and sugar!!IMG_4168

The rest of the day, I decided that I would play with an idea that has been in my head for a while. I put away my projects that have deadlines etc….just a day of play. It was fantastic!!

I recently bought the book “Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts below the Radar”. I have bookmarked several pages.
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One of my favorites is this Cross quilt (pg. 179 c. 1940-1970), which is behind inspiring my play today.
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I wanted to make my blocks in black and white print fabrics, with a splash of color striped fabric.  I am using strips of black and white cut at 1.5″, 2″ and 2.5″. I then put them in a bag and pull them out randomly (brown bag method), and sew them together, trim them down to 12.5″ squares.

At first, I thought I could use these squares and cut the block across the diagonals. That actually gave me the cross blocks, but also gave me these square blocks as well. I am not sure about the combination yet (??)

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For now to save on fabric, I am sewing strips vertically together, using the improv. brown bag method, until it was 6.5″ x 31.5″. I then cut the triangles along the 45 degree angle.
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This is how my cross blocks look so far. I really like where they are going. I plan to build them out a bit more and see how they go.

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Oh! Apparently, I have a lot of black and white fabrics which means no need to buy fabrics….I can sew from my stash. I am hoping to give an update on these again soon (once I get my projects deadlines complete).

QDAD: Quilt Design a Day (Week 14)

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This week I decided to take on my own study – a study minimalism. New Zealand Maori designs  are predominantly colored red, black and white.

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This limited color palette helped focus the color palette and add to the study of minimalism, this week. I managed to do 3 series of designs.

Series 1: Houdini

“Trapped”
In this first design, I was hoping to capture the idea of feeling trapped. The black background showing the blackness, fear, and emptiness this may bring.

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I played with the design a little more to see how red would change the look and feel. I love it with the red.QDAD_TrappedRed_22September

“Escape”
This is obviously a follow-up to “Trapped” and represents release/freedom/escape.

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Again, the look of the design in red.QDAD_EscapedRed_22September

I was thinking through the escape and placement of the white bar and decided to move it further away and place at the opposite side.QDAD_Escaped3_22September

Series 2: Quartet

Series 2 is designed to be a set of 4 panels that would/could be placed as side by side wall hangings each at 6″ x 12″. Here are the initial 4 panels.
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I have redesigned the second panel to look like this, which I may actually use if I make these up.

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Series 3:

This series, which may not be complete, was playing with squares and rectangles and how sections align and are sectioned off.

“Intersection”

 

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“Fenced”

 

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I really enjoyed the design activity this week and love looking at the simplicity of color and shapes. I am linking up with Lorna @ Sew Fresh Quilts for Let’s bee Social (see button on the right).