Friday, August 7, 2015

musical triangles version 2.0

i, for one, find it very interesting when two quilt patterns are done multiple times in varying colors, and how extremely different they turn out.  i personally have done it with the amy butler daisy chain, oh frasson's catvent, and now the triangle quilt along pattern.  this one i find especially interesting, because the theme is SO similar, and the quilts look exactly the same.  case and point, this music themed triangle quilt.
i like this pattern because of the simplicity of it, and of the two from last year, it was totally my favorite.  something about the repeating pieces, lack of border, and all around simplicity just worked for me.  so much, it has really made me not like block quilts right now... ha!  compared to last year's version of this quilt it looks so much different, and yet has the exact same theme to it.
last year's quilt was definitely more dark fabric with hints of light ones mixed in, and this one ended up being the opposite.  i cut out the triangle quilt first before the other just to ensure i would have enough fabric pieces.  when i was pulling in a few other fabrics here and there during the assembling process, i thought it was going to be more black/gray pieces all over, but i was totally wrong!  not in a bad way wrong, though!
because of the backing fabric, the quilting isn't as obvious as it was last year, but i think that's a good thing. had there been this crazy busy back with crazy noticeable quilting, i think my eyes would have gone crazy! basically, i followed the edges of the triangles with my walking foot top to bottom creating a diamond shape. and no chalking was needed. hip hip, hoorah!
the same binding was used for this quilt as the amy butler one from the week before, just without a border.  i just really like this quilt... a lot.  someday, i might actually get around to making the one i have planned for me :)
i like to save the best for last in this post.
i actually had someone there at camp with us that week (my sister) that i could make climb up on a giant rock and hold this quilt up there in all it's glory.  i just had this vision to include some DMMC ambiance in with this quilt, and it just worked perfectly!
happy friday, y'all :)

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

music themed amy butler daisy chain

hello readers!
it's officially that time of year again :)
last friday wrapped up week 2 for donner mine music camp, and yet again we were at it with a donation quilt to raffle off for each week.  i say we, because the purchasing of the fabric is 75% my mom, 25% me depending on who is where and when.  we're still stashing fabric throughout the year (and have already begun on next year's stash.  ha!)  anyways, just as i did in previous years, i rolled week 1's quilt pattern to week 2 for this year, and then pulled a new pattern in for week one.  this year, i went with the amy butler daisy chain, which i have done twice before and LOVED, and think it turned out fantastic.  here's your first full look at it.
we had this fabric on the back laying around, probably purchased to do the back of the quilt in it's entirety.  alas, it was too short for one, and not wide enough for two, so i had to get a little creative with the backing and border it off to make the entire huge piece work for both quilts.  so this year, both quilts have a cozy flannel backing.
the front was crazy to piece, using scraps from last year, new pieces found throughout the year, and deciding which other pieces just didn't work.  i threw in a few black on black/white on whites from my pudge cat quilt, and that seemed to help break up the chaos of it all a little bit.  usually when i make a quilt with this pattern, i skip the 5" strips because it just seems too huge to take up that much space with one fabric.  as you can see in the above photo, that strip with the music instruments in a row would have TOTALLY not worked had it been chopped any smaller.  it totally made the quilt that much better (and helped use up more fabric.  ha!)
the actual pattern for this quilt calls for 3 borders of varying widths.  since this was intended to just be a lap quilt, i used scraps that were actually removed from a tshirt quilt my mom made for aileen last christmas.  the strips were the perfect width for a slight border to frame off all of this quilt.  i was looking for a different black print for the binding, but when i couldn't find it, this one worked perfectly.  it also reminded me a little bit of whole notes, adding in to the music theme.
tagged!
these quilts seem to have a great reaction once they go up to camp to be raffled off.
this year, the woman who won this quilt sent the camp director's wife a photo of it on their bed already, thanking them, my dad (he sells the raffle tickets at the concert) and i for the great quilt and camp experience.  always love to hear a happy winner :)