Trunk Show

OMG, how timely is this! I was invited to give a trunk show at a local guild, St. Louis Star Quilters, on this past Monday night. Today, Soma Acharya over at Whims and Fancies is hosting a virtual trunk show link up today. How cool is that?!!! So I'm excited to share some of the quilts I showed at my program on Monday. 

Whims and Fancies Trunk Show Link

 

Although I started my program on Monday with a bit of background about me and a few earlier quilts, all of the quilts in this post have been made in 2013-2015.

1) Mega Medallion: My first ever blog post featured the fabrics for this one. It's all just 8" high triangles and it's all about the placement of lights and darks. The hardest part was selecting a variety of black-on-white prints for the background so that they all read the same value of grey and the prints don't jump out too much. Custom long arm quilted by Sandy Etheridge.

Mega Medallion, 90 x 88"

2) Hexies from Leftovers: I cut too many triangles for Mega Medallion and some of the prints didn't play nicely together. I had a lot of leftovers, so some of them ended up here. Walking foot quilted by me in arcs that echo the hexies.

Hexies from Leftovers, 35 x 46"

3) Strip Tease, my first published pattern (see pattern tab above). I had previously made it in blue but made it again in pink to illustrate the step-outs in the pattern, and I learned that this design works best in monochromatic or analogous colors with a strong focus print. Walking foot quilted by me in vertical channels.

Strip Tease, 36 x 42"

4) In the fall of 2013 I created a tutorial, which you can find in the tutorial tab above, for Charmed Snowballs. The charms are from a swap at STLMQG. Walking foot quilted by me in a kaleidoscope pattern.

Charmed Snowballs, 40 x 49"

5) Later in the fall of 2013, a friend talked to me about giving a program at a local guild, Hearts & Hands, about Modern quilting. I'm not a strictly modern quilter and I did not feel qualified to speak about Modern quilting. I suggested I could talk about modern fabrics, particularly the large scale ones, and how to work with the size and scale.  So I developed Big Print Beauty for a program in early 2014; long arm quilted by Darlene Pratte using a panto called Paisley Max.

Big Print Beauty, 75 x 90

6 & 7) Also in the fall of 2013 I had an idea for a method for making a block that turned out to be so versatile and could be used to make such a variety of blocks that I decided to submit it as a book proposal. I developed Positivity and Scoot for the book proposal and sent it off in November 2013. Positivity uses my Plus block and Scoot uses my Four Corners block, from Cut and Shuffle Quilts. Positivity was allover quilted by Darlene Pratte using Paisley Max. Scoot was quilted by me, in a diagonal grid.

Positivity, 60 x 60"

Scoot, 40 x 40"

8) Whoo-Hoo! In December 2013 the publisher called and accepted my book proposal. Could I have six quilts and the complete manuscript and all the step-outs and all the place-holder graphics to them by May 15, 2015? That's five months for everything.
Uh...OK, sure.

Heat Wave, below, uses the same Four Corners block as Scoot, above. Allover quilted using Paisley Max panto by Darlene Pratte. Kaffe Fasset fabrics courtesy of Westminster Fibers.

Heat Wave, 58 x 72"

The publisher said they would make a 32 page booklet, and it would likely be published in February 2015. Since it was to be a small booklet, I should be aware that one or two of the quilts might get cut due to space limitations.

9) Singing the Blues uses a variation of the Four Corners block, in which parts from two colorways are swapped to make alternating blocks. Allover quilted by Darlene Pratte using a panto called Bumpity.

Singing the Blues, 64 x 86"

10) Labyrinth is the most modern-ish of the quilts in the book, using positive and negative versions of the Labyrinth block for a tessellated maze effect. I gave it faux-spiral quilting with arcs starting at the upper right and lower left corners because I like the effect of curved quilting on straight-line piecing.

11) Zen Garden uses the same Labyrinth block, but only the positive version. Custom long-arm quilted by Sandy Etheridge with water in the blue and pebbles in the white.

Zen Garden, 76 x 88"

 

There were some delays and some communication challenges, a "regime change" at the publisher (their words) and much frustration for me. The bad news - February came & went, no book yet. The good news - when it eventually happened, it was 64 pages and they didn't cut anything. All my blocks and quilts and patterns and alternate colorway illustrations made it in! Cut and Shuffle Quilts finally came out in September 2015 and is available from AQS or from Amazon.

12) Since then I've continued having fun with patterns. I introduced Broken Chevron in the fall of 2014 and you can find the listing in my patterns tab above. Broken Chevron was recently juried into a local quilt show, The Quintessential Quilt 2015. Spiral quilted by me, starting at an elbow.

Broken Chevron, aka Walk Like an Egyptian, 48 x 60"

13) Inspired by the popularity of plus motifs and churn dash blocks, I made Plus Dash which was finished earlier this year. Custom quilted by Sandy Etheridge. I had fun compiling the fabrics for this one, inspired by a couple I picked up at my guild's fabric swap. Someone else's rejects that they wanted to get rid of became the catalyst for the grouping of fabrics I chose.

Plus Dash, 70 x 86"

14) And last, my most recent finish, Gramercy & Friends. This was a value study, all about the placements of lights, mediums, and darks. It was inspired by a FQ collection of Gramercy by Art Gallery Fabrics that I won at an event last year. I pulled some friends from stash, then added a few new FQs. The biggest challenge was making the math work - two 12" blocks with 2" sashing don't equal a 24" block, so I had to add coping frames around the 24" blocks. Custom quilted by Jane Coons using her Stattler Stitcher. Gramercy & Friends was juried in the The Quintessential Quilt 2015 and won a red ribbon. (No pattern for this one because it includes a Swoon block and an X & Plus block, and I don't own the rights to those blocks.)
PS - Can you find the Four Corners block?

Gramercy & Friends, 72 x 86"

So, what's next? I have four WIPs going now. After I get some Christmas sewing out of the way I want to bet back to finishing them. My goals for 2016 are to finish the four WIPs, design, make, and post at least one new tutorial on the blog, and design, make and publish at least one new pattern.

Thank you for sharing my quilting journey. Be sure to visit the other Trunk Shows at Whims and Fancies.