Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The Bat Quilt Beginnings

Gotham will be my challenge this month.  How do you make a quilt that sort of looks like a bat but can still be used and abused as an actual quilt (not so far from a rectangle that it can't be used)?  And once you do that - how do you get your quilt to fit the shape?  This is what I came up with - a good old fashioned paper pattern (made with office recycled paper taped together).  The measurements are not scientific - I just eyeballed the angles and cut. I cut one half and then laid the first half on the other half and cut it the same.  Then I taped them together in the centre.  With this I will know where to put my blocks when I get them made.  I guess making blocks will start tomorrow night, weather permitting.  It's been getting pretty nice out so I won't want to be downstairs sewing if the weathe in nice, but it's supposed to rain. 

Monday, April 23, 2012

The Batman

Here he is - The Batman!  This is the beginning of "Gotham".  Wait for it!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Birds, Dinos and a Solar Event



When we were in Colorado, Joe spotted this fabric.  He's a bird lover.  So I bought 1/2 yard, not really knowing what I'd do with it - because to be honest, I don't really like it all that much (hence not a full yard/meter, which is what I would normally get).  Last week I pulled out Tonya Ricucci's book Word Play Quilts, which I've had for some time, but haven't gotten around to reading.  Naturally, once read, I needed to try something out and this fabric seemed the perfect thing.  I like the "Twitter" idea - it's a "word play" on the social media Twitter thing that everyone but me (OK - maybe a few others, too) are all excited about. 


Our friends Marla and Marlow (yes - great names for a couple, eh?) are grandparents for the first time so I had Marla look through my stash and she chose the dinos in the quilt below.  (These pix are very poor - bad lighting - I'll have to try for better ones).  I've had the dots for quite awhile - picked them up for something else that didn't work out.  I love it when I find a "perfect" use for something that didn't work somewhere else!  I called this kids quilt "Dino Play Time" because I couldn't think of anything clever.  I usually make kids quilts about 40-43 inches wide so I can use one width of fabric on the back, but this one didn't work out quite right when I tried that so I had to add a row of blocks into the backing.  I like the way it turned out.





While we're on the dino theme, I picked up the fabric in the quilt below (which is only one fabric width) on spec.  My son Craig has been obsessed with dinos since he was old enough to point.  He's 31 and this obsession has not abated.  So I always find myself drawn to the dinos.  Anyway, I had this and had offered to make a quilt for the Calgary Zoo to use in a fund raiser.  They have a dinosaur theme park area at the Zoo and we were practically residents there when Craig was growing up.  So I thought it would be a nice way to "give back".  I used the fabric like a panel, although it isn't, but neither is it designed to cut into small pieces for quilting.  I just cut the meter piece lengthwise in two (so I have enough for another quilt) and set it into border blocks.  It's an easy way to make a fun quilt.  It's called "Thunder Lizards".


Finally, here is "Solar Flare".  This is made using some Mark Lipinski fabric that I've had kicking around for awhile.  Blue and yellow is a favourite colour combination of mine.  This is another experimental design. 



For my next trick, I shall be doing "Gotham" - an idea I've had rattling around my head for awhile now.  So once this post goes up - I'm on to the Batman!  :)