Blue-Purple-Chartreuse Kaleidoscope

Okay sorry, I have a backlog of quilting projects to blog about. Well like two. Three if you count the bag I made. Two entries in one day...

I hate to pick favorites, but this is one of them. This quilt was given to my mother-in-law for Christmas. Or should I say JanuaryNineteenth-mas....because I was here during Christmas:

My brother pointed out that this should be an ad for Lonely Planet (notice the guidebook strategically held in my hand)

The Quilt

I decided I wanted to do a kaleidoscope quilt based on some cool things I saw on the glorious Pinterest. I decided to make it for my mother-in-law because I figured she would want a quilt; especially because she is always cold (cold body + quilt = slightly warmer body). I thought she might like these colors, because uhhh...who doesn't like blue? Have you ever met anyone who doesn't like blue? Now some people might not like chartreuse, but I like chartreuse, and if I have learned anything from Project Runway it is that you have to be "true to yourself as a designer" (said in a obnoxious, I'm-quoting-Project-Runway, voice). I have also learned from Project Runway that the character Mugatu from Zoolander was not a parody, but in fact Michael Kors dressed in silly clothes.

seriously. and even more obvious if you hear them talk.

I debated the arrangement of these blocks and whether I should strive for some larger pattern, similar to Lizzy House's "Diamond Mountain" Quilt (Diamond Mountain). I chose not to because I wasn't confident in my ability to pull it off. Coincidentally, I had some of Lizzy House's fabric that I was already planning to use in this quilt. I forgot the name, but it looks like blue Agra-ba from Aladdin. That fabric also has a tiny bit of chartreuse, inspiring me to use the straight-up chartreuse fabric. Ahh...connections. In the end I decided to do..., well you can see for yourself:

But first:

Like this, minus some people and genies

For the quilting, I outlined some of the stars. After doing that, I decided it wasn't enough (I should have taken a picture!). I decided to do diagonal stripes across the blocks, which I really liked in the end. Especially on the back. The backing is a really pretty blue and purple batik that I splurged on because I liked it so much. I ordinarily think the batiks that are so popular right now are over-rated and can look old-ladyish, but as I said, I liked this one a lot. And it matched the quilt top perfectly (Again, I was lucky that I found something to use as a back after I had already finished the top).

Back with quilting....and mustache men!

Thank you grass across the apartment building parking lot! 

I'm into Burgundy and Scraps Quilt

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. The reason is because I am lazy, and if I have to choose quilting versus blogging about quilting, I will usually choose quilting. FYI, I am listening to the Spice Girls right now! Horray for Ben's carefully crafted "High 90's" Pandora playlist! Maybe their poetry will influence my writing....

I made this quilt for my grandma for Christmas, and because 1) I was making two quilts for Christmas, 2) I had to mail this before I left for my Christmas trip, 3) It was always dark when I got home from work, and 4) I am a bad photographer; I was in a hurry and could only take pictures in my apartment at night. Therefore, the pictures are kind of crappy.

My Christmas trip to here! If you can see it through the disgusting smog.....

I got this solid burgundy fabric from the Joann's remnants bin a while ago, just because I thought it might be useful someday. Then I kept seeing it in my stash. Then I was liking it more and more and wanted to do something featuring it. I also have been enjoying doing scrap-type quilts. I also have been enjoying kaleidoscope-type quilts (as you will soon see in the next quilt I did). So, I put all of these things together in this quilt. I found the quilt block on some website listing quilt blocks. I decided to keep it simple and only do burgundy and then the medium-tone scrappy pieces. I also decided to make the quilt blocks really big (~17" square), because I hadn't made a big block in a while and I knew that it would take a significant amount of time to make the scrappy fabric.

For the scrappy pieces, I basically made pieces of fabric by sewing strips (1.5" to 2.5" wide) randomly together. Then I cut out the pieces I needed for the block from that conglomeration of fabrics. You can see some are oriented different ways that others within the quilt block.

I spent a good amount of time deciding whether to orient all the blocks the same way or alternate. As seen above, I chose to alternate. I think I decided on that orientation because it created different sized stars depending on how you look at it, which is what I like about kaleidoscope quilts.

For the back, I used some of this batik fabric my mom gave me for my birthday. She got me like 7 yards, or something ridiculously huge (and awesome), and it just so happened that the colors matched perfectly with the quilt top! I even made sure to add some to the blocks I was still working on at the time. 

I pretty much never have chosen the backing fabric when I choose fabrics for the quilt top. It is mostly because the back always requires a lot of fabric and I am cheap and feel weird buying so much fabric at once. I also am afraid I will completely change my idea as I am quilting. Sometimes this method doesn't work out too well. For example: I was nearly finished the quilt top and went to buy backing fabric. I only brought a few of the fabrics from the quilt top with me to the store. I ended up choosing this ridiculously bright, 60'sey fabric that is so awesome - however, looked horrible with the quilt. The fabric cutting lady even criticized me and said that the backing would overpower the quilt top (note that she didn't even see the quilt top, that is how crazy the backing I chose was). I was like, "No way!" Well, unfortunately she was RIGHT AND I WAS WRONG. Plus, may I remind you that it was for my grandma; bright, ostentatious...not normally words to be associated with one's grandmother. So, luckily my mom sent me this batik fabric and it worked out perfectly. Someday I will do something AWESOME with the crazy fabric, and I will link it to this post so you can see....