Sew Solid Sunday with Esch House Quilts

Linking up today with Debbie of Esch House Quilts who has a regular monthly series going called Sew Solid Sunday featuring projects made from all solids.

As I was cutting strips today for a small quilt, I realized one of the fabrics was the same stripe I had used for the binding on Fitting In and since I don't have any new solid projects at the moment I thought I'd share an older one.

Fitting In was one of the first all solid quilts I made and came about as part of the Tetris Quilt Along by Melissa of Happy Quilting. It was the first, and so far only, quilt-a-long I've done.

Working on this quilt, the biggest challenge for me was the fact that there wasn't a plan. I'm not an improv kind of quilter. This wonderful little quilt came together week after week as Melissa gave us a set of shapes to play the Tetris game. I made myself stick to the "rules" of the game by building from the bottom up and simply allowing the design to emerge each week. It wasn't easy.

At first I felt compelled to try and fill all the spaces like you're supposed in the real game but am so glad I didn't. The white squares represent places where the game pieces didn't fit together right and yet they became a vital part of the final quilt. The design needed those empty spaces to create more visual interest and play. You can see how it all came together week by week by looking under the Tetris Quilt Along tag on the sidebar if you're interested in the weekly progress.

I chose a controlled palette of colors rather than the normal primary Tetris colors. In the end I loved how the quilt took shape each week. In many ways it's probably one of the more modern designs I've made. There is a randomness to it that I find quite pleasing.

One of the things about working with all solids that I find intimidating is that the solid fabric just begs to show off wonderful quilting and that is the part I am least comfortable with. For this one I simply did straight lines in a grid to reinforce the grid structure of the quilt. Nothing fancy but I think it's ok. Just ok. More lines would have been better but I needed something quick to get it finished on time.

I have 2 all solid projects in the wings that need to be done by the end of the month for challenge groups I'm in so hopefully next month I'll have a new finish to share on Sew Solid Sunday.

There are so many beautiful all solid quilts being made that it can be quite enticing to jump in and play with pure color and form. No distraction from prints and patterns. Yet I find that after I've made something using all solids, I'm usually quite ready to busy things up with some prints.  : )

How about you? Do you like working with all solids? If you'd like to see some inspiration check out Sew Solid Sunday links and my Pinterest board specifically for quilts from solids.

Color Choices

Do you ever feel like you make the same color choices over and over again?  I do.

You may already know I love green. Just look at the name of my blog and the banner. Full of greens. As a matter of fact my whole house has a lot of green. You could say it's my neutral color and it actually works quite well throughout the year with the change in decor for the season/holidays.

But seriously . . . here I am again making another cool colored quilt. These are my latest fabrics.

What is it about these cool refreshing colors that I keep coming back too? Perhaps I'm trying to imagine ocean and beaches instead of land locked Colorado. Don't get me wrong. I love living in Colorado, but we certainly don't have much water let alone an ocean beach.

Maybe that's why my pattern Cascade and my Tetris quilt featured cool colors. So did the circle room divider made for my daughter. They all bring a cool refreshing feeling to an otherwise dry climate.

Whatever the reason, I'm sure I'll continue to use lots of green and aquas in future quilts. I've planned for years to make a quilt with my collection of leafy fabrics. These are more traditional, but I still love them. Think forest and the joy of seeing the leaves come back in the springtime.

The next quilt I foresee on the horizon is going to heat things up a bit though. I'm going to use my second favorite color combo of melon/corals with pinks and oranges. How's that for a color description? You might be seeing some of these fabrics soon.

Hot right?  Now you might be asking why there are so many dots in my stash? I think perhaps that's best left for another post.  For now, why don't you go play with some of your favorite colors and tell me what they are and why.    : )

"Fitting In" the Finished Tetris Quilt

Do you ever get so lost in the linky parties that you actually forget to write your own post about something? I think that's what happened with my finished Tetris quilt. I wanted to include it in the parade Melissa had so I took pictures in a hurry and added the final quilt to her site and simply forgot to write about it. 

I was reminded today that I hadn't posted about it here when I got an email from Priscilla asking about the colors I had used. For the record they are Kona cotton in Deep Blue, Pacifica, Lagoon, Jade Green, Chartreuse, Kiwi, Clover and White.

So here's the finished quilt. 

I'm calling it "Fitting In" which is appropriate on a couple of levels. The little side pieces in the border are trying to fit in and, as a newish blogger, I'm trying to find my best fit within the huge blogging world of quilty goodness. 

I love how it turned out. Simple straight line quilting so as not to distract from all the gridded pieces coming together.

You can see all the finished quilts in Melissa's Tetris Parade here. Have you finished your Tetris quilt? Hope so. : )

WIP Wednesday

Wow! These WIP Wednesdays at Freshly Pieced sure do come up fast. I've been wrapping up a couple of projects plus starting another small one. And I'm trying to set time aside to start working on a quilt to enter in the QuiltCon show. Hopefully more than one.

I finished up and shipped off my off my project for Stitch magazine. First time I've had a project published and it's pretty exciting. The spring issue seems so far off though. I'll be anxious to share it with you as soon as I can. It's made from these fabrics. Love the Amy Butler print!

This week has mostly been spent wrapping up the Tetris QAL quilt. Just about done with the quilting and then all that's left is binding. I'm pleased with how this one turned out and could be tempted to make another in a warm colorway. Stay tuned for the final quilted reveal in a few days. Hop over to Melissa's blog and see how everyone's quilts turned out. Some nice work happening.

Last thing this week will be a small project that I'll write up as a tutorial for my turn on the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop next week. I think it will feature these fabrics since there's a bit of fall in the air.  But then I've changed my mind several times already so don't count on it. Check back next Tuesday for the tutorial.

Tetris QAL Top Finished

Got a little sidetracked last week but want to quickly post my finished Tetris QAL top. I added a white border and whenever my empty spaces fell on the outer edge I pieced in a "missing" square to pull the blocks out into the space. Am hoping to get the quilting done in time for Melissa's parade next week. Fingers crossed. Then I'll post better pics, but for now here it is. My first QAL and I had a terrific time and forced myself out of the pre-planned mode of operation. Thanks Melissa! Great job hosting.

Another WIP Wednesday, Another Tetris Block

Week 3 for me and WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.
Last week I posted about my Tradewinds quilt and runner getting finished and you can see more final results here. Love how both projects turned out although I'd like to get some better photos.

Also finished up my Stitch project and it's ready to ship. Wish I didn't have to wait till spring 2013 to see it in print and share it with you. I'm very excited.

Last but not least is the ongoing Tetris WIP. Week 6 of the Tetris QAL by Melissa over at Happy Quilting and this is the last block. Melissa has done a great job of mixing up the shapes and colors every week and this week was no exception. Staying true to playing by the rules of the game, I tried several arrangements before settling on this one.

With the other blocks already done, I was able to see which layout played nicely with the rest before I committed to sewing up the final block. At first I wasn't too happy with having 2 blue squares right on top of each other and tried several other block possibilities. There seemed to be just a little too much dark blue going on near the top half of the quilt. But after consideration, I realized these 2 blue squares provide a valuable resting spot for the eye amidst the randomness of all the other shapes. So stacked blue squares got the go ahead and it's just right. Now all I have to do is sew the blocks together.

Next week will be border considerations and after that quilting and finishing up. I already have  good idea of how I'd like to finish this up. Looking forward to my final quilt and seeing what everyone else does with theirs.

I've also got piles of fabric on my counter as I try to decide what to do for an upcoming tutorial for the Let's Get Acquainted blog hop by Plum and June.  This blog hop has been a great way to get to know more newbie bloggers like myself.

Keep quilting   : )

WIP Wednesday

My biggest WIP continues to be the Tetris QAL quilt. We're on to block 5 this week with just one more to go so the end is in sight. 

Tetris quilt in progress with 5 blocks done

My Tradewinds quilt and runner are finished up so one less WIP on my plate. Will be posting the finished photos as soon as I take them. 

Tradewinds quilt straight line quilting

My other WIP is now a high priority. I got a project accepted to Stitch magazine and need to get it done ASAP. This will be my first ever published project so very exciting. Won't be published until spring 2013 so have a while before I see it in print for real. Here's sneak peek of the fabrics.

I'm always amazed at just how many things the rest of your are working on and getting done. Very impressive to say the least. Hop on over to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and see what everyone else is working on. Keep on stitching . . . 

Tetris Block 4

Week 4 of the Tetris QAL and I had a little catching up to do. I'm so addicted to playing each Tuesday that I can't wait for Melissa to give us our shapes of the week. And since I have it set up in Illustrator it's so easy to keep playing with different layouts that sometimes I don't stop myself and move on to sewing. That's what happened last week. So this week I caught up and sewed both blocks.

week 3 block

week 4 block

Sewing two blocks isn't really a big deal but it did make me realize it's much better to keep up. Procrastination is usually my middle name, so the fact that I'm keeping up is pretty satisfying if I do say so myself.  : )   I even have a pretty good idea of how I'd like to finish up the quilt top. Here's what all 4 blocks look like together. I love how the white pops.

All 4 blocks so far

How about you? Are you keeping up? From what I've seen it looks like there are going to be lots of very nice quilts as a result of this fun QAL. For those of you using black instead of white for the empty spaces I think it looks very striking. Looking forward to seeing everyone's finished quilts. Keep going, the end is in sight!

Tetris Block 3

Week 3 of the Tetris QAL and it just keeps getting better. This week I had a harder time switching Melissa's colors over to my color scheme. It just got confusing for a bit between shapes and colors. I should have made my little color chart right from the beginning. Plus, it would have helped if I had kept her blue and green my blue and green. But alas I didn't start out that way so now just need to be very careful about which color goes where without getting confused by the shapes.

I know this might seem too exacting, but I'm determined to play the game for real. No switching shapes, colors or the order to suit the design. That way I have to work with what I'm given and have less control. Not something I'm used to.

But I must admit I was awfully tempted to cheat this week. I did more layouts than in the previous 2 weeks and at one point came up with a way to fill all the squares . .

Did anyone else notice that there were 2 different L shapes? The blue and orange L's read like an uppercase L no matter which way you turn them. The last 2 L shapes in green and red are the mirror image or backwards L's. Maybe this shape has been flipped before and I haven't noticed?

Oops. Just checked and sure enough, for week 2 the L shapes were flipped. Oh well . . . I'm learning. That's what I get for using the shapes in Illustrator and assuming they were all the same just in a different order. Probably won't bother to remake the block but at least I know to pay more attention. 

Anyway, if only that last red L shape (my dark blue L shape here) had been flipped I could have filled all the spaces. I even considered flipping it just so I'd have a full block. It would look like this:

But once I looked at the 3 blocks together I realized how much the empty spaces are adding to the overall design . . . so no need to break the rules after all. Here's my block for week 3. Haven't sewn it up yet so this is my photoshop image. Yes I have 4 empty spaces. I'm definitely not going to win any real Tetris games that's for sure.

Now that there are 3 blocks, I'm beginning to see the whole quilt top come together and have some ideas for how I might finish it up. Glad this is a quick 6 week QAL because the end is in sight and I'm excited for the final results.

This is my WIP of the week too. I'm linking up to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday's for the first time. Hop on over and take a look at what everyone is working on.

Tetris Block 2

Time for Tetris Block 2. When I started this QAL last week, I thought I would make each week's block over the weekend. That way I could stay focused on work during the week and enjoy a change of pace on Saturday. WELL . . . I couldn't wait till the weekend!

Since the fabric squares are all cut it's just too easy to whip up a block. I have the grid and the basic shapes set up in Illustrator so it's fun to grab the new shapes of the week and play.

When I started, I wasn't sure whether the colors stayed the same for each shape from game to game. Now I know they don't and it's probably for the best. Just in case anyone is wondering, I assigned each of the colors Melissa is using one of my blue/green colors. It's tempting to consider switching it up to suit the block, but I'm going to resist. Here's how my colors correspond to Melissa's.

Don't ask why I didn't leave the green green and the blue blue. It didn't occur to me. And since some of you have asked what colors I'm using they are: Kona cotton in Deep Blue, Pacifica, Lagoon, Jade Green, Chartreuse, Kiwi, Clover and White.

I know the idea of the real game is to fill all the squares so there aren't any "empty" ones, but the designer in me would rather see some empty spaces. The white squares keep your eye moving around because they add sparkle to the block. So instead of reworking the shapes until I came up with an arrangement that fills the entire block, I just let the empty spaces play out. I did try to balance where they occurred though because I didn't really want two empty spaces next to one another. This week I even opted for a block layout that ended up with 5, yes count them 5, empty spaces. Guess I won't win any Tetris games, but I think this livens up the block. What do you think?

Hard to see the difference in the two aqua blues in the lower right from this photo, but there are actually two colors there. Next time I'll probably try to avoid those two colors side-by-side of possible.

Hope everyone is having as much fun playing Tetris as I am.  : )

Tetris Block 1

This is a post about firsts. It's about the first block in the Tetris Quilt Along that's being hosted by Melissa over at Happy Quilting. If you don't know about it, hop over to her site and join in the fun. And don't worry if you don't know what Tetris is or have never played. Melissa gives a great tutorial on how to play to get everyone started. I must admit I'm a Tetris newbie. Another first. I just played my first game. I don't know about you but I'm much better at Tetris quilting than Tetris the game.


This is also my first ever quilt-along. Can you believe it? I've never done a quilt-along. I get so caught up working on new designs for my quilts and patterns that I don't make time to participate in much of the online fun. I'm working on finding the right balance between design/quilting and online blogging fun. How do you all do it?

This quilt along just spoke to me though.  The unplanned, randomness of the blocks is just what I need to break the planning and control I usually bring to my own quilts. Now I'm not going to promise I won't tweak something here or there. It's my nature. But I will try to stick to the Tetris game rules as I understand them.

That said, I've already broken the first "rule" by wanting more control over the color palette. I love love color but just wasn't feeling the whole primary color thing. So I'm going with Kona solids in a blue-green palette. Oh, and did I mention I changed the size too? I'm using a smaller 2 1/2" finished square which will give me a nice sized 30 x 45 baby quilt. But that's the nice thing about this QAL. Mellissa is so ok with everyone doing what they want . . . so I am.

Here's my first block. I reassigned the colors to the shapes Melissa gave us and "played" the game.

And I'm also trying something new to me by using starch. I know I know . . . how can I have quilted for all these years and never used starch? Well, I just haven't. But I'm tired of all those loose threads and limp fabric so I'm giving starch a try. Do you use starch? If so, at what point in the process? Before you cut or after? I'd love to hear your methods and which kind of starch you prefer. So far I love the nice crisp feel of all my little Tetris squares. I just might be a convert if the process isn't too time-consuming.

So far so good. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with and next week's block. I think this is going to be fun.