Into the Woods - Cascade Quilt Pattern

Green is one of my all time favorite colors. And leaves are one of my favorite design elements. I use leafy themes in my home. I take tons of leaf photographs. I use leafy fabric in my quilts. Today I'd like to share one of my leafy quilts with you.

Into the Woods was finished last year. I used the Cascade quilt pattern which is the most popular of my patterns. You can find it in my Etsy shop or the new Blueprint shop site (formerly Craftsy)

I wanted a woodsy feeling of light filtering through trees so I arranged the values with most of the lighter prints in the center.

Looking at the prints in black and white really helped with this.

Once the leafy prints were positioned, I added browns and greens to elude to the tree trunks. Again placing most of the darker values to the outside edges. An allover leafy quilting pattern finished it off.

Leftover bonus half square triangles from the front were pieced together into a long strip for the back. The green on the back isn't quite as bright/yellow as this photo shows.

I couldn't be happier with the final result. Into the Woods lives on the back of my couch in our family room and works beautifully with the other leafy decor in the room.

I'd like to leave you with a few recent photos of the original Cascade quilt featured in the pattern. The colors have always reminded me of Monet so what better place to take a few photos than the Monet Garden at Denver's Hudson Gardens.

And lastly, this photo taken a few years ago in the Colorado mountains which really shows off the true colors of the quilt.

One of these days I'd love to get a good photo of Cascade with a waterfall given the quilt name. A lovely tropical waterfall would be perfect but they're a little hard to come by here in Colorado.  : )

Happy quilting to you . . .

It's been ages since I've joined any linky parties so I'm linking up with Wendy and the Peacock Party and Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday.

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My Leafy Checkerboard Finish

Time to share another big finish. I've been quilting on and off for close to 18 years and in all that time I have never made a quilt for my own bed. Seriously. Never. Can you believe it? Now I can proudly say my bed has a new cover.

You may remember seeing these blocks eons ago. I worked on them slowly over the course of many months by taking them to BoulderMQG sew days. Month after month after month. I even blogged about it here back in January 2016. Over two years ago! Once the blocks were done it still took awhile for me to lay them all out and sew them together. Obviously it wasn't at the top of my to do list.

Karen at the Quilted Moose did the longarm quilting. I chose an all-over leafy pattern and love the look. I also made pillow shams from the giant hosta fabric I've hoarded for years. You know I love leaves.  : )

Sadly, the quilted top sat all nicely folded up on a chair in the bedroom for far too long. I blame it on the binding fairies. They didn't show up as scheduled. Of course the thought of binding a queen size myself just wasn't appealing so I did what I do so very well. I procrastinated. Expecting two different house guests last month finally, finally pushed me into action.

I set up my machine downstairs on our long dining table and added another long folding table to the side. All this extra space was a tremendous help in supporting a queen size quilt. I also did it all by machine by attaching the binding to the back and then pulling it to the front and stitching it down close the the fold. It's so much faster for a big quilt. You can see this method used on another quilt here. Now that I've used this method a few times I'm getting better at finding that sweet spot for aligning my stitches. For quilts that will be used a lot, I think it's a great way to go.

In the photo below you can see most of the back. I used up a lot of the older leafy prints in my stash. This was at the ironing and trimming stage.

I ended up making two quilts from these leafy scrappy trip blocks. The wall hanging below has actually been finished and in use for some time. I just never shared it on the blog.

I love taking quilt photos in the wild and fell in love with this set of steps full of ivy. Don't you think it's perfect for this quilt?

Hopefully I'll be back before another whole month goes by. Until then happy quilting and crafting.

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Inspiration in Chihuly

I had the pleasure of visiting the Denver Botanical Gardens this week to see the Chihuly exhibition and it was a most wonderful experience. So much so that I plan to go again before the exhibit ends in November. If you are not familiar with Chihuly's work, please visit his website and learn about this amazing glass artist.

I think natural settings like botanical gardens are the absolute best location for viewing his pieces. The juxtaposition of glass art set amidst the various plant forms is striking to say the least and brings the plants to life in a whole new way. Each piece is carefully placed in such a way that it accentuates or contrasts with the surrounding landscape in a very deliberate way. Nothing seems left to chance. Each composition of glass and plants is both thoughtful and beautiful.

An added bonus was attending in the late afternoon and staying till dark. The glass takes on an even more remarkable quality at night when lit amid the gardens. There is a glow as if each piece is lit from within. I would highly recommend going in the evening so you can get a bit of both the daytime and nighttime experience.. The Denver Botanical Gardens are even having special Chihuly Nights in October and November with extended evening hours and special admission prices.

Here's just a glimpse of both the art and foliage that I found inspiring. In some cases the art is juxtaposed next to plant photos just for fun. I love the similarities of line and shape. Enjoy.

And here is my favorite of all. Monet Pool Fiori placed in the Monet Pool of course. The purple spikes contrasting with the curvy green shapes are absolutely beautiful. Love the reflections.

Visiting any botanical garden is always inspiring to me. You will most likely find me taking close-up after close-up of as many different leaf patterns as I can find. No surprise there is it? Leaves make me happy and I'm also happy to report my daughter has the same addiction. It's quite interesting to compare photos after we get home to see the different perspectives we each have. This visit was intended to be all about the art but I managed a very healthy dose of leaf photos as well. Confession . . I actually used all the available memory on my camera and couldn't take any more photos.  : (

Have I convinced you yet to see this exhibit?  I hope so because you definitely will be inspired.

A Fresh New Start

I let myself get sidetracked this week with a little diversion. As you may know from reading my blog, I love leaves. All the wonderful shades of greens . . . all the beautiful shapes . . . and of course all the many leafy fabrics. Over the years I've amassed quite a collection of leafy prints. Many are more traditional in nature although now I'm gathering more and more modern versions as well.

I've had a sketch for a leaf quilt for years and thought I'd break out the stash and start cutting this week. The main design consists of a checkerboard in the quilt center and the Scrappy Trip Along block tutorial was perfect for getting these blocks underway.

I broke out the leafy stash . . . this is only part of it!

I cut lots of strips to size, producing lots of little trimming scraps . . . love these little bits of color.

I started sewing a few blocks together . . . many more to come.

I know this is a form of procrastination for other things I should be working on but what the heck. I'm getting something done.

With all the terrible flooding that happened in Colorado recently I am feeling so very very grateful that the little creek behind our house didn't flood any worse than it did and feeling heartsick for all the people who are now without their homes and belongings. I'm thinking these leafy prints might be just the thing for a charity quilt. What better way to symbolize a fresh new start than green leaves representing new growth? I hope to turn these blocks into a charity quilt for flood victims.

If you are interested in helping, one option is Cover Colorado: Quilts For Flood Victims sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.

eQuilter.com is also offering to distribute quilts to those in need. You can see what Luana of eQuilter had to say in this recent newsletter.

Linking up for WIP Wednesday with lee at Freshly Pieced. Take a look at what a few others are working on this week.

Hope you are making progress on your WIP's.

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.    : )