Rainbow Rose QAL - Finish

This week is the final link-up for the finished Rainbow Rose quilts at Modern Quilters Ireland.  I finished mine yesterday and took it out for a quick little shoot today, as it's been drizzling off and on.

I know it's supposed to be a Rainbow Rose, but for me it's more of a Colorwheel Star))

After a lot of deliberation I decided to quilt it in echo shapes in the variegated thread I have left from my Bubbles quilt. The thread is not a full rainbow, it doesn't have blue and yellow in it, but it's still very fun and bright (incidentally, the binding fabric has no blue either)))

I rather like how it fills the (still dreaded) negative space.

I marked the quilting lines this time, so they are more or less straight and I think I can consider my July monthly goal of walking foot quilting achieved with this and the rehearsal on the Candy quilt. I still have a couple of quilt tops which can also be walking-foot quilted till the end of the month.

I was deliberating the binding for a long time as well and finally decided on that not quite rainbow but definitely multicolored stripe I've had for several years (brought it from a trip to Moscow). I think it plays rather well with the quilting thread. To add some interest I cut the bias stripes in different directions to echo the star rays.

I couldn't find any appropriately rainbow fabric for the back, so I used the light grey piece which I was considering as an alternative to the white background in this quilt. So from the back it looks like a super minimalist whole cloth quilt ))).

Note how the binding has a different look from the back, with the stripes converging, not diverging as in front. Anyway, I suppose it will be more of a wall quilt, so the back won't get seen a lot, instead it will get a hanging sleeve.

If I ever have a sewing room, I think this would be a good thing to have on the wall there, for reference as a color wheel))

Linking up to Rainbow Rose QAL at Modern Quilters Ireland

Fabric, Thread and Yarn at France Nadeau

Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie 

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Rainbow Rose QAL Week 5 and Bringing Back the Spring

This week's assignment in Modern Quilters Ireland QAL was to put together the top. So, that's what I did:

Now, Ruth suggested using a couple of appliqué ideas for the border or leaving it just as it is. This much negative space is something I'm not accustomed to, though I know it's one of the prominent features of modern quilt design. Besides, in my version, the star seems to melt away towards the edges, and that somehow adds to all the white. 

The borders question is connected to the quilting and binding question, for example quilting the white in a bright variegated thread (I have left from the bubbles quilt) could fill in the void. White binding would contribute to the glow effect, while bright one would keep it controlled. Lots of possibilities. All suggestions welcome)))

Although I'm turning ideas about finishing this quilt in my mind, I couldn't bear to let it occupy my makeshift design wall, so i covered it with a new project which I have conceived back in early spring when magnolias were in bloom all around Dublin.

This photo was taken near Howth Castle, but I have taken many others as well as looked for more professional ones on Pinterest. Finally, I made a full scale pattern from my sketch and auditioned the fabrics. After 3 (three!) bright rainbow projects, finally something more subdued, just greys and pinks:

I've been collecting those greys and pinks since spring)) Looks like I have enough pinks now (I had quite a few before that idea hit me, so many are just leftovers, but that's ok, because the flowers are made of smaller parts). The greys are mostly new fat quarters, as I don't often use them, and I think a couple more would be welcome.

This piece is going to be all curve-piecing and it's quite large - a meter by a meter and a half - probably the largest of my "art" pieces so far.

Linking up to Rainbow Rose QAL at Modern Quilters Ireland, Fabric, Thread and Yarn at France Nadeau

P.S. I'm still working on quilting my beach extravaganza, the finish is looming, but I ran out of thread today((

Rainbow Rose QAL Week 4

In fact, I finished the central star, this week's assignment, on Friday, but then I decided to replace some fabrics in the previously completed parts, so it had to wait. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take good photos today, but wanted to be in time for the link-up, so here is the result:

In fact, this exercise helped me analyze my stash and I discovered that, although I have a nice range of colors, they are mostly in medium value, and I have few of the very light and very dark ones. So, I started to address this problem in my recent couple of visits to fabric shops)). Having bought some pastels, I decided to amend those pieces of the outermost circle that seemed most offensive. I replaced two and moved one triangle in the red part.

Another thing I learned in the process is that working with very light tints is more difficult - adding a lot of white to colors makes them really similar. I guess the same is true for dark shades, but in this example the darks were in the center so I needed fewer of them.

As I mentioned before, getting a dark shade of yellow is difficult - when you look at the yellow wedge you can see the value gradation, but the yellow in the central circles is obviously lighter than other colors. As far as I remember from reading about color theory, it's ok, it's just the characteristic of this color, but for the sake of consistency, I should have probably make it more brown.

Linking up to the Rainbow Rose QAL at Modern Quilters Ireland.

Rainbow Rose QAL Week 2

This week's assignment in the Modern Quilters Ireland quilt-along was to cut the background fabric and put together middle blocks. Reading Ruth's wonderfully detailed instructions about the color choices and the piecing process, I realized I have to finalize my fabric selection to make sure all the transitions were as smooth as possible, all things considered. To help me keep track of everything I made a sketch of the block...

And then glued to it little pieces of the fabrics I intend to use for each part.

In addition to the color gradient explained by Ruth, I put myself an additional challenge of a value gradient, which proved more difficult. The most problematic zone is yellow: although I have a few yellows  to choose from, they are all more or less the same value, because it's light color by definition, it's impossible to have a dark yellow, so creating a pronounced value gradient is tricky. I divided the block into 4 "belts" of different value levels: the innermost square is shaded (color plus a bit of black), the next is pure colors (the way you find them in a paint box), the next is tinted with a bit of white, and the final - with more white. The last one was the most difficult to find, as it turned out I don't have enough pastel colors, so I had to use the wrong side of fabrics a lot.

This little mock-up also helped solve the background dilemma: the outermost fabrics are about the same value as the light grey I was considering as an option, so it had to go and the white came out as an undisputed winner.

The background cutting was swift and uneventful)). Cutting triangles rather than squares was a bit trickier but still manageable. Here are my finished middles:

Don't you think they make a kind of nice block on their own ;))? 

Linking to the Fabric Thread and Yarn link-up

Rainbow Rose QAL Week 1

To give myself a bit of rest from all the hand work and the long-drawn art projects I'm working on, I decided to join the QAL at Modern Quilters Ireland for a beautiful rainbow version of a traditional block. It's been a while since I did some good old rotary cutting and piecing!

And people here in Ireland know a thing or two about rainbows ;))

The idea is to arrange your fabrics following the color wheel, and I have loved color wheels ever since my art school days - painting a color wheel was the first task I was given when I started art school, aged 14 )) I think my mum still has that piece of art somewhere)) Since that time I know I am drawn to "pure" rainbow colors and color transitions. And it spilled over into my quilting, in fact two of the quilts I am currently working at have something of that (this is one of them, the other I'll probably show you a sneak peak of later this week).

With this project I am determined to take the idea of a color wheel literally and create not just the transitions of colors, but also include tints and shades - a dark-to-light gradient. Luckily, my stash mostly consists of blenders and tone-on-tone patterns and I usually strive to keep as wide a range of colors and shades as possible (albeit in tiny pieces) for my appliqué projects.

The only thing that was lacking was a background, because I don't usually keep any solids and certainly not yard cuts)). So, yesterday I went to get some and returned with a piece of white and another of light grey. I'm not sure which one will work better, what do you think?

I could be arranging and rearranging them for hours ;))

So, I think I'm all set, some variation may occur later in the process. I'm now looking forward to seeing what other participants have in their stash)) If you're interested too, visit Modern Quilters Ireland and there's still time to join the QAL - the cutting and piecing starts next week!