This mini quilt was made for the 2021 Modern Quilt Guild Mini Swap. Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts (@justgetitdonequilts on Instagram) was my swap partner this year. Karen’s preferences for her mini were pretty simple – she loves colour (Karen is Canadian!), was open to anything, and she didn’t want any black or white. #makeaminimakeafriend
Color Palette for 2021 MQG Mini Swap.
I picked a bright, colorful palette and got to work designing in Adobe Illustrator. I came up with a foundation paper-piecing design using triangles and tiny 1/8″ slivers, and I quilted it using a 1/2″ grid.
This quilt was created for the Modern Quilt Guild QuiltCon Together Floral & Vine fabric challenge. I wanted to create something with bold, geometric shapes that highlighted the floral print. I headed to Adobe Illustrator where I came up with this design:
Adobe Illustrator design mock up.
While working with this design, I wanted to create the effect of depth. I achieved this by layering colors and shapes on top of each other, with the off white and periwinkle on the bottom, followed by lime, coral, and finally the floral. I also tried a new-to-me technique using inset circles. Of course, I wanted to learn the technique a few months before I was already signed up to take Cassandra Beaver‘s class at QuiltCon Together (face palm!). Instead I used her video tutorial on YouTube, found here. They turned out OK, for my first time trying the technique! I also got to practice my no-pin curves I learned in a 1-2-1 online class with Jenny Haynes last year. Both Cassandra and Jenny are excellent teachers and create beautiful quilts.
No-pin half-circle.
Piecing & Quilting detail photo.
Finished Quilt. Looks exactly like my mock up!
I used my Adobe Illustrator design to create templates for the shapes, and similar to the quilt Chirality, I pieced it in section. The title of the quilt comes from a line in the 2005 version of Pride & Prejudice. I have no idea why, but this move was on repeat for most of 2020 in my apartment. I just love Elizabeth Bennet’s snark, and this is one of her funnier lines. My sewjo, like many others, also disappeared in 2020, so finishing this fabric challenge was indeed a small kind of accomplishment. It did not end up being juried into QuiltCon Together but I am pleased with how it turned out and I ended up liking the floral fabric more than I thought I would!
The Details
Finished Size: 48″ x 48″
Fabric Front: Moda Apricot & Ash – Coral Dotty Plus & Ash Rosebuds; Moda Bella Solids in Off White, Lime, & Periwinkle
Fabric Back: Moda Apricot & Ash – Coral Dotty Plus, Light Lime Dotty Plus, White with Coral Dotty Plus
Zips! was created for the South Florida Modern Challenge, “Through Your Modern Eyes.” The instructions for this challenge called for each quilter to find inspiration by reviewing the work of an artist from any time period. I’m not super into art, so like any normal human being I started Googling!
I found this work from artist Barnett Newman and used it as my inspiration. The challenge rules were very specific in that it could not be an exact replica of the work, so I created four sections, rotating them clockwise. Mr. Newman referred to the vertical band of color used in his works as a “Zip,” which is where the title of the quilt comes from.
Adobe Illustrator design mock up.
Piecing & Quilting Detail
The back of the quilt.
I designed the quilt in Adobe Illustrator and I challenged myself to work in an earthy, neutral color palette which is not my usual style. The quilting is 1/8″ overlapping lines, intended to mimic the brush strokes you might see in a painting.
I did not place in the final voting for the challenge, but you can check out some of the other entries here.
Another quilt made for a Curated Quilts Mini Challenge! This quilt was made for the HST/Subtraction Issue and was not accepted (if you have been reading about my various quilts in the gallery, there is a lot of rejection!). I chose the backing fabric because it was made shortly after quarantine started and these looked like the coronavirus spike proteins to me.
Quilt backing.
Initially and as usual, I didn’t like the color palette. However, after I mocked up this design in Adobe Illustrator it began to grow on me. There was a method to my color placement as seen below. Each color was matched up with a grey that had a similar value and placed in the opposite position in the design. There was one exception where I made a swap, marked by the X’s, because the Silver and Breeze color values were too close. I ended up liking this design so much I made a larger version and two as gifts!
Adobe Illustrator design mock up.
Adobe Illustrator design mock up with color placement strategy.
This mini quilt was made for my very first MQG Swap as a part of QuiltCon 2020. My swap partner was Sue Mueller (@susnquiltinaotr on Instagram). Sue said that she liked Ruby Star Society fabric, bright colors, and geometric designs. I also found out that she liked Star Trek which led me to this galaxy design. This mini was designed in Adobe Illustrator, foundation paper pieced, and composed of 400 HSTs!
MQG Swap fabric pull.
Adobe Illustrator mock up of the galaxy design.
For the fabric pull, I thought that Ruby Star Society’s Speckled fabric by Rashida Coleman-Hale would create the perfect illusion of a star dotted galaxy. This fabric line is also one of my favorites and they keep adding more colors! I used a little help from my mom, who is also a Star Trek fan, to come up with a name for it. Find more information about the title, here.
Sue and I swapped a little early at QuiltCon in Austin because Sue was on her way to becoming a Super Volunteer for the event, so we met in the lecture hall to swap our minis. I received this fantastic triangle shaped mini that features fabric from Anna Maria Horner. I love when Sue posts pictures of her sewing space and I can spot my mini on her wall!
The Details
Finished Size: 20″ x 20″
Fabric Front: Ruby Star Society Speckled in Onyx, Navy, Wine Time, Metallic Berry, Metallic Daisy, Metallic Peony, & Metallic White Gold
Fabric Back: Ruby Start Society Speckled in Metallic Turquoise
I made this quilt as a pattern tester for Audrey Esarey of Cotton and Bourbon. The teal and white wedges are paper pieced and the rest of the pattern is cut with templates and pieced traditionally. You can get your own copy of this pattern here!
One completed paper-pieced arc
Quilting detail
The color palette I chose was actually from a Curated Quilts mini challenge that I never had time to get to. Audrey writes great patterns, so I didn’t have to give too much feedback and I ended up with a fantastic mini quilt for my wall! If you want to try something that looks harder than it is, this is your pattern!
The Details
Finished Size: 24″ x 24″
Fabric Front: Kona
Fabric Back: I randomly pieced together a backing from a Carolyn Friedlander Gleaned layer cake
Binding: faced using the Carolyn Friedlander fabric
This quilt was created for the Modern Quilt Guild Hoffman Me + You Fabric Challenge in November of 2019. It uses all of the challenge fabrics plus other Hoffman solids.
The design of this quilt uses big geometric shapes, transparency and a mirrored top and bottom half with a twist. If you look closely, each shape on top has an equal and opposite curvy counterpart on the bottom. This quilt was traditionally pieced in sections, using the measurements obtained from my design in Adobe Illustrator.
Piecing & Quilting detail.
The title Chirality comes from a property of molecules where the mirror image cannot be superimposed on itself. This quilt is a two dimensional depiction of this phenomenon, so it may not be entirely evident at first. The chiral center is the green rectangle in the middle. I tried explaining the concept to a friend, and many months later she messaged me that she finally understood what it meant! She had seen an episode of Breaking Bad where the character Walt White explains the concept. I found an article in Popular Mechanics, here, that references the episode and gives more details.
Back of quilt and facing
This quilt was juried in to the Fabric Challenge category at QuiltCon 2020 in Austin, TX. I’m pretty sure the ladies below are reading the category information sign next to my quilt, but I like to think they’re admiring my work. One fun thing at QuiltCon, two of my quilts were in different categories but both hanging on the aisle right across from the other! I was able to snap a picture of both at the same time!
I like to pretend they’re looking at my quilt.
The rare opportunity to take a photo with two of my quilts at the same time!
The Details
Finished Size: 47″ x 57″
Fabric Front: Hoffman Me + You in Willow, Seabreeze, Powder, Chalk; Me + You Indah Batik in Geranium, Sweet Pea, Aqua, Pacific & Bubble Gum
Fabric Back: Hoffman Scissors White/Gold
Binding: Faced using same material as backing
Batting: Hobbs 80/20 Bleached
Thread: Aurifil White (2021), Iceberg (2846), Bright Grey Blue (2847), Sugar Paper (5008), Mint (2830), & Medium Orchid (2479)
I was lucky enough to be able to attend “Adventures in Tiny Piecing” with Chawne Kimber (@cauchycomplete) in May of 2019 with the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild. Being the rebel I am and never wanting to follow a pattern, I pulled fabric from the scraps I brought and started my first tiny piecing project based on a Courthouse Steps block.
First day progress
After the workshop, I became a little obsessed with continuing to add on, especially after I saw how the colors were beginning to interact with each other! I kept going, and going, and going…until it grew to finish at 36″ x 36″. This quilt is named after a combination of the block and the song Kangaroo Court by Capital Cities. Also, the term Kangaroo Court was fitting for the time.
Side Piecing & Quilting Detail
Center Piecing & Quilting Detail
Yes, I have a white facing. Don’t @ me or I’ll explain my reasoning.
This quilt was traditionally pieced. My method for keeping it as accurate as possible was using 1″ strips of colors, sewing on, and then trimming down just before sewing on the next row. I pieced colored strips all in the same order about 6″ wide, cut a 1″ strip, and shifted the strip down or up next to the one before it to achieve the movement in the colors.
Show and Share at Baltimore MQG meeting when she was finally finished!
I was super excited to find out that Kangaroo Court has been selected to be a part of the MQG Showcase at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX in October of 2021. I bought a plane ticket for another day trip and will post pictures here then!
MQG Showcase, International Quilt Festival, Houston, 2021
MQG Showcase, International Quilt Festival, Houston, 2021
Here we go again! Another mini quilt created for a Curated Quilts challenge. This was for the Black & White issue and was my first selection to the mini quilt gallery!
In August of 2018 I went back to school for Master of Health Administration at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. My department was located in Hampton House on the East Baltimore campus. The 9th floor of Hampton House had a nice study room with a long row of windows that looked out over the street below and the Johns Hopkins Hospital, including the infamous dome.
The iconic Johns Hopkins Hospital dome on a snowy day, as seen from the 9th floor of Hampton House.
There is a building directly across the street with an interesting brick detail consisting of offset straight lines, as seen in the photo below. Except there is ONE in the third row that isn’t quite straight. It drives me nuts and my eyes gravitate toward it every time. I always wonder, did they install it incorrectly or has it moved over time as the building has aged? I may never know!
Inspiration photo, Johns Hopkins Hospital.
These straight lines were the inspiration for my black and white mini challenge quilt. I recreated the lines, including the crooked one! Much to my delight it was selected to be included in the mini quilt gallery!
My View From Hampton House (No. 12)
The Details
Finished Size: 13″ x 13″
Fabric Front: Kona Black & White
Fabric Back: Something blue and random from my small stash
Binding: Kona Black
Batting: Hobbs 80/20 bleached (I would have loved to try black batting!)
Thread: Aurifil Black (2692)
Shows: None
Publications: Curated Quilts, Issue 10 – Black & White
Blossom Burst was created as my entry for the 2019 MQG Riley Blake Fabric Challenge. This quilt is 48″ by 48″ and much to my surprise, it won first place in challenge! For this quilt I designed freezer paper piecing templates using Adobe Illustrator. The blocks feature triangles, diamonds and parallelograms in finished sizes of 3″, 4″, 5″ and 6″.
First, I tested my templates to make sure they looked the way I wanted. Next, I used colored pencils and paper to sketch out my color transitions using the color palette I picked. I liked my first attempt on the left best, and got to work.
See the evolution of Blossom Burst on my “design floor” over time in the video below. The picture quality is poor due to bad lighting in my tiny downtown apartment at the time. I started out making blocks that I knew belonged in different areas according to my color sketch, and then filled in from there to blend around the quilt.
Quilting & Piecing Detail
Blossom Burst was also selected to be a part of the MQG Showcase at International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX in October of 2019. I made a day trip to Houston (yes, same day flights) to attend the show and see it hanging in person. I met up with Audrey of Cotton & Bourbon and we (along with the flat Steph Skardal I made) were able to hang out and walk the show. It was a great day!
Blossom Burst at the MQG Showcase at the International Quilt Festival, Houston, TX.
Sarah, Audrey, and Flat Steph in the photo booth at International Quilt Festival, 2019.
The Details
Finished Size: 48″ x 48″
Fabric Front: Riley Blake – Blossom in Baby Pink, On White Navy, Denim, Tone on Tone White, & Navy; Basic Shades in Robin; 1/8″ Stripes in Denim, Navy, Mustard & Baby Pink; Crayola Kaleidoscope in Robins Egg; and Confetti Cotton Solids in White, Denim, Navy, Yellow & Fuchsia
Fabric Back: Riley Blake – Blossom in Baby Pink, On White Navy, Shades in Robin, and Confetti Cotton Solids in Denim & Fuchsia
Binding: Scrappy using Riley Blake 1/8″ Stripes in Denim, Navy, Yellow & Baby Pink
Batting: Hobbs 80/20 Bleached
Thread: Aurifil Dove (2600)
Shows:
MQG Showcase at International Quilt Festival, Houston, TX, October 2019
QuiltCon 2020, Austin, TX, February 2020
Publications: None
Awards: First Place, MQG Riley Blake Fabric Challenge, 2019
