Susan's quilt ... a scrappy 9-Patch using all different shades of red and brown. Part of what makes this quilt so effective is the way Susan used so many different textures, so many different shades, and varied the scale of print. What really pops is the fabric that is a paisley with reds and browns and just one little spark of blue.
Light red is always a shade that is hard to grasp when on a search through your stash because we have labeled that tint "pink" so we breeze right on by the pink fabric basket. But look how well the pinks work in with the reds keeping a good flow of value across the quilt top.
Susan's plans are to use this quilt on her bed during the month of February. How perfect is that since this quilt looks to me just like chocolate covered cherries or strawberries dipped in chocolate. I would never have thought to use this color combination which just goes to show there is inspiration no matter where you look (or taste LOL).
I used an
edge-to-edge quilting pattern called 1458 HEARTS AND VINES FLIPPED E2E for Susan's quilt and got to hone my "relocate to two points" while working on the quilt.
First I set up my rows with alternating plus and created a CSQ file of just two rows sized specifically for Susan's quilt top. I was pushing the limit of throat space as I rolled - the two row pass is about 17.5" but with the start/top point in the middle I actually needed 22" of sewing space. I ended up going back in and dividing my CSQ two row file into two separate rows when I got the the bottom half of the quilt. There is nothing worse than to be quilting along and get the "abort" message due to an obstacle in the sewing path! That is when you take time out, regroup, breath ... and have another chocolate covered cherry. LOL
I mentioned earlier that I used "relocate to two points" with each roll to set up the next two (or one) row. Because of quilt shrinkage I couldn't just use the start/end points. I used the points of the hearts in the quilting pattern and my crosshairs to check to make sure I kept the pattern lining up correctly as I stitched my way down the quilt. It took a little bit to get used to seeing the quilt design not line up on the screen but knowing that it was lining up on the quilt. I also drew a "throat space-quilt edge" pattern boundary for each pass so I could check to make sure the rows were going to fit in the stitching space. That little trick helped me know when to switch to a single row pass.
Like the way this pattern looks? Want to add it to your pattern library? It is one of 3 patterns that for one day only ... the MONDAY ONE DAY featured patterns markdown of 30%. The patterns featured for today only at only $10.50 per pattern are:
STATLER
INTELLIQUILTER
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