Tilkunviilaaja®

Today’s post concentrates on turquoise colour in quilts. You will get a tip or two on what to watch out for and many examples of how to use the turquoise colour successfully. The name "turquoise" for the semi-precious stone and its colour comes from the French word "turquois," which means "Turkish". This refers to the stone’s trading origins. (Source: https://www.thefactsite.com/turquoise-facts/ ) Turquoise has an element of both blue and green, and thus it is a close relative to them both. The colour is often associated with inventiveness and creativity. What to beware when using turquoise? To many of us, turquoise brings tropical waters to mind. A bright turquoise together with other bright colours may make the quilt surface resemble a Hawaiian shirt. (Though this may be the quilter’s goal of course.) I planned to create a stunningly beautiful zipper pouch from a combination of turquoise and a lovely red, but the result stunned me in a different...

This latest project of mine began with a tempting charm pack and no real plan, but a lot of hope! Here’s how my Kaffe Fassett squares quilt project started – and where it is now. Fabric bundles have always tempted me because they save me a lot of selecting and buying time. When I go to a fabric shop, it is easier to pick up a bundle of fat quarters, for example, than it is to pull the fabric I would like, then have the salesperson make the cuts. A bundle will also relieve me of the decision on how much to buy. Bundles are great that way, too! I’ve rarely bought charm packs or layer cakes though, and when I have, I’ve struggled to use them. I haven’t wanted to cut them up, nor have I figured how to use them whole. Until the recent purchase of a Kaffe Fassett charm pack. I came up with an idea of sorts for using the squares as they are, in scrappy blocks. And because all my fabrics and scraps are prewashed (because the not prewashed fabrics irritate my skin), I gave the squares a ...

Over the years, I’ve often been asked how I plan my quilts. Do I have drawings? Do I plan my colours in general, or for the quilt blocks? What exactly is my design process? The short answer is that I don’t plan, not really. Usually I pick a block design and figure out how many blocks to make for a certain size, then I sew enough blocks and arrange them into a pleasing (enough) design. I use what I have made and that's it. For smaller pieces, the designs tend to grow organically. In this post, I share four examples on my processes. 1. Starting with a flimsy idea Here is an example or my creative quilting process from 2013 when I created a mini quilt for a competition. The theme was “Patchwork Dance”. My whole work was based on a flimsy idea of the graphics used to describe dance steps. I’d also seen an image of a quilt where multicoloured and white strips alternated, and decided to use a similar approach for the surrounding area. I had a vision of joyful, salsa-like colours ...