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Splendid colour tips for quilters: Colour palettes

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Developing a colour palette is important when creating a fabric pull for a block, and when that s ame block repeats across your quilt top. Also if you have defined a colour recipe for your block so that the quilt is built of those similarly coloured blocks. Let’s start with a quick look at the colour wheel. It can be a handy tool in your quilting process, for planning a colour palette – when you want your quilt to have a deliberate, well-thought-out colour scheme. The colour wheel works best for a quilt design if you add the interesting group of colours that isn’t part of the wheel: neutrals. Meaning, black, white, grey and brown in all values and shades. Three ways to use the colour wheel I will share three ways to build a palette using the colour wheel. There are plenty of others, of course! A harmonious palette For a harmonious palette, you will choose colours that sit next to each other on the colour wheel. For your block or quilt, you will then pick fabri...
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Finished Moxie quilted zipper bag

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Now that I’ve already introduced the Oomph quilted zipper bag to you, I can share this progress shot of my quirky quarter log cabin blocks from early 2000s waiting to become zipper bag panels. When I took the photo, I was still considering this way to pair them: However, I soon discovered that I wanted one of my zipper bags appear sort of red and the other one more blueish, so these became the panels for the “blue” zipper bag: One of my favourite phases in the zipper bag making process is when I've sewn the bag into shape and turned it right side out. I can never imagine the finished shape and size beforehand – my 3-dimensional thinking just isn’t that good. So this moment always feels like a reveal. Then, I like to smooth out the bag lining, pushing its corners into the corners of the outer piece, and continue finger-pressing both pieces away from the zipper. I could use clips to hold the pieces in place, but I prefer pins. This time, I even took a photo of the zipp...
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Finished Oomph quilted zipper bag

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When did I sew these quirky quarter log cabin blocks? I don’t remember exactly, but my guess is that it must have been in the early 2000s. A few years ago, I found six of these blocks in a forgotten storage box. I added some strips to the edges and sewed two and two together – and promptly forgot all about them. This year, the time had come for these quilt blocks to become something. I added a strip to make the surface into a suitable size for a zipper bag, then quilted it and – ta-dah! – the first zipper bag panel was ready! I had to pair this panel with a different surface, which features surprisingly many solids or nearly solids! Such fabrics are a small minority in my stash. Here, the quilted, untrimmed zipper bag panels are waiting for the next phase in the bag-making process: A lot happened between the previous photo and this next one: Trimming Cutting the lining pieces Choosing the zipper and attaching it Side tabs cutting, sewing and attaching...
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How Lexical turned me into a pattern designer

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I was going to analyse Lexical, the quilt that launched me as a pattern designer, but I ended up writing a post that isn’t really about the quilt itself. Instead, I found myself reflecting on my own journey. After all, only I can tell that story – anyone can analyse a quilt if they want to. Here’s my journey which led to publishing Lexical, my first commercial quilt pattern – and the journey did NOT begin with a thought “I’m going to become a quilt pattern designer”. Before Lexical, I already loved writing instructions I’d already published numerous quilt block tutorials on my blog and written tutorials and how-to articles for the Finnish quilting magazine. I had dreamed of putting together a book that would combine my quilt patterns with the stories behind the quilts. (Some ten years ago, I even had a professional designer create a couple of sample page layouts for me so that I could see how my book might look.) Back then, though, publishing something commercially was d...
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3 tests every quilt block should pass

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Today I’m sharing three simple tests that every quilt block should pass. They’re especially worth doing when you’re making a scrappy quilt, where you may have picked a wide colour variety for the blocks. Before we get to the three tests, though, there’s an entrance exam. If a block doesn’t pass that, it cannot move further in your project. The entrance exam for quilt blocks: sewing a test block If you’re making quilt blocks following a pattern, first sew one block using expendable fabrics. Not poor-quality fabrics though, because if your test block colours work with the rest of the quilt, you may very well end up using it in your project. If the test block turns out to be of wrong size, you can also use it as part of your quilt backing. So it is worth picking decent fabrics even for your test block, though fabrics that you aren’t in love with. I often work out my own measurements for blocks, so I’ve sewn more than my fair share of test blocks. Once I had a particular...
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