Tilkunviilaaja®

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...

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...

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...

A couple of days ago I came across a small piece that I’d sewn of half-square triangles. It was a small project to work on at our summer place where I only do hand-sewing – if I sew at all. I had the HSTs with me and sewed them together by hand. Nothing particularly exciting about that find, really. Until I happened to see a picture of “what was going on 10 years ago,” with that piece in it. I’d sewn it together a decade ago, thinking that it would become a quilted item – and it’s still in that same state. This got me thinking about how long things sometimes take in quilting. At least in my quilting. And because I have a lot of material in my blog, it didn’t take long to find examples to share with you. No progress in ten years Almost exactly ten years ago, in July 2016 I had hand-sewn the binding on my Heading North quilt and taken one of my most memorable quilt-finish photos of it. When I was sewing the flying geese blocks for that quilt, I got a whole bunch of bonus half-...

Now, let’s see if I can come up with enough to say about the photos of 9-patches that I plan to share today. Ever since I finished the quilted Rumba bag and bound and finished the Maxim quilt, I've been able to focus on that project wholeheartedly. I've been working my way through my many containers of leftover fabric pieces (they hold resource pieces, not scraps) and pulling out everything that's large enough to yield at least one 2" square. Quite often I find pieces large enough for me to cut three squares but not four. Why is that? It’s so inconvenient because I need two sets of four squares for each block. Or alternatively, just one square because every 9-patch gets either a dark or a light centre square, and it's never of the same fabric as the other squares in that block. Around the centre I sew four lighter and four darker squares. 9-patches usually turn out looking rather nice, especially after I’ve pressed the block. I avoid making ugly ones,...

The other day, I started thinking about the thing people call “an eye for colour”. Some people get compliments on their eye for colour, but I’ve also heard people claim that they don’t have one at all. Perhaps it’s more to do about recognising one’s preferences – or not knowing what one likes? If you aren’t certain about your eye for colour and would like develop it, you may find it difficult to know how to start. Here’s a solution for you: seven quilting habits that you can adopt – and develop your colour sense at the same time. At a glance, the 7 quilting habits are: 1. Know your own ways 2. Think about what you really like 3. Forget about pleasing someone else 4. Stop comparing your work to others 5. Face your fears 6. Give yourself encouragement 7. Return to your successes 1. Know your own ways For a long time, I thought that there was only one correct way to sew a quilt. I thought one had to pick a block pattern and choose the fabrics, then one would sew as m...