Back to Millie

In March, I took a quilting class using a  pattern called Modern Millie, from Thornberry Quilts.  I'm just now getting back to it, trying to meet a June 2 deadline.


These are my fabric choices.

The block is a slice-and-insert technique.  Usually you use the same background fabric so the strips really stand out. 

I wondered what it would look like if the background fabrics were different and they became the focus, instead of the strips.   It's a little wild, so I'm going to name my version "Wild Millie".

These blocks hung on my design wall for so long that I had to put a pin in each one so they wouldn't fall down and get mixed up.  I eventually had to carefully remove them so I could use the design wall for my curtain.   Since I finished that earlier this week, I'm back to Millie.

I Finished My Curtain

Curtains are fun to make.  It's just like making a quilt top, and it feels like cheating because you can stop right there without making the sandwich, doing the quilting, the binding, the sleeve, and the label.

This was my starting point.  Aside from the focus fabric, I planned on using these nine fabrics along with white.

 I wound up dropping three of them and adding six others.
 

The fabric you see at the top and bottom is kind of unusual.  I thought it was regular old cotton when I bought it, but it had a lot of stretch in it (which I didn't notice at the time).  It's not a knit, so I'm not sure what it's problem is.  The strips were originally twice as wide; I decided to fold them in half to make them stronger before adding more blocks to them.

I picked fabrics that read mostly as a solid.  After I sewed each seam, I top stitched it to keep it a little neater once it's laundered, and also to give it a more finished look.

Orange was one of the new colors I added.  I love the Marimekko-style of that orange floral.  It fits perfectly with the vibe of the focus fabric.

I didn't make it very wide, because I wanted that center panel to be very visible.  If it was much wider, it would get lost in the folds.

I found some nice white rings that complement the modern retro style of the curtain.

Monday is Fun Day - Cow in a Bird Cage

I went to an antique mall earlier this month, looking for things to put on my deck for the summer.

I came home with this bird cage on a stand.  I originally had a bright pink geranium inside.  That looked really pretty until the wind blew everything over.

 

I still wanted something in there, so I added a cow ornament.  This makes much more sense than a plant, or a bird, for that matter.

From the Vault - Beach Quilt

From the Vault is a series where I show quilts I've made in past years.

This quilt, made in 2010, is an abstract representation of sunrise over an ocean beach.  It's a small piece, around 12" x 18" as far as I remember.  Right now it's in a box in the basement and I'm too lazy to dig it out and measure it.

I ripped a bunch of strips so I would have ravelly raw edges, then laid them over a piece of batting and sewed them down.

I used a variety of embellishments.  Here you see shiny gold-colored beads that are supposed to look like the sky glinting through breaks in the clouds.  

I like these beads - I also used them to join the front and back of my Voodoo Purse.

This is the sun.  It's a charm that a friend brought back from China for me, after she toured a cloisonné factory.

The three orange V's are gulls, made out of ribbon that has wire edges.  

A seashell button marks where the ocean waves roll back and forth over the sandy beach.

A sand pail (button), temporarily abandoned on the beach...

... maybe in order to check out these oysters.

 

For the back, I turned under the edges of the blue material and used a small running stitch to attach it to the batting, so no stitches would show on the front.

Monday is Fun Day - Little White Cabinet

I bought a little white cabinet at a garage sale last month.  I like little cabinets very much.  It's fun to put things in the drawers and forget what's in there.

There's a little scuffing and smashed edges, but it had really cute drawer pulls so I bought it.

Each drawer is only 3 ½ " x 4 ½ ", so even though the center drawer says "socks", you'd have a hard time fitting many in there.  Probably the cabinet originally came with the white knobs, and the previous owner replaced some of them.

I didn't have any imminent use for the drawers, so I'm storing them in the basement for now.  I turned the cabinet on its side and am using it to display my charm squares and retro salt and pepper shakers.

It sits next to the red dress form which came from the same garage sale.

Making It Mine - Rotary Cutter Holder

In the Making It Mine series, I take something I bought and put my own spin on it.

So far I showed you

• retro lamp
• bird cage
• little blue cabinet
• chair
• cabinet knobs

Today is the simplest one yet.

I bought this at a resale shop a few years ago.  It seemed like it would be useful for something, but it wasn't too sturdy.

I painted it white, tried different things on it, tried to throw it out, left it in the basement for a long time, then recently hung my rotary cutters on it.  

It works good for this, so it can relax and not worry about me trying to get rid of it any longer.

Red / Brown Scrappy Improv

I belong to a modern quilting club at a local quilt shop, and we're working our way through Lucky Spool's Essential Guild to Modern Quilt Making.   In March we covered the chapter that Denyse Schmidt wrote on improvisational patchwork.

We were given a lunch bag filled with one color of scraps.  The facilitator was encouraging and said we only had to spend 20 minutes making a block.  Just pull the fabric out without looking at it, and sew it together, she said.  Not wanting to be a party pooper, I agreed. 

The first time we met this year, when we did the chapter on color, we were asked what two colors we wouldn't put together in a quilt.  I said red and brown, because I don't like either one at all.

So guess what?   The bag I was given had red.  The woman next to me opted out of the challenge, so I took her bag, too. She had brown.  Oh boy.  Now I had my anti-wish come true.

I didn't take a picture of those scraps, because I waited too long to do the project, and I was in a hurry.  What you see in the bags above are my scraps so I could recreate the starting concept for you.  (And yes, I did have a small amount of red and brown of my own.) 

(upper left quadrant)

I decided I didn't want to spend time making two blocks that I'd never use again, so I went ahead with plans to make a quilt top.  I was determined to Tim-Gunn it ("make it work").

To stretch the small amount of fabric I was given, I went to my own scrap bin and added more red and brown, along with pops of yellow, green, teal and cream. 

 

 

(upper right quadrant)

The scraps were pretty small, and all different shapes.  I just kept sewing pieces together until I had a hunk around the size of printer paper.  Then I could swap them around and get the colors distributed somewhat.

The only fabric that wasn't a scrap was the flower seed packet fabric in the lower center.  I put a little of it in each "block" to tie it all together.   

I also added a sprinkling of lights so all the dark colors wouldn't just run together into boredom.

 

(bottom half)

And I had to add my favorite color, chartreuse.

 

(the whole thing)

Here's the finished top, approximately 30" x 44".  It's wild and intense, and nothing I would ever have done on my own.  I felt good about making the effort to do something different, but it's not something I would repeat.

The woman that donated the scraps really loved it and said she wished she could hang it in her new house.  And the facilitator said if anyone wanted to donate their tops, she would take them and make charity quilts out of them.  I told them I wanted to keep mine.  I was sort of planning to turn it into a rug, especially since my other try at that wound up a wall hanging.  

But I don't have these colors anywhere else in my house.  And it's been sitting around here for a couple of months now, which tells me I probably don't want to put any more time into it.  Quilting is my least favorite part of the process, and that would be next.

I think I'll just give it to the scrap donor next time I see her and make two people happy.  That way I get to work on my curtain instead.