Geometric Eames Quilt

November has ended and I can't believe it's already December 2nd. I have so much that I want to share from the past few weeks: knitting projects finished, hosting a baby shower for a friend, cooking lots of yummy Thanksgiving food, and Christmas sewing projects I'm working on. But first, I'm so excited to share this quilt that I made specifically for our bed and also for Quilt Con's quilt show. Quilt Con is the first modern quilter's conference and strictly modern quilt show happening in Texas in February. I'm planning on attending with lots of my PMQG friends. Friday was the deadline for submitting quilts to be considered for the show. I'll find out by December 30, if it's accepted. Back to the quilt! 

I've been wanting to make a new quilt for our bed for the past few months. I have one quilt for our bed, but it's mostly white and pastel colors, much better suited for the Spring and Summer seasons. 

Since we live and breathe mid-century design, I really wanted to make something that reflected this passion. I've been looking for inspiration and thinking about ideas for awhile. A few months ago, Chris found this print ad designed by Charles Eames for Herman Miller. We both knew this would make an amazing quilt, but I thought that it would be nearly impossible to make this into a quilt. 

Fast forward a few months, and as I was looking for something to make for Quilt Con, I pasted by this photo again and I knew I had to somehow make this happen. Thankfully, after careful studying of the photo, I figured out that this could be pieced in rows made up of only two shapes, an 60 degree triangle and a parallelogram.  I used kona solids, white, four grays, and black, made a diagram, do lots and lots and lots of math! ;) Then got to sewing! Once I finished the top, I hadn't given much thought to quilting it, but after realizing how much bigger this quilt was than any other quilt I've made, I soon realized that it would be impossible to try and quilt this on my small machine. 

Thank goodness for Modern Domestic! They have the most amazing mid-arm quilting machine, in which you load the quilt on (it's stationary) and move the sewing machine around as you quilt the design. It's so much fun and makes quilting so much more enjoyable! They were nice enough to let me try it out and play on this incredible piece of Bernina magic. I'm not sure if I'll be able to go back to quilting on my small machine. ;) 

I decided to quilt densely. I really wanted to add lots of texture to this quilt, so within each color I quilted a specific geometric or mod quilting design. Here are some close-ups of the quilting: 

And here's the quilt! 

I love how the shapes seem to pop out and become three dimensional. No matter what happens with this Geometric Eames quilt at Quilt Con, it will be much loved here at our home! In fact, I haven't taken it down from this wall yet, I'm enjoying it as wall art! ;) Thanks everyone for the encouragement with this quilt along the way, it's been such a fun process! 

I'm pondering about srinking the design, editing a few rows and choosing a new color way, but making a smaller lap quilt. I'm considering making a pattern for this, and I'm wondering if there would be any interest? If so, let me know! 

Modern Domestic

A few weeks ago, I shared that I'm teaching beginning quilting at Modern Domestic. What's that, you ask? Well, Modern Domestic is a local Portland sewing studio. It offers two fully equipped classrooms, a warm and knowledgeable staff, and a community of creative makers. They also host many classes and open sew times. Besides those draws, it is simply a beautiful space to work in and on amazing Bernina machines. 

Last Thursday, I taught my first class of a three session class. I was a little nervous to be teaching in a new venue. I kept thinking all day that I had the day and time wrong, or that I would arrive late. Does this happen to anyone else?! But alas, I arrived in plenty of time. I have four students who are a lot of fun and we had a great time getting to know each other while learning to quilt! Everything turned out really well, I'm excited to teach again this week. 

I'm teaching how to make a quilt from start to finish using this pattern for the top: 

Here are some of the fabric choices of a few of my students. Won't these look great?!

If you've thought about wanting to learn to sew garments or make a quilt, but something has stopped you, make sure to check out Modern Domestic! You'll become the  you thought you'd never be! ;) 

Half Log Cabin // Tutorial

First off, thanks for the feedback from the yesterday's boy baby quilt! I received a few texts, tweets, and comments, so much so that I thought I would share a little mini tutorial today. Also, I finished another one that I plan on posting to etsy, even though I'm so in love with it. But I do enjoy seeing a quilt go to a new happy home. 

If you Google "Half Log Cabin" many different tutorials pop up of all sorts of options that you can create with this simple block. When I was beginning to plan this quilt, I couldn't find the exact proportions that I wanted to make, so I improvised and wrote out my own. Here are my own measurements: 

Cut two of each of these measurements. Then starting with the square, sew (with a quarter-inch seam) to the top and bottom the 3" x 3.5" strips, then to the sides 3" x 8.5" and so on. I found it was easiest to press the seams outward after sewing each strip.  The block should measure 20" x 20".

Make four of these blocks. For this quilt, I mixed high and low value prints in each block, and randomly placed the fabrics in different spots within each block. I found that this made for a more random, evenly placed look when the quilt is finished. 

After the the four blocks are made, I numbered the big blocks, then stacked the quarter blocks. I arranged these blocks a pattern. I found it easiest to look at the longest strip of the blocks to distinguish them from one another. Then, I attempted to have one of each of the four blocks in each horizontal row, and one in each of the vertical rows. That way no two blocks were right beside each other. Finally, I looked at the orientation of the longest strip and tried to make sure that each block faced all four ways. However, in marking this photo, I realized that the number 4 block faces left twice. But overall, you can't tell, and I think it makes for a balanced quilt! 

Finally, sew each block together. I like to sew the horizontal rows together to make long strips. Then sew each row together to make the quilt. You have yourself a quilt top! For directions on making a quilt sandwich and quilting it, there are many great books on the topic, Modern Log Cabin by Susan Beal or The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman are two great books to start with and they are local to Portland! ;) 

Or if you're in the Portland area and want to learn, come to the class I'm teaching at Modern Domestic! I'm really excited to be one of the new teachers there. We're offering a beginning quilt class from start to finish! Click here to check out the Baby Block Quilt and to sign up. 

This Half Log Cabin quilt is very addicting, as soon as I finished this one, I knew that I wanted to make another one with my Echo fabric by Lotta Jansdotter. 

If you have any questions, let me know! I'm happy to help! ;) 

Happy Quilting!