Found on a restaurant napkin

"Quilt. Eat. Sleep. Repeat."

No explanation required.

Let the scraps fall where they may

I finally had an available Saturday that coincided with a guild meeting of the Modern Quilt Guild in Chattanooga. So, I decided to go. The meeting was well attended and the program was on free-form piecing. 

The program was a hands-on exercise with the goal of providing new quilters—or quilters new to free-form piecing—with an opportunity to experiment with this technique; a popular patchwork technique that is found in many of the modern style quilts.

Fabric scraps of various sizes were sorted into bags for free-form piecing.

Various fabric scraps were sorted and put into brown bags according to their relative size. Apparently, the guild members had been collecting scraps over the last several months with this exercise in mind because there were four work areas set up in the room. Through a blind draw, scraps from the "small," then "medium," and if necessary, the "large" bag were assembled with no forethought or angst over choosing a layout or pattern. The randomly chosen scraps were sewn together intuitively to form patchwork (note, I didn't use the word "block").

Free-form pieced patchwork.

These are a few of the pieces that came from the group I was with. These pieces are much like the "crumbs" patchwork that I referenced in this blog post. It's all about using random bits and pieces of fabric and sewing them together without a specific plan, with no heed to coordinating fabrics, styles, colors or prints, and just letting the bits fall where they may. Free-form!

Gwen Marston calls this technique "liberated quiltmaking" in her books of the same name. Whatever you call it, it's easy sewing and fun patchwork.

A January drive

This is what it looked like earlier this week.

Interstate 24 driving through Monteagle, TN.

Although the sun was bright and the sky was electric blue, the temperature was in the single digits. These photos are not motion blur photography. The icicles were formed from the run-off water that drips from the cliffs of the Cumberland plateau.

Frozen run-off water from the cliffs of the Cumberland plateau.

When I arrived at my first sales appointment, the quilt shop owner had a steaming cup of hot chocolate and a chicken biscuit waiting for me. We love our quilt shop owners! They are the just so thoughtful and considerate towards their fabric reps as well as their customers.

A field in middle Tennessee dusted with a light blanket of snow.

At mid-week, we were excited to hear the temperature was "getting up to 20 degrees."

Pandora and Spring Bouquet

Quilts can help stave away the chill when there's a deep freeze outside—whether you're snuggled up beneath one, or piecing the top for a new one. This is Pandora. It's a pattern designed by one of my fabulous pattern designer friends, Chris Hoover, at Whirligig Designs.

"Pandora" made with a package of Spring Bouquet pre-cut strips

I just finished piecing this top using a pre-cut strip collection called Spring Bouquet. (Gee… if we "Think Spring," will the frost melt??) This is a strip collection of all metallics: swirls, mini leaves, small scale geometrics and tiny flowers. "Spring bouquet" adequately describes the rich, warm and vibrant colors in this color scheme.

After auditioning several possibilities for the setting triangles, I chose a creamy white metallic. The neutral color provided an unobtrusive background which did not compete with the saturated colors of the 9-patch blocks. It framed the composition nicely.

Spring Bouquet pre-cut strips from Blank Quilting.

The centers of the 9-patch blocks are various fabrics from additional collections. If you decide to create a Pandora quilt yourself, you could pull fabrics from your scrap basket for these 4.5" center patches, or the pattern provides a yardage amount.

Strip sets await.

This is the next strip quilt project for which I'll be using the Prairie Wagon collection. These strip sets are patiently awaiting assembly while basking in the morning sunlight. I hope the sunlight and your quilts are keeping you warm these cold, frosty days.