Blue bars minimalist quilt

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Ages ago, I saw a preview post for Modern Minimal: 20 Bold & Graphic Quilts and fell IN LOVE with the quilt on the cover.

Even though it was folded and you couldn’t see the entire thing, and it was a teeny picture, I was so inspired I pulled out all my yellows and quickly did my own spin on it.

When it was done, I posted on Instagram and someone offered to buy it within 20 minutes. Maybe that’s why I never posted about it here in my blog? It went fast. And that was 2 years ago.

But it was also quite popular. I had quite a number of private comments from others saying how much they liked it and how sorry there were to hear that someone else got it.

So, since the first one was so sunny and yellow, I decided to do the same in blues. This time the process went a bit slower.

Instead of improv, I had made sure I wrote down all the pieces on the yellow quilt so I could make it again. I have one notebook where I try and sketch out all my quilt ideas and notes and measurements, so at least they’re all in one place.

I pulled all the blue solids, and some other color groupings, editing until it felt right.

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Piecing was easy and straightforward enough.

 

Sorry for blur!  Eventually I decided it needed to be bigger, so added a border.

Then finally, decide on backing, piece as needed. Baste.

It took a while for me to decide how to quilt it. I’d done straight line quilting on the last version of this, the yellow, and wanted something a bit “more”. But not *too* much, you know?

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Here I am testing designs on scraps. Initially I was going to use lofty poly batting, then while testing remembered how I don’t like working with it. I changed the batting used and was much happier.

Going around some blogs was the wavy line quilting, which looks fantastic but is just as easy as straight line. Still somewhat boring to do, but the finished texture. Oh my.

Even with needle troubles, thread issues and waning patience, it still manages to look darn good. According to the pictures, it took from March thru June to finish up, but I worked on a pile of other things too.

 

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The how to is the same as just straight line with your walking foot, except you change the machine setting to use the 3 step zig zag. That’s it. But oh how lovely it looks. I didn’t mark anything – just followed a seam line from the middle and spaced each one thereafter organically. Or, “works for me”.

This quilt is for sale to a good home, even though I haven’t managed to list it in my Etsy shop yet.

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Neutral Feathers

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I can’t believe I haven’t written about this quilt yet.

I started it WAY back in September 2010, when I decided I had enough neutral fabrics that I could make this pattern. (Pattern available for free here.)

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By end of October 2010 the top was pieced, but it wasn’t until last September that I finally got it basted. (and finally writing a blog post a year later but we’ll skip that part, right?)

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The back was a large piece Mom picked up at a thrift store. Pretty sure it was a duvet cover in a former life, but it matched well enough.

And then it sat for a bit because I had big ideas to quilt it, but I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off. It was scary! I wanted feathers but at the time I wasn’t sure if I was “good enough” to quilt them the way I saw them in my head.

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So I fretted. And I sketched. And I practised on paper.

And then I finally took a deep breath, marked the spines where I wanted and just WENT FOR IT.

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The border was the biggest challenge so aside from a few wobbles I think I did pretty well.

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The square blocks I actually used a stencil, because it really did help me with the curves. The curvy bits on feathers are the hardest for me, so of course I have to toss more in.

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I decided to leave the sashing un-quilted, partly because it is so skinny, and partly for emphasis.

This quilt is also listed in my Etsy shop. I’m really happy with how it turned out because it’s one of the first ones that I think I stretched my skills and rose to match what I saw in my head.

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