What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Just playing with borders …

… is interesting and fun., even if I don’t change the background colour to make the borders more obvious.

Need a touch of green outside, but will settle for some inside for now.

Love the second design!

Old project file, add new colours …. But no quilting in the first new design.
 

The second new design in the project has quilting motifs added.

Amazing what can be done early in the morning with a coffee and Electric Quilt.

Compared to the old colours these look like a newly washed quilt!

There are some intriguing little variations of the basic block in the first design today, which I created to echo what happened when half of one of the blocks disappeared when added to the filler blocks around the blocks set on point.

The second design looks very busy, partly caused by the quilting motifs which would be more discreetly coloured in a real quilt.

Lots of fiddly applique in this project file, so I am glad we have fusible webbing and sewing machines, unlike when I started … we did have sewing machines, but many of us had yet to update ...

Happy New Year!

First day of a new year and it is the middle of the week already!

Usually the middle of the week is when I share some Log Cabin quilt designs … but today being the beginning of the year I would do something different to celebrate the new year.

It has been a long time since I have played with deigns of medallion quilts … quilts which start with a central block, then a variety of borders until it reaches the size required.

The two pieced borders in the design above are from the Electric Quilt Block Library, the ...

Love the green appearing in the background as it is now the end of a dry winter and there has been very little green on the ground … there has even been less weeds in the garden. (Not a lot less though.)

I love the second design, especially the centre!

Perhaps it is the extra green that makes it more attractive to me.

Yum! All that chocolate!

Delicious!

Love the Clamshell borders in the first design. The applique block is there only to show off the borders!

The inner border has clamshells turned inside out, but the same size. It makes a lovely border like that, but in the second design the outer side of the clamshells is larger than the inner side … I am not sure I like it like that, but it was interesting enough to keep.

Very interesting border … not too sure I would ever use it on any real quilt … but interesting to play with in the virtual world!

Very busy, but also interesting.

Interesting design first up today.

On point setting makes the blocks appear very different to what they look like in a straight setting.

I think I like the second one best today.

Today’s designs come from a project file started in Electric Quilt 5 …. I am now using EQ8.

Most of the blocks came from the EQ library, but there are a few of the original blocks I was adding back then. Those blocks had been scribbled onto paper, and transferred to graph paper, but still with pencils. Now I draw new ideas in EQ8, though I still scribble some onto paper if I have an idea when the computer is not close by.

Most of the quilt designs in the project have a mixture of traditional blocks and my own ...

I like the first design for today.

Love the second design!

Mostly brown with a touch of green of plants that are looking forward to some winter rain … that is autumn here in Australia.

My favourite today is the second design as I like the change of blocks around the centre blocks..

I love the strip borders with tangled corners, but would like to be able to redraft the applique borders to be more symmetrical, perhaps by removing the inner applique border around the centre block, or making it wider.

I love the second design … the applique is minimal, but well balanced, and there is a lot or room for some fairly simple quilting to shine. I would avoid too many busy feathers, but would use the fan shape used in the applique with a fair bit of background filling.

I don’t see a great number of medallion quilts anywhere, but they are a great way to make a square quilt for double and king size beds. I have to admit the I don’t design a lot either, and this is the last two designs in my one and only current project file which feature medallion quilt designs.

My favourite of these two designs is the second one.

Electric Quilt 8 will turn a pieced block into a quilt setting if all the shapes in the block are straight lines. If you use a square block in a long rectangle the design is stretched to fit the shape, which is sometimes a stunning result, sometimes not so good.

Love the open spaces to show off the quilting in the second design.

Make one block, add borders, and you have a medallion quilt.

I love the second one.

One day I played with String of Beads border designs, including getting those borders around corners. The first design shows five identical borders, each with a different corner block.

The second design shows different borders and different corner blocks.

The project file has 20 different borders, with 140 different corners, and some of the corners fit a couple or more different borders.

Interesting sashing, resulting in a lovely design.

Should have used interesting sashing!

I like the first design …

… but I like the second one more!

Note the change in contrast between the small designs and the centre and the ones in the corners. That is a simple way to add depth to any design … same shapes but change the contrast to the background.