Girl Gang DIY Quilt, Part 1
Let me tell you 'bout the birds and the bees, and the flowers and the trees, and the moon up above...
...and a thing called love.
A few years ago our Girl Gang had its annual retreat where we had gathered for, I think, 10 years. When you're in close quarters for a week a lot of topics come up. One was about making another Girl Gang quilt.
When the shop where we used to meet closed a few years ago, we stopped getting the annual Girl Gang pattern. I didn't know if Jan Patek was still offering patterns for Girl Gang. A quick phone call to her business confirmed that she was not offering one that year. Mary and I brought all of our books and patterns featuring primitive style quilts, passed them around the girls and said, "Tell us what you like." We made a list of every block / quilt / pattern selected. I created a spreadsheet (of course) to make sure I knew where each pattern came from.
My mission was to take all of these patterns and come up with a way to put them into a quilt. When I got home, I started reviewing all of the choices. There were enough to make 4-5 quilts, but we only needed one. But it seemed that there was a recurring theme--we had picked a bunch of birds, flowers...and that's when I had the song in my head that's been an earworm ever since.
I use Electric Quilt to design quilts and experiment with layouts (NAYY). The hard part of this task was taking many odd-sized blocks and put them together in a cohesive manner that will hopefully be pleasing to everyone's eyes. Adding to the difficulty was that we're talking about applique blocks, not pieced. Pieced blocks are easy; applique not so much. I can't draw.
I purchased the book EQ with Me: Applique Drawing and I can't sing its praises enough! I was able to recreate the blocks and made it all come together with the addition of coping sections. Here's the image of the quilt in EQ:
Here’s an example of one of the appliqué drawings in EQ:
...and a thing called love.
A few years ago our Girl Gang had its annual retreat where we had gathered for, I think, 10 years. When you're in close quarters for a week a lot of topics come up. One was about making another Girl Gang quilt.
When the shop where we used to meet closed a few years ago, we stopped getting the annual Girl Gang pattern. I didn't know if Jan Patek was still offering patterns for Girl Gang. A quick phone call to her business confirmed that she was not offering one that year. Mary and I brought all of our books and patterns featuring primitive style quilts, passed them around the girls and said, "Tell us what you like." We made a list of every block / quilt / pattern selected. I created a spreadsheet (of course) to make sure I knew where each pattern came from.
My mission was to take all of these patterns and come up with a way to put them into a quilt. When I got home, I started reviewing all of the choices. There were enough to make 4-5 quilts, but we only needed one. But it seemed that there was a recurring theme--we had picked a bunch of birds, flowers...and that's when I had the song in my head that's been an earworm ever since.
I use Electric Quilt to design quilts and experiment with layouts (NAYY). The hard part of this task was taking many odd-sized blocks and put them together in a cohesive manner that will hopefully be pleasing to everyone's eyes. Adding to the difficulty was that we're talking about applique blocks, not pieced. Pieced blocks are easy; applique not so much. I can't draw.
I purchased the book EQ with Me: Applique Drawing and I can't sing its praises enough! I was able to recreate the blocks and made it all come together with the addition of coping sections. Here's the image of the quilt in EQ:
Here’s an example of one of the appliqué drawings in EQ:
Working with the blocks for the layout on the design wall (oh, how I miss that design wall!):
The book was written prior to the current version 8 of electric Quilt, but I still find it useful.
I had purchased The Beast before I had stitched down the raw applique on the borders--the words. Now that I have the BSR, I decided to use it instead of what I normally would have done, which was engage the dual feed and slowly stitch around each letter. Using the BSR was definitely faster!
And here's the flimsy:
In an effort to get it done quickly, all of appliqued blocks were fused and raw edge appliqued. I much prefer to hand applique, but I can do that on another quilt!
Blocks in this quilt were designed by Linda Brannock, Jan Patek, Gerry Kimmel Carr (Red Wagon Quilts), Mary Pat Pogue (Ginger Cookie Company), Alma Allen and Barb Adams (Blackbird Designs), and Cheri Saffiote Payne (Wednesday's Best).
I told the girls after I presented the layout that I had a newfound appreciation for designers and their work. It was no easy task!
And here's the flimsy:
Blocks in this quilt were designed by Linda Brannock, Jan Patek, Gerry Kimmel Carr (Red Wagon Quilts), Mary Pat Pogue (Ginger Cookie Company), Alma Allen and Barb Adams (Blackbird Designs), and Cheri Saffiote Payne (Wednesday's Best).
I told the girls after I presented the layout that I had a newfound appreciation for designers and their work. It was no easy task!
Quilting the quilt: I had the quilt on Tonka Toy and stitched in the ditch, then did some free-motion quilting and ruler work. Then life intervened and I had to remove it from the longarm. Then I sold the longarm. I signed up for a 10-month digitizing class with Sarah Vedeler that starts this coming week. I hope to digitize the quilting for this quilt and complete it on The Beaut, so it may be closer to end of 2022 before this is finished, and I’ll post my progress.
Have a great week--go make!
Have a great week--go make!
Comments
Post a Comment