Tag Archives: Color Strata

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Last January I took Rob Appell's Color Strata class with my guild. Then the project remained in its project box until I added it to my UFO Challenge sheet in position #6 and it was chosen for January for the APQ UFO Challenge. My strata were all pieced in class, using a Kona roll-up of Christa Watson's Designer Palette.  This month I've taken it from six pieced panels to a finished (and basted) nearly twin sized quilt top. Quilting is underway, but I wanted to share my January progress. I'm thrilled with how far it's come. And I look forward to finishing it up and submitting it to my guild quilt show.

I cut my strata sections into 6 1/2" wide strips (I have a few leftover strips for some future project... it's like my UFO birthed another UFO). At this point I played with them on my design wall and ultimately decided to use two strips in each column, connecting the green ends.

The original strata (see top picture) is built with three different widths of pieces which leads to a variety of sizes in the finished panels. I used this in my design by building out from the longest section in the center.

I had originally purchased three yards of the blue fabric for the class. I wish I'd bought more, but I was wary of buying additional fabric from a different dye lot. In the end, the limited amount of blue added to my challenge. I drew out a sketch to scale and then calculated the yardage required for my design. I had to redesign slightly to get it under 3 yards. The redesign simply made the long skinny vertical pieces of blue narrower. The trickiest part of the project was cutting these 2 3/4" x 95" pieces of fabric!

As I worked on piecing my columns, I really liked this intermediate step where all the strata touched. It may inspire a new project to use my leftover bits.

The title, No Purple, came from my surprise at how many different colors are in this quilt, yet none of my favorite color. That sure doesn't happen very often. Here's the finished quilt top.

The backing is pieced and quilting is underway. I shopped my stash and found these two fabrics to use for the backing.

Thank you for visiting! I'm looking forward to seeing which UFO off my list I'll be working on in February.

I'm linking up to the January OMG Finish post.

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I have so many beautiful WIP projects that I'd love to see completed. Two-thirds of the top twelve were started in 2016. I've actually spent some time in the last year purging or repurposing some of my less loved WIPs. I will still be starting new projects this year, but I'm hoping to finish my twelve quilts listed here. (Oh, really thirteen... I put one "on deck" in case I do something crazy like completing a quilt before it's official month.)

This is my All People Quilt UFO Challenge list. It's the first year I'm participating and I look forward to making progress (and hopefully finishing) each of these quilts as I work on them throughout the year. The fun of the challenge is that you don't know in advance which quilt you'll be working on. On the first of the month, APQ let's us know which project number to work on. January's pick is #6. For me that is my Color Strata quilt from a class with Rob Appell last January. This was actually the first quilting class I ever took (after 14 years of quilting) and I love the bold color. I'm even more excited about the bright blue that will be added as the background. I finished sewing all my stratas in class. These are made from a full Kona jelly roll and cover most of a 4' x 8' design wall.

My next step is to decide what widths I'll be cutting these stratas into and playing on the design wall to decide how I'll piece the strips back together as well as the final layout of the quilt.

I've decided for 2017 I'll participate in One Monthly Goal with Elm Street Quilts. My friend Mary linked up in 2016 and I think the UFO Challenge will pair up nicely with One Monthly Goal. I have a hard time focusing on just one task and APQ is going to help out by telling me what to work on. ;-) That is not to say that I won't also be working on other things... I have two swaps due in February and play to finish two Project Quilting challenge quilts each month in January, February and March.

I'm linking up to the OMG January Goal Setting Link Up.

 

It's coming...

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Okay, so if you've seen my WIP list, you know that I don't really need two new projects. Nonetheless, that's what the past week has had in store for me.

Inspired by some pretty purple fabrics, Meg, Jess and I are hosting the just-for-fun Purple Sewing Challenge on Instagram. Since none of my 29 WIPs were primarily purple (and an embarrassingly small number had any purple), naturally, I had to start a new project. I've decided on the Royalty pattern by Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation. I'm sizing up the blocks from 12" to 18". Here are my first couple blocks (well, quarters of blocks) with some of my 27 other purple fabrics that will be joining them. I love how quickly these went together. Now to cut out a bunch of fabric!

Want to join us for the challenge? Check out my recent IG post and use the hashtag #purplesewingchallenge when you post your purple projects though March 1st. Start now by sharing your purple stash, scraps or fabric pull.

Yesterday I attended my first quilting class ever, with Rob Appell from Man Sewing. He was in town to speak at our SCVQA guild meeting on Monday and teach his Color Strata class.

I love the bright, vibrant colors in his samples and I wanted to choose something with rich, saturated color. I decided on Christa Watson's Designer Palette Jelly Roll. It had a variety of fabrics in each color family and I'm happy with how it's turned out. I did play with the order of the color so that the two ends wouldn't be green and red, as they are out of the pack. It was so fun to see everyone's different color palette's in class. I look forward to seeing their finishes at upcoming guild meetings. I did 1/6 of the strip piecing and had to cut out early to pick the kids up from school. Here's my first set of strips.

I brought my son along to Monday's meeting so he could meet Rob and see his work. He also got to show and tell his second and third quilts since he hadn't shown them off at a meeting yet. Rob was so impressed with his work, he gave "the short quilter" a shirt.
Before diving into a couple new quilt projects I made a little progress on quilting R's Pattern, the quilt my daughter laid out when she was 2 1/2. 37% quilted.

 

I'm also trying to make progress on how exactly I'm going to fashion my Emerald City in my Wizard of Oz baby quilt. Preached the fabric. Lots of sketching. No pics to share, since I want to keep it a surprise.

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday.