Mondrian Inspired Quilt Top

This is the quilt top I made for my nephew T and his fiance S.  He requested a maroon and gray quilt.  He said that it would be really neat if I could design it after his favorite artist, Piet Mondrian.  Mondrian's work is mostly primary colors in squares and rectangles with black lines separating them.  

I decided to make the quilt in blocks and rows to simplify things.  I didn't want any partial seams.  I used a simple trick which I learned from Christina Cameli to make the block math easier.  It you slice into a block and add a one inch wide strip, you don't change the size of the block at all.  The one inch piece equals all the seam allowances.  

I thought I would share my process here in case anyone would like to make a similar quilt.  

I bought one yard each of four different fabrics plus two yards black for the outlines, sashing, border, and binding.  (1.75 yards black was enough but I like to have extra on hand.)

I started by cutting out five 14 inch squares from each of the four fabrics.  I put them all on my design wall.  My plan was to make four each of five different blocks.  

I cut the black out as I needed it to prevent fraying.  I cut one fourteen inch WOF strip from the black fabric.  Then I cross cut 42 one inch pieces.  Four of them were cut down to 1 x 9 inch pieces.  Then I cut six one inch by WOF strips for the sashing between rows.  The border is seven 2 inch wide strips.  The binding is seven 3 inch wide strips.  (I like it extra wide when I have minky on the back.)  

Block A is just a 14 inch square unfinished.  So it was already done.  

For block B, I cut one 14 inch square of each fabric in half.  I mixed up the rectangles, and sewed one 1 x 14 inch black strip in the middle of each set.  I always pressed towards the black strip.  

There were two steps for Block C.  I again cut one of each large square in half.  Then I sewed one skinny strip between two 7 x 14 inch rectangles twice.  (Using one of each fabric.)  

Then I cut each of those pieced sets in half again.  I added a plain 7 x 14 inch rectangle to three of them.  I left one unsewn so that I could offset the blocks in the even numbered rows.  

For block D I cut a five inch strip off of one of each large square.  Then I added a skinny strip to sew the 5 x 14 inch rectangles to the 9 x 14 inch rectangles.  

I once again cut a five inch strip from each set.  I mixed them up, added a skinny strip, and got these four blocks.  You can see that I didn't fully sew the upper right block together.  That is to offset the even rows.  

For block E I cut a five inch strip off of one of each large square.  Then I cut the 9 x 14 inch rectangle in half to get two 7 x 9 inch rectangles each.  

 Then I mixed up the pieces so each block had three different fabrics.  

I sewed a 1 x 9 inch strip between the 7 x 9 inch rectangles.  Then sewed a 1 x 14 inch strip between those sets and the 5 x 14 inch rectangles.  

I put all of the blocks up on my design wall.  Row 1 has four full blocks.  Row 2 has three full blocks and the two partial block D pieces on each side.  Row 3 has four full blocks.  Row 4 has three full blocks and the two partial block C pieces on each side.  Row 5 has four full blocks.  

Because each pieced block is still 14 inches (unfinished size) you can place any block any where and rotate however desired.  I moved the blocks around a lot.   

It was a little hard to visualize the end product, so I pinned up some one inch strips to see if I liked the layout.  

I decided that I liked it, so I sewed each row with a skinny strip between each block.  I sewed a long 1 inch strip between each of the rows.  (That took six one inch by WOF strips.  One and a half between each row of blocks.)

I wanted a slightly wider border, so I cut it out at 2 inches.  

I love how the quilt top turned out.  My art teacher sister said that she could definitely see the Mondrian influence.  (She knew who he was.  I had to look him up on the internet.)  

This quilt is already finished, but I will share that in my next post.  This one is already pretty long.

XX,

Jasmine

Wedding Quilt for T & J

My nephew T and his wife J asked for a black, gray and white quilt which was mostly gray.  This design was inspired by Canoe Ridge Creation's Sliced Cake tutorial.  I cut my rectangles a different size because I was using stash instead of a layer cake.

I selected thirty different fabrics from my stash.  Approximately ten black, ten gray, and ten white. I cut a four inch WOF strip out of each one.   

Then I cross cut the strips into four ten inch pieces.  I put the quilt on the design wall one quarter at a time.  That made it easy to keep the fabrics evenly distributed.  It was fun watching the quilt grow.  

I actually pieced this quilt on my kitchen table while the kids were playing.  

I quilted it with five loops per rectangle on the Bernina Q24.  

I counted to five 120 times.  I'm pretty good at counting to five.  Hehe.  

Of course it has minky on the back  

It has a solid black binding to tone down the busy prints.  

Once again my sweet husband held it up for me outside.  

I love how it turned out and may use this pattern again.  

It also looked really good in my piano room.  

But I know for a fact that they love it.  

They especially loved the minky on the back!

XX,

Jasmine

Wedding Quilt for C & K

 

My nephew C and his fiance K requested a black and gray quilt with a lot of white.  As I was looking at black and white quilts online, I found a darling one made by Emily at Simple Girl, Simple Life.  She shared the simple instructions and this was an easy quilt to make.  

I selected twelve black and white fabrics and paired them with Kona White.  Each fabric was cut into eight 5 inch squares.  I sewed three blocks at a time to keep the fabrics evenly distributed.  

Then I placed them on the design wall.  

I added the sashing and borders to finish up the top.  

I loaded the long arm with some gray minky and quilted it with spirals.  

It is always fun to take the quilt off the frames.  

I love seeing the quilting on minky.  

I added solid black for the binding.  It gives the quilt a nice frame.  

My sweet husband held it up for me outside to take a picture.  

I love how it turned out.  

It matched my piano room quite nicely.  

I told them that if they didn't like it, I would be happy to keep it.  ;)

But the good news is that they loved it!

On a personal note, school has started for my children and we are settling into our new routine.  I was able to work in some time for blogging today.  Even though I haven't been blogging, I have still been sewing.  I have finished all the wedding quilts and a few more.  So I have lots to share if I can keep up with the computer time.  I hope you are all doing well!

XX,

Jasmine

My Sister's Fifth Quilt

This quilt is for my sister's fourteen year old son.  He loves teal and purple.  I sent my sister some pictures of quilts which used some of those colors for some ideas.  He ended up loving one of the quilts that I pieced for Cheetah's Eagle Scout Project.  

He especially loved how the colors blended in to each other.  My sister and I decided to make the squares bigger and add another fabric.  I drafted it out and we went shopping.  We cut it out at my place and she sewed it at hers.  She loved how simple and fast the quilt was to piece. 

Each of the squares were cut out at eight inches.  In a half yard of fabric we were able to get ten squares.  She added a five inch finished border to make it a little bigger.  

We showed her son some examples of my quilting and he picked the double loop design.  

I think it is great for a masculine quilt.  I have done it on a quilt for Cheetah and another nephew.  

I had a lot of fun quilting it on the Bernina Q24.  

Because the design was so large it quilted up very fast.  

My sister chose a Diagonal Dots wide backing for the quilt.  She loved that she didn't have to piece the backing this time.  

I trimmed the quilt and added the binding as well.  

When Kitty saw the quilt on the floor, she begged to try it out.  So she was the first quilt tester.  

I love how this quilt turned out, and I know my nephew is excited to have a handmade quilt.  

This is a full size quilt, but I decided to test it out on Cheetah's queen size bed.  

I love how the large squares (7.5 inches finished) look on his bed.  I may have to make a similar quilt for him.  His two favorite colors are pink and purple.  I haven't made a quilt for him in those colors before.  

Now that I have finished this and Mischelle's quilt, I'm ready to start finishing the four wedding quilts.  

XX,

Jasmine