And it turned out gorgeous! Oops, guess I'm keeping this one too! The making of this quilt top was totally random, just so I could use up strip pieces. It was a huge exercise of free form piecing. What can I say, I do love a challenge!
Thank goodness the quilting wasn't as demanding as the piecing! Before I started any dense quilting, all the blocks were SID around the outside.
Then a pebble and S curve fill was quilted in all the white background.
I really wanted to practice motifs from Judi Madsen's book, Quilting Wide Open Spaces, (affiliate link) but just couldn't put butterflies on a quilt intended for a baby boy! Not until I got done quilting that I decided to keep it. Guess I could have done butterflies after all!
For each block center, I use a different design based on a seed motif. Here are some that I came up with, to guide me when quilting. Not all of them got used.
And finally, to finish off the blocks, double outlines around the pieced edges gave them some stitching but not so much that they
got lost.
Here are the rest of the blocks If you look closely at these pictures, you'll notice the binding is not white all around.
Instead, it changes, depending on if there is a block at the edge. To see how I did this, check out my next post Pieced Binding and a Different Corner. Enjoy! Happy Quilting!
and I had so much fun with that one that I made a second! The fabric for Solar Flare had red, yellow and blue in it, and this was the perfect project for this piece.
I paired it with one red square and one blue, which gave the exploding look coming from the lower right. At one point I wanted more yellow, and found a fabric that also had some red in it--perfect!
Cutting 1" strips, I inserted those in between each strip, both vertically and horizontally. Gave the quilt a bit of a 'looking through a lens' look.
This one has an all over design called Blast Off, of a rocket ship, star, and moon. That way, I can give it to a child.
And here's the back
If you haven't tried one of these convergence quilts, you should! They are super fun! Happy Quilting!
I've been hard at work creating and sewing, with this top being an incredible challenge. It started with leftover cut strip pieces, which I pieced around a square of plain pale blue. It's the one in the center. I liked that, but wanted more of the strip pieces to show. So I made some more, using bigger strip pieces. When I had six blocks, I put them up on the design wall, in a random fashion. And I liked that too. But to keep the randomness, some different shapes where needed to fill the odd areas. Made some rectangles, and the top started taking shape. Did I consider how I was going to sew this all together? Nope.
What was I thinking??? This quilt top was not assembled in the usual fashion--make the blocks, sew them in a row, sew the rows together. No, this was, sew some white here, sew some white there, cut here, sew there. Lots of partial seams!
In this picture, I've got strips still attached because they'll be used somewhere further down the top. The whole thing was pieced by adding a block at a time. Here's some closeups of some of the more messy piecing!
Wish this was a bit cleaner, but I'm not willing to rip it out! This one is a bit better, but still messy.
I'm happy with how it turned out, and hey, I met my objective of using up the strip units. After two tops, this is all that's left
I'll post about the other top at a later time. It turned out really nice, and I want to write up a pattern for it. Until then, Happy Quilting!
It's February, and time for another Book of the Month! This month I'll work from Judi Madsen's new book, Quilting Wide Open Spaces. (affiliate link)
If you've followed me for a while, you'll know I am a big fan of Judi's work. Both she and Angela have had a huge influence on my longarm work. I'm attending the AQS show in Phoenix next week, and very excited to have three classes with Judi! So, whether I will follow one of her patterns or follow the quilting as my monthly project, I don't know yet. I'll decide after class!
And a big thank you to everyone for all of the wonderful comments regarding the quilt tops using the Bargello with a Twist (affiliate link) book. There were many great suggestions, which, if I'd had more time, would have played with. But I will keep them in mind for other quilts. It was definitely a fun technique, as the instructions were very clear. So many possibilities with just one block!
If you look closely at these pictures, you'll notice the binding is not white all around. 
