Show Off!

 Here is another pattern! Just released!  What the Hex?

Designed to use some travel themed prints I had collected over a few trips.  New York, San Fran, Seattle, other.  I called it Fantasy Travel because, well, made in early "COVID times", you know.  All travel at this point is fantasy.

Find the pattern at my Esty NoRulesQuilting shop or on Quilt Pattern Mart.

Above is the pattern cover quilt.  

I really like this for the secondary designs - a sort of lattice created by the coloured parts and sort of arrows in the black.  And it's fun to quilt - see below!

Not to put too fine a point on it - all my patterns have detailed step by step instructions with illustrations (not photos, actual illustrations!).  The photos are in the "support page" - the Show Off! tab on the home page here.  Also - all my patterns have been stress tested by other quilters of various skill levels.

And for this quilt I had the idea to put some travel themed machine embroidery designs in the black background.  If you do this, embroider first, then cut the block.

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Then to test the pattern, I made this "revenge quilt" for my sister.  It was her 60th birthday recently.  She is a master cake maker and for my 60th b-day she made me a fabulous flamingo cake with flamingo cake pops.  Then she and other relatives piled on with various other flamingo paraphernalia.  So now it was my turn to get even!  This quilt is the result.  All the embroidery is birthday related.  With a few cake references thrown in.

As it happens, I used black again for the background.  I plan to make a "not black" one in the future.  It will get its own post once it's finished.

What the Hex?

I decided to further develop the pattern for What the Hex?  It was published in Quilter's Connection a few years ago but the pattern was very abbreviated.  Now there is a fulsome pattern available from my NoRulesQuilting Etsy store and also at Quilt Pattern Mart.  If you are looking at both these sites, you will notice a difference in the pricing.  It's Canadian Dollars on Etsy and US Dollars on Quilt Pattern Mart - that's why the difference.  In the end, it should work out to roughly the same.  

Above is the pattern cover pix, which, if you have tracked my blog, you would have seen before - and at the moment it's also the "background" for my blog!

And then I made another one, to use up some fabric, but more importantly, to document a few things about making it, which appear on the "support page" - go to the What the Hex? tab on the home page here.

The hex/triangle combo is not new.  It's an ancient tile pattern and you have seen it in other quilts.  But I jazzed mine with these "empty" star spaced for some pretty awesome custom quilting.  And I've provided the templates for those fronds if you want to put them into your quilting.  And of course templates for the hexies and triangles if you don't have a special ruler.  And, as with all my patterns, step by step instructions with illustrations.

I have a third one made, but not quilted so it will get a separate post in the future.

Flock

Way back at the beginning of the year, I finalized the pattern for my Flock quilt and published it - available in my NoRulesQuilting Etsy store.  I should have posted about it much sooner.  Well - here it is now - better late than never.  I'm not much of a marketer!

This quilt was inspired by an art installation outside the new NW Calgary YMCA titled Flock.  I contacted the artists to explain my plan to design a quilt pattern based on their art piece and they were very kind - saying they had no issue, but also requested that I call my quilt "Flock", which I have done.

The geese in the quilt are paper pieced and the pattern includes the foundation patterns for the four sizes.

Flock

Here are a few slightly better pix of the quilt "formerly known as Flight Path" (with apologies to Prince).  Going forward this quilt will be known as Flock.

Flock is inspired by a public art installation of the same name by the artist team of Addad/Drugan at the Rocky Ridge Recreation Facility in northwest Calgary.  I am delighted to have their permission to not only proceed with the development of this quilt as a pattern but to also give it the same name as their amazing art piece.  This is a true honour as I was  instantly smitten with their installation.  For more about the artwork, go to: https://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/Recreation/Pages/Public-Art/Rocky-Ridge-Recreation-Facility-Public-Art-Flock.aspx

In the meantime, I wanted to get some better pix of the quilt.  Tuesday was sunny so I took a few quilts outside and was able to get a few better pix.  Just as I was taking a close up of a large black goose at the bottom, my rather precarious frame toppled over when a gust of wind came up so I took that as a hint that my photo session was over.  Nevertheless, I got a few better ones than I had before.  

I will write the pattern, then test it (i.e., make it again).  I'll use the second one as the sample for the pattern cover as I'm not crazy about some of the quilting on this one.  I like the city, the mountains and the birds, but not much of the rest.  So I'll figure out something different for that.  If you are interested in testing the pattern when it's done, let me know and I'll start a list.

Back to Art Deco Meets Dapper

I'm always threatening to "get better pictures".  Well, I tried today.  It was sunny with very little wind until the haze started to roll in.  So I took advantage, put up the rather precarious frame we have rigged and took a few quilts outside to snap some pix in the sun.  I'm much happier with these ones.  The colours and the quilting show up so much better.

I tried to get the sparkle on the "shiny" fabric.  Not sure that is shows that well - it's pretty subtle.

Tropical Galaxy

Every year the Calgary Long Arm Group does a group entry to the Calgary Heritage Park Festival of Quilts.  This year they decided to do a group entry using my Galaxy pattern!  The theme this year is curves and someone suggested my pattern and the group agreed!  I'm so excited!  (Thank you ladies - such an honour.) So I worked hard to get the pattern into a format that  could be download and printed.   This also give me the benefit of having 15 excellent pattern testers! 

I'm really looking forward to seeing the full display of 15 quilts!  I've seen most of them individually at "show and tell".  I think as a group, the display is going to be amazing!  Everyone has done a fabulous job on their quilt and it's so fun to see how different, yet how great, they are!

I made this one as my contribution to the submission.  I could have used my original one but I entered it in last year's show and I have a personal rule to never put the same quilt in twice.  Also, it gave me a chance to test my own pattern.  I like my first one best, but this one is OK.  I made it from stash - of course.

One very exciting note about Galaxy: Terry Rowland, also in our Long Arm Group, entered her Galaxy quilt into the Red Deer quilt show back at the beginning of April and it won "Best in Show"!  I think I'm as excited about that as she is!  Congratulations, once again, Terry (aka T-Row Studios).

I don't have too much to say about the quilting on this except that I struggled to come up with an idea for the background because the print is so busy.  I woke up one morning with an epiphany!  It's a galaxy!  Stars!  So I quilted in a bunch of stars in yellow and blue.  The thread is Fabulux - the neon yellow and blue.  I went over each line three times to pump up the outlines so they are visible above the busy background.