http://seehowwesew.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/guest-post-aspiring-to-be-a-modern-quilter-by-pati-fried/ 

We did a little getaway this week. 3 days in Calistoga, California.

Calistoga, home of  historical hot springs, California’s finest wineries and  incredibly beautiful landscapes.

Calistoga is full of history which leads to a mix of vintage kitsch and upscale dining and shopping.

But we came for the water. Ok, the food and wine too, but that is another post…

Why I am sharing our trip with you is because I have spent 2 days in awe of what I am now calling a “Calistoga Color Palette”.

Spa blue pools of water, white-washed stucco buildings lined with terra cotta pots, bright (almost chartreuse) spring leave on the vines to remind you that you are in Napa Valley and a pop of color from the ever present orange and red patio umbrellas.

I just had to share.

                                                            “Oh! I forgot about these!” moments always happen to me.

                                                             I had a whole stack of red and shirting nine patches and a few red stars left over from another project.

                                                             They were both 5″, so I started pulling fabric to see what I could come up with.

   Just enough to do double nine patches! Whoop!

Love this gingham, but I have no clue where it came from…

This is making some sweet 14 1/2″ blocks!

There should be 16 of them when I am done. Now to decide on some sashing.

Any suggestions?

This is a project I have been working on for quite a few months. It started out as a Block of the Month with www.broadwayquilts.com using Analie Belden’s book, Thoroughly Modern Dresden http://www.anelie.com/  The dresdens were mostly yummy Kaffe Fasset fabrics. I decided to go with the tangerine/melon tones of Shot Cottons for the background blocks. They were so fun to work with. Lots of happy colors.

Sometimes, you just have to let a quilt tell you where it wants to go. I realized early on that I wanted as much color, texture and whimsy as I could possibly manage to fit into one quilt. I found a wonderful pattern by La Todera for a Gigantus Camelia Brooch Pattern http://www.latodera.com/#!Camelia Gigantus Brooch Pattern|c2j3 which was the perfect inspiration for all the centers of my dresden plates.

Next thing I knew, I was yoyo-ing, stacking buttons on top of each other and quilting a wonderful shade of blue pearl cotton into big stitch swirls. As I said, sometimes you have to listen to the quilt.

Right now, the quilt is taking a well deserved rest with a lot of other beautiful quilts to be show in the San Francisco Quilt Show next weekend. http://www.sfquiltersguild.org/userfiles/file/2013%20SHOW/poster%202013%20show%20final%20sm.pdf

I love this quilt. But I am hoping it “tells” me where it wants to go after the show. So far, I have no idea what to do with it!!

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This month, the pressure was on. I drew Sandy Klop’s quilt from  http://americanjane.com/about.php. And to make it even harder, it is so not in the American Jane style! Sandy quietly mentioned that she wouldn’t mind if I put a french braid around her quilt, as I did on the last one. So here I go again. This time, I narrowed my strips to mimmick the sweet little stars on an earlier border. I pulled out my Cherrywood stash http://www.cherrywoodfabrics.com/ and my pathetic Civil War collections and ended up with a really odd combination that worked for some reason. Interestingly, the corners did not flow together as well as the last one I made. I am wondering if it had to do with 1 1/4″ strips vs. the 1 1/2″ of the first one. I can’t think of any other reason. I managed to work it out, and even added lil’ pinwheels to each corner for some whimsy. Hope she likes it!

The other Round Robins are coming out amazing. It is really interesting to note – when we started this project, the center blocks were all so totally different and unique. Now, after adding 3 different borders, they are naturally falling into 2 different groupings.

Traditional……

And Non-Traditional…

One more month to go…. This has been so much fun!

Please Note: I am NOT doing another french braid!

Ok, I admit it. I have a problem. I am doing it again. I wanted to work on one more braid, just to make sure I totally got the way I have been rounding the corners with keeping the pattern flowing. This time, I decided to work small and switch out the fabric choices a bit. Let’s start with the center block. Linen with Thai and Burmese silks and one yummy textured Japanese jewel that I have been saving. Let’s see if I can give this a more contemporary feel. Enough of the Civil War repros.

Surprisingly, I like the fabric combination. It’s odd, but works. I think my center block may be a bit simple, so I am thinking of adding some french knots in complementary Cosmo Floss. This one is begging to be hand quilted – maybe Sashiko or if I am out of patience, Big Stitch. Lovin’ the colors so far.

So this time I went back to 1 1/2″ strips. They seem to work easily around the corners. I had tried 1 1/4″ on a Round Robin border (blog post next week), but had a lot of trouble getting it to work as well as 1 1/2″. So go back to what works, right?

I still have more to go… but you get the idea. Probably more setting triangles in the linen, perhaps some applique from my yummy Japanese panel. I will keep you posted!

I just realized I forgot to share the latest round on the Round Robin project I am working on. This is round 3 of our beautiful borders. Aren’t they amazing?

My contribution was the on the last one. It was a combination of Civil War Reproductions and a beautiful Aborigine print in the center. Interesting combination that played really well together.

I decided to tackle a french braid. I had never made one, but was very surprised to see that there are not many options on how to join the corners of a french braid border. So my challenge was to create a pattern that flowed smoothly from one side to another. I was so happy with the result. Here is the problem – I am not sure exactly how I did it..

So I decided to create another for my next round. This time, taking lots of notes along the way!!!

Here is a hint… I will be working on #4 nest, the little folklore house with the lovely little Lemoyne stars sparkling around it. I will be using a combination of  Civil War prints and some yummy solids from the Cherrywood line. http://www.cherrywoodfabrics.com/ It is due the beginning of January, so I think I had better get started!

A couple we have known for many years announced they were expecting their first child. I asked the new mommy about thoughts on a baby quilt. Traditional or Modern? Keepsake or Kid Friendly? Mommy replied, “How about Peruvian?!”, (as that is her origin). Well, to be honest, she stumped me on that one.

I started researching Peru. Beautiful scenery, vibrant colors in their native clothing – aha! – wait a minute…what’s this? Peruvian Blankets!!!

I immediately started thinking about horizontal zig zag’s, brilliant colors popping off the background and birds. You know me and birds, right? I kept going back to the beautiful illustrations of Julie Patchkis, the talented designer with In the Beginning Fabrics.  It seemed perfect, except for the black background. I ended up balancing it out with a plethora of colorful dots and solids on a creamy white background.

Take special note of the amazing quilting by my longarm diva, Kerry Reed. She used a beautiful variegated thread and did her “Kerry Goes Crazy” pattern. It was the icing on my Peruvian cake!

Lots of ziggin’ and zaggin’ and half square triangles…

The illustrations in the fabric are soooo beautiful!

Evelina was born a few months ago. I understand from Mommy and Daddy that her Peruvian Blanket goes everywhere with her. Welcome to the world, Evelina!

It is really enjoyable to start a project for the fun of it, without a preconceived notion as to what I was going to do with it or when it needed to be completed. This was a good thing, because right after the class, I began my radiation treatments and was not terribly focused or productive for quite a few weeks. It turned out to be a very “zen-like” experience for me to work in such a subtle color palette. Ohmmmm…. 4 patch, press… 4 patch, press.

I loved working on it!  I am so please with the results. The longarm quilting was done by the amazing Kerry Reed.

This one is going on my bed!

Thanks Ann!