May quilts

Despite a busy May (or maybe because of it), I finished up two quilts. The first was inspired by some fabric collage panels that I started as part of a Creative Soul Community group I participate in online. As I made one panel, it seemed like I could work these into a quilt. So I made 5, all designed around the color scheme challenge for the month. 

The pieces were adhered first with a glue stick, and then I did free motion stitching for a more secure hold, since the glue stick will wash away. A few areas got missed, or just seemed worrisome, so I bought a small bottle of Fabric Fusion to adhere them a little more permanently. 

The next step was to decide what to do for the other blocks. I quickly realized that I had limited my options a little with the size I used for the base fabric, so any other blocks were going to take a lot of math to work out to the same size--or it needed to be something I cut to match. I still have tons of scraps (those flowers do not use much at all), so I focused on improv piecing together the rest of the blocks, using the same colors of the flowers.

While getting the backing on clearance for the other quilt I finished, I found the perfect backing for this one as well--also on clearance. I ended up using it for the backing and the binding. 

This is a small quilt, I think a little over 3' square. Because of the glue I used, I waited a bit to wash it. I finally did so this weekend and loved the change it made to the collaged panels. The flowers are three dimensional now--they look ruffled like real petals! It was difficult to get a picture that shows it well:

It was a fun technique, and one that I will likely use again. 

My other quilt finish was a much larger quilt. It is made of only 4 blocks, but each of those blocks is roughly the same size as this flower quilt. That always makes it a little tricky to make it my small sewing area, but it was worth it.

This one is roughly 68" square, and full of color. The pattern I used was called Chromatic Cabins by Amy Ellis. While the log cabin pattern is fairly straightforward, it is always helpful to have a pattern for sizes--of the central square and the width of the strips. I cut the strips to length as I sewed them (as designed on the pattern too) rather than precutting all of those lengths in advance.

I have added this quilt to my Etsy shop AAQuilts. I have not added the flower quilt though--I will keep for me or until it is needed for a baby gift.