A few months ago … okay so more like a year ago … I got some friends together to join me in my Modern Evolution Project. In short, it’s a round robin that I designed to try to avoid some of the pitfalls that I’ve experienced with previous round robin groups: producing medallion quilts; the last round where you have to do the most work and your interest in the project has somehow all but disappeared; having one quilt that looks like six different people made it – if you’ve ever participated in one, you probably know the drill. Some may have been a little skeptical, but everyone dove in with enthusiasm!

There were six of us in the group, so we had six rounds. The first two rounds were just published in Generation Q Magazine (Spring 2016) – along with a lot of other cool projects and interesting articles. Ironically, my copy arrived the very same day that we made the last swap and we each got our quilts back! They are amazing – better than I ever expected! I am so excited to share the final results, but in the meantime, you can see what we were up to in the magazine and Gen Q published our guidelines on their website, here.

Generation Q Magazine, Spring 2016

I am so happy to have been asked to join in on the blog tour for Optical Illusions! This is a beautiful book, I could spend plenty of time just looking at the pictures – but knowing the designers at Kansas City Star, that doesn’t surprise me! Other than the gorgeous photographs, I like that this book is pretty representative of what I see in Modern Quilting today – a wide range of modern-traditionalism to an all-out Modern aesthetic. But all of the quilts follow my definition of Modern design – simple lines with a strong design.

On the more modern-traditionalism end of the spectrum there are the block-based quilts. Melissa Corry‘s Old Dutch is reminiscent of a traditional windmill block which any quilter would love. Tia Curtis‘ Tropical Storm reminds me of an Ocean Waves block. I love that she added a few surprises in the quilt – if only I could stand to make that many half-square triangles! Then there is Jessica Toye‘s Water Ripples, a modern take on a snowball block. I love her well-planned color placement.

Tropical Storm by Tia Curtis

Moving further into the modern spectrum, there is Katie Larson‘s Curvilinear with its strong lines and very modern appeal kind of reminds me of a Storm at Sea quilt in the way that it moves and fools your eye into seeing circles. Karen Hansen‘s Surfs Up brings to mind a Drunkard’s Path – updated in both the approach and setting.

Curvilinear by Katie Larson

Next we move to the quilts that remind me of classic Victor Vasarely art work. There is the very Op-Art inspired Blurred Vision by Penny Layman. 3-D Diamonds by Jenifer Dick is very modern in its simple, bold lines – but not a simple design. Then there is Mary Kay Fosnacht‘s Tangerine Tumbler – I love her layout and modern take on the classic Tumbling Block.

3-D Diamonds by Jenifer Dick

The last quilt on this spectrum – in my opinion – is Jamie David‘s Aura. Inspired by the Modern artist Josef Alber, it has a very modern appeal.

Aura by Jamie David

It think this book will appeal to a wide range of quilters – from traditional to someone wanting to add a little modern influence to their quilts to someone who has a very modern aesthetic and is looking for a little inspiration.

Speaking of inspiration! I have a giveaway to take care of! I am giving away a Kona Color Card. I have my own card sitting next to me for another project that I’m working on. I find that card to be invaluable! It’s great to have access to a library of colors that are actually rendered in fabric. Just leave a comment about how you get your inspiration and I’ll randomly choose a winner at the end of the tour!

Jenifer Dick is also blogging about this book today … and has a different giveaway! The rest of the tour finishes up tomorrow:

Jenifer Dick, http://www.42quilts.com

Nov. 14 Jessica Toye, http://www.jesstoyequilts.wordpress.com/blog-2/
Jacquie Gering, http://www.tallgrassprairiestudio.blogspot.com
Shea Henderson, http://www.emptybobbinsewing.com

Thanks for stopping by!

Look what came in the mail today! The latest issue of American Quilter Magazine – November 2014.

Why am I so excited about this particular issue? Linda Hungerford of Flourishing Palms wrote an article about my book, Accentuate the Negative. I made all new quilts for the article – so there are not any duplicates from the book – using each paradigm from the book. They asked me to design a pattern to be featured with the article. So I designed a quilt called ‘Spiraled Squared’.

It was quilted by Tammy of Quiltin’ Kaboodle – she has detailed photos of the quilting on her blog. Another Tammy, this one from Marmalade Fabrics, has put together a kit for the pattern. If you would like to purchase the kit from the exact fabrics that I used, click here. If you would like a kit, but you’re not keen on the colors, you can just send Tammy a message and she can work with you to make up a kit in a palette you would love – she is great with colors!

If you make this quilt, please let me know. I’d love to see photos!

One of the guilds that I belong to is having a quilt show in a couple of weeks. I love this guild because we are made up of all kinds of quilters: modern, traditional, contemporary, art – you never know what you are going to see at show and tell! Well, we are going to be showing our quilts off on October 11th at the Overland Park Arboretum. We will have quilts hanging from the fences, information about our charity projects: Quilts of Valor and Safehome, and a series of bed-turnings. Some of the bed turnings include:

I was interviewed on Mark Lipinski’s Creative Mojo earlier this week. Mark was great and he even likes Modern quilts now! YAY! If you want to listen to it, click here (it’s the April 23rd show). At the end we were talking about making quilts with fabrics other than cotton. The Silk Bricks quilt in my book is made of silk dupioni and linen. The silk was a breeze to work with. I didn’t have to do anything to it – however, everything in that quilt is cut on the straight of grain so that helps. The only thing I found necessary for the silk was a lint roller!! The linen was a bit of a pain. I used regular linen used for garment sewing because I loved the look of it. Even after starching it, it still loves to shift. The biggest issue with the linen is the quilting. It really misshapen it. By the time I was finished with the quilting, I had a 3-D quilt! So, I blocked it. I had to avoid getting water on the silk – I used a lot of reds and they all were prone to bleeding. I just laid an old towel over an insulation board, sprayed the linen until it was pretty wet and then pinned it down everywhere. Here are a couple of pictures of the blocking.

Waves Before Blocking

Lots of Pins!

In the end, it’s nice and flat and I still love the look of the linen. However, if I was a beginner, I’d consider using Quilter’s Linen instead!

When I originally conceived the idea for my book, Accentuate the Negative, I never envisioned it as a book about how to quilt negative space but rather a book about how to make negative space and use it to its fullest. I have come across a few comments from quilters that are interested in the quilting. Given that, I’ve decided to write a little about the quilting of each of the quilts. I’m going to start from the back of the book and work to the front! So, first up: Mod Roses.

The background of this quilt was generally quilted with an all-over, simple meandering leaf motif. Nestled in the leaves are quotes about roses – there are six quotes on the quilt.

Each improv rose is framed as is each of the pieced leaves. I just did SID around each of the frames and chose to leave the frames free of quilting. As far as the roses, I just quilted wiggly-concentric circles starting in the center of the rose and working my way out to fill the space. The leaves in the rose blocks just got a little swirl and SID around the outside. I filled the background with horizontal and vertical lines – that was my only rule. I didn’t use any rulers, and everything is randomly spaced.

I filled the background of the leaf blocks with pebbling.

Kansas City Star’s My Stars is sponsoring a book giveaway on their facebook page. They are giving away four sets of four modern books – my new book, Accentuate the Negative is included in the set as well as the book that I was in last fall, Classic Modern Quilts! All you have to do is ‘LIKE’ their facebook page! To make it more convenient, just click this image, or the button on the right side of the page. Good Luck!