Modern Plus Sign Quilts Blog Hop!

Image courtesy of C&T Publications

I'm so excited it's my turn to share for Cheryl and Paige's book hop, for their beautiful new book Modern Plus Sign Quilts.  It is a real honour to be a part of this hop and to have had the privilege of making from Cheryl and Paige's designs.  There are 16 brilliant patterns in the book and I had a hard time deciding which to make and in the end, I was delighted to make the Transparency Chain pattern.

Image courtesy of C&T Publications

I chose this pattern for a few reasons.  I love transparency designs and haven't made too many of them and thought it would be good practice to exercise a sense of value and tonal scale, by trying a design like this.

I think this was the quilt for me especially as, at the moment, my time in front of sewing machine is limited.  I am healing from disk issues in my lower back and knowing that basting a quilt top would be a struggle,  I  am limited to smaller projects, quilt as you go and design work.  One of the way's Cheryl and Paige suggested the pattern could be used was to make less blocks for a baby quilt or a table topper.  I decided to go with the latter and make a mini-quilt.  Given the small size of my project, I wanted to put a special effort in and to try and contribute to the book hop by playing with some extra chains in the design.  Cheryl and Paige invited us to change things up if we wanted and to be inspireed by the designs with our projects. 

Idea #1

Idea #2

Because the pattern is so well written and comes together in a very clever way, it makes it easier to piece lots of the same block than it looks and makes it really easy to play with.  I took it as a challenge to honour the beautiful clean nature of Cheryl's design and at the same time have a bit of a play. I love playing with design and suffer from a condition called curiosity - it's not fatal but it does take me down endless rabbit holes!  I end up with lots of variations and really struggle with just choosing one.  So I thought the Transparency Chain would be a great pattern to have some fun with and stretch myself a little.

This is what I eventually came up with.

Exact same colours, just different placement gives a different effect!

Originally I thought about framing the chain around the plus block but quickly realised a light to dark transparency was nicer and more true to Cheryl's design. By adding a chain to the outside and the inside in different tones I got a transparency inspired double Irish Chain.  To make the design work you need to add some of the chain to the plus blocks, so if you want to have a go, you take the pattern block and add a square into each corner.

I have a lot of grays in my stash so colour me surprised when trying to match a light to dark was not as easy as I had expected.  I have a good mix of warm and cool greys that don't really go with each other!  In my mind, I was looking for light, medium and dark grey but realised also, the background white was part of the gradient, so I made a change to my light grey to make it work better.  In hindsight, I'd not use as stark a dark again and try and get a smoother transition in the light to medium/dark grays.  But I'm still happy with the end result and I think it works.

This is how I think I could use the double transparency in the pattern and think this would make a great quilt for Gordon for the study.  It can be tricky sometimes finding a pattern and colourway that can be gender neutral and I think this is definitely one of them, that would also live very well in our house!

Final idea!

Especially when framed with hot pink binding!

Given the mini size of the block I ended up making for the hop, I thought it would make a great piece to practice some free motion quilting on and I had a blast.  I used a small stipple for the centre, parallel(ish) lines, pebbles, spirals, orange peel and wishbones to quilt it!  I am very pleased with how the quilting turned out and it will be hard to give this mini away.

One of the projects our committee of the Irish Patchwork Society has been working on is a project that brings all 8 of our branches together by having each branch take a traditional quilt block and make 8 variations of it from traditional to modern to share with each other.  My branch has the Irish Chain and it being St. Patrick's Day tomorrow this book hop and Transparency Chain pattern couldn't be more timely!

My mini will be donated to the branch, crediting Cheryl and Paige's book on the back label and I hope it will be used to show how versatile chain designs, and as a bonus, plus designs can be.  The Modern Plus Sign Quilts Book is available to buy directly from Cheryl and Paige as signed copies or from Amazon.  I could easily make so many quilts from this book and couldn't recommend it highly enough.  Whether you are looking for inspiration or a fun pattern well written, there is a quilt here for everyone!

To see more designs and the projects my fellow blog hoppers have made from and inspired by the book, the full schedule is below.  Please stop by and visit, you will not be disappointed!  Don't forget to visit Cheryl & Paige's blogs for giveaways while the hop is on!

Thanks again to Cheryl and Paige for allowing me to participate in the hop.  I have loved making your design and feel very privileged to have had so much fun playing and exploring plus blocks with you all.  Happy St. Patrick's to everyone!

Monday, March 12th

Cheryl @ Meadow Mist Designs

Paige @ Quilted Blooms

Tuesday, March 13th

Soma @ Whims and Fancies

Ann @ Brown Paws Quilting

Kitty @ Night Quilter

Sophie @ Luna Lovequilts

Afton @ Quilting Mod

Shelley @ The Carpenters Daughter Who Quilts

Wednesday, March 14th

Jayne @ Twiggy and Opal

Jen @ A Dream and a Stitch

Abigail @ Cut & Alter

Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl

Sandra @ mmm! quilts

Karen @ Run Sew Fun

Thursday, March 15th

Linda @ Flourishing Palms

Bernie @ Needle and Foot

Liz @ Savor Every Stitch

Stacey @ Stacey In Stitches

Michelle @ From Bolt to Beauty

Patty @ Elm Street Quilts

Melanie @ A Bit of Scrap Stuff Blog

Friday, March 16th

Myra @ Busy Hands Quilts

Izzy @ Dizzy Quilts

Ruth @ Charly and Ben's Crafty Corner

Christa @ Christa Quilts

Monday, March 19th

Jessica @ Quilty Habit

Cindy @ Hyacinth Quilt Designs

Jennifer @ The Inquiring Quilter

Julie @ The Crafty Quilter

Tuesday, March 20th

Tish @ Tish N Wonderland

Judy @ Sew Some Sunshine

Emily @ The Darling Dogwood

Wanda @ Wanda's Life Sampler

Karen @ Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats

Katherine @ Sew Me Something Good

Wednesday, March 21st

Anja @ Anja Quilts

Kate @ Smiles from Kate

Sue @ Sevenoaks Street Quilts

Carole @ From My Carolina Home

Alison @ Little Bunny Quilts

Thursday, March 22nd

Debbie @ Esch House Quilts

Laura @ Slice of Pi Quilts

Beth @ Cooking Up Quilts

Janice @ Color Creating and Quilting

Joanne @ Quilts by Joanne

Friday, March 23rd

Cheryl @ Meadow Mist Designs

Paige @ Quilted Blooms

Giveaway & Book Tour - Crafted Applique: New possibilities

Welcome everybody to my stop on the Crafted Applique: New Possibilities blog hop!

I am delighted to be involved in the hop and share Lara's generosity by giving away a copy of her new book!  I've been following Lara's blog BuzzinBumble for ages and last year when I was renovating our kitchen, we got chatting by email about being too far away from each other to be able to drop by for a cuppa, so we decided on a mug rug swap instead and this way have a virtual cuppa with each other.  This is what Lara made for me!

If you have been following Lara's blog hop you will have seen this mini featured on Sew Mama Sew but I had to show it again for my stop on the hop to show what you can be done with Lara's applique method!  It is perfect for tiny pieces to add detail.  Check out their perfect expressions - this little mini brings me such joy - it captures the personalities of our Charly & Wilbur perfectly!

I ordered my copy of Crafted Applique from the AQS shop as soon as I heard it was available for pre-order and got it last month ahead of the hop & just in time for an applique project I was planning.   I had the bright idea of making a glow in the dark Lego inspired Darth Vader for a Star Wars mini quilt swap on Instagram!

Lara's method is very well explained in the book and when I emailed Lara to tell her I had a copy of her book in my hands she gave me pointers to help me apply it to Vader and it made the making of this mini so much easier!  The applique parts can be re-positioned and moved if you need to and I did!  The no fray aspect allowed me to make some tiny cuts into the fabric on Vader's face to give him a bit of a scowl.  I also added some detailing on his breastplate by cutting parts away and this made the glow in the dark fabric shine through!

Being able to make small cuts and not having to worry about fraying edges got me thinking about making a second project!  I am a big fan of all things Space related and have a great fondness for things like Star Wars and Doctor Who!

Lara Buccella

Ruth

The Doctor, a Time Lord from Gallifrey has a language made up of circles and is read anti-clockwise.  The TV program is full of beautiful images using the circular language and someone even went and created an alphabet for it.  Here's my name, Ruth and Lara's full name in Gallifreyan!

Yes there is a bit of artistic licence in this one - well its a made up language for starters!  But you can move the dots and lines about a bit and change up the colours and like Lara's method for applique the possibilities are only limited by your imagination!

So I've stared cutting into fabric again trying to make something circular inspired by circular Gallifreyan.  I tried cutting shapes with a scalpel and that was tricky even with paper as a base as there is so much give in fabric.  So, out came the scissors and I just played with the shapes.   I am starting to think I need a die cutter as the only limiting factor with this one is not Lara's method but my ability to cut a curve!

I am far from finished, this is only layer 1 and 2, but I'm having a lot of fun and really enjoying the variety of things you can do with no fray applique!  From butterflies to flower gardens, mermaids to dogs on carts the possibilities really are endless!

To win a copy of Lara's book Crafted Applique:  New Possibilities please leave a comment telling me what you would like to make for your next applique project!  The giveaway is open until midnight Sunday 29th May, winner will be chosen at random next Monday, 30th May.  Good luck!

To see more amazing applique projects and more chances to win Lara's book please visit my fellow blog hoppers on the book tour below! If you just can’t wait and want to buy a copy right now, Lara has offered to refund your money if you win a copy in one of the giveaways! You can purchase a signed copy on BuzzinBumble, or from Amazon.co.uk

Crafted Appliqué… New Possibilities Blog Hop - May 1^st to June 5^th 2016

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
1 Lara Buccella BuzzinBumble   Introduce Tour	2 Valerie Smith Pumpkin Patch Quilter	3 Dana Gaffney Stormy Days	4 Lorna McMahon Sew Fresh Quilts	5 Mary Schuberg Needled Mom	6 Heidi Kuntz Red Letter Quilts	7 Alycia Carmin Alycia Quilts
8 Amy DeCesare Amy Made That	9 Sherri McConnell A Quilting Life	10 Lara Buccella Sew Mama Sew Guest Post	11 Christina Cameli A Few Scraps	12 Melissa Corry Happy Quilting	13 Sarah Craig Confessions of a Fabric Addict	14 Soma Acharya Whims & Fancies
15 Valerie Reynolds Val’s Quilting Studio	16 Angela Pingel Cut to Pieces	17 Sandra Walker Musings of a Menopausal Melon	18 Cheryl Brickey Meadow Mist Designs	19 Judy Murphy Quilt Paradigm	20 Yvonne Fuchs Quilting Jetgirl	21 Cindy Pieters Stitchin’ at Home
22 Susie Zlogar Susie’s Sunroom	23 Connie Campbell Freemotion by the River	24 Ruth Bourke Charly & Ben’s Crafty Corner	25 Kaja Zieslar Sew Slowly	26 Ann Brooks Fret Not Yourself	27 Cynthia Brunz Quilting is More Fun Than Housework	28 Holiday
29 Holiday	30 Holiday	31 Jenn Trott-Zisserson Quarter Inch from the Edge	1 Paulette Horn The Way I Sew It	2 Sandra Jansen Studio Sew of Course	3 Christine Sherman Triangles & Squares	4 Darlene Simmons Quilt Shop Gal
5 Lara Buccella BuzzinBumble Giveaway Winners Announced!