Here is where I ended up on Wednesday when I was working on formulating my medallion blocks. I thought I was done when I put the Caramel in on the lighter side. I decided to make a second block like this. After doing so I decided that I really need some extra oomph on the lighter side. The Caramel just wasn’t doing it for me because it was not balancing out the impact of the Terra Cotta on the darker side.

I decided to get really bold by replacing the Caramel with School Bus, and here is the result:

The School Bus is a lot brighter than the Caramel. I decided that I really liked the change, and proceeded to make three more blocks so I could see a grouping of four blocks to give myself a better idea of how they will play together. The lighter side is still less dominant than the darker side, which is brighter. Yet the School Bus strips cry out, “Look at me too.”

These blocks will be trimmed to 12.5 inches, but you get the idea. I love this block. I will be making eleven more of these blocks for a 3 x 5 central medallion composed of 15 blocks.

The rough drawing below gives an idea of how this medallion will fit on the overall quilt design. The bolder squares represent the medallion. They are followed by another row of blocks on each side to fill out the bed top. Then there will be additional rows on the left, right, and bottom for overhang.

I will be filling in the rest of the quilt with more randomly constructed blocks such as this one:

I’m going to need more School Bus, Mushroom, and Taupe for sure. While I am over at the Fat Quarter Shop I will take a look at my Kona Sample Card and see about getting some additional greens and violets for potential use in the Farmer’s Wife Quilt.

While waiting for new fabrics to arrive I am working on producing the center portion of the block that will compose the medallion of the Kona Log Cabin Quilt. I have made three of them so far.

I’ve worked it out that 23 half yards of Kona Solids comes to $80.50. That is fifty cents above what is required for free shipping from the Fat Quarter Shop. Eleven of these colors are for the central Medallion blocks. That makes 12 new colors.

Here is my order:

Last Saturday I got on a train and traveled into Manhattan to attend an annual quilting event put on by the Quilt Alliance called “Quilters Take Manhattan”. I met up with three other members of the Central Jersey Modern Quilt Guild on the train, and we walked together to the Fashion Institute of Technology where the event was held.

I really enjoyed the day. There were vendors to visit, goody bags with charm packs, and even Fat Quarters! But most impressive of all was the coupon for a free Craftsy Class. I redeemed mine for a class by Angela Walters called “Machine Quilting Negative Space”. The price of the class is $39.00, so it nearly covered the $50.00 cost of the ticket to the event. Add, taking into account the fabric in my goody bag, I definitely attended Quilters Take Manhattan for free.

The event included inspirational talks by Ricky Tims and Victoria Findlay Wolfe, as well as others. there was a silent auction of some wonderful items plus a raffle. I purchased $10.00 worth of raffle tickets for this good cause, not expecting to win anything, and I was right. Money well spent though.

Now for my progress on my Low Volume Quilt…

I cut into a new fat quarter from the Kona “Not That White” collection. This week’s color is Champagne. I made five flowers and still have some basted hexagons left, so there will probably be two or three more flowers of this color coming soon.

I am linking up with Jessica’s Monday Morning Star Count over at Life Under Quilts, as usual.

Those of you coming here from the Star Count might enjoy reading about my most recent progress on my Kona Log Cabin Quilt.

In this post I am going to “talk out loud” about my thought process in coming up with the right block to use in the central medallion of my Kona Log Cabin Quilt. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to how I might unify the Kona Log Cabin Quilt. One idea is to create a quilt within a quilt. This would consist of a medallion of blocks that would be a 3 x 5 section near the center of the quilt.

I decided that I wanted these blocks to be identical and for my three favorite Kona solids to be featured in the block.

From top to bottom these colors are Sweet Pea, Terra Cotta, and Morning Glory. I had already decided to add Sweet Pea and Morning Glory to the outer repeats of every block in the quilt. Those two colors will make a second appearance in the blocks of this medallion near the center of the block. Terra Cotta will make an appearance immediately after that on both sides of the block to form a square that traverses the light and the dark.

Deciding what else to include was a more difficult decision. I thought that going neutral with the remainder of the block would give a nice contrast between the randomness of the blocks outside the medallion area and the structure of the blocks inside the medallion area. So I chose the following colors to work with.

From top to bottom these colors are Latte, Silver, Shadow, and Taupe. I will use the Latte for the small center square of the log cabin block to provide a touch of color. I will use the remaining colors on the light side of the block.

I’ve also chosen:

From top to bottom these colors are Smoke, Pewter, and Mushroom. These will be used on the dark side of the block.

And here we have a block (as yet untrimmed) that conforms to the above specifications.

I’m not altogether happy with it. In fact, I have to say I am totally disappointed with the lighter side of the block. The two grays near the center read almost as white when juxtaposed with the other colors. I also don’t like the Terra Cotta traversing the lighter side. I am pretty happy with the darker side of the block though, although I may try to get more contrast between the two darker central gray fabrics.

To fix the lighter side I am going to try Caramel where the Terra Cotta currently is located. I am also going to try some warmer light colors to substitute for the two light grays near the center. I may pull the Latte out of the center location and use it in place of one of the light grays on the light side of the block.

I’ve gathered together some of my Kona flowers to help me with the decision making process.

The flowers on the left have been eliminated, as have the flowers on the right. The flowers along the top represent the colors for the dark side of the block, and the flowers along the bottom represent the colors for the light side of the block.

And here is the newly designed block.

I think it looks a lot better. Yet I am not yet completely sure about the Terra Cotta, though I really want it to be there. I am going to take a couple days to sit on this (figuratively). I may need to make four blocks like this and see how they interact before I make a final decision.

Here are the colors in the order in which they are added to the block starting from the center:

Mustard, Pewter, Parsley, Iron, Latte, Morning Glory,

 Sweet Pea, Terra Cotta, Caramel, Taupe, and Mushroom

I’m actually going to do this, and I am going to do it as an EPP project. There is a large group of quilters gathering over on Facebook to make this quilt together starting September 28th. People are using different methods of construction. There are machine paper piecing templates included on the DVD in the book. There are no specific instructions for EPP work, but apparently some people will be blogging about how to do that. I’ll just have to wait to see if their ideas about how to approach this coincide with mine.

I’ve decided to use solids for my quilt, which should come as no surprise given my recent obsession with Kona Solids. Originally I had though that I would like to do the quilt with all three secondary colors, but I have decided to narrow my pallet down to violets, greens, and a handful of neutrals. I’m leaving the orange out for now. I’ll do a full secondary quilt at another time with another pattern.

Sorting through my Kona flowers I came up with seven colors for these three categories of colors.

This isn’t to say I won’t consider adding other violets, greens, and neutrals along the way. My goal is to create a fairly low intensity, low contrast piece, sort of a low volume project tuned to the middle of the value range. Therefore, I am likely to eliminate the lightest, darkest, and brightest of the colors seen above.

There is one print fabric that I am thinking of adding to the mix. It is one of the very first fabrics I purchased over two years ago when I started quilting again. It is my favorite fabric for sentimental reasons. It brought me back to quilting after so many years. I have about four yards of it remaining, and I have considered for a long time that I would enjoy making it the focus of a quilt. I may decide to sprinkle it into a few blocks in the quilt.

The fabric is pictured below used as the backing for my first large quilting project in my Second Act In Fiber Arts.

Actually this photograph shows the color of the patterned fabric better.

After the QAL begins on September 28th I will update my progress weekly.

I am linking back to Jessica’s Monday Morning Star Count, as usual. Those of you visiting from the Star Count may enjoy seeing my most recent Kona Solid flowers.

I had planned to allow my arm to rest this week, but I saw a fat quarter bundle of Kona Solids sitting on my shelf. I had not yet made flowers for these solids, so I got to work. Here they are:

Heliotrope and Dahlia

Ballerina, Gumdrop, and Corsage

Bordeaux and Geranium

Honeysuckle, Sangria, and Watermelon

The difference between Honeysuckle and Watermelon is quite subtle indeed. I probably don’t need both of these in my collection.

I now have 53 distinctly colored flowers in my Kona solids collection.

This has been a slow week for progress on the Low Volume Quilt. I spent most of my time making sample flowers for the 23 new Kona solids I purchased, and blogged about them on Friday. My sewing arm is giving me quite a bit of trouble as a result, so I am going to have to give it some rest this week. I’ll get back to the log cabin work, and next Monday I will discuss a new EPP project I will have in the works soon.

In spite of my arm pain, I did manage to cut into a new fat quarter from the Kona “Not That White” collection and make some flowers using it. The color is Sand, and I made six flowers with it for potential use in the Low Volume Quilt. I say “potential use” because this whole project is being done in a totally spontaneous way, and I can’t be sure until I have enough variety of solids and patterns how the final quilt will come together. I’m not keeping count anymore, but the total is well over 100 flowers by now.

I am linking back to Jessica’s Monday Morning Star Count as usual. Since it has been two weeks since we have linked back, those of you coming here from the Star Count might want to scroll down quickly to August 24, and then scroll back up in a more leisurely fashion. That way you will see (in order) what I have been up to during the interim. I won’t use a permalink this week. That will allow you to scroll down.

I showed them as yardage last Friday. Now you get to see them as flowers. I can’t believe I completed all 23 flowers in just one week. Here they are:

Purple, Chocolate, and Coffee

These two browns are very close to each other, but they appear darker here than they really are. There is also more contrast between them than there appears to be here. Yet, if I were to order yardage, I would probably not order both. I would choose one or the other. I don’t need to own quantities of every color. I’d just like to say that I have seen them all at a scale large enough to appreciate their subtleties. And, of course, if possible, I’d like to own a 6 x 6 inch square of each, plus a flower of each, for comparison purposes.

Palm, Pewter, Ivy, and O. D. Green

Palm and O. D. Green speak to me, and they will be taking their place among my preferred secondaries.

Smoke, Iron, and Lilac

I see Lilac as a definite addition to my preferred collection of secondaries. Moving forward, as I purchase more solids, I intend to concentrate on my secondary palette before adding to my primary or neutral palettes.

Latte, Wheat, and Taupe

Brown, Mocha, and Earth

Moss, Bison, Mushroom, and Shale

Mushrooom is a yummy neutral.

School Bus, Mustard, and Shadow

I bought School Bus strictly on a whim, but I think that it will prove to be a much more useful color than I had imagined. Strictly speaking, this color has enough yellow in it to be a cross between a secondary and a primary. But it says, “orange” to me. So I am categorizing it as a secondary. Mustard is a great yellow that is not too bright. Shadow is a nice gray that treads the line between light value and medium value.

The next step Kona Solids acquisition is to scour the sample card for more secondaries.

I am a member of the Central Jersey Modern Quilt Guild. On Instagram we have an account which is @cjmqg which is maintained by one of our members. You can also find work posted by individual members under the hashtag #cjmqg. If you search for that hashtag you will see this photo on Instagram. Or you can simply follow me, @terrischurter. I have edited my “real” name on Instagram to read as HexyLady. That’s one word.

The above piece represents a big step forward for me. This is a piece that I put together for a group quilt that the CJMQG is putting together to send to Quilt Fest 2016. #quiltcon2016challenge

I got the project package with directions at the last guild meeting and sat on it, figuratively, until yesterday afternoon just before it was due. I called upon all of my courage, and drew upon my recently refound love of log cabin work, to create something as undeniably structured as I am, yet hopefully somewhat modern in form.

I have been a member of the guild for nearly two years, but have yet to participate beyond listening, watching, plus attending one sewing retreat last November where I mostly listened and watched. I am an introvert at heart, and my interactions have largely been virtual since the advent of the internet, which is clearly an introvert’s dream come true.

Aside from my propensity as an introvert, I never liked the idea of group projects. I don’t always play well with others. I play very well next to others, however. So a project with guidelines that allows me to complete a block to specifications is a nice way to ease my way into group activities. I even went so far as to design this piece to fade into the background, just as I do. The guidelines indicated that one may include a number of black triangles, but offered the option to eliminate the triangles altogether and simply work with the low volume fabrics. Such a piece would be used to finish off the top. I even offered to have mine sliced and diced as necessary in order to make its incorporation successful. I’ll be interested to see if I can find its components in the finished quilt top.

Two more opportunities for guild interaction are coming up soon. I’ll be attending Qulters Take Manhattan soon, and the guild is repeating their November retreat this year. I’ve already signed up for that three day event.

At the guild meeting yesterday they were looking for people to demonstrate hand work at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania for one day in January. As an English Paper Piecer it just made sense for me to volunteer, and so I did. I hope to be working on the Farmer’s Wife quilt either by hand in a traditional way, or with EPP templates.

I managed to pick up a copy of the August/September issue of Quilting Arts at the guild meeting. Mark Lipinski has a four page spread about the Slow Stitching Movement, and he shows some photos from the First Slow Stitching Movement Getaway in Lambertville this past April, which I attended.

I like to keep my hands busy, so I’m always basting hexagons or sewing them together at the meeting. Last night I managed to stitch together five Kona color sample flowers while I was listening and watching at the meeting last night. In all fairness I must point out that the hexies came to the meeting pre basted. I won’t bother to name the colors here since you will see these flowers again on Friday when I show off the entire collection of 23 New Kona solid flowers.

I love how doing grunt work like making these sample flowers can spark the imagination. I have an idea for a series of quilts using nothing but Kona solids. The three quilts in the series would be designed to allow them to serve as perpetually growing color sample charts for my Kona solids. Once I flesh out the details for this new project I will share it here.

Snow

I am taking a break from showing progress on my Low Volume Quilt flowers to show a few sample pieces that I made for my Kona color filing system.

First we have Snow. This is the color that I am using as the central hexagon for all of my color sample flowers.

Next up we have Sweet Pea, Terra Cotta, and Morning Glory. I showed these flowers off in a recent post about secondary colors.

Sweet Pea

Terra Cotta

Morning Glory

I located a few colors that I had used in projects in the past year or so, and made samples for Mocha, Caramel, and Burgundy.

Mocha

Caramel

Burgunday

I’ve already started work on making the samples for the 23 new colors I received last week. I won’t show any of those now because I would  like to show them all at once. I’m hoping to finish them in time to use that content for a Fabric Friday post this week.

I am linking back to Jessica’s Monday Morning Star Count. Those of you visiting from the Star Count may enjoy reading my post about how I am loving my secondary Kona colors. You also may enjoy my post about  my 23 new Kona solids.

Since we never got a chance to link up last week, you might enjoy my most recent Low Volume Quilt post. You can also take a look at my post about my new walking foot and a post about my progress on setting up my Kona Fabrics Sample Pieces.

I’d just tell you to scroll down, but that doesn’t work with a permalink. I sure hope the Star Count happens this week.

I blogged about ordering them last Friday, and I showed a screen shot of the list of colors. They have arrived, and here they are:

Purple, Chocolate, and Coffee

Palm, Pewter, Ivy, and O. D. Green

Smoke, Iron, and Lilac

Latte, Wheat, and Taupe

Brown, Mocha, and Earth

Moss, Bison, Mushroom, and Shale

School Bus, Mustard, and Shadow

I’ve got my work cut out for me now. I need to cut out the 6 x 6 inch sample pieces from each of these half yard pieces. I also need to make the flower sample pieces as well. Then I need to make a hanging file for each fabric. I think I am going to try to do all of that before I do any more work on the Log Cabin Quilt. I want to get a good feeling for what I have on hand before I proceed with any more work on that project.

the pieces above are all half yard cuts. That is the smallest amount that the Fat Quarter Shop will allow you to order. There are 11.5 yards of fabric up there.

By the way, it was no mean feat to match up and label all of those fabrics. There were so many fabrics so close in hue and value that I needed to come up with a system to stay organized. It was pretty overwhelming to think about finding the chips on the chart for each of these colors. I started by putting a check mark in pencil next to all 23 fabric names on the sample card. This was so I would know where to look for possible matches when searching for the names. Knowing where to look meant that I would not waste time hovering over similar colors that were not even in the collection. Then I took one set of fabrics at a time being careful not to lose the sequence of the set as I was looking for the colors. I had maintain the sequence because I needed to be able to refer to those sets in their proper order so I could label the photos in this post. Once I found a color I made a label for the fabric, erased the check mark on the color chart, and added a check mark next to the color on the packing list. Then I put the labeled set aside, and labeled the next set. I continued in this way until all the fabrics were labeled. I knew I had been successful when every fabric was labeled, every check mark was erased from the sample card, and every color had a check next to it on the packing list.

There are the colors ready to be cut and filed away.

Now I’m tired, so I think I will do some mindless stitching of flowers for the Low Volume Quilt. These fabrics can wait until tomorrow for cutting.