What Shade Are You? Blog Hop
My name is Amanda and I go by Mandy Andy Designs on
instagram (but don’t call me Mandy).
I’ve been quilting for 11 years, inspired to start quilting by an
antique quilt my mom had bought when I was ten.
I homeschool my two kids when I am not sewing. I love making quilts but
on occasion will make other things, which tend to inspire my quilts. Here is my quilt, called XOXO, which includes
fabric weaving and paper piecing and hand quilting galore.
I was thrilled to be contacted by Rachael at RJR Fabrics and
it was the same week I posted my Best Nine for 2016 on instagram, eight of
which were weavings I had done so I knew I wanted to make something with fabric
weaving. I also was working on a new
pattern that I really wanted to finish so I went back and forth between the two
ideas for a couple days and then it hit me; I’ll combine them. I’m not much of a planner when it comes to
quilting, mostly just starting with an idea and letting it evolve as I
work. I decided on the idea to make an
XO pattern with the fabric weavings as the X’s and the Pyramid Wheel paper
piecing pattern as the O’s. I chose the colors based on a weaving I had made for
a different project. Most of those fabrics
were Cotton & Steel so I was able to easily match the colors of the Cotton
Supreme Solids to the fabrics I liked and the ones I couldn’t match were actually
C&S Basics anyway.
Cutting Strips |
Ironing Strips |
My colors are:
Bubblegum 244
Hot Pink 217
Pink Saphhire 218
Sunset Ruby 357
Moulin Rouge 356
Red Wagon 416
Silver Lining 433
Silver screen 380
Greyhound 321
Shadow 431
Raven 396
Gift Box 291
Royal Blue 126
Mermaid 393
Banana Cream Pie 336
Peridot 342
Black 34
Basics XOXO Lightning, Sprinkle Jelly Bracelet and Sprinkle
Corduroy
Backing and binding are Raindrops Geo drops in Charcoal
I specifically chose a range of colors in pinks and reds and
grays and black for the Pyramid Wheel pattern but just chose my favorites for
the rest.
Trying to weave but my dog thinks it's her seat #rebeldoxie |
When I was making the weavings, I just sat down with all the
ironed strips and made each block as I felt.
My only goal was to make them look like X’s. The weavings take twice as much fabric as
regular piecing does so I cut and ironed a ton of fabric. I cut the selvages off of the solids first
before cutting all of my strips and included them within the weavings. They give this wonderful soft and furry
texture which I love.
Texture with selvages |
I originally thought that I would make the entire quilt in
the weaving and Pyramid Wheel alternating blocks but soon it started looking
super busy (and felt so heavy) so I took some time to think about it and
decided to add the black on both sides, creating the negative space and putting
all the focus on just the off center strip of blocks.
I machine quilted each block individually as a
quilt-as-you-go quilt block and then combined the blocks with sashing and the
large black panels, machine stitching the sashing and edges of the panels to
the backing. I added the binding and
then hand quilted each block differently. It is much more enjoyable to hand
quilt a finished quilt with no fraying edges or safety pins poking.
This was actually a weird time because I was fixing my house
up, selling it, moving, all while trying to work on and finish this quilt. But it was so worth it and I really did enjoy
it all. I think it gave me something to
focus on during all the craziness.
My parents had a surprise snowfall the day I was going to
their house for our monthly family dinner so I decided to take some photos
there.
I had an extra woven block which I felt didn’t really fit
with the others. It wasn’t looking like an X the way I had hoped so I turned it
into a pillow. I think I was channeling @misterdomestic when I made the misfit
block.
Thank you to Rachael and RJR Fabrics for allowing me to
participate in this fun blog hop, my first! Come see me @mandyandydesigns and @rjrfabrics on
instagram for a giveaway of these amazing fabrics and then see what I did with
all of those strips I cut but didn’t end up using!
Comments
Post a Comment