Friday, November 30, 2018

Pixelating Blog Hop






My good friend Toni (Quiltoni) Smith has introduced me to an amazing side of quilting.
She quilts while streaming on Twitch. (I don't mean what happens to your eyes when someone calls a quilt a "blanket".)
Twitch started out as people broadcasting playing computer games and has expanded to, among other things, broadcasting working on creative things like quilting, knitting, crochet, wood, metal, jewelry, and I haven't even scratched the surface. 
Imagine sitting beside someone doing a creative craft, talking, interacting, and learning!
Quiltoni makes pixel quilts, and has published a book on how to make them yourself.
my favicon

I just had to try one of my own. I just needed a pixel image or sprite.
Eventually I decided upon my favicon, 
That's the tiny little image that shows up next to the name of a website in the bookmarks.


Using the techniques in her book, I skipped ahead and started to design my quilt with 1 1/2'' squares that I already had precut. Until I figured out that I would need six of these for the design I wanted to make.
Thatsa lotta squares.
The first design
 I went back to the cutting table (not the drawing board) and started over, actually following the directions in the book.
I drafted my quilt using Electric Quilt 8, then drew squares and rectangles over the parts that would be combined into squares and rectangles.
 This looks more like the instructions in the book.
Making equilateral triangles into squares
Then I found a roll of tone on tone fabrics already cut into 2 1/2'' strips.I sorted them into 3 groups of 7 fabrics - that's how many colors fit into my design.
Three groups of seven fabrics

Following my diagram, I cut the strips into squares and rectangles.


cutting...

I laid them out on my horizontal design wall/board in vertical columns.


Design wall layout
 You may notice what I quickly realized. This was not an easy strip quilt. The 60 degree angles required different seams, and several partial seams where the "triangles" came together.



Partial seams

I loved this part of figuring out how to put the pieces together. I was very happy knowing that I didn't have to write the instructions for the sewing sequence.
The puzzle in progress
 I used black to raise the design off the background, then added the strips to square up the sides.

My mid-arm quilting machine made quick work of the quilting, and my machine made quick work of the binding.

Machine Binding
 The finished pixel quilt was done in time to send to Quiltoni for her booth in the Fall International Quilt Market in Houston.

My pixel quilt.



This shows the scale of the quilt.
Just a little secret to share here, It may look like I added the black border to lift the design off the background, but actually, I ran out of that black and could to only outline half the design. Sometimes things work out better with a little imagination.

Here are the rest of the bloggers in the Pixelating Blog Hop.

Nov 27 - Quiltoni - Welcome and Introduction of Bloggers and Giveaway https://quiltoni.blogspot.com/ 
Nov 28 -   Kate Colleran Designs, LLC -   http://seamslikeadream.com/blog/ 
Nov 29 -   A&E Gutermann -   http://www.seewhatmaterializes.com/blog/ 

You are here today
Nov 30 -   Triangle Frenzy LLC -   https://trianglefrenzy.blogspot.com/ 

Dec 1 -   Desert Bloom Quilting -   https://www.desertbloomquilting.com/blog/ 
Dec 2 - Quiltoni -   https://quiltoni.blogspot.com/ 
Dec 3 -   Tamarinis -   https://tamarinis.typepad.com/ 
Dec 4 -   The Fat QuarterGypsy -   http://www.fatquartergypsy.com/Lex-Luther-Blog.html 
Dec 5 -   Around the Bobbin -   https://aroundthebobbin.com/blog/ 
Dec 6 -   Quilting Affection Designs  -   http://quiltingaffection.blogspot.com/ 
Dec 7 -   Muppin Inc -   http://blog.muppin.com/
Dec 8 - Winners Announced

We are having a drawing at the end of the blog hop, so check out out instagram and enter the giveaway.
See you next time
Have a Frenzy Day!

Monday, November 26, 2018

Row By Row 2018

I made patterns for two shops this year for the Row by Row Experience ™.
One was for the shop I did last year,
Quilting Sew Easy in Gaffney, South Carolina.

The other is Atomic Fibers in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Photos to follow.