Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Rectangular Conundrum

Here’s my solution to the ‘Black and White’ Challenge from Season 1 of Project QUILTING.  Rectangular Conundrum - Project QUILTING Black & White Challenge SubmissionI started this challenge with a few ideas in my head. The thing I knew right away was that I wanted to put fabric on cording and twirl it to make a more dimensional piece.

With the first idea I had I couldn't decide if I wanted my accent color to be lime green or hot pink - it really felt like it needed both so I had to scrap that idea.

At that point I decided to let this piece create itself organically. I decided on hot pink as an accent and I made a disappearing nine-patch base to work from with hot pink, black and white. I quilted it with fun circular, rectangular and triangular swirl patterns all over. I've really come to enjoy tight quilting.

Then I created my swirls with my cord and fabric. I left bits of the ends loose so I had some flexibility in my design.

I still had a rectangle for the base of the design so one night I decided to chop the corners off. I really liked the pattern and quilting in my original rectangle so I decided I wanted to incorporate even the triangular pieces I had cut off - so I bound all five.

The last step was to decide how to arrange my four triangular bits and my five fabric swirls. I hand stitched all the swirls and their tales down - it took much more time than I had originally envisioned but I finally finished this afternoon.

I forgot to mention - I personally love the contrast in the rectangular/circle shapes in the 'background' with the circular swirls - I love what mixing geometry can do!

Approximate Dimension: 20" x 30"

Created in Madison, WI
submitted by Kim Lapacek, KimsCraftyApple

Rectangular Conundrum - Project QUILTING Entry  Rectangular Conundrum - Project QUILTING Black & White Challenge

 Rectangular Conundrum - Project QUILTING Black & White Challenge

 Rectangular Conundrum - Project QUILTING Black & White Challenge

Office Supplies Challenge

Here are some pictures from my Office Supplies Challenge Project QUILTING entry:

Rows of Circles -Project QUILTING Office Store Challenge

Photo taken in ‘Magic Mode’ on my camera – quilt displayed on my red bedroom wall. Rows of Circles -Project QUILTING Office Store Challenge a close up of the quilting, the spiral and the grommets

Rows of Circles -Project QUILTING Office Store Challenge 

the back  the backRows of Circles -Entry for the Project QUILTING Office Store Challenge

My trip to the office supply store inspired me by the rows of binders and notebooks, the circles seen in the ends of the sharpees and pencils, great patterns and designs seen on folders and notebooks, the amazing colors seen in the markers and crayons.

From that I started out making a rainbow from various sized strips of fabrics. Then I fused on circles in those same colors in random spots all over the top. I quilted this piece with fun swirly circles - I really love the feel of close quilting. Then, I wanted to pull out the geometric feel of the circles as part of this piece so I added in some silver grommets.

The next thing I did, to mimic the spiral of a notebook was to weave through ring memory wire down the quilt. I loved how this looked but the quilt wasn't holding it's shape well as the memory wire wanted to scrunch back together. So, I found a curtain rod and put it through the back of the memory wire. Holes were drilled through the rod and I used wire to hold the memory wire at the right stretch to keep the quilt square. I really love how the rod shows up on each side of the quilt - adding another fun dimensional element.

Measures Approximately 19" x 15"

Created in Poynette, WI
by Kim Lapacek

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