#34 Cathedral Window

#34: Cathedral Window
Finished: 8/26/12
Techniques: Cathedral Window, origami
Size: 9" x 9"

I've wanted to try a Cathedral Window quilt for some time, but shied away thinking it was too difficult. On a recent trip to Nebraska, however, I was reacquainted with a Cathedral Window quilt that a friend's mother had made. Leone Gustafson's quilt is quite lovely, and it inspired me to give it a try.  I found instructions on the web that required folding of fabric, rather like origami. At a certain point, colorful printed fabric is folded separately and inserted to create a stained glass cathedral window effect. Because of the folding of the fabric, no batting is needed to complete the quilt.

Four petal quilting on reverse

I had a little difficulty with the hand stitching; I don't do
very well with keeping my stitching invisible, and I didn't
like the effect. So I switched to machine stitching and was
much happier. I still had a little trouble with puckering near
the center of the piece but it's not terribly noticeable. And the machine stitching creates a nice four petal quilting design on
the reverse of the piece. It's not easy to see, but you can just
make it out.





I like the way this mini-quilt goes together. It's a "quilt-as-you-go" design. I could have added on as many rows and columns as I wished, working out from the center. I chose to stay with just the four windows, making this the smallest mini-quilt to date.

#33 Milky Way

#33: Milky Way
Finished: 8/19/12
Techniques: Paper piecing, Appliqué
Size: 16" x 12"

Description: Years ago, I made a quilt for my niece utilizing a dozen or more of paper-pieced stars similar to these. I had also used a polka dot batik to simulate the galaxy. I still had some of that fabric left over and decided to re-create that quilt on a smaller scale. Using Carol Doak's designs from her book, 365 Foundation Quilt Blocks, I paper-pieced 5 different stars in different colors and used the polka dot batik for part of the background.

But I didn't use enough of the polka dot in the construction of the red/pink star. When I sewed the pieces together the red/pink star stood out too much. It looked disjointed. At that point, I could have taken out the odd star, made a new one and inserted it, but that seemed like too much work. So what I did instead was to apply Steam-A-Seam to the back of the fabric, cut out some dots and appliqué them to strategic places to minimize the contrast. It actually adds a bit of interest to the mini-quilt.

#32 Double Helix

#32: Double Helix
Finished: 8/10/12
Techniques: Convergence
Size: 12 1/2" x 19"

"Sine Me Up" by Kent Williams,
reprinted with permission from the artist.

Description: I was reading 500 Art Quilts edited by Ray Hemachandra and Karey Bresenhan and fell in love with a  quilt by Kent Williams entitled "Sine Me Up". As this was more of an art book and not a quilting technique book, there were no instructions for how to create this quilt - just a photo and a small close up. So working from the photo, I had to figure out how it was done.  I could see it involved alternating rows of fabric strips, but at first I thought I would have to work with curves. I tried that but failed miserably. I could see that there were curves going to the left and curves going to the right, but it drove me crazy for a while trying to figure out how to put it together.

Then I realized I was making it too complicated and knew I had to look for a simpler solution. It turns out that this is a very easy construction technique. Very easy, yet quite ingenious! I created rows of alternating strips: 1) light purple, red, pink, olive, and light blue and 2) dark blue, yellow, green, orange, and dark purple. I then alternated the rows, moving one row 1/4" to the right while moving the other row 1/4" to the left when adding each subsequent row. That gives the appearance of curves in two directions.

Now if I had been smart, I would have done some strip piecing of the five row fabrics and then cut them out, but no, I cut out individual rectangles and then pieced them together. Strip piecing may also have helped in making cleaner, straighter rows. Ah well - I'll know better for next time.

My mini-quilt is not as elegant as Mr. Williams'. I didn't achieve the nice curved effect, but I attribute that to facts that my rectangles are not as long as his, nor do I have as many shifts to the right and left. It may also be because he shifted the rows less than 1/4" but I am not positive of that as it is difficult to determine the scale. So my mini-quilt came out more angular than curved, but the overall effect reminded me of the double helix of DNA, hence the title.

Another interesting note: There is an optical illusion that occurs here, and it is most evident with the orange (although you can see it somewhat with the other colors as well, to varying degrees). Look on the right side of the mini-quilt. Does it appear that there is a dark orange diagonal to a lighter orange? It's all the same orange fabric! The illusion occurs because the orange looks lighter when it is next to the light blue, and darker when it is next to the olive color.

Thank you, Kent Williams, for allowing me post a photo of your quilt! I encourage others to check out his website gallery of quilts. They are phenomenal! http://www.rkentwilliams.com/galleries.html

#31 Olympic Rings

#31: Olympic Rings
Finished: 8/5/12
Techniques: Appliqué, Paper-piecing, Double Wedding Ring inspired
Size: 30 1/2" x 18"

Description:   My quilting group suggested the Olympics as a design for a mini-quilt and I loved the idea! A design based on the rings seemed the reasonable choice, but how to liven it up? I thought I would combine the Olympic rings with elements of a double wedding ring design. Double wedding rings are comprised of multiple fabrics, so that's how I created these rings. I created the circles on paper using different sized dinner plates and paper-pieced them together. I sewed a solid backing to each ring in the appropriate color for it, clipped the curves, and turned them right-side out, then appliquéd them to the white background.

The colors of the rings and the interweaving of them are consistent with the actual Olympic flag. The colors blue, black, red, yellow, green, as well as white, represent at least one color on every country's flag.