A Nation On The Rails - Quilt #2, 2011

Quilt Top #2 2011 - the red, white, and blue rail fence - is complete! And we're only halfway through Feb!

And completed!


Showing the complete lay of the quilt - with the cat in the background!


If I did it over again, I'd do it slightly differently, I think. A couple of the solid blocks in the centre break up the movement more than I like, but the overall effect works.

Does anyone have ideas for a name for it?

I like naming quilts.
eg. this one is named 'cathedral windows':

That's not the design, but that's the quilt's name.

Right now, this quilt is "railfence in abstract", although I'm thinking perhaps 'Mondrian on the Tracks' except that Mondrian is a lot more square and linear and more colourful. On the other hand, 'A Nation On The Rails' might be an appropriate commentary for the times, perhaps?

I haven't named the postage stamp quilt yet either:

I'm thinking either 'The Penny Patches' (after the Penny Black, which was the first stamp issued by the UK), or 'That's A Lot Of Letters!'.

life went crazy; so did the rail fence

So, my life the last couple of weeks has been kind of crazy.

My little kitty - fur-shedder, despoiler of quilt layouts, and all-around general dark matter on any quilting project I happen to be working on - got really really sick, resulting in a complete loss of appetite and a weight loss of 0.5kg. Which, in a cat who weighed only 3.5kg to begin with is a lot of weight.

For a while, I was worried that she'd never sit on one of my quilts again.

In and out of vets, appointments, blood tests, and medications later, she's stable and healthy and kicking like crazy. Hates medication like a big hater-y thing.

And is quite happy to flop down on mummy's current projects. Which mummy does not mind at all right now.

Current project: The Rail Fence In Abstraction

Starting with the fabrics:


Cut into strips:


Then strip-sewn into rows and cut into blocks. (I don't think I have pics of this section of the process.)

A test layout of the blocks, just to get an idea of how it would look:


I decided against doing your standard tri- or quad-colour layout, and instead went for something a little more complicated:



And the final pic of the top cometh tonight after I've ironed out the seams. I'm not 100% happy with it - those big chunks of solid in the middle of the quilt are bothering me but I'm not minded to rip the whole thing up and redo.

I'd lay it out slightly differently next time, I think.

Next project: my entry for the Moda Jelly Roll competition.

And then the Sanctuary quilt for Agam Darshi, which is probably going to be a long and painstaking quilt to put together...

Sanctuary Fabric collection!

The Sanctuary collected by Patty Young has arrived! And it is beautiful!


Stacked up.


Fanned out. (I suck at fabric porn, I know.)

I admit, I was expecting a warmer yellow than we got, but it's a nice cool contrast in the midst of it all.

This fabric is definitely going towards a quilt for Agam Darshi (Kate Freelander in Sanctuary).

Now to pick the quilt type for it! I'm thinking of the kaleidoscope block done up here as World In Stitches' 'Under The Sea' quilt. I want that flow and meld of patterns from one block to the next, with the choice of colours emphasising the circular patterns than on the square block itself.

I also received two Moda Jelly Rolls with the Sanctuary collection: Central Park and the Bella Solids in Snow. They're being used to create a quilt for the Jelly Roll Dream competition. Although I've started making my blocks and I'm not entirely sure I like the colour choices. It feels too light (and sunny), while the other one of this quilt type that I made had more oomph.

Well, we'll wait until we're done. It'll be nicely dramatic, and I have a recipient already in mind for it.