 Did you know a lot of my florals live on both fabric AND calendars? I've been creating artwork for Sellers Publishing for over 10 years! And I love it when a fabric line floral from Moda Fabrics also makes it as my cover girl! These are a couple of my crossover favorites. Painted Meadow coneflowers and big fat bumble bees were on the 2020 wall calendar and the 2021 daily calendar.  Sweet Peas from 2019 became my Sweet Pea & Lily collection in sweet purple shades.  This year's 2021 wall calendar had my sunflowers from my Moda Solana collection blooming brightly! I also had a fabric panel with the Helen Keller quote about sunflowers that is the first image in the calendar.  And a little Carolina Lily beauty to look forward to this October. These lilies should be arriving in quilt shops this November. What a lovely way to enjoy the fall season! Just in case you didn't see it, Calendar Club Canada has a giveaway that closes tomorrow. You have an opportunity to win a 2022 daily calendar and a Sew Happy tote or zipper pouch and charm pack of Carolina Lilies! Hop over to their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/CalendarClub/ or instagram @calendarclubca to enter! 
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 I am often a "transitional" quilter (or you could call it modern traditionalism)- relating to sewing between traditional quilters and modern quilters. I love to make more traditional quilts, but I also enjoy how modern quilts can allow you to express your creativity in a different way! For some people, modern design can be a bit intimidating. They may only know of more improvisational modern quilting and not have comfort with improv. However, modern quilting doesn't have to be difficult or intimidating. You also don't have to use a complicated pattern to get that modern look. To help you embrace the modern quilter that is within you, I am sharing one of my easy modern quilt patterns which creates a stunning quilt with tools that you have on hand and no matter what fabric you choose to use!  I enjoy a modern quilt design that is not overly complicated. In fact, I often feel a simpler, pared down design will have a more modern feel. I wanted to come up with a modern quilt that would allow you to easily create with fabrics you may have on hand, utilizing scraps, yardage, or even precuts (and precuts as small as a 5" square Charm Pack). I combined curves and squares into striking modern blooms in this geometric garden. This is Mod Flower Box, ready to bloom upon your wall! I'm showing two versions of this modern quilt in these photos. You can see how it still has a striking composition whether done in all solid fabrics or a combination of prints. This version on the chair is made with Carolina Lilies. This collection is scheduled to ship to shops in November 2021 and features spotted lilies, paisley prints, vines and ferns. Rich teal and green colors mix with spicy reds and peach tones reminiscent of my Painted Meadow collection. I chose to keep the background a dark soft black so there is high contrast with the colors and they really pop! I like to see the different ways that light and dark colors change up a quilt (keep reading for a lighter version below).  The wall/lap quilt in Carolina Lilies uses Thatched Soft Black 152 for the background and borders in Thatched Lagoon 199 (the teal color) and Dashed lines 48705-21 in Teal. The flowers and leaves are made from one Charm Pack of 5" squares. You can also use a Layer Cake of 10" precut squares and cut them in half both, horizontally and vertically.  Another option for making this quilt is using Fat Eighths. My favorite version of this modern quilt is the one that looks like solid fabrics. It is actually using Thatched basics for the fabric. I've paired a use of bold colors with this subtle textured fabric to make the hues really stand out in a dramatic way. With the floral groupings all in the center, the outer borders create balance with a more expansive negative space that can be good for specific border quilting or just a breathing space and strong framing device. To get the look of these graphic areas of solid color, I've used a mix of 14 Fat Eighths, with 9 for flowers and 5 for leaves. For this version, I wanted to emphasize the corners and really play with the spaces left from the curved blocks by "boxing in" the flowers. That is where the name Mod Flower BOX comes in (plus the extra outer border).  The background is made with Thatched Chalkboard Scribbles 187 with curves and inner border using Soft Black 152. The flower and leaf blocks use a mixture of Blizzard 150, Washed Linen 158, Toast 156, Gray 85, Early Dawn 122, Sugar Rose 127, Citrus 123, Clementine 138, Fuchsia 62, Green Curry 177, Sunlit 142, Grass 197, Dewdrop 143 and Brook 198.  There are two different sizes of Mod Flower Box. The wall/lap size is 51" square with borders. If you choose to not have borders for a smaller wall quilt, the inner part is 34 x 34". The large quilt sized 78" square, uses 4 units of the rotated Mod Flower Boxes. Depending on which quilt size you choose, the Mod Flower Box pattern can be made with a Charm Pack or Fat Eighths for the wall/lap size or with a Layer Cake (or 4 Charm Packs) or Fat Quarters for the large size.  I am planning on starting this lighter color version of Mod Flower Box, probably with a Washed Linen background or maybe Sandcastle 157 flipped to the backside and accent corners for curves in Blizzard 150. Speaking of colorways, this is actually one of my favorite things about this quilt design! You could create your own quilt top in almost any color scheme! For instance, you could use solid colors, different styles of fabric within a particular color palette, ombre fabrics, or simply your favorite colors. Color always gives me a new way to look at modern quilt designs. Needless to say, the color choices you have are absolutely endless!  I've made lots of quilts with curved corners and I DO include a paper template you can work from in the pattern (or pattern downloads if you buy the pdf file version). I do prefer to use a specialty ruler for doing curves and know of a number of them. I usually go to my trusty Creative Grids Circle Savvy Ruler since it has every size I want and I know I will get a really good result cutting with these! I note which slots in the pattern if you have this ruler too.  Since we are talking about curved corners, many beginner quilters stay away from modern quilts due to ''sewing curves''. I took this fact into consideration, so if you are new to curves, this is a great pattern to try since it only uses quarter circles vs half or full circles! Quarter circle curves are not very hard and I'd suggest making a practice quilt block or two first and then go for it! I love the look of curved blocks- so soft and curvy and gentle. They are a fun thing to experiment, plus, it will make you more confident in your quilting skills!  So, if you are ready to take a break from traditional quilts and want to create your very first modern style quilt, then the Mod Flower Box is a great place to start! Above I have included additional information on quilting materials and specifications. However, since this is only a blog post, I highly recommend that you check out my shop to learn more about this fun quilt pattern! If you are interested in the pattern, it is up in my shop at RobinPickensInc.com!   With Project Jelly Roll approaching, I decided to take a look at my Jelly Roll-friendly patterns to figure out what I am going to work on and perhaps share some ideas. One of my Jelly Roll patterns is Definite Plus.  My original Definite Plus quilt is made in Thatched basics. I loved playing with the color families and having a "ghost block" image in the center of just sashings and background. And I made this in both the large size on cream and the small size (using a Honey Bun or 1 1/2" strips) on Heather.  I wanted to see what this would look like made up in a Jelly Roll of print fabrics from a collection. I decided to make one that had no outer borders and no ghost block for the center. Full quarter log cabin blocks without an accent. If you make the large size without the outer border, it goes from being an 82" square quilt to 69 x 69", which makes a lovely large lap or can fit on a twin bed as a nice extra quilt.  How does this impact yardage and cutting? I have only made it this way in the Large size, so I don't have the specifications for the Small at this point. For Large quilt with no outer border and no ghosted center block or accent rectangles: Sashing: 1 2/3 Yards for sashing instead of 2 1/8 Yards. When you are cutting, you will cut a total of (56) WOF strips. (4) of those will be cut to 34 3/4" and joined end to end to make the long sashings horizontally between the rows. Instead of (44) 6 1/2 x 1" pieces, you will need (36). Background: You need 1 1/4 Yards for background instead of 3 Yards. You will only be cutting the centers of the Quarter Log Cabin blocks and need (36) of them.  For my print version, I decided to use Abby Rose for my strips. I made all my centers with Zen Chic Modern Paper for a pretty, romantic feel. My sashings are Moda Bella Off White 200. I still kept my groupings of 4 that make a plus sign in color families.  I like seeing the contrast of prints vs a more solid look for this quilt. I am very excited to try it again with upcoming lines and try other versions of background and sashing colors.   And just one more idea, since I'm playing around with it...what if the placement of colors were more improvisational and the background squares also had some pops of color? I decided to take a look in the suggestion of my Hygge Happy color theme direction (with Washed Linen, Toast, Cocoa, Sugar Rose, etc). What do you think? Playful or too random?  Looking for more Jelly Roll-friendly quilt patterns? Hop on over to my shop and check out Showering Stars, Ring Around the Posies, Equalizer, and Blockstep. And please join in the fun on September 18th 2021 as we sew those Jelly Rolls!  I had a great Labor Day, choosing my labor of love to be sewing on my Sampler Spree quilt. I got it all joined and boy am I happy about that! Here are the last blocks that went into those last few weeks before making my rows. Week 8 with more butterflies making their fancy flight across the blocks.   Week 9 I think my favorite was the angled one at the bottom of my line up of my new 10 blocks. It is block #60, Market Square.   And to the finish line on week 10! So much playing every week with light and dark, balancing of pattern vs solids (in my case Thatched) and having fun with the little butterflies. This was a whirlwind journey of block making.  The laying out of blocks with my trusty companion, Roxy. I needed to do a little rearranging from my original plan to get my lights and darks balanced.  It took me a week (in between other things) to make the double sashings. And then on Labor Day weekend I got it fully joined and ironed.   Next up will be longarming but I have a few other things to do first. Hopefully I'll be sharing the end result with quilting and binding soon!
Many thanks to Susan Ache for her lovely book, wonderful instructions, and engaging project that has made this summer busy and fun! |
About ROBINDesigner of colorful florals for Moda fabrics. Modern to transitional quilt designer. Illustrator, sewist, crafter. I am proud to be a designer for Moda Fabrics!
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