rainbow rolling stone throw quilt

In addition to the oversized log cabin and Amish hourglass quilts I made for The Maker's Waypost (which opened this past Saturday!), I also completed a small throw, featuring a colorful assortment of Rolling Stone blocks.

I first made two blue versions of this block for a quilt for the Wish Circle of do. Good Stitches. I had so much fun putting those together, that I decided to make more, using lots of colorful scraps from my stash and relatively low-volume prints for the background.

Since the quilt's top is quite busy (and colorful!), I opted for a black-and-white cross-hatch print by Alexander Henry for the back.

I loved putting this quilt together, and the resulting blocks, and would still love to make more. You can find this quilt, and others, at The Maker's Waypost in Whitinsville, MA.

three pineapple rind scrap quilts

Have you seen Vanessa Christenson's Simply Color books for Lucky Spool?  Each one is dedicated to a color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple) and contains a bit of color theory about that color, as well as a handful of sewing projects made from the featured hue.

Being a fan of yellow quilts (as seen here, here, and here) I grabbed a copy of the yellow volume a few months ago, and loved all of the projects in it. I was immediately drawn to the Pineapple Rind quilt (pictured above), since it appeared to be such a great candidate for using up scraps---something I'm always attempting to do.

I wound up making three versions of the quilt, and, rather ironically, didn't use any yellow fabric! Instead I made blue, green, and red iterations of the pattern.

It was such a fun and satisfying pattern to make (I highly recommend the book!), and a great way to make a dent in my stash. All three quilts are now available in the shop (blue, green, and red).

P.S. Tomorrow is the link-up day for Block B of the Modern Sampler Quilt Along! You can find more details about the quilt along here. 

solid scrappy trip around the world quilt

 

Since my weekdays are currently spent sewing commissioned quilts, along with goods for the shop, I like to set aside time on the weekends to sew for myself and catch up on charitable sewing projects. This past long weekend I did just that when I basted, quilted, and bound a quilt destined for donation.

It's no secret that I'm a fan of the Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt pattern (this is my fourth time making a quilt from it; here are quilts one, two, and three), but each time I work with it, I like to approach it differently. For this go around, I opted to use only solids from my scrap bin and try out a new block layout. The result is a bold, and very colorful, quilt.

For the back, I used a floral cotton voile I bought while living in Maryland. I have to say that the voile makes this quilt so soft, which makes me want to back all of my quilts in voile from now on.

Rather than adding a Salty Oat tag, I sewed a "Handmade with Love" tag into the machine-stitched binding, as a little note to the recipient. You can find my tutorial for making your own handmade fabric tags over on the Spoonflower blog.

This quilt, along with those that I make for the Wish Circle of do. Good Stitches, will go to my local chapter of Project Linus.

Quilt Stats
Finished dimensions: 47" x 59"
Quilt pattern: Scrappy Trip Around the World by Bonnie Hunter

sewing with mini charms + a new quilt

Thanks to my job at Spoonflower, I've had the good fortune to attend a number of Quilt Markets over the years. As anyone who has attended this event knows, many fabric companies give away mini charm packs (2.5" squares) of fabric to attendees to promote upcoming collection releases. I managed to snag two mini charm packs of Vanessa Christenson's fabrics in the past few years, and recently took the time to turn them into a quilt.

Inspired by this Amish Hourglass quilt, I cut each of the squares into triangles, and sewed them to the corners of solid white squares. Unlike the original inspiration, I sewed the triangles to each of the squares' corners, so that once sewn together, they created scrappy squares on point.

For the backing, I used a long-saved gray-and-mustard print from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern line, which turned out to be the perfect complement to Vanessa's prints.

Continuing with the backing's color scheme, I quilted a large grid in gray thread, and made a gray, scrappy binding from some favorite prints.

I love how the quilt incorporates so many colors and prints, yet thanks to the block's minimal design, remains simple and modern. This is definitely a block pattern that I would like to experiment with more, especially by limiting the number of triangles I add. This quilt is now available in the shop, ready for gifting.

my go-to quilt pattern

Do you have a quilt pattern that you return to over and over again? I do. For the past year and a half, one of the patterns that I keep coming back to is for the Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt by Bonnie of Quiltville. Each quilt I've made from the pattern is different, and each time I've been able to experiment with fabric placement, color palettes, and block layouts.  I've used bright, colorful prints for one, and white and cream solids with pops of saturated colors for another.

For this most recent iteration, I pulled white, cream, and light blue strips from my scrap bins. I incorporated some unexpected fabrics, including a vintage eyelet, a hand-printed fabric I received in a swap, and a lightweight linen-cotton canvas.

I pieced the back using largish scraps from my stash, and quilted it in light blue thread with a cross-hatch pattern. It's now for sale in the Etsy shop, if you'd like to take a look.

And this is not my last pass at this pattern---I already have blocks made from bright solids ready to be turned into a quilt top!

All quilt photos by Caroline Okun.

triangle scraps + a finished quilt

I'm so excited to share today's quilt with you! I started this quilt earlier this year, on a quest to clear out my scrap bins---at least enough to fit the lids back on top.  While I didn't manage to do that---my scrap pile keeps growing!---I did fall in love with this scrappy quilt.

The quilt pattern is "Up, Up, and Away," by Amanda Jean Nyberg, and is found in the book Sunday Morning Quilts. I paired white, cream, and khaki squares with little triangles of color, ranging from vintage to modern fabrics. Piecing took forever---lots of trimming and experimenting with the layout---but I think it was well worth the effort.

I used a saturated and bold blue Marimekko print for the back and a coordinating cobalt-blue-and-white stripe for the binding. I stuck with my favorite cross-hatch quilting, which added a nice texture to the quilt.

 

This quilt is now listed for sale in the Salty Oat Etsy shop, and I'd love to know, what are your favorite scrap-busting projects?

All photos by Caroline Okun. 

my etsy shop is back!

I'm so excited to announce that after taking a bit of a break, I've reopened my Etsy shop! It's currently stocked with quilts and a few other goodies, most of which I've never actually blogged about here.

I also have lots of quilt tops in the queue (and a new studio space to work in!), and hope to finish them in the coming weeks. I hope you'll stop by the shop and take a look around!

2013 umbrella prints trimmings competition

These days, I'm pretty much smitten with screen-printed fabrics. I love the look of one and two-color prints and I love being able to support independent designers who produce their work by hand. One of my goals for the year is to incorporate more screen-printed fabric into my work, so when I saw the posting for this year's Umbrella Prints Trimmings Competition, I decided to enter for the second year in a row (you can see my entry from last year here). I love Umbrella Prints' screen-printed fabric, and this competition is such a great motivator for me to cut into fabric I typically hoard.

I mulled over my options of what to do for weeks, and this past weekend I finally decided to make something from my growing to-make list: a drawstring bag using Jeni's tutorial.

For the front, I scaled down Faith's Greek Cross block from the Summer Sampler series and made a mini quilt block.

I sewed the remaining scraps together at random to create a panel for the back, and used chambray for the remaining panels.

I lined it with a Denyse Schmidt print that complemented the Umbrella Prints' fabric in both style and color, and used up some leftover Kei Honeycomb Dot binding (originally made for this quilt) for the drawstrings.

Voting for the competition starts Saturday and runs through June 5. To vote, simply pin all of your favorite entries over here.

Will you be entering the contest this year? If so, please share a link to your entry in the comments; I'd love to see!

P.S. You can see some of my photos from the recent Portland Quilt Market over on Instagram! You can find me there under the username @saltyoat. 

star blossoms mini quilt

When my husband and I went to London last year, I brought along an English paper-piecing project to work on during the plane ride and down time in the city (you can see the start of it here).

In the months that followed, I continued to work on it, and this past fall, I finally finished it.

I used Rachel's Star Blossoms tutorial as my starting point, and decided to make each star monochromatic, pulling scraps exclusively from my stash. For the diamonds in between each star, I used scraps of a gray tablecloth from our wedding (I've used it in other projects as well, including this one and this one).

I backed my mini quilt with two vintage floral prints, and hand quilted it with embroidery floss.

I bound it with an Anna Maria Horner print, which was leftover from this quilt.

I love, love, love this quilt. It was so much fun to work on, especially since it utilized so many little scraps and was perfect for traveling. As soon as it was finished though, I found myself missing having a go-to hand-sewing project---which I quickly remedied with a new English paper-piecing project. Pictures to come soon!

do. Good Stitches: October Blocks

Herringbone blocks I made from colorful scraps for Sonya for October's quilt for the Wish Circle of do. Good Stitches. Tutorial found here.