Storm at Sea: Day 4

Here is a beautiful quilt made by Linda C. and I have shared this here before. It was made 9 years ago after a workshop that Linda had taken from me.

There are endless ways to color these 3 units. The illusion of curves is because of the two different angles uses. The 5" x 10" diamond block uses an angle that is less than 60 degrees but more than 55 degrees!

Take a look at the 3 different blocks that I used in that first heart quilt (from Day 1). The diamond block is at the top right. You can also see the various colorings of the other two blocks. It's the placement of the various colors that makes your eye think it's seeing curves!

My pattern has a line drawing that you can use to plan colors and make some of those lines appear to be curves! And, don't forget Pinterest for even more inspiration.

This last quilt was designed for Windham Fabrics. But I just didn't want to make more boats and when I cut out the anchors, I cut off one of those bottom points and then threw everything into the trash. I went to Plan B.

So here are the blocks I made:

4 different units for my quilt

Yes, I eliminated the anchor. I started to cut it out but chopped off one of those points when I was distracted talking on the phone.

This is how I cut out appliqué patches: I use freezer paper for my templates and I added fusible interfacing to the wrong side of the patches and NOT paper backed webbing. I didn't want the dark background fabric (ie, red and blue) to change the color of the light appliqué patches.

Freezer paper template

And these stars, front and back:

Stars

And here's my version with the replacement blocks. It measures 47" x 47" and is just a top at this point.

Sail Away quilt made with Fresh Catch fabrics

Hope you enjoyed my Storm at Sea quilts and variations!

Storm at Sea: Day 3

Here we are at Day 3. I might have enough for one more day after this (but I'm still thinking!)

This little quilt was made using some sample, pre-cut patches from John Flynn. His daughter Kate sent them to me to assure me that the hundreds (and thousands) of pre-cut patches for my workshop kits would be perfect. This is a small quilt; these patches are small, but they stitched together beautifully!

The units are 3" x 3"; 3" x 6"; and 6" x 6". I never could have done this without the pre-cuts.

Pre-cut patches from John Flynn

I wanted to make one to show my students two different colorways. I tend to over-prepare for my classes. I want my students to be inspired by different colors and fabrics. Yes, I kept the little boats all going in the same direction. I guess there's no storm happening out there on the seas!

Storm at Sea (pattern on Etsy)

Cutting these diamonds and half-rectangle patches are made easier using a Tri Recs tool (or other rulers like them). My pattern does have easy paper templates.

Here is one that I made 9 years ago for Blank Quilting. I didn't design it, but they wanted me to sew it. When I looked at all the different pieces, I said, "NO WAY!" was I going to cut all of them out. I convinced Blank to get them laser cut from - you guessed it - John Flynn! First, the patches:

Laser cut patches from Stormy Seas pattern by Yolanda Fundora

The quilt you see here is only 46" x 46" FINISHED. That's why I didn't want to cut all those patches. But it truly is beautiful and once finished, it thrilled everyone involved. I had leftover patches which I gave away as a prize to a lucky blog follower.

Stormy Seas. Designed by Yolanda Fundora, made by me

Yes, I have two more quilts that I'll share tomorrow. One is from a student. The other is a variation of a pattern I wrote for a fabric company. See you then!

Storm at Sea: Day 2

Here is the first quilt I made testing out my pattern. I had to make sure I knew what I was doing since I planned on getting a few hundred kits laser cut for my workshops. NO room for error!

Storm at Sea kits quilt

I decided to add those little boats in the four corners. They measure 5" x 5", but since the patches were already cut, it just meant that the students had to be careful with their 1/4" seams (and they were). In my pattern, I include the option of making those by paper piecing. This is how John Flynn's company packaged the units so as to keep everything neat and tidy!

I took one of my samples and finished it without a border. I donated it to a local charity a few weeks ago. Here it is as a quilt top I made in 2010.

Storm at Sea quilt top (35" x 35" center without borders)

Yes, I know those boats are somewhat "lost at sea" but I know some little child will find this a fun quilt to snuggle under. No borders; just striped binding.

Storm at Sea without borders

I will have a few more to share the next time. If you're interested in seeing the pattern, check it out in my Etsy store.

Storm at Sea: Day 1

I've been revisiting a quilt that I honestly thought I'd retired! I taught a series of workshops about 9 years ago and made a few quilts for those. But one I made just the other day is becoming one of my favorite ways to color the units. I call it the "I Love You" version (a heart). Can you see it?

Storm at Sea Heart center (35" x 35")

For my workshops I had decided to get the quilt kits laser cut by John Flynn. They were awesome and when I handed them out to my students and they looked at all the perfectly cut patches (and NO cutting for them), they stood and clapped and cheered! I was a Rock Star (for a day). Click on that link and you can go to his web site and see the various Storm at Sea kits ready to go!

Here are the blocks before I put them together in my Heart version above:

Units ready to put into my Heart Storm at Sea

And here is the vintage pattern as given almost 100 years ago! Do you think you'd want to do it this way?

I'll be back tomorrow with more of my own Storm at Sea quilts. I've given them all away (except this new one). Stay tuned!

Double Wedding Ring Week: Day 5

Time to wrap things up for this Double Wedding Ring Week. I want to show you some small projects that use the simplified shapes in a different way. I also have an updated vintage pattern, Pumpkin Seeds. This also goes by the name of Orange Peel. I used the small melon cutaway from my template set to make this.

Pumpkin Seeds Quilt: 34" x 42"

This is very Charm Square friendly. The red melon shapes were cut from a stack of red charms (5" squares). I used several black and white prints for the backgrounds. This is NOT pieced (as was traditionally) but those red melons are appliquéd to the background squares!

Here is a pattern page from August 1, 1956. Yes, those are templates and you are expected to stitch those curves perfectly!

Here is one of the first quilts I made using my technique. I made it in 2002 and it was published in 2004 in Quilt magazine.

Orange Peel quilt, 2002

Another way to use that simple melon shape is in a small table topper. I made it twice: once, using 1930s reproduction fabrics and a second time using more modern prints.

Simple flower table topper

 The modern one was published in Modern Patchwork a few years ago. Notice the orange ric rac around the center circle! This is a bonus pattern that comes with my Modern Double Wedding Ring pattern.

Modern Melons Table Topper: 2016

I cut out a bunch of these same melon shapes using batik fabrics and used them to surround a large flower motif from Lake House fabrics (about 15 years ago!) I added the Sunburst borders a few months ago. What a sassy little quilt, right?!

Sassy Little Sunburst Quilt

I upsized the two shapes in 2013 and combined them as shown below. I left them in a box a few years and then decided to appliqué them to those Kaffe Fassett background fabrics. Quite a hot looking table runner! I've never had the courage to use it with company. Maybe one of my kids would like it!

Here is what I was playing with back in 2007 with the Mambo fabric collection by Windham. This is a bit psycho, so if you have a cup of coffee or tea in your hand, put it down NOW! I called it Heat Waves (probably because I was having hot flashes at the time).

Heat Waves

I created this wall banner using the two shapes.

And one last child's quilt (since donated to a local charity that my guild sews for). I used just the larger shape and didn't complete the full circles; I left off a melon in each corner. This was a class sample.

OK. I've got to be done. This was quite a show and I hope you enjoyed seeing all the possibilities inspired by the Double Wedding Ring. Thanks for stopping by!

Double Wedding Ring Week: Day 4

Now for combining all those small patches of the arcs into a single fabric and simplifying the whole process. I first published this concept in Quilt Magazine about 20 years ago. These are single fabric melon shapes appliquéd to the background fabric. Stitched so the edges fray (like a rag quilt). Have no idea who I gifted this to!

I created it again for my first book (Bold, Black and Beautiful Quilts, AQS 2004) and called it "Shotgun Wedding Ring." I'll let that set in for you - you can figure it out with this next quilt! This is NOT a digital image. You can see the quilting in the black fabric. My fellow editor, Susan Fisher, made this for the book based on a digital image I gave her. A bit controlled in the assembly, but the colors are "free spirited."

Then, Windham Fabrics asked me to design a quilt using a reproduction set of fabrics. And I used this same shape and then turned it into a workshop for the Sewing Expo in 2012.

Shotgun Wedding Ring

It was the beginning of getting professional acrylic templates made for my classes. I use a company that does a fantastic job (Quilting Creations).

Here is one of my first using the double template set. I call this Wedding Ring Blossoms. Yes, the template set has both the large melon with the open center and the cut-away template from that cut!

Wedding Ring Blossoms

Here it is in brown (digital) with pieced triangles for the background.

I also made a variation of this for Benartex Fabrics a few years ago using a collection called Sgrafitto. Do you remember it? First, I cut out a bunch of those simplified melon rings.

I pieced the background and set things in a diagonal assembly. No little melon cutaways were added.

Modern Double Wedding Ring

I also made it with a current Windham collection called Pop Dots.

Modern DWR using Pop Dots

I decided to add some of those little cutaway flowers to this one

You can check out my hard copy Modern Double Wedding Ring pattern in my Etsy shop. It comes with the two template acrylic set. I only have 8 left for the hard copy, so don't wait!

You can also purchase the DIGITAL version (11 page pdf with full-size templates). It includes these two patterns PLUS several variations and ideas (which you'll see tomorrow).

This is what the templates look like in the EIGHT hard copy patterns remaining:

Tomorrow I will share several variations of this simple technique. You didn't think I was done, did you?

Double Wedding Ring Week: Day 3

A lovely variation on DWR is a vintage block called Patty's Summer Parasol. Here is a page from a vintage pattern series. Published April 1, 1953! Look at those templates!

You can see that it resembles a Double Wedding Ring in part. That got my creative juices flowing and I took a paper pieced arc and single melon and began to design. But I wasn't about to stitch it into the curved background! The top piece uses my DWR pieced arc with 11 fabrics. The bottom piece is a simpler unit, shorter and fewer wedges (8). (Someone once said that the top one looks like a flying saucer!)

These are the foundation pieced wedges for Patty's Summer Parasol.

Paper pieced wedges

Drafted the melon and then interfaced the two sections (that's how I teach the class and my pattern reads). I decided on a 3-D prairie point tip and a fusible handle. Everything will be raw edge appliquéd to the cream background square!

Patty's Summer Parasol block

I wanted the parasols to dance across the face of the quilt. I made 9 blocks and twisted and turned them. Because I was working with fat quarters, I was limited in my border choices. So, I reflected the fabric colors in the blocks and added a gray striped binding.

Updated Patty's Summer Parasol

Those umbrella/parasol edges are turned under using interfacing, so no fiddly needle turn appliqué. This is one of my favorite quilts and I so enjoyed teaching it about a dozen times. The pattern is a digital 7 page pdf with lots of illustrations, full size templates for melon, handle and instructions for making the prairie point. Go ahead and make a king sized quilt - you can print the foundation as many times as you wish.

Tomorrow I share some DRW quilts using shortcuts. See you then!