Jumping In with Both Feet

Last year I began making quilts in what would be called Modern quilts.  It started with my 20 something daughters each wanting quilts and each of them picking out Amy Butler patterns (yay! they were free!) and modern color palettes and fabrics. (The quilt in my first post was the one I made for my younger daughter)

To be honest I wasn't that excited but wanted them to like their quilts so began picking out 'those wild fabrics' and colors.  To my surprise I really enjoyed working with the fabrics. Things that I thought would clash really didn't.  I loved the patterns with the simple design that let the focus be on the fabrics or design vs the fabric.

Then, a friend invited me to join her to a trunk show given by Victoria Findlay Wolffe sponsored by a local quilt shop.  My reaction was, 'sure, sounds like fun'.   Honestly, I didn't think much would come of it.  I had looked at her book on line and thought...'oh, crazy quilting used in quilts'.  Then I saw the quilts live and in all their glorious color.  I came away from that trunk show, combined with the quilts I had in progress, thinking that I might like 'Modern Quilting' after all.

So I began perusing Pinterest, pinning all the modern quilts I could find.  That led to finding Camp Stitch A Lot sponsored by Pink Castle in MIchigan.  My friend and I went and our instructors were Jacquie Ghering, Amanda Jean Nyberg and Daniel Rausch.  The focus was improvisational piecing and I WAS HOOKED!!!!  I've been off to the races ever since.  (My husband says he has lost me to a sewing machine)

So what does that have to do with the quilt in this post?  Well.....this quilt is an accumulation of my first year of dabbling in and learning about modern quilting.

• I was inspired by Virginia Findlay Wolffe to make 'made fabric'.  The star is 'made fabric' from five different fabrics (one of them being a, 'why in the world did I buy this fabric' purchase).  
• Dan Rausch had taught a slab technique at Camp Stitch a Lot for making made fabric. It is his technique that I used to construct my 'made fabric'.  The benefit of using his technique was lots of interesting angles without having to do Y seams!  Yay!  
• The quilting inspiration came from Jacquie Ghering's Craftsy class on Creative Straight Line Quilting with Your Walking Foot (a great, great Craftsy class).  
• Prior to making the quilt I made a mockette of the quilt to test how it would look, an idea I got from taking Week's Ringle and  Bill Kerr's class on Designing Modern Quilts (another great Craftsy class). 
• The Free Motion Quilting in the star is a modified quilting design from Leah Day.  

It has been a fun year and I have learned tons and have much more to learn.   I hope you enjoy all that I learned last year rolled into this quilt....I call it Crackled Barn Star.