Tuesday, April 29, 2014

A Custom Order Half Rectangle Triangle Quilt Top

Oh, the fabric of patchwork ...

Half Rectangle Triangle Quilt Top
57 inches x 82 inches.
315 Half Rectangle Triangle Units
A new quilt top - this one a custom order quilt top - not unlike the quilt previously seen here: Half Rectangle Triangle Quilt ~ many the same fabrics, and the same design, but bigger still.

Half Rectangle Triangle Quilt Top - Red Pepper Quilts

Quilt tops like this don't get whipped up in a day or two. I have been working on this custom order for a few weeks, setting myself goals and completion dates - like cutting fabrics, then piecing the Half Rectangle Triangle Units, trimming, and finally piecing the quilt top. Breaking down the process into steps makes taking on a custom order more manageable and also allows me to continue working on the weekly projects that are featured here. It also helps to make me feel like I am organized, and not overwhelmed by tasks.

Half Rectangle Triangle Quilt Top - Red Pepper Quilts

I estimate that there are 150 or so different fabrics and cutting each and everyone of those fabric pieces was the most time consuming of all the different stages of making. Pulling fabric and actually finding what I am looking for, cutting, pressing, re-folding, and returning to stash. Again and again. But it is my favorite part!

Half Rectangle Triangle Quilt Top - Red Pepper Quilts

I am also working on a second quilt, another quilt just like this one - also a custom order but for a finished quilt, not a quilt top. I am not sure if I am patient enough for repeat custom work, although I am of course grateful for the opportunity. 

Half Rectangle Triangle Quilt Top - Red Pepper Quilts

Many of my favorite fabrics are used in this quilt top, some of which are now hard to find, and I have no hesitation in using them. Use it or lose it, right? No regrets, it is only fabric.

Half Rectangle Triangle Quilt Top - Red Pepper Quilts

This quilt top has already been shipped and received by a happy new owner. 

Enjoy the photos,
Rita
Half Rectangle Triangle Quilt Top - Red Pepper Quilts
RELEVANT LINKS:
More Half Rectangle Triangle Quilts
More Custom Order Quilts


Follow RPQ on:
COPYRIGHT: Do not copy or use any content or photos from my blog without my written permission. This is original content from www.redpepperquilts.com.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Sunday Stash #227 - 30's Playtime by Chloe's Closet

30's Playtime by Chloe's Closet for Moda Fabrics
30's Playtime by Chloe's Closet for Moda
That is a mighty big fabric stack, and a happy dance may have followed the arrival of this bundle. Reproductions fabrics continue be an obsession, and I love incorporating these into my quilts together with modern and contemporary fabrics. 
30's Playtime by Chloe's Closet for Moda Fabrics - Blooms
30's Playtime by Chloe's Closet - Blooms
These are my favorite!
A current and often asked question is how do I choose/mix fabrics together ~ that is, vintage, reproduction and modern fabrics? This made me stop and think because quite honestly in the midst of creating I simply "do" rather than work according to a theory. But if I were to give you guidance as to how I mix fabrics then I think it is that I look beyond the pattern/print and focus on color. Then pattern. 

30's Playtime by Chloe's Closet - Dotty Daisy
30's Playtime by Chloe's Closet - Dotty Daisy
These small scale designs are great for introducing reproduction fabrics into modern projects as you can readily assign a color to each - red, pink, lavender, minty green and blue (above). You can then color co-ordinate your fabric selection, mixing and balancing the color palette of your project as you go irrespective of whether the fabric you have chosen for your project is a modern designer fabric or a reproduction fabric. 

30's Playtime by Chloe's Closet for Moda Fabrics
30's Playtime by Chloe's Closet for Moda Fabrics

The 30's Playtime collection comes in a great range of colors - colors that I use often - as well as some rather cute designs! I love both the Blooms and Dotty Daisy designs (pictured above), as well as the Spools: 

30's Playtime by Chloe's Closet for Moda Fabrics - Spools
30's Playtime by Chloe's Closet - Spools

30's Playtime by Chloe's Closet is available from:
30's Playtime by Chloe's Closet - Dainty
30's Playtime by Chloe's Closet - Dainty
I think you'll be seeing snippets of this collection throughout my quilts.

30's Playtime by Chloe's Closet for Moda Fabrics

Enjoy Sunday!
Rita

Pin It!
Follow on Bloglovin

Friday, April 25, 2014

Stitch Block Cowl :: A Finished Knit

Stitch Block Cowl by Red Pepper Quilts
STITCH BLOCK COWL
(by Purl Soho)
Stitch Block Cowl by Red Pepper Quilts

Knitting continues to be one of my favorite hobbies! I have to make time and allow myself to sit and knit. I often sneak in a few rows here and there, and other times I give myself the afternoon off and frenzy knit. So good! I feel like I should feel guilty. Guilty for sitting, and passing time one click at a time. But I don't. No knit guilt here.

Stitch Block Cowl - Red Pepper Quilts
Stitch Block Cowl - Red Pepper Quilts

The Stitch Block Cowl is a free pattern, and all the pattern instructions are available on The Purl Bee Blog. I purchased the yarn as a kit from Purl Soho  in February this year and cast on shortly thereafter. This project spent much of the next six weeks on the couch, ready to be picked up whenever I needed some time-out. Unlike most other knits this project rarely traveled with me on outings, perhaps because it was bulkier than most of my previous knitted items. 

Stitch Block Cowl in Progress - Red Pepper Quilts
Progress Photos from Instagram
The three different blocks of stitches and color work were surprisingly easy; most involved only knit stitches with just a slight variation. I did have to count rows to keep track of all three of the different stitch patterns. Maybe that too stopped it from being a handbag project. 

Stitch Block Cowl - Red Pepper Quilts

My cowl is ready just in time for our cooler Autumn weather. It is bulky, squishy and soft, and comfortably wraps (double) around my neck. Lovely and warm. I hope to wear yellow with confidence, although it will take some getting used to.
Stitch Block Cowl - Red Pepper Quilts




For more pictures and details including yarn information and pattern links for the Stitch Block Cowl check out my Ravelry page:

Thank you for stopping by!
Rita

RELEVANT LINKS:
More completed knitting projects.

Pin It!

Thursday, April 24, 2014

A Minty Green Patchwork Quilt

A finished quilt and a picture post.
A Minty Green Patchwork Quilt - Red Pepper Quilts

Goodness, this week seems to have passed in a blink of the eye. It is short week here with public holidays on both Monday and tomorrow, Friday and I feel somewhat disorientated by the change in program. But, I did finish this quilt; an easy sewing project, where the fabrics do all the talking.

A Minty Green Patchwork Quilt - Red Pepper Quilts
A Minty Green Patchwork Quilt - Red Pepper Quilts

I have again quilted an all over grid with lines evenly spaced just 1.5 inches apart. This feels just right for a quilt that is all about the fabrics, and always sits well on the quilt; it adds a subtle but noticeable texture and softens the quilt to give it a lovely drape.


This time I also did some minimal piecing on the quilt back using fabrics that complement the quilt top (and also saved me from having to further cut into yardage set aside for quilt backs). [The cute fabric with bugs and jars is from the Wee Wander collection by Sarah Jane - see the full collection here.]

A Minty Green Patchwork Quilt - machine stitched binding - Red Pepper Quilts
A Minty Green Patchwork Quilt - machine stitched binding - Red Pepper Quilts
A Minty Green Patchwork Quilt - machine stitched binding - Red Pepper Quilts

I love photos of quilt rolls and binding! I have taken and edited about 10 different photos - of this the same binding (!) - but will only subject you to viewing these three photos. The binding fabric is another favorite ~ Squared Elements in Lemon by Art Gallery Fabrics.

A Minty Green Patchwork Quilt - Red Pepper Quilts

This quilt is for sale and is listed in my Etsy Store.

The listing can be found here: Minty Green Patchwork Quilt.
A Minty Green Patchwork Quilt - Red Pepper Quilts

Now I need to make some time for fabric folding and stash tidying.
Rita

NB: Size of the squares 3.5" x 3.5" including seam allowances.

RELEVANT LINKS:

Pin It!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

A Minty Green Patchwork Quilt [work in progress]

Minty Green Patchwork Quilt Top - Red Pepper Quilts

A new week and a new quilt but with a color palette carried forward from my last quilt. Whilst working on my Rainbow Half Square Triangle Quilt last week I was really taken with a small section of that quilt which featured minty green colors ~ softly blending with yellows and blues. So, rather than return fabrics to stash I have continued on ...

Minty Green Patchwork Quilt Top - Red Pepper Quilts
Minty Green Patchwork Quilt Top - Red Pepper Quilts

Do you get a sense that I love the fabric of patchwork? A finished quilt top makes me super happy, even if it is just simple patchwork. Especially simple patchwork! I love how all the colors and designs magically play together despite the random fabric placement, and I enjoy "browsing" through sections of the quilt top as if it were a picture book (although sometimes it isn't until I have taken photos and start editing that I see the fabric magic).

Minty Green Patchwork Quilt Top - Red Pepper Quilts
Minty Green Patchwork Quilt Top - Red Pepper Quilts

My Easter break was productive - perhaps fuelled by chocolate and hot cross buns - and I have already basted this quilt. There is however an ever growing pile of fabric that still needs to be returned to stash. Admittedly, returning fabric to stash is not one of my strong points.

Minty Green Patchwork - Elk Family by Birch Fabrics (Red Pepper Quilts)
Minty Green Patchwork Quilt Top - Red Pepper Quilts

More soon,

Pin It!

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Sunday Stash #226 - Nesshome Fabrics and More

Wild Flower and Friends by Nesshome - Red Pepper Quilts
Wild Flower and Friends by Nesshome - Easter Bunnies!
available from Miss Matatabi (Etsy Store)
Today I have some Nesshome - Korean brand fabrics - and a few other fabrics to share with you. Nesshome fabrics vary in weight/blend, with some designs printed on an all cotton base and other designs printed on a cotton/linen blend base.The bunnies and floral fabrics pictured above - Wild Flower and Friends by Nesshome - are cotton/linen blend fabrics (55% linen, 45% cotton) and are a medium weight fabric - somewhat heavier than standard quilting cotton. But they are super soft! The 6 different designs are printed on single panel of fabric.
Nesshome - Text Fabric - Red Pepper Quilts
Text Fabrics by Nesshome
More text fabric for me! Like I said, it isn't over yet, there are more quilts with text fabric to come. This bundle of fabrics is also by Nesshome, and the great news is that they are 100% cotton, a lightweight fabric very much like standard quilting cotton. Happy days. 
Text Fabric by Nesshome
Text Fabric by Nesshome 
There is no such thing as too much text fabric. This print with a white background has already been cut in to. 

Vintage Time by Kei Fabrics - Red Pepper Quilts

Next up are a bundle of Japanese Import fabrics by Kei - called Vintage Time. These are again a linen/cotton blend (50% linen, 50% cotton), but they are lightweight and soft. This fabric has a smooth weave, slightly open, and drapes well; considering its linen blend base it handles remarkably like standard quilting cotton.

Vintage Time by Kei Fabrics - Red Pepper Quilts

Nesshome and Kei Fabrics featured here are all available from:

Timeless Treasures - black white stripe fabric

And last, a re-stock of a fabric that I use often and is my go to binding fabric ~

Black/White 1/8" Stripe by Timeless Treasures - available from:

Happy Easter and Spring/Autumn break everyone!
Enjoy Sunday,
Rita

RELEVANT LINKS:
More Sunday Stash - Nesshome Fabrics
More Sunday Stash - Kei Fabrics 

Pin It!
Follow on Bloglovin