Tula - Using a Single Fabric to Make a Quilt

Tula

78” x 78”

Years back I worked with Lucky Spool, the quilt book publisher, on some challenges. Called Mighty Lucky, a group of designers came together for some fun challenges for participants. This particular year my challenge was to play with a single fabric. (The year was 2016!)

I finished this quilt top in 2018 and then it sat. It sat for no great reason, just hung out in the quilt top pile until motivation hit. Motivation came in the form of wanting to complete a long overdue wedding present and this top seemed right for the couple.

In the end, I quilted it with a unique response to each round of the quilt top. Using a deep rose pink from Aurifil to match the tiny pink strip in the Tula Pink fabric. Honestly, you don’t really see the quilting much. It doesn’t add much to the overall design, but it does help define each round a little. And, of course, it makes the quilt cozy!

While making the quilt I returned to the store on 4 separate occasions to buy more fabric. I would have been better off buying a bolt! Somehow, I had the foresight to buy an extra meter for binding. Considering how long ago I made the quilt that is some serious foresight! I’d always had it in my mind to make a bias binding for this. As I was stitching it down, however, I realized that a plain stripe would have complemented the last round of the quilt a bit better. The bias doesn’t look bad, not at all, just that the plain stripe might have been a better choice. Oh well!

If I had bought the bolt I might have had enough fabric to use it on the back too. Alas, I had to make do with another Tula Pink fabric, this time in pink. It’s quite a nice contrast to the stripe, but still coordinates in colour. Geez, have I ever been this matchy matchy?

Turns out you can still access the 2016 Mighty Lucky Challenges as a PDF. Check it out!

Mighty Lucky Quilting Club Year of Colour July Challenge

Welcome to the fourth instalment of the Mighty Lucky Quilting Club! I am rather thrilled to be bringing another challenge to subscribers. 

This month is all about two things - bossy fabrics and improv curves. For the full low-down on bossy fabrics you will have to get the challenge itself. But I will let you know that it is all about managing those dominant fabrics to use them effectively in quilt design. 

The improv curves you can see above. There is the beginner option and the full star treatment. This is a great intro to improv circles and I am really excited to see what people make. This row is the final frame before the center block. I maybe had a sneak peak at the plans for the center and let me assure you, the whole quilt is coming together amazingly!

This whole experience is rather fun. I am making the quilt myself, not just my rows. Some quilters are ready and waiting for this instalment. Some, like me, need to make some more. No pressure. Sew what you can, when you can. I love checking out the #mightyluckyquiltingclub hashtag on Instagram.

If you are joining us here from the group, I want to encourage you to have fun with this block. It might seem intimidating and more than a little awkward. If you've never done curves, improv or otherwise, before have faith that the process will work. I believe in you! Yes, there are scraps. Hang in for a few weeks and I will show you a couple of ideas for your scraps. I have quilt a few myself, from all the rows!

Now, to get back to my own CMYK inspired version!

For all the scoop on Mighty Lucky and what you might be able to discover through the challenges check it all out here. 

CMYK - First Mighty Lucky Row Done

Paper piecing 12 blocks isn't so bad if you do them half a block at a time. 

That's what I kept telling myself, and it worked. Carolyn Friedlander's patterns are easy and graphic. Each one of these blocks is made in sections so I did a section at a time. Low stress. And sure enough, they add up. Sometimes it was Morning Make, sometimes I snuck in a bit of sewing in the sweet spot between when the kids go to bed and I crash. Seam by seam it gets done.

These are the first rows of the 2018 Mighty Lucky Quilting Club. Month one was about making a colour story. Mine was inspired by the CMYK issue of Uppercase Mag. It's been different for me to work in such saturated colours and just them. I quite like it. The key, I think, has been to vary the fabrics in print and texture. That's how you get distinctions, almost like value, when working monochromatically on blocks. Sometimes the distinctions are subtle, sometimes strong. Overall it works well.

And yes, my sandals match. True fact: I nearly entirely match the quilt. I have these sandals in turquoise, yellow, and red (not pink). But now that we are mentioning it...

On to the next round  - little improv crosses.

Check it out for more info on Mighty Lucky and to sign up for the entire Year of Colour.

CMYK - Another New Start

Another new quilt start. Smitten from the beginning.

The Mighty Lucky Quilting Club is running again this year. I am signed up for a turn hosting in a couple of months. This year, however, the Club will work together to make an entire quilt. That is, each month plays well with each other and the whole thing is designed to give you a quilt top at the end. Still regular challenges, but with a different end goal in site.

The other difference this year is that the entire thing is about colour. So by the end of it you will have a quilt top and a deeper understanding of colour for all your other work. All without making a colour wheel.

Carolyn Friedlander kicked things off in January with a discussion about creating a palette and translating colour inspiration to picking fabric. I love her piece. I will admit, however, to be to being stuck on what I wanted to do. I've never been stuck for picking a palette before! New territory for me. But I didn't stress. Instead I pet some fabric and lived my life, confident that something would tickle my fancy eventually.

Enter the latest issue of Uppercase Mag. Devoted to CMYK - Cyan, magenta, and yellow. The base colours for printing. As with all issues of the magazines I had to wipe up my drool as I read it. Then I knew exactly what I was going to do for this Mighty Lucky Quilting Club challenge.

So I picked a stack of fabric in these intense, pure colours. Not stressing too much about whether this pink perfectly matched that one. If I went that detailed then there would be no point to piecing! You need a bit of contrast in value, texture, and hue to have some depth to your piecing.

Then I printed off the templates for Carolyn's rows. She is a paper piecing master and it was good to work with her pattern. Pretty straightforward as paper piecing goes. Do not be intimidated at all! It takes me about 45 minutes to make 1 block. A beginner would probably take about an hour or more. Don't stress, just do it one seam, one block at a time.

While I usually like to use freezer paper when I paper piece, this time I used Carol Doak's Foundation Paper for my templates. They print right on my home printer, are thin, and are easy to remove. The print at home factor was big as I didn't want to draw out the templates for 12 blocks. (No affiliation, I just like it.) 

In a week I have 6 blocks done. I will plug away on these then start the next round - it's improv!

To sign up to receive the bimonthly challenges, and the templates for this particular block, check out Mighty Lucky Quilting Club. It is $50 for the annual subscription.