Office Art - Courthouse Steps

My office art is officially hung!!  I've been working for 6 months and I never thought it would take this long.  (Remember I had a hard time finding a border fabric, and then I couldn't decide on a final quilting design).  But the wait is over.

I had 2 bare walls in my new office, this is the smaller one.

The one by my desk is the larger one, the one most people will see. This is also the wall I look at 95% of the time, as I mostly do work on the computer.

Several months ago I brought in a bunch of quilts I already had and auditioned them.  This one worked perfectly.  It was made for a guild challenge a few years ago.  I love the quirky nature of the blue leaves and the asymmetry of the square in a square blocks.  It's always been one of my favorites and I'm thrilled I get to see it hanging.

We moved the bookcase to the corner, and it looks perfect.

I initially thought I would make a tumbler quilt for the big wall, but when I auditioned it, I didn't really like it.  So I decided on the Courthouse Steps, I was working for an attorney after all LOL.  There is a wool rug in my office that gave me the palette for the colors.  The neutrals look great with the wall color.

It is just wonderful that I can look at this all day long.

I get to look at the quilting as the shadows cross it - too bad it never photographs as well as it looks in person.  No surprise that I put the kitty where I could see it up close :).  It's at the top of the middle block.

And here's the kitty in the small piece - so fun

 

This is the view from my desk of the huge downtown metropolis of Pensacola!!  I'm on the 7th floor which gives me this great view.  The building on the left is the Courthouse -

and hidden behind that bush are the............ Courthouse Steps!!  How cool is that?

Even better than getting to look at my quilts all day, is the fact that my boss is totally on board with this.  He has mentioned several times that he really likes the way the quilts look. He was not really familiar with "wall art quilts" and I think it was a pretty big stretch for him to agree.  So it makes me even happier that what makes me happy also got a big thumbs up from him.

Have a great day,

Karen

September Office Art

Fall is in the air, even here in Pensacola and it's time for new office art. This is my quilt from our Guild Challenge "Chasing the Rainbow". I absolutely fell in love with this project. I started out with a totally different idea that just didn't work with the challenge rules. After completely starting over, this quilt began to evolve and I got very excited.

I've never done a black quilt before and that was a personal challenge for me that had nothing to do with the contest rules. Besides being limited to only using colors found in the challenge fabric, the quilt had to be 40" square and contain at least one "square in a square" block.

After I'd pulled my matching fabrics, I just started making blocks - at this point, not having a real plan or design in mind. These are 4" paper pieced blocks I drafted on EQ7.

I decided to hand quilt this due to the design element I wanted to add.

Once I started placing the bright blocks around the center, I realized that I couldn't completely surround the center medallion - which had been my first thought. So I shadow quilted the remaining border with the square in a square design using different colored thread to mimick the actual blocks. I hope you can click on these to enlarge them to see how pretty the different colors look. I added small bits of piping for color interest and the gold border finishes at 1/4" (cut 3/4"). It's such an intense color I didn't want too much contrast with the black.

The fabric I picked for the basket lent itself perfectly to be quilted along the lines and it looks woven. Remember that each fabric had to be present in the challenge fabric to be used. Most of these came from my stash and the guild free table - how fun is that??!

Last, but certainly not least, is my kitty.

So far, I've had very favorable comments from fellow workers. This is kind of different from my usual hangings. I'm having issues (huge problems) with the mq in my autumn tree, so this quilt may get to hang for a while!!
Until next time,
-Karen

Chasing the Rainbow Challenge

When I realized I never posted pictures of my challenge quilt, I decided to use it as my entry in this year's Bloggers' Quilt Festival. Amy has again hosted this most fun event. Please be sure to go over and see all the great quilts (click on home to see the quilts)!! A few months ago our Guild had a challenge and I shared a few pictures of my quilt and of the rules. I had no idea how this quilt would look when I started it, but I must tell you, I was soooooo happy with the final results!! After I had pulled all the fabric that matched my swatch of challenge fabric, I just started making paper-pieced square in a square blocks. Not really sure how I would use them but did them in all colors and did some with the little center and some without. My initial plan was to completely surround the center medallion with blocks. I soon realized that would be chaos!!

So I put some blocks in opposite corners and decided to quilt in "ghost" blocks to complete that border. Since the quilt rules said the quilt had to be 36-40" square, I had to add strips to the applique piece to make it square.

The tiny innermost border is a different color on each side, green, red, black, gold. I also added little sashes in between the blocks to make the math fit and to make it easier for the points to lay flat. It's a little hard to see, but each of the quilted "ghost" blocks are done in a different color - just like the pieced blocks. I added quilted sashing where needed to make the math work in this part too. When you're making up a quilt with no pattern, there are no rules LOL!! The final element was the diagonal quilting in the border. It's also hard to see, but the quilting changes color from the center out.

I love the blue leaves on this. I've never done a black quilt before, and I'm so excited about the way this turned out. I'll be taking it to my office, so you'll see it again :).

Here's the kitty - a little hard to see. But he's there in the center of the flower.
Hope you enjoy the show.

Until next time,

-Karen

Guild Challenge

Our guild is having a challenge and it's due next month. It's called Chasing the Rainbow based on Sherrill Kahn's wonderful fabric. Each person started with a 5 inch square cut from the same fabric.
The rules were pretty simple: you can only use the colors found in your 5" sample. You don't have to use all the colors, but you can't add any color not found in your sample. So below, you see my mess of fabrics that I've pulled to match (see the pineapple pile in the background, I'm still working on that too LOL!).

We're using this wonderful book by Sharyn Craig and Pamela Mostek. Each challenge in this book has 2 parts. So the second part of the challenge is that you have to include at least one Square in a Square block. The quilt is to finish at 36-40 inches square. That's it!!

So here's what I've got so far. I can't show the whole thing yet.

And here are some of the blocks I've done. Not sure of the final set yet. This quilt is "telling" me what to do as I go along. The perfect thing for a challenge. This particular challenge has been more difficult than I thought. There aren't any lights in the fabric.

But the coolest thing will be to see all the quilts that have come from the same piece of fabric. Each one a part of the rainbow. I'm really excited. I've got less than 2 months for the big reveal!!

Until next time,

-Karen