Carlene Foster's Gallery : Anniversary

Amish with a Twist-BOM

Carlene Foster — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 23:21:56 GMT

My last two weekends have been consumed with the finishing kit for this quilt, including some applique along the edges. My sewing machine did not play well with the blanket stitch on these appliques, so I ended up unsewing them and doing them all by hand. I will really need to watch the quilting process to make certain that flowers and leaves get permenantly set, as I am not a proponent of hand stitching for heavily used items. I am just glad to say that this is done. The blocks were way too simple, some of the colors in this fabric line were really awful. We were supposed to go until May, and the BOM ended in February due to lack of continued interest. I would do the second Amish with a Twist, but not as a BOM. Just send the fabric and directions for me to do it at my own pace, and I'd be fine.

Bellingham

Carlene Foster — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:07:37 GMT

The center of this quilt is from a pattern produced by ToadUSew, called Bellingham. It was a nice lap quilt, but I needed a queen size version for my parents. So, I added another border with the 4 corner star blocks made from the same fabric and added another layer of radiating arms. Then, I framed the entire thing in more of the cream colored fabric. I just love the little gold details in Robert Kaufmann's fabric line, so this was a "Have to" quilt for me. It is quilted by using a preprinted Benartex backing, most commonly referenced as "Easy Line".

Marti Michel's Wild Rose BOM

Carlene Foster — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:45:38 GMT

This was the first BOM program I ever did. And, it was my first experience with Marti Michel's templates....which I have absolutely grown to love. I thought this fabric was soooooooooooo much a have to have because it still strikes me as being so feminine and beautiful. Two of my latest quilts were an effort to use up the additional fabric I had purchased from this line...when I like something, I tend to purchase in bulk, so it seems. I am proud to say my 3 large bags of fabric now fit into one bag. The color choices are waining, and soon there will only be a few scrapts to add to other quilts in the making. I still love this quilt, though.

Iowa Star Scrap Quilt

Carlene Foster — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:25:22 GMT

This was a pattern created by a native of Traer, Iowa. This is just up the road from my sister's house, and I didn't even know there was a quilt shop so close to her...guess where I am stopping my next trip? This is the kind of quilt you do when the partiallly used fq's and the scraps outnumber the full pieces. It used a lot of scraps, and a lot of those fq's that I just didn't know how I was going to use them anywhere...ever. Loved the effect....and there will never be another one exactly like this one...ever. Next one I make, I will keep the neutrals very light and not use so much yellow on a focal block.

Kolidescope

Carlene Foster — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 13:58:37 GMT

Sometimes, ya just gotta do one of these. This one reminded me of the old stained glass wndows. Fun, fast and it looks a lot more complicated than it really was.

Double wedding ring

Carlene Foster — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 13:38:33 GMT

This is a king sized quilt done with the Simple Curves ruler and pattern. It worked up really fast, as none of the curves are full and the curves are all one piece of fabric. The thing I really like about this pattern and the ruler was that there was minimal waste, unlike many other patterns I have seen. In a 9.5 inch square, only two corners (less than 1.5 square inches) were not used. There is triming to be done after the block is put together, however, I have seen worse waste on those types of blocks as well. This is definitely a "let's do that again" pattern.

Pinks and purples

Carlene Foster — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 20:31:34 GMT

Inspired by one block from a sampler quilt and leftovers from the Wildflower Rhapsody BOM that I completed. I'm liking this combination of fabrics almost better than the original quilt.

Sophia: Jinny Beyer kit

Carlene Foster — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 19:46:03 GMT

I bought this on one of Fons and Porters' kit sales. The picture online was nice, but the actual fabrics were striking. This is the Sophia design, done in the topaz colorway. This will be a favorite for a long time.

Pentagon prototype

Carlene Foster — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 18:23:27 GMT

This wasn't a pattern, per se. The stars were made with a specialty ruler called "Jewel Box Gems 5 and 10". I had bought the wide border fabric a few years ago at Hancocks when it was on sale (of course), so there was no chance of getting more. I had enough of the wide border fabric to fussy cut the spokes on the stars, and then found out there was enough left to do a border around the outside. The pink fabric around the stars was the only piece I had leftover from another series of fabrics, also not a current line. It was my limiting factor, as there was only enough of it to do 6 of these pentagon shaped medallions. The blue......controversial choice, but I was tired of the muted colors and didn't have a green that would match the swirls in the border fabric, so I went with the turquoise. The connecting wedges......eek.... I didn't have any more of the pink fabric and I didn't have anything that would match any of the rest except the turquoise, which I had already had some resistance to. So, I went to the quilt shop, took the pieces, explained what I wanted to do. The owner majored in engineering when she was in college, so she figured out the angles for me and we picked the dark pink fabric from her inventory. It took me about 4 months to get the courage to decide to complete this endeavor. My first task was to find my Squedge ruler, which is the 18 degree one, because I needed a 36 degree angle. Freezer paper template was made, I was in business. Lucky for me, there was enough of the dark pink to bind the quilt when it was done, too. That is how this quilt came to be. All because I wanted to (1) use up some fabric that was already in my stash and (2) to finally use one of those specialty rulers that I "just had to have". This is the first quilt I have hand quilted in a few years now. Pentagon.....probably would fit a double bed, but I'm thinking it would drape better off a single bed. I could see this pattern done with red stars, white insets and an entirely navy blue background, blending the wedges into the background pieces.

Wildflower Rhapsody BOM 2011

Carlene Foster — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:37:36 GMT

I am usually in two BOM groups at a time these days. This was the 2011 project, and I just now got the finishing kit done. I love the use of the wide boarder fabrics in the overall design. It made the finishing that much easier.

Deb's Flower Garden

Carlene Foster — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:07:07 GMT

This was a kit quilt that I absolutely had to have. Each of the red flower petals is a different fabric. The fabric itself had a lot of depth to it, so I kind of thought this was just a bit of overkill. I liked the use of the split border fabric. I guess I could say that the way the stem greenery was constructed reminded me of a Pam Bono design. I was glad when I finally just powered through to finish this one, as I got distracted away from the tedium after I had most of the cutting and individual components completed. This is a pattern that I am not thinking of returning to for quite some time.

Circle of Blooms

Carlene Foster — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:30:20 GMT

This is my rendition of a pattern by Pam Bono that was published in Quilter Magazine June/July and August/ September 2011. I instantly fell in love with the finished product. The process in getting there was a little more "painful"......I'm not certain if I just was so excited to be doing it that I failed to carefully read the directions, or what happened, but I did a lot of unsewing and a lot more piecing when I thought I was ready for actual construction. This was the first large Pam Bono project I have ever done, so it is hard to say why I just couldn't get things to come together as the instructions stated. I love the finished product, though, and I'm ready to do another of her patterns. :)

In the meantime, Bonnie K. Hunter: Please excuse the fact that I have not completed the Orca Bay Mystery quilt steps 7 or 8 yet. I was a little preoccupied. :)