Carlene Foster's Gallery : Easter

Christmas Place Mats

Carlene Foster — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 19:18:02 GMT

I had a 20 fq pack of coordinating Christmas fabrics that had been in my stash at least a year (more likely 2 years), that I couldn't get inspired to use. Quilters World December 2012 issue solved that problem for me: Stretched Nine-Patch Place Mats. If I were to do it all over again, I would use the Buggy Barn stack and whack, then reshuffling the order of certain stacks. Sometimes, I don't stop and plan that part so well. LOL I had leftover pieces of batting and backing was from Benartex...the line was called "dreamline" by some vendors. The idea was that the pattern was on the background in water soluable ink, you sew on the lines from the back and then when you wash the piece, the lines disappear. Loved the product, cannot find it on the Benartex website now. I bought mine through fabric.com and Amazon. From 20 fq's, I have a total of 30 placemats. I have actually completed all but 8 (due to lack of extra batting now!) Love the pattern.

Table runner

Carlene Foster — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 19:04:30 GMT

A few scraps, a simple pattern.......a table runner. This was an easy project, and I'm saving the pattern for later use. Quilter's World ran the pattern in the February 2011 mag under the title "White Fare Table Runner and Place Mats". From concept through quilting, this project takes less than half a day. I absolutely love it!

Pinwheels

Carlene Foster — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:52:43 GMT

This pattern used half of a jelly roll (20 strips), and made enough pinwheels that I had two left over to make a throw pillow to go with the lap sized quilt. You can quilt as simply as I did (using my 1956 Singer 301) or more elaborately. I saw one that was done in queen size, using two packages of pinks/purples with a pink background. It was really pretty. I can see a lot of use from this very simple pattern. The pattern comes with directions to make several different sizes.

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.

Sampler

Carlene Foster — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 20:23:04 GMT

Sometimes, for inspiration, I need to do a sampler quilt. Then, I can decide if there is a block I like better than the others...something to inspire the next project. This was one of those quilts. I had a lot of fabric left over from Marty Michel's Wild Rose fabric line. So, I just went to town making this quilt.

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.

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. :)