Carlene Foster's Gallery : Pieced Blocks, Fussy Cuts

Sampling sampler quilts completed

Carlene Foster — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 23:04:25 GMT

This is how I finished the blocks into a completed quilt top. You would think I shouls be finished with these fabrics by now, right? I found another 4 yards of the wild rose in the house after I had ordered 3 more yards (that brought the total to 15 yards purchased outside the original finishing set for the original wildflower rose BOM. And, I find myself with a bunch of the other fabrics left as well. Might be a lap quilt or more left in this batch....we are beyond bonus. Now we are into the "challenge phase" of how to use up this fabric.

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!

Modern Christmas table runner

Carlene Foster — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 18:56:04 GMT

A few scraps, a simple pattern.....you have a table runner for the holidays. This was totally a "leftover" project, which used up every useable inch of this fabric that was leftover from 2 other planned table runners.

Antebellum Ladies

Carlene Foster — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:22:09 GMT

What do you do with those preprinted panels that call to you from the fabric store? There were 12 ladies on a sheet, the challenge was what to do with them. 9 patch blocks on fabrics coordinating with the ladies dresses, wide rick rack to mimick the rick rack surrounding each of the ladies on the panel, and a lot of microstippling.

Let it Snow!

Carlene Foster — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 23:01:40 GMT

Coordinating batiks make for a quick 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.

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.

New twist on an old design

Carlene Foster — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:28:19 GMT

I saw this pattern in a quilting magazine (I'm thinking Quilters World), made up in country blues and paisley and flowers. I liked the pattern, but didn't have all of those wonderful fabrics to work with. I used a retro 70's hippy flower power kind of fabric to fussy cut the large and small flowers, then a variety of red/black prints that I had purchased in a bundle at Hancock's. When my older son saw the flowers on the design wall with the black sashing, he was determined that the finished product would be his. He thought the reds/blacks had an oriental feel, so that was his calling. :) Another son who sleeps in Mom's hug all night long. :)

Timeless Treasures Tonga Batik

Carlene Foster — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:16:51 GMT

This was a BOM project that only lasted 9 months. When I brought home the fabric for the first block, my younger son said......hmmmmmmmmmmmm, I kind of like that. So, I took him to the quilt shop to see the finished product and he calimed the whole project as his. The finishing kit on ths quilt consists of 200 flying geese blocks. If any of you are familiar with Timeless Treasures, the method is to over-size the blocks and then trim them all to the correct size after they are sewn. What this meant was handling 200 flying geese 3 times each before they went into the quilt itself. I think the journey was worth the trip every time I see my son wrapped up in his "super hug" from Mom. :)