Carlene Foster's Gallery : Primary Colors

Happiness is....

Carlene Foster — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:02:16 GMT

This was a quilt panel from Project Linus...someone was entirely too creative with this one. :) I added the prairie points and did a lot of background quilting, but it was more for fun that for talent. :) Sometimes, simple pleasures are the best.

One block wonder

Carlene Foster — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:03:26 GMT

This is a repeat of the same star block, just by using different corner pieces, they look totally different. Of course, it is me, so it is still scrappy. :) The small sashings bring your eyes out so that it looks like one star is framed in the middle of a bunch of x's. I just thought that was the appeal to this pattern...starting with one thing and ending up with something that appears much more complex than it is. Downfall to this pattern was that it called for 2 5/8 inch squares for the outer corners, and I was using scraps from 2 1/2 inch strips, so I lost most of my star points in the process. Even rounded off, I like them (although it obviously bugs me).

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.

St. Louis Star #3

Carlene Foster — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 15:49:52 GMT

I did mention that I love this design, right? This was made with 8 inch finished stars, which I thought afterward were entirely too small (meaning, I didn't feel like making 50 of them to make a queen sized quilt). I put a 3 inch border of the background fabric around each star and set them on point to make them appear larger. :) Necessity is the mother of invention, right?

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.

Applique Poinsettia

Carlene Foster — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:13:02 GMT

Raw edge applique done with heat and bond. I used up a lot of red and green small scraps on this quilt. Quitling method is called McTavishing and is thread intensive, but leaves an interesting texture.

Catch the Rainbow!

Carlene Foster — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 22:52:32 GMT

What do you do when you find yourself with a rainbow of scraps? Make a rainbow quilt, of course! This was a controlled paper bag pieced quilt. Each block had no repeats of fabrics, but the order that the block went into the design depended on which order it got pulled from the paper bag. So, each block got sorted by color, then thrown into the bag and pulled out one piece at a time.

Disappearing 9 patch with hearts

Carlene Foster — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:18:55 GMT

I did this from a pattern I got online. What a way to use up some of those fq's that you have no clue what to do with them! I loved it! Half a heart was 6 inches x 3.5 inches, so these were not small pieces. Just watch where you place the dark and light colors when you make your nine patches (before you slice and dice into individual blocks again.) Simple, fun, fast.

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.

Bits and Pieces

Carlene Foster — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 22:33:41 GMT

I love brights, and I love scrappy. This pattern allowed me to use up some of my scraps and practice some new patterns. I think I needed this after a round of pastels and florals....

Orca Bay Mystery Quilt 2011

Carlene Foster — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 13:57:55 GMT

Bonnie K. Hunter's Orca Bay Mystery Quilt ran from Thanksgiving 2011 through January 1, 2012. This is my finished quilt top. Once again, Bonnie walked a group of quilters of various skills through a complex pattern by breaking it into managable steps. For me, the twist came at the end with those black/white border pieces...I never would have guessed that was what those were for. I was trying to put them around the Ohio Star units and thinking that the red string blocks would be around the border somehow. The biggest challenge I had putting the top itself together was those blue string blocks....if they weren't placed properly, the flow of the pattern just died in place. There are some of those that got removed and replaced at least 3 times, some 4. I blame it on quilt dyslexia. :)

St. Louis Star Table Runner

Carlene Foster — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 11:38:44 GMT

I had 3 stars leftover from my other Flourish projects, so I made a table runner just to make certain these choice pieces didn't end up in a pieced quilt backing later on. I'm thinking that since I always seem to have excess binding at the end of a project and usually manage to miscount blocks along the way anyway, this might be a small project I'll be doing more of with the leftovers. These table runners can also be used for festive dresser scarves, or instead of quilting, could be stuffed and used as a decorative pillow (with a few minor modifications). Creative juices are flowing........ :)

Flourishing St. Louis Star

Carlene Foster — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:34:50 GMT

This is my third quilt this season from Robert Kaufman's Flourish fabric. I am hoping there is only enough left to make a table runner or something small. I'm ready to be finished with this fabric, although it is still my favorite so far. The pattern for the stars is from Toby Lisshko's St. Louis Star. The large one is 16 inches, the smaller are 10 inches. If you have a chance to check out her book, you will see how sinfully easy these stars are....there are no Y seams. My biggest challenge was that I ran out of the green fabric and had to really scrimp to make it go as far as it did. That was the beauty of the St. Louis Star pattern. You can make a lot out of a little. The quilt pattern itself is one of my own making.....I'm not certain how much of a design you can call this, but I definitely did not have a pattern beyond the stars themselves.

Bull Run Nine Patch

Carlene Foster — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:38:47 GMT

The Bull Run Nine Patch pattern ran in the Quiltmaker September/October 2010 issue. I don't enjoy doing applique, although I enjoy seeing what other people do with it, and I do not have an embroidery machine, so I also don't want to undertake this little joyous hand stitching adventure. To compensate, I blew my pattern out one more repeat and then did the feather quilting around the edge. I like mine and it wasn't as fussy as the published one was.

Flourishing Eclipse

Carlene Foster — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 14:46:52 GMT

When I saw the Robert Kaufman Flourish4 fabric this year, I instantly knew I had to have it and I had to do this quilt with it. The pattern, called Eclipse, was published in Quilter's Newsletter in the October/November 2010 issue. The original design, which was a ToadUSew kit quilt, strangely enough was done from Robert Kaufman fabrics as well (Shades of Season 3, another of my absolute fav's!) Any large medallions, fussy cut, will make a beautiful quilt from this pattern.