Carlene Foster's Gallery : Queen, Pieced Blocks

Hanging Gardens

Carlene Foster — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 15:55:50 GMT

This quilt is called "Hanging Gardens" and was designed by Georgette Dell'Orco of Cozy Quilt Designs. It is meant for 2 1/2 inch strips. I ran across a 30 strip 5 x 22 bundle of cuts from a quilt show I had attended a couple of years ago and thought it was time to put them to use. This is a twin size quilt, as I only had a potential of 30 full strips after I cut them in half, one piece was black, so I took it out of the stack and was down to 29. The border fabric was in my stash for about the last 4 years, so it was time for it to go as well. It's a fast quilt to piece...I started Friday at 5:00 pm and finished Sunday morning at 12:35 am. (Let's say I was possessed and let that go! LOL) The background has a very light beige print on it, but I think the quilt will have more character if I have the long armer do it with a varigated thread.

Strings!

Carlene Foster — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:26:09 GMT

I cannot bear to throw away those strings: the cuts left at the end of the fabric that are less than 2 inches wide down to 1/2 inch wide. I sew them to 7 inch mujslin backs and then trim to 6.5 inch squares. This quilt top is 84 x 84. That is a lot of strings!

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.

Stonehenge BOM 2012 (full picture)

Carlene Foster — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 16:04:52 GMT

Daylight allows me to take a picture of the entire quilt, as long as it is not raining or the wind is not blowing excessively. A little wind today, but not so bad temp wise, and no additonal snow (yet) I love the full effect of this quilt....more than I liked some of the individual blocks. If you make this one, watch the color combinations. I had a couple of blocks that were brown on brown with the biggest contrast being another shade of brown. I substitued the orange to liven it up a little.

Duck tracks--very scrappy

Carlene Foster — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 18:32:25 GMT

This is the reason my local quilt shop owner hates scrappy quilts. This is a 60 x 80 quilt top made with nothing but scraps, the colored pieces were all 2 x 2 or smaller. Unfortunately, this didn't make as much of a dent in my scraps as I was hoping...more scraps to come! :)

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.

Strip Therapy Stars

Carlene Foster — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 04:02:20 GMT

one Jelly roll of choice, some accents, some backgroiund fabric....a quilt. :) Stri Therapy 6, "Seeing Stars"

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.

When the stash and the pattern meet

Carlene Foster — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 14:35:57 GMT

I don't know where I got the brown art deco kind of fabric that is in this quilt. I only know that when I saw this pattern in a book, I had to make it. How it turned out that I had just enough of the brown to finish the quilt....call it fate, call it karma....it just happened. I think of my boys when I see this one.....it's a modern manly quilt to me. I was going to hang this one on the family room wall to liven up the space a little, but it hasn't made it there yet.

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.

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. :)

Roll Roll Cotton Boll Pattern by Bonnie K. Hunter

Carlene Foster — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:35:38 GMT

Someone asked if I have done a Bonnie Hunter quilt before.........this was my first one. I have to say, when I hit about step 7 and was told I was going to be making 600 half square triangles, I about choked. However, I endured the excercise.......I mean, afterall, the first rule of a Bunnie Hunter quilt is "NO WHINING"! LOL I love scrappy quilts.