Carlene Foster's Gallery : Solids

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).

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.

Grandmother's Flower Garden made modern

Carlene Foster — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:30:52 GMT

Most of us have, at one time or another, gotten the English paper piecing bug, if for no other reason than a multitude of scraps and a curiosity about the process. I had done several flowers and they had set around for a few years waiting for me to address them. So.....I used mine in a quilt as you go setting, separating each flower into its own block, then surrounding the garden with a picket fence. Now, I don't have to feel guilty about not tending to my flowers. :)

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.

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.

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. :)