Carlene Foster's Gallery : Strip Piecing

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!

Meet me on Sesame Street

Carlene Foster — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 15:39:58 GMT

This was just a fun quilt that I did for a friend's upcoming grandchild. I just love the bright colors! The pattern is a free one online and could be used for several adaptations just by using large preprinted panels with some coordinating fabrics. It is fast and fun!

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.

Snap bags

Carlene Foster — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 19:35:59 GMT

Did I mention I have a lot of scraps to work with? Snap bags....held shut by two pieces of 1 inch wide tape measures cut to length. You would be surprised how stout the closure is...Pull tabs on the sides are recommended. Handles are optional. You can make all 3 sizes from two coordinating fat quarters, one to serve as the inside lining, the other to be the outside. Fast, easy and a certain gift giving wow factor. When my scraps were a little too narrow, I used coordinating fabrics for an extra strip on each side. No one said extra piecing wasn't allowed! LOL

Christmas Pillow shams

Carlene Foster — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 19:28:13 GMT

Ever want to just decorate a pillow for the holidays, and then be able to go back to the normal decor? I made two of these shams to adorn a holiday seating arrangement. When the holidays are over, they can be stored with the Christmas decorations until next year, without having to dedicate special space for the actual pillows. Just slip over the throw pillows you already own. I could think of making these with someone's favorite color schemes for birthday celebrations as well. Marti Michell template set L and her Encyclopeida of PatchWork Blocks, Volume 4 were the inspiration for this creation. (That, and my obsession with Robert Kaufman's Christmas fabric from last year that I still own a bag of scraps from <grin>)

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.

Classmate

Carlene Foster — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 16:14:22 GMT

The quilt shop owner uses me to do some of her display/samples at different times. This was the last project she gave me, right before Thanksgiving. I have made a total of 3 of them so far, in different colorways and finishes. I used polytex fuseable stiffener on the inner lining piece and a piece of fusible fleece on the outer piece, while the pattern calls for Soft and Stable. If I were going to use this as a carrier for an electronic device (finishes at 7 x 12), I would use the Soft and Stable. However, I don't own any of those e-readers or Ipads to worry about that kind of protection. The pattern calls for 1/2 yard of print, 1/2 yard of lining and 1/2 yard of contrast. The contrast could be done with a fat quarter if you make your binding strips 2 inches instead of 2 1/2. If you want the pattern, it is called "Classmate" and it can be obtained from atkinsondesigns.com.

Let it Snow!

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

Coordinating batiks make for a quick quilt.

Strip Therapy Kaleidoscope

Carlene Foster — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 04:07:21 GMT

One jelly roll, background fabric and border.......easy quilt. Strip Therapy Book 4, "Kaleidoscope".

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"

Strip Therapy Log Cabin

Carlene Foster — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 14:00:28 GMT

This quilt pattern, using an uneven log cabin arrangement, can be found in the Strip Therapy series of books. It used one jelly roll and about 3 yards of border fabric to make it a large queen sized (it only fit the top of the mattress on a king sized bed). Fast and fun and you can use whatever kind of jelly roll fabric you want. This was Moda Marbles in the Warm colorway.

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.

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.

Black, white and red allover

Carlene Foster — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:05:51 GMT

This is a technique using a special ruler called a "Twister'. This particular throw used one fq bundle and some yardage for the outer border. It isn't very large, and I still have a stack of biased red, white and black 4 patches left over from the process. I am not a fan of the waste that you get from this tool. You start with a charm pack, or a bunch of 5 x 5 patches, sew them all together, then use the tool to cut a piece of every intersecting seams. I have cats, so there were many times that I feared my stack of petals would be rearranged until I could get back to them. By the time I had done this throw, I was over the process. Maybe as a one or two item accent......potholders. a cornerstone for a larger quilt that you just want to do something different....but, I'm not a whole quilt fan of this tool.