Carlene Foster's Gallery : Wall Quilts

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! :)

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.

Dragonflies

Carlene Foster — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 14:19:03 GMT

My brother used to send me fabric in fq or at most one yard cuts. Some of it I liked the look, but I could not figure out how I was going to use it. Bonnie Hunter's philosophy kicked in: If it is still ugly, you just haven't cut it small enough. So, that is where the dragonfly block took over. I had small samples of some questionable color choices and I just went with it. Depending on which way you turn these blocks, the look can be something totally new. For this grouping, I just liked them butting heads. It kind of reminds me of something southwest, although it is the wrong colors for that. I guess that would make them northwest colors? LOL

Sophia: Jinny Beyer kit

Carlene Foster — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 19:46:03 GMT

I bought this on one of Fons and Porters' kit sales. The picture online was nice, but the actual fabrics were striking. This is the Sophia design, done in the topaz colorway. This will be a favorite for a long time.

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.

Grand Ole Flag

Carlene Foster — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 22:47:22 GMT

New ruler called "simple curves".....when I saw the pattern on the sleeve, this is what I saw. Plus, I had this prairie points ruler that needed testing out....

Glorified 9 Patch

Carlene Foster — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 22:30:53 GMT

I actually had a chance to take a one day class with Toby Litscho and this was the result of that class. The border, although complicated looking, is simply a large stripe fabric. I just love the color and play in this quilt design. Toby is big on curved piecing and accuracy. For me, the hardest thing about finishing this project was getting up the skill and the nerve to do the free hand feathering to complete the quilting. I finished the top in August/September 2010 and didn't get the quilting done until 2011.

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.