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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Quilt Market - The Quilts

Nordika Color Hex Quilt by Jeni Baker
Nordika Color Hex Quilt, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.
Happy Wednesday! Today's post is the first of a few to share all of the projects made up in Nordika for my Quilt Market booth.  I decided to break the projects up by type, otherwise this would be a very long post! So, how about the quilts first?

As I mentioned on Monday, this Floral version of my Color Hex Quilt Pattern is the first thing I made with Nordika.  I knew I wanted a couple of very bold statement quilts to be the building point for the projects.  The nice thing about this pattern is it takes very little fabric but still packs a punch. It's pieced with half-hexagons, so no y-seams, yay!

Nordika Color Hex Quilt by Jeni Baker
Nordika Color Hex Quilt, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.
On the original Color Hex quilt I did concentric circle quilting, which I really liked.  This time I did a giant spiral, which was much easier, once it got started! I used a lovely dark grey Aurifil 50wt thread, #2605!

Nordika Triangle Baby Quilt by Jeni Baker
Nordika Triangle Baby Quilt, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.
Next, a fun baby quilt using equilateral triangles! I mixed in coordinating Pure Elements (I'll do a big coordinating solids/blenders post soon!), using those for the upright triangles and the prints for the downward triangles.  It turned out really fun, and so colorful!

Nordika Triangle Baby Quilt by Jeni Baker
Nordika Triangle Baby Quilt, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.
Still can't get away from the loopy quilting, what can I say! Let's just call it a signature!

Nordika Wonky Crosses Quilt by Jeni Baker
Nordika Wonky Crosses Quilt, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.
This quilt really stretched me, creatively.  I love order and symmetry and this type of quilting means letting that go a bit.  This might actually be my first large "improv" quilt.  But, you can hardly call it that because it's actually rather calculated. I was inspired by the Add it Up Quilt from Quilting Modern by Jacquie Gehring and Katie Pedersen. It was such a pleasure to meet them both at Market!

I created the cross blocks and then squared them all up to 5".  Then rather than lay the quilt out and figure out how to piece the negative space, I simply cut up a ton of 5" squares from the white and randomly pieced each row.  Then laid the rows out and figured out a suitable layout. 

Nordika Wonky Crosses Quilt by Jeni Baker
Nordika Wonky Crosses Quilt, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.
So, if you're slightly afraid of piecing a quilt with lots of negative space (me!), this method was a bit easier for me, and did not take much weird quilt math! I'm so happy with the result and I'm glad I stepped outside of my comfort zone to make this quilt! I quilted it using a meandering loop design that I really ended up liking!

I backed it in the only black vintage sheet I've ever found!

Nordika Baby Quilt by Jeni Baker
Nordika Baby Quilt, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.
Next up, a peek at one of my new patterns! Hopefully coming next month.  This is a baby version of the full quilt! This is a very quick stitch!

Nordika Baby Quilt by Jeni Baker
Nordika Baby Quilt, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.
I used a new-to-me quilting design this time! I had always loved seeing quilts done with the Serpentine stitch but never knew how to do it on my machine.  I found this tutorial that walks you through programing it in as a custom stitch on the Janome Horizon and it worked great! I'll be using it a lot I think!

Nordika Arithmetic Quilt by Jeni Baker
Nordika Arithmetic Quilt, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.
These last two quilts were sewn up in a whirlwind! They were cut, sewn, quilted, and finished in a week and a half! I knew I'd be close on time, so I turned to two of my quick patterns! This first one is the Arithmetic Quilt Pattern! I made the throw size using 4.5" squares.  It was fun to see how well this came together, despite how busy it ends up being! It's such a stark contrast to the wonky cross quilt!

Nordika Arithmetic Quilt by Jeni Baker
Nordika Arithmetic Quilt, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.
Pretend I quilted it really fancy!  The quilting is the hardest part to do under short deadline for me.  I can only quilt for an hour and then I need to rest and ice my shoulder and wrist.  I'd love to get a quilting frame for my machine or a longarm one day, wouldn't that just be lovely? :)

Nordika Side Braid Quilt by Jeni Baker
Nordika Side Braid Quilt, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.
Finally, the last quilt! This one came together quickly and first, then took a disastrous detour and finally in the end was finished just in time.  I used my Side Braid Quilt Pattern.  The top stitched up super quick, and I was so pleased!

The problems started from there.  I did not use enough pins while I was basting, and I knew I wasn't doing a good enough job but being pressed on time, did it anyways.  I paid for it when it came time to quilt, I had a giant line of puckers all down the back.  I ended up unpicking quilting for about 5 hours, and re-basting then re-quilting about half the quilt. 

Nordika Side Braid Quilt by Jeni Baker
Nordika Side Braid Quilt, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.
I wasn't sure if it was going to be finished in time, but it was, thank goodness!

Phew! That's all the quilts! Tomorrow I'll share the pillows and other home-decor items!

Have a great day!

24 comments :

  1. love the triangle baby quilt. so great

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  2. Love all of these. I made a hexagon quilt a couple of months ago with spiral quilting and love it. I think it's a perfect quilting motif for that style quilt.

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  3. Amazing! I wish I was there at the Quilt Market to see your beautiful quilts and your fabulous Nordika line! Congrats on your accomplishments Jeni, you never stop to amaze us! Can't wait to see your other projects :)

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  4. I am really loving Nordika! The designs are so crisp and the colors are beautiful (and beautiful together). I can't wait to sew up a quilt with these [eyeing the triangle patchwork]. Also, your new banner rocks!

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  5. They look great. I can't wait to get some of your new fabric line :)

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  6. Jeni they are all incredible! I feel like I need to take a deep breath after all that!

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  7. opps, I think that I'm falling in love with the fabric - lucky my husband has my plastic!

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  8. Your quilts are wonderful! Loved seeing them here...thanks for sharing!

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  9. I LOVE the Nordika Arithmetic quilt -- great colors, fun prints, perfect design to show them off. Your serpentine quilting thing is fun, too -- I have also wanted to try that but just haven't had the right quilt for it yet.

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  10. Gorgeous quilts! And thanks for sharing your blunder with the side braid quilt. It makes novices like me feel better about all of my mistakes :P

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  11. Your quilts are great - I love them all! Going to give the wonky crosses a try!

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  12. Beautiful quilts, you are so talented. I especially love the wonky cross quilt, it's fantastic. And well done you for spending five hours unpicking. I would have had a complete temper tantrum I think.

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  13. I really love the triangles and hexies, very cool!

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  14. Love, love, LOVE the new fabric line! And the quilts are BEAUTIFUL. Color Hex and the Nordika Baby quilts are the absolute MOST!

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  15. Beautiful quilts, Jeni!! Loved your booth and excited about your new line!

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  16. Love your quilts and your new fabric line. Must get my hands on the arithmetic pattern, especially. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

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  17. I am so in love with your new fabric line Nordika. YUM YUM YUMMY!! And I'm trying to decide which quilt I like more but I just can't I love them all and can't wait for your patterns. Thanks for sharing.

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  18. That triangle quilt is fantastic! =)

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  19. I find the idea of negative space hard so thinking of breaking it up into similar blocks sizes is great, thanks!

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  20. I love love love the triangle quilt.

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  21. I still can't believe how much you made in such a short period of time. Impressive! And Nordika looks great in so many patterns.

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  22. Wow, that black print vintage sheet was the absolute perfect backing for your Wonky Crosses quilt... the cherry on the sundae, so to speak. Congrats on this superb new line of fabric. Can't wait to get my hands on some(or all!) of it!!

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