Blogger's Quilt Festival: One in Every (Kona) Color

It's always fun when Blogger's Quilt Festival rolls around. Amy puts a lot of time into it, so thanks, Amy!

I know a lot of you have already seen this, but honestly, One in Every (Kona) Color is my favorite finish of 2012 so far.

I was trying to duplicate the Kona color card, since I just adore working with solids, and used the iconic Pantone color blocks as my inspiration.

It started with trimming lots of charm pack squares,

printing out lots of labels that included the color number and name,

and then meticulously matching them up to reproduce the Kona color card.

 All of their 243 colors is represented. I had some spaces to fill so I added some other information from the color card, including washing instructions. This turned out to be a good idea, because not only did it fill the space that needed to be filled, it gave the eye a place to rest in all that sea of color.

I thought and thought about how to quilt it. While not a fan of stitch-in-the-ditch, except for a line of quilting through the white labels, everything else is stitched in the ditch. There were so many colors to take into consideration and I also didn't want anything to detract from all the color.

I used the wonky alphabet by Kelby Sews for the back,

black and white striped binding a la Red Pepper Quilts,

and ended with a tribute to Pantone, the initial inspiration for the quilt, a label using the color of the year, Tangerine Tango.

This was such a fun quilt to make. Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the rest of the Quilt Festival--there is so much to see!

Quilt Stats:

Size: 63x72 inches

Quilted by: Me

Best Category: Throw, ROYGBIV

The Name Game: Creating At Home, a pattern review and a giveaway!

Several months ago (much longer than I would like to admit), Cindy from Creating At Home asked me to do a pattern test of her Chevron Accent Throw quilt pattern. I was really excited, because for a long time I had been wanting to do a chevron quilt based on a favorite sweater.

She sent me the pattern and I took it along when I spent a weekend in June quilting at a friend's cabin. I finished the top, and although I planned on reviewing the pattern in summer, somehow it ended up folded and living in a stack of other quilt tops.

A couple of weeks ago,I realized I had been completely remiss in reviewing the pattern. So the first part of today's triple play will be a pattern review of the Chevron Accent Throw.

First of all, Cindy states that the skill level for making this quilt is beginner. I would agree. It is very well written, including great instructions and photographs  to walk you through sewing and trimming half-square triangles.

As written in the pattern, there are three block configurations, which are then sewn together in four rows of four blocks each. The cool thing is that you make a total of eight Block 1 (and four each of the other two block configurations), and then in four spots, you just turn Block 1 around end for end to continue the chevron pattern--easy peasy.

It is written as a two-color quilt. Of course, I added to the degree of difficulty by making it with seven different colors, which meant I had to follow the diagram, but instead of sewing it together block by block, I sewed it together row by row. That took a little bit longer, and is a complete deviation away from the pattern as it is written, but it adds to the pattern's versatility. The other thing I really like is that is an uneven chevron.

I'm so happy with this quilt. I love how it was just the right size and number of rows to mimic my sweater.

After using no. 8 perle cotton on my Amish quilt, I wanted to do something similar with this one. I still have some bugs to work out with quilting with the thick thread, and then I noticed some Sulky brand100 percent cotton, size no. 12, in my LQS. It might be the answer--a little thinner than the no. 8, but still thick enough to make a big impact.

So, now more about Cindy and her blog.

How did you choose the name for your blog?

When I started my blog in 2006 (http://www.creatingathome.com/2006/09/new-ribbon.html) I was a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator and wanted to have a blog to share my cards and scrapbooking pages with other stampers. I also needed a name for my growing downline group. At that time I chose "imagine. dream. create." as my blog name and I loved it/lived with it for several years. Once I gave up stamping and turned my pursuits more towards quilting, sewing and diy I decided my blog needed a fresh new look and a new name, too. I wanted the name to encompass all of my hobbies and not be too specific. At first I thought of "Creating a Home", but it was already taken and then I thought "Creating at Home" was the perfect name for my blog! Now I go back and forth on it and think I could've come up with something better, but I'll stick with this. It was a bit of a pain to switch everything over to the new name and domain and I am sure I lost some blog readers during the switch!

Were there other names you considered, and can you share any of them with us?

Sure, it may be embarrassing, but that's ok! lol Some others I considered were Ruffles and Rosettes, Keefers Cabin no. 73 (which is the name I decided to give my new Etsy shop and pattern designs), Sew Much, Creative Pursuits, and I even considered naming it Cindy Keery, after myself. 'Glad I didn't go with that last one cuz that would just be weird.

Now that you are recognized by your blog name, are you happy with it, or do you wish you could change it to something else?

I'm happy with the name overall. Just recently I was introduced in person as "Cindy from Creating at Home" to a group of enthusiastic women. It was a little surreal that I'd be known by my blog name, but it made me so happy.

You might have noticed that not only are there pictures of quilts, but also some yummy food. I hope you will head over to Creating at Home, because there are hints on painting furniture, slip covering, recipes, really such a broad spectrum of wonderful things to help you create a warm and inviting home.

Cindy has also generously offered to give away one Chevron Accent Throw pattern. So, let's see. Have you ever made a chevron quilt?

I'll choose a winner on Wednesday, October 17, at 6 p.m. PDT.

Thanks for playing The Name Game this week, Cindy. I'll be working my way through your archives to pick up some ideas for doing some creating here in my home!

One in Every (Kona) Color: The (Really) Long Version

The giveaway is now closed. Thank you to everyone!
I will try to make this as un-wordy as possible, and just let the pictures speak for themselves. While my quilt is a mash-up of the Kona color card and Pantone, the original spark of interest for the quilt came from here.Lynne's fabulous Penquin Book quilt. I became an immediate fan of the quilt, and also of Lynne.

When I came home from spring quilt market with my charm pack of the new Kona colors, along with a new Kona color card, the wheels in my head started moving.

 I had the idea for the quilt, but how would I obtain a little bit of every single color? I only needed a little, but buying even a fat quarter would be way too expensive.

 That's when I went to Fat Quarter Shop and ordered every sampler charm pack of Kona. I was sure I would end up with many duplicates. I was thrilled to find out that there were hardly any duplicates at all!

I took them apart, and started separating them by color families. Then I started arranging them in order, using the color card.

I used some Pantone note cards for the dimensions for each block.

And started trimming.

The next step was to print out all the colors names and numbers. I had to buy two 25-sheet packs of June Tailor printer fabric. Wowsers--expensive! Thankfully I had good coupons for each pack. Just let me say that if I hadn't had to run so many sheets through my printer, I would definitely have used Kona white and adhered it to freezer paper, carefully cutting it with my rotary cutter, but I was worried about running so many sheets through the printer and jamming it up. I do not like the printer fabric. It served its purpose in this quilt, but it feels and sounds crunchy, which I really dislike. However, it went through my printer like a dream so it got good brownie points for that.

The next step was to proofread each color and make sure I hadn't transposed letters or numbers.

Next came matching the the names with the correct colors.

 Most of these were pretty easy, but there were at least five times when I had to check and double check in different light before I was pretty sure I had them matched up correctly. Case in point:

You can see the difference here, but it took the really good natural daylight before I realized I had them switched around.

And would you believe it, when it came down to it, there were only two colors I was missing: Ruby and Regatta. I was sure I had Ruby because I had used it in a previous quilt. I was pretty sure I didn't have Regatta. I'm not really a "blue" person, but I checked my solids stash, and sure enough, there was Regatta, also used in a previous quilt. Hooray. I think at that point I was sure it was a cosmic decision to make this quilt!

Sewing, sewing, sewing:

The next step was to put each block up on the design wall, duplicating the same order as the color card. There were 243 blocks, but my layout plan of 16 blocks across and 16 blocks down gave me space for 256. That's when I started copying and printing things from the the color card and bordering them in black, including the washing instructions! And that turned out to be a really good plan because with all the color going on, it was a good thing to have a few different places to rest your eyes.

After I made sure, over and over, that all the colors were in the proper order, it was time to start sewing the rows together.

 

And then, as frequently happens with my quilt tops, things came to a complete standstill while I tried to figure out the whole quilting thing. I knew I didn't want a lot of quilting to show because I wanted all the focus on the fabulous colors. I got advice from a couple of people, and then Deborah taught me how to spray baste a quilt on top of a bed (!). Note: I may actually get more of my quilts completed!

At first I thought just quilting horizontally would do the trick, first just below the words in each block, and then in the ditch between the white band and the color block.  But then I realized I wasn't going to be happy until I quilted vertically between each row. The dilemma? While I'm not a fan of quilting in the ditch, I still didn't want the quilting to show. And besides that, there was such a range of color from dark to light that choosing a color of thread, well...I couldn't even go there. So I tried something I had never tried before--monofilament. It turned out to be a great solution. It didn't show on top, but gave a little definition between each row.

I wanted a simple back, but with some pop, so I used the wonky alphabet from Kelby Sews, and pieced a heart with some leftover scraps.

 I finished it with Red Pepper Quilt-inspired black and white striped binding. Really--would anything else have worked? I think not.

And with a nod to Pantone and the color of the year, Tangerine Tango, here is my label.

So that's the story of my color card quilt. It was a challenge I gave to myself and I'm thrilled with how it turned out. My sweet and very supportive husband, Mark, turned out to be very protective of this quilt, or at least the idea of it, and forbid me from posting a single process picture until it was completed.

And in my dreams, Robert Kaufman gives me a lifetime supply of Kona solids. Or wants to add this to their corporate quilt collection. But I'm happy to hang it in my hallway and gaze happily at all the beautiful colors.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my little creative journey, or at least looking at the pictures.

Want "one in every Kona color" for yourself? Well, scraps, that is...these are only about 1 by 5 inches, but I'm pretty sure all 243 colors are represented. Just leave a comment telling me your current favorite color. I'll choose a winner on Monday morning. Have a great weekend!