Friday 6 March 2015

QuiltCon 2015 Magazine!!

I cannot believe how fast February went! Between the organisation involved in getting to QuiltCon, being in Austin for a week, and then attempting to get back to normal life, it felt like a ridiculously short month. I've been a bit of a zombie since I got home, and although I do have a few blog posts worth of stuff to say about QuiltCon (when I can articulate it all properly), for now I just want to share with you my favorite quilt I made last year. It appears in the just-released QuiltCon magazine (eeeeeep!!), along with some fantastic articles and stunning modern quilts.



I made this quilt - Misdirection - to a very tight deadline (I think I had three weeks from finding out it had been accepted and needing to post it), but it was such a fun quilt to make - I really enjoyed focusing on it and getting it finished. I adore the colour combo of navy, green and gold against low volume greys, and it was fun to design a quilt with so much negative space to play with.


This quilt uses half rectangle triangles (HRTs) to create the design. I've become a bit fascinated with HRTs - I love the angles HRTs create, especially long rectangles, and it's a shape I plan on playing with very soon :o) The angles in the design made it pretty easy to choose quilting designs, and to help work out how to break up the negative space.


 I used 50wt Aurifil for all the quilting, and matched my thread colours as much as possible to each coloured section. The background is all Dove (which blends freakishly well into all low volume fabrics I've tried it on). I did use my walking foot for all the long straight line quilting - I wanted them to be really straight, and I knew how impossible that would be for lines that long if I tried FMQ. The rest of the quilting is reasonably large (1/2" or so spacing) so although it has lots of quilting, it is still a really snuggly quilt.


To break up the background area, I did mark the some of the long diagonal lines before I started quilting. From there it was simply a matter of quilting each of the sections, alternating my favorite pebble/swirl combo with sections that repeat some of the designs from the coloured sections. I think one of the reasons I love low volume backgrounds so much is that they behave like a solid in terms of showing quilting, but they have a subtle texture as well. Having a pieced background made it really easy to mark the quilt too ;o)


It is so nice to finally be able to share this quilt. I'd love it to be mine, but as soon as I designed it my 7 year old son made it pretty clear he'd love it. So it can join the nest of quilts on his bed for a while :o) I'm hoping I'll start blogging a bit more regularly soon. I have so much I'd like to say about QuiltCon - but in a nutshell, it was about the people. It was amazing to meet so many people I have connected with online, and I was constantly amazed how easy it was to transition from chatting via email to chatting face to face. Thanks to everyone who I was lucky enough to spend time with in Austin, it was an incredible experience, made more so by all the wonderful people I met.

xx Jess




15 comments:

Renee said...

Such a lovely quilt! I never made anything with HRT, but love the possibilities and what you've done with them here. I love the mix of quilting patterns, all the straight lines and sharp angles look so nice with all the circles!

Lisa J. said...

Congratulations Jess. It's a really nice quilt. I love the low volume background.

Jessica said...

This is one of my favorites of yours! I just love HRTs - they are fun. Miss you!

Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl said...

Congratulations! Keeping quilts a secret can be so hard, especially when you really loved making them. The color combination here is really fresh and different, and the combination of quilting patterns you used really enhances the design. I have been having a lot of fun with HSTs lately, but I will file away the HRT idea to explore, too! :)

DeborahGun said...

Congratulations Jess. It is a beautiful quilt, and your quilting amazes me as always. Glad you had a wonderful time at QuiltCon xx

Benta AtSLIKstitches said...

Gorgeous quilt! Thanks for sharing

Charlotte said...

It's so beautiful! Congratulations on the feature - you clever thing! It was lovely to finally get to hug you, but I am still totally bummed that we didn't connect properly. Next time xxxxx

Hayley said...

Congratulations! It's a lovely quilt and having it claimed by a kid is high praise becaus you know they don't pull punches if they dislike something (at least mine don't...). I lie the shape HRTs give - I might have to try them. Once I get that WIP list down...

www.hudsonvalleyquilts.com said...

What a stunning quilt!! Congratulations, Jess.

KaHolly said...

Stunningly beautiful and so well named! I'm looking forward to picking up a copy of the magazine! As a matter of fact, I need to get a couple of copies to gift my summertime Canadian quilty friends!

Deb said...

I agree, Quilt Con was really about the people. So awesome to meet with you and hang out for a while. I love this quilt. I bought a Bloc Loc HSR ruler to play with at Quilt Con as I want to try these next.

Michele said...

Love the quilt! And I'm hoping to get to QuiltCon in 2016.

Sandra W said...

I went to the QuiltCon web site and the magazine is sold out. Is it available elsewhere?
Lovely qult. Well done.

artsycraftsyivy said...

Congrats, Jess! It was wonderful to meet you in person at QuiltCon :)

Cheryl said...

What a beautiful quilt in one of my favorite color combinations! I have never tried making HRT, but they are on my list now :)