Commission wall hanging - Part One

My brother and sister-in-law bought a house in Scottsdale, Arizona last year that has a ton of wall space.  They commissioned me to make a wall hanging for them and I started working through the process of designing a fiber art piece that:

(1) fits in the space

(2) fits in with their artistic aesthetic

(3) goes with their color scheme

(4) is something that I can accomplish with my skill set

They sent a few pictures that might work for them and gave me a general color scheme.  Then, I took a trip to see them in February that would enable me to narrow down the choices and start designing the piece.  Here's where we ended up after that trip:

We went shopping for fabric in the colors that they wanted in the piece:

And I pulled more from my stash;

I drew the design to scale on freezer paper.

Then started cutting it into sections that could be pieced.  I traced each piece in the section onto freezer paper and used them for the patterns.

In order to see how the colors were coming together, I pinned the freezer paper pattern on the back side.  When the section was all cut and placed, I ironed the freezer paper back onto the right side.

I decided to use fabric glue to hold the pieces together until they could be sewn.  Later in the night, when I couldn't sleep, I realized that with all the curved edges, it would be a colossal mess trying to sew it together and keep it flat.  So, I got out the Ricky Tims water soluble stabilizer and I drew each piece a second time.  That meant that in addition to the pattern, there were 2 more steps before I could start cutting pieces again.  

I also decided to put more information on the pattern and placed an "o" for the side that was turned over to the back, and an "u" for the side that would be under.  Each piece also got a number so that I would know in what order to start putting the pieces together.  

Then, I was able to start working with the fabric again.  First was to glue the stabilizer to the back of the fabric, trim it, and pin them both and put it in place on the main pattern.  When a large section was completed, I turned one of the edges on each piece and glued it together with it's neighbor. The hash marks on the freezer paper helped to align up the pieces.  Here is a view of a section from the right side and from the back side.

Here are a couple of sections with all of the right stabilizers and placement done.  I used an invisible thread to zig zag the edges together.

I hope its heading in the right direction.  And I hope you like it so far!

Granddaughter's Graduation Quilt

I never think it is too early to start working on a quilt that is going to be a present.  Our 4th grandchild is a junior in high school this year, and when she graduates, I'll be presenting her with her graduation quilt.  I've asked her to look at a few quilt designs and tell me about her favorite colors, but so far, not many ideas are forthcoming.  I know that she likes pale sage green.  Other than that, I think I'm free to make any kid of design I'd like.

There were a few remnants of sage green fabric in my stash and a few others that played well with that color.  I also pulled out a pile of off-white to add to the mix.  Later, I pulled out the bright turquoise fabric because it was a bit too shocking.  Well, it wouldn't be shocking in most quilts that I would make, but I know that she likes the more pale look.

I decided to do a quilt using half square rectangles.  I made one a few years ago and liked using the Block-Loc rulers.  It was time for them to come out and play again.  I cut 4" x 8" rectangles out of the colors and stacked them up to cut the diagonal line.  All of the greens were paired with the off-white pieces and sewn together.  I knew that I needed to make 240 for the size of quilt I wanted to make.  Here are a bunch of them tossed up on the wall.

And, here are the rest of the blocks on the wall.  There were reorganized to make a few diamond shapes.  I could have played with them for a long time and come up with a ton of other layouts.  But, I do have to sleep at night and these kinds of things keep my brain running at full speed.  So, this was the layout that was going to be sewn together.

I hope you like it so far!