From K - Quilt Top Planning (Using TouchDraw)

I recently bought an iPad and I cannot say enough about how much I love it. It has made blogging a cinch while on the run, it takes relatively high quality images when my DSLR isn't close at hand, and most of all, it makes for one of the best quilt top planning tools. I have tried designing quilt tops using blank paper, grid paper, excel, pencil, and markers, but nothing comes close to the TouchDraw app. I won't go into a huge explanation of how it works, but I thought it might be helpful for you to see how it can help organize a quilt layout, using my current wax print quilt as an example.

In July I posted about my quilt top layout for the first of two wax print quilts. I decided to go the route of using magic numbers (2.5", 4.5" and 6.5" square blocks), however I was worried that it wouldn't look random enough given the consistent sizes. In order to minimize the effect of having large stretches of blocks butted together, I went to touch drawer to lay out some "random-ish" type areas.

In the above image, you can see that each quilt area is divided by colours, and then further divided by numbers within each colour group. I specifically numbered them so that I would remember which order to sew the blocks once they were all prepared.

Using that TouchDraw illustration as a template, I began laying out my previously prepared 2.5", 4.5" and 6.5" squares according to the grouping requirements. Even though I have yet to complete the entire quilt top layout, you can see that many of the numbered blocks from my TouchDraw illustration are quite easy to identify on my design wall already.

Once I had quite a few of my blocks complete, I thought I would sew a few blocks together to see how it came along. In this next image you can see that some of the numbered blocks on my drawing are now even easier to identify on the wall.

I've started using this tool on a couple of other future projects and I'm looking forward to seeing them come into fruition as well. I still have a lot to learn on this app, but so far I am pretty impressed with how easy it is to use, and how simple and quickly you can manipulate quilt top designs.

From A - Inspiration to Reality: A Swoon Quilt

I am a process crafter. Most of the time, I don't care whether a project ever gets finished. I make things because I want to try a new technique, see how something will come together, or just blow off some creative steam.

Because of this, I love learning about other people's creative process. How did they choose materials? What inspired them? What inspired the colour scheme? Since there must be others out there like me, I thought it wise to contribute to the "process" conversation by documenting my own.

After seeing countless renditions of Camille Roskelley's popular Swoon pattern, I decided that it was time to jump on the band wagon and give it a whirl figuring that my guest bedroom could use a nice quilt to spruce up the otherwise sparse decor.

Struggling with fabric choices, I turned to Design Seeds a.k.a. my absolute favourite source of colour inspiration and found this little gem.

I love the differing shades of purple from the softest lilac to the deepest plum set off against the cream with hints of grey and dusty green with just a hint of turquoise.

Then I found this quilt and fell totally in love with movement and sense of chaos created by using geometric prints in the outer star portion of each block.

I settled on these fabrics:

Yesterday I managed to finish my very first block. I am blown away by how much the relationship between the fabrics changed as they were cut and pieced together. Two fabrics that appeared to be relatively high contrast to me in fat quarter form really blended together when pieced. I really had to be careful with the positioning of the outer spokes of the star to try and maintain enough contrast.

Here's a better shot of the spokes.

Only 8 more to go!