230. Rainbow Roundabout

 Dresden blocks were my choice when it was my turn to choose for the Mid Century Modern bee in 2015. This was the year when my Minnesota retreat friends had also decided to do a block exchange. There was some overlapping of members between the two groups, so I asked both groups to make Dresden blocks.

 Occasionally I would put them up on the design wall and admire them. Then I realized that they would somehow have to be appliqued to a background square. So back into the drawer they went. 

Again, in 2022, it was finally time to complete this quilt. I appliqued all the blocks onto the same background, a perfect fabric designed by Victoria Findlay Wolfe. And in a stroke of boldness (for me, at least), I decided to do a blanket stitch in black rather than an invisible stitch. I'm very happy with that choice.

I knew I needed a little separation between blocks so I chose a skinny black and white stripe. I thought black cornerstones would work, but because of the stripe, when the black cornerstone butted up against the black of the stripe, it just looked like I didn't know how to line things up.

Changing to a bright yellow for the cornerstone solved that problem and added a little pop.

For the backing I chose a print by Tula Pink that I had fallen in love with, some lush dripping roses.

Then it was ready for quilting. 

This is definitely one of my favorite finishes of the year. I love the bright and beautiful colors, made by my friends. All the colors meld together just perfectly.

Quilt: Rainbow Roundabout

Blocks by: Members of Mid Century Modern bee and Sew Sisters bee; pieced together by Cindy Wiens

Completed: 2022

Size: 55" x 69"

Quilted by: Darby Myers

229. Beach Umbrellas

 In 2014, when it was my month to be in charge of the Mid Century Modern bee group, I chose the spiderweb block.  Rene' had chosen spiderweb blocks in a previous month and I really loved the look of the blocks. I wanted the center to be low volume and all the strings to be solid. 

The blocks arrived and after admiring them, they were put in a drawer. Since 2022 is the year I vowed to finished all the old bee block exchanges, this was the first set of blocks I pulled out. 

I dumped my bin of solid scraps and began cutting strings. 

 We had originally used a template from Heather of Heather a la Mode. It was kind of a weird size, maybe because she wanted to make sure the template would fit on a sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" paper. 

The first problem I ran into was that I needed to make more blocks. And the template was no longer available. I tried to draft my own on graph paper and it probably would have been sufficient. But Elizabeth of opquilt.com came to the rescue and drafted a professional one for me. 

That solved the problem of completing the blocks for the main body of the quilt, but I had always had the idea in my head of extending a few blocks out into a border. At first I tried using the same bright colors, but then I had the idea of using a very light print for the border and making the completion blocks in the border out of pastels, to give the impression that something white had been placed over the brighter blocks, giving them the illusion of being lighter.  I completed one block on each side of the quilt and I'm so happy with the subtle results. 

I had signature blocks for the backing, and then had the idea of making a dark, medium and light block just to see what they looked like. I'm also really happy with the results. I think I was just having a good time making the spiderweb blocks. :)

At first I was sure I would use that print that is above and below the pieced blocks as the binding. After all, it had all the fun colors that were in the blocks.  But it was way too bright against the faded blocks in the border.

I opted for this more subtle stripe and that turned out to be a better choice.

It was beautifully quilted by Darby Myers.

I took the quilt to our son's house for a few photos. Of course I chose the wrong time of day. Lots of bright sun and shadows. But this was the only beach umbrella I could locate on short notice. Ha.

The colors of the climbing structure in the background are fun.

Quilt: Beach Umbrellas

Blocks from members of the Mid Century Modern bee from 2014

Pieced and completed in 2022 by Cindy Wiens

Quilted by: Darby Myers

Size: 56" x 68"

228. Sunny Disposition

 I began English paper piecing these blocks in 2017, a pattern called Mischief by Karen Tripp. The center is a batik that spans the rainbow and I tried to use as many colors as possible and then chose coordinating Oakshott shot cottons. 

When I had 25 blocks, I decided that was enough for a center medallion. But what color to use for the background? 

Cream? No. Way too boring.

Clear yellow? Nope. 

At one point I even thought maybe the batik would work. Again, nope.

I needed something vibrant, something that would make the gorgeous Oakshott fabrics sing. I had a fat quarter of Kona Cotton in Grellow and as soon as I tried it, I knew it was the winner.

I pieced the center medallion and was thrilled with it.

But what to do for the next step? I had some Kaffe Fassett stripes and I thought that might work as the next step. Overpowering.

Smaller striped border, then dark green border and then checkerboard? Still not right.

My dear friend, Elizabeth (opquilt.com) came to the rescue with the idea of staying with the yellow and making 3" square-in-a-square blocks. Brilliant.

Now what? Shades of purple? Green? Stripes? I was fixed on that stripe and kept trying to work it in, but it just wasn't right.

I decided to keep going with the yellow. And added a skinny turquoise border before the next pieced border.

I decided to pull a shape that already existed in the quilt as inspiration--the hexagon in the center of the original Mischief blocks, but to use just half the hexie and make a gradation of colors, then another skinny yellow border and finally the striped border I had wanted to use way back in the beginning. 

I felt like it needed just one more pieced border, so I got out my graph paper and started sketching some ideas. Again, I used an element already in the quilt as inspiration, the square-in-a-square blocks, and then finished with another skinny border of the Kaffe stripe. 

Things about this quilt: (1) I never ever intended to make a yellow quilt. But that saturated color just worked with the gorgeous, luminous shot cottons. (2) I don't think I've ever had to work so hard to make one border flow to the next--each took so much trial and error and there were many times the quilt screamed at me "No!! Go back to the drawing board and try again!"

But once it worked, it worked well.

I do not often get quilts custom quilted, but this quilt definitely deserved a special touch. And did Dawn Haldeman ever deliver! It is absolutely stunning. So many beautiful details.

I used some of my favorite Anna Maria Horner prints for the backing.

This quilt required me to really think of design elements and it paid off. My mood was not always sunny while working on it, but now that it's done, it makes me so happy.

One evening we were driving around downtown Fresno and found this amazing mural. We had never noticed it before (even though it is right next door to the place I get my tattoos!), and is absolutely perfect for this quilt. 

Quilt: Sunny Disposition

Pattern by: Center blocks--Mischief by Karen Tripp, remainder of quilt designed by Cindy Wiens

Date Completed: 2022

Size: 50" x 50"

Quilted by: Dawn Haldeman