Printing Stripes on Quilts

I have a new screen! It's a 12" x 12" square of graphic lines, and I love it! I masked out the bottom so that it would line up perfectly with two seams in my mustard Lenten Twelves One. Although I think my printing ink should've been a bit thinner to get in the crevices better, I like the overall effect, and I am excited to try it on more quilts!

Right after printing Lenten Twelve One, I ironed this grey guy flat onto the printing board and printed him too! It is so fun to add movement with such a graphic statement atop a quilt. 

I didn't really mean for the second set of lines to perfectly align with the center of the quilt, but oh well! When you're sketching, sometimes your pencil lines don't quite go where you meant. When you're quilt sketching, I think the same is true.

Seeing my collection of Lenten Twelves grow this year has been fun. I feel like I am stretching my creative boundaries with these quilt sketches, and I am having a last in the process!

To read more about this Lenten Twelves series, follow the links below:

Introduction to Lenten Twelves

Lenten Twelves One Progress (beginning)

Lenten Twelves Two Progress (beginning)

Lenten Twelves One Finished

Quarter-Square Triangle Tutorial: Quick, Easy, No-Waste

Last week, my sewing group started making quarter-square triangles out of scraps. We love to use scraps for charity quilts, and these quarter-square triangles are so easy and fun that we can't stop ourselves! I decided to include a tutorial so that you can join in on the fun too!

Materials: fabric scraps (8 5"x5" squares), rotary cutter, mat, sewing machine

Time required: 20 minutes tops

Makes: four 6.5"x6.5" quarter-square triangles

1. Cut 8 squares each 5"x5"

2. Sew your eight squares into two four-patches.

(Note: I like to open up the seam on the back so that the seams all pinwheel. This helps avoid bulk and make all of your seams nestle in future steps, which makes matching corners really easy!)

3. Place two four-patches right sides together and sew around the edges.

4. Cut across both diagonals of your connected four-patches.

5. Open up your quarter-square triangles and press!

If you like to watch video tutorials, Jenny at the Missouri Star Quilt Co has an awesome and easy video explaining how to make these "super easy hourglass blocks." These blocks were featured in the most recent issue of Block, the quarterly project magazine put out by the Missouri Star Quilt Company.

Let me know if you decide to make any quarter-square triangles with this method! I would love to see your projects. Just leave a comment for me here or tag me @lovelyandenough on Instagram. I hope you have as much fun as I am!

Lenten Twelves Two Progress

This week's Lenten Twelve was a creative block. It wasn't the kind of block that hinders all ideas completely. It was the kind where one idea fills your mind so much that you can't think of anything else.

Every Wednesday night, I eat dinner and sew with a group of ladies from my church. It is home away from home, and I look forward to that restful and creative time of fellowship. A couple weeks ago, we started making quick quarter-square-triangles (QSTs) out of scraps for a quilt to donate. I LOVE QSTs. And this method is so easy and fast! (I will be sharing a tutorial soon.)

After that, I could not stop thinking about QSTs in my favorite springy colors. Every time I tried to brainstorm a Lenten Twelve. Springy QSTs springy QSTs springy QSTs. So here they are! This block too will be overprinted in the next couple weeks. Check back to see some printed progress!

To read more about this Lenten Twelves series, follow the links below:

Introduction to Lenten Twelves

Lenten Twelves One Progress

Lenten Twelves One Progress

My goal for each week of Lent is simply a quilt top. Designing, piecing, printing, quilting, and binding a mini quilt each week felt daunting! Especially considering I am traveling or busy every weekend of Lent but one. Do not get me wrong. I would not give up my weekend events: a retreat in the mountains, a Michigan wedding, and a conference on communicating science. However, to keep life sane, I decided to set reasonable expectations for myself this Lent. Piecing (and hopefully printing), a top each week feels manageable.

Here is the top from Week One. I wanted to play with tone-on-tone and simulated transparency. The band across the middle inverts the two colors, creating interesting interactions between the shapes and colors at its borders. I particularly enjoy the mustard arrow in the second row that has one tan corner!

The screens are not quite ready for printing, but I have put the grid designs onto transparent plastic and prepped two screens for exposure. Maybe I can print this weekend!! Follow along on Instagram @LovelyandEnough to see real-time progress!

To read more about this Lenten Twelves series, follow the links below:

Introduction to Lenten Twelves

Printing Stripes on Quilts

Lenten Twelves One Finished

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Lenten Twelves Begins Again

In 2015, my mom challenged me to feast into creativity during the season of Lent instead of fasting from something. We both set out to create a 12"x12" min quilt sketch each week to stretch our creative muscles and boundaries. These we named our "Lenten Twelves." That first year, I tried new piecing methods, explored ideas for printing on quilts, and most of all, had such a creative blast that I decided to repeat the ritual every year. You can check out her Lenten Twelves quilts on her blog, Fibermusing, as well as mine using the links below.

Lovely and Enough | Lenten Twelves 2015

Fibermusing | Lenten Twelves 2015

Lenten Twelve #1 by Jennifer Boes (my mom)

Lenten Twelve I by Kelsey Boes

Last year, our Lenten explorations took on new sizes. My mom went from 12" squares to 15" squares, and I decided to play around with baby quilts. Since they weren't 12"x12," we decided to call our series Forms of Lent. My sister and boyfriend also participated, She stepped out of her architecture comfort zone and took a black and white photo each week. He explored a new material, walnut plywood, and designed and built a bench.

Lovely and Enough | Modern Courthouse Baby 2016

Fibermusing | Forms of Lent 2016

Forms of Lent #6 by Jennifer Boes (my mom)

Modern Courthouse Baby Quilt 2 by Kelsey Boes

This year I am setting out to create mini quilt sketches again. Each quilt will be printed with a 12"x12" grid. Although I haven't completed a quilt a week yet, the creative juices are beginning to flow! I have sketched, designed, and cut the pieces for my first Lenten Twelve of 2017.

Let the Lenten Twelves begin!

Moving to Squarespace Today

I am moving to Squarespace! Today!! Blogger has served me well, but I am excited for this new platform and the possibilities it offers. However, be aware that my site will be down today and possibly tomorrow.

Since the entire blog is migrating, links, bookmarks, and bloglovin' should all still work perfectly once I have transferred and forwarded everything. Those of you subscribed by email may need to resubscribe. (Give me a week, and I will email you with instructions for resubscribing.) Thank you so much for your support over the five years I have been on blogger. Your readership and comments mean the world to me. Now, into a new adventure we go together!

Monochromatic Layers of Charm Quilt

Two years ago, the FatQuarterShop asked me to test of a new free pattern of theirs:

Layers of Charm. While I was very tempted by the prospect of new Cotton+Steel fabrics, I opted for a red flannel with black and white front. The quilt was a cinch to pull together! Just a charm pack and a layer cake and couple Saturday afternoons (more than one only because I enjoy being distracted by Netflix and such) and I had the coziest quilt ever! Did I mention that I used high loft batting for extra squish?

Well, when my sister felt my quilt, she got a little jealous and has been bugging me to make her one ever since. This fall, I walked into Joann, saw their crazy soft flannels, and knew what I'd be making my sister for Christmas. With a buttery black and white flannel in hand, I went home, ordered the precuts, and then set about sewing. So many times I thought about keeping this quilt for myself and giving my sister the original. I debated with myself about giving a "used" gift, and then I debated whether you could really call a quilt "used." In the end, I decided to be the bigger sister and give away the cozy new one. But that was just the beginning of the saga of this quilt.

The night before my early flight home, I had packed everything but the quilt. Before zipping my bag, I went to tuck the quilt in...and I couldn't find it. Anywhere. I realized that I must have left it at school because I had been hand-binding while I worked a couple days earlier. Since it was nearing midnight, I vowed to get up early and retrieve it. However, when I arrived at school, the quilt was in neither of the labs, nor my office. I double and triple checked to no avail!

Dejectedly I went back to my apartment, unpacked the needle and thread I had tucked in my backpack to finish binding on the plane and waited for my friend to pick me up for the airport. I packed up my quilt to give to my sister instead. When my friend arrived, I climbed in the car and told her the story, how I was trying so hard to remember when I'd last seen the quilt that I literally couldn't remember anything about Thursday afternoon anymore. We were part way to the airport when she asked me if I had stopped in the bathroom before headed home.

"YES!" I exclaimed. "I remember setting the quilt on the shelf in the bathroom and thinking, 'Wouldn't it be a bummer if I left it there?'" She turned around the car, racing back to school, and I found it on the shelf!! When we arrived at the airport, I unpacked my quilt from my bag and tucked my sister's inside (much easier to fit hers since I used regular batting for hers, and as you might remember I used high loft for mine).

Unfortunately, I had unpacked the thread and needle to finish the binding on the plane, but luckily (?) both of my flights were delayed. I had time to check out every news stand in the airport to find a sewing kit and then sat contentedly in multiple airports binding up a storm.

Needless to say, this quilt had quite the adventure, and as you can see below, its new owner is very happy to have received it.

See the original black, white, and red flannel quilt here.

Interview by Patch Work Life

This past month, I had the pleasure of chatting with the passionate modern quilters behind Patch-Work-Life.

Patch-Work-Life is a Japanese brand that is working to promote modern quilting to creatives in Japan. Quilting is a dwindling art in Japan, but Patch-Work-Life has watched the resurgence of quilting as a modern handcraft in the United States and would like to see the same revival in Japan. Hop on over to their website to learn a little bit more about me and my quilting philosophy and to see the lovely set of photos that the curated of my work!

Follow the link below to read the interview:

Patch-Work-Life Interviews Kelsey Boes of Lovely and Enough

Modern Courthouse Quilt | featuring navy Pistachios

I can't get enough of the Modern Courthouse Baby quilt pattern. This is the fourth I have made. Someone needs to stop me. The pattern is just so perfect for highlighting a hand-printed panel while maintaining a minimal aesthetic.

This little guy was happy to be my quilt model while we were hanging out one afternoon. I mean, who wouldn't rather lay on a quilt on a warm fall day than go car shopping with mom and dad? And how perfect that he was wearing such a fun citron diaper, since I didn't manage to sneak any citron into this quilt. Pudgy thighs, stylish cloth diaper, quilt to be photographed: it was a match made in quilting heaven.

Sometimes picking out binding and backing can prove tricky, but with my hand-dandy quilt consultant (aka boyfriend) along, it went very smoothly. First, he pulled this lovely lightweight denim off the shelf at Joann that matched perfectly. Navy with a bit of a fleck, I could not have chosen better myself. Then when I sliced it up, I realized the fabric is automatically on the bias. That is what I call WINNING in the binding fabric department.

For the back, I was hoping for a grey or navy lowkey print or solid. When the quilt consultant suggested robot for his nephew's quilt, I was rather skeptical. Robots? For a minimal modern quilt? However, after circling the store a second time, I started to appreciate the minimal nature of the robots he had chosen. As you can see below, robots won.

This quilt should have arrived at is new home last week! I hope that the second little guy who gets to lie on it likes it just as much as the first.

Check out the other versions of the Modern Courthouse Baby Quilt (named by their centers):

Minty Long-legged

Citron Hortensia

Navy and Citron Hortensia

Follow the progress of this quilt with the links below:

Piecing

Thanksgiving Pattern Play

With Thanksgiving drawing quickly closer, I found my mind dwelling on the lovely foods that will grace our tables next week. Inspired by the book

Taste

, illustrated by Vicki Turner, I sketched some holiday edibles and turned them into patterns! As the perfectionist I am, I also decided to create my own stock images to mockup my patterns, and these are the first two results. Although the patterns were just for fun, I have been finding myself wanting an garlic apron now... What about you? What would you do if you had a yard of one of these prints?

Black and White Quilt Printed

I finally finished printing this black and white quilt, which meant I could stitch up the remaining seams. I am so pleased with the results.

1. Larger Scale:

I have been trying to work on a larger scale. From 6"x6" farmer's wife quilt blocks to 2'x2' senior show quilts to 3'x3' for QuiltCon last year, and now almost 5'x5' !

2. Within a Design Challenge:

Seeing the "Black and White, Twelve Quilts" show this spring inspired me to create a quilt with the design parameters of monochromaticity. I work with light grey in almost every quilt, but I stretched myself and chose an off-white instead. I love the warmth the cream adds!

3. Stretching My Process:

As I explore the process of printing on quilts, I don't want to end up in a rut. With Stone + Bloom for QuiltCon last year, I experimented with masking off sections of the quilt. For this quilt, I went a step further and only partially pieced the top before printing. 

The next step in the process always takes me the longest: deciding how to quilt the quilt. I printed out my design sketch to audition several quilting options, and after some layering with tracing paper and several long collaborative FaceTimes spent staring more at my quilt than my boyfriend, I think I have decided on the direction I want to go. That boyfriend of mine is such a trooper.

Follow the progress of this quilt with the links below:

Piecing

Finished

Navy and Grey Courthouse Baby Quilt in Progress

I have found my go-to baby quilt pattern. This Spring, my Mom made a modern baby quilt that highlighted one of hand-printed fabrics, and just like that, she started an addiction. This is the third one I have made now. For the center of this modern courthouse baby quilt, I printed a panel of navy and white pistachios to pair with the bold Lotta Jansdotter stripe and solids I had chosen. The panel was a tad subtler than I intended, but I forged ahead. I am so happy with how bold and modern this one is turning out!

Check out the other versions of the Modern Courthouse Baby Quilt (named by their centers):

Minty Long-legged

Citron Hortensia

Navy and Citron Hortensia

Follow the progress of this quilt with the links below:

Finished

Improv Half Log Cabin Finish

Perusing Instagram, I am constantly inspired by other quilter's work. Several months ago Heather Jones Studio had been creating quilt after beautiful quilt of improv half-log cabins, and I decided that I must try my hand at it too. I pulled out some of my hand-printed peach fabrics and went to town. Whenever I had a break between projects, I would slice more strips and add them to my four funky blocks. Before I knew it, it was time to sandwich and quilt it! All bound up, it hung on my quilt ladder un-photographed for a couple months. Until last weekend. I ironed out that lovely improv beast and took it to my favorite quilt photo spot for some quality time. I may have been yelled off the property by a startled Amtrak employee, but without missing a beat, I headed to campus and discovered a lovey white industrial backdrop across the road from the library.

Follow the progress of this quilt with the links below:

Piecing

Quilting

Improv Half Log Cabin Quilted

I tried my hand at Denyse Schmidt loop-de-loop quilting. It's pretty wobbly, and I got some puckers, but hey, practice is practice. 

Follow the progress of this quilt with the links below:

Piecing

Finished

My Black and White Twelve Quilt, a beginning

Inspired by the Black and White Twelve Quilts exhibition in New York this past weekend, I decided to make my own. You don't get to be included among the quilter's you admire by sitting on your hands, right? This is the first stage of piecing completed. (Although after taking pictures, I did realize that the outside two black stripes might not quite be in the right spots...)

I am planning to print it, but instead of masking out sections like I did for Stone + Bloom, I decided to try a partial piecing method. Then I can flip sections out of the way to get continuous printing that skips a strip or two. If that doesn't quite make sense to you, stop back in a couple weeks. I am hoping to do a time lapse video of the printing process as I print and flip and print.

Follow the progress of this quilt with the links below:

Printing

Finished

Improv Half Log Cabin Progress

Follow the progress of this quilt with the links below:

Quilting

Finished

Modern Courthouse Quilt | featuring Hortensia test print

This crinkly version of the Modern Courthouse Baby Quilt in navy and grey was delivered to its new parents. It is backed in a soft and silky stripe and bound in it as well. The bindings that I had chosen ended up feeling a bit staid, so I trimmed off the excess backing and pieced it into binding tape! It adds a fun finish as the stripes alternate around the edge. Plus, who doesn't love a good striped binding?

Be advised. I think I'm going to just be posting photos on the blog for a bit. My work has been demanding quite a bit of writing, so my heart just hasn't been in my blogging. That said, the lapse in my blog is disheartening, and I would prefer for silent photo posts than no posts at all. Enjoy the eye candy!

-Kelsey

Modern Courthouse Quilt | featuring citron Hortensia

I may have mentioned last week that I want to make a baby quilt for every one of my fabric designs. Here is the first. Let me tell you, I am just getting started.

Digging through my stash, I am realizing just how many colorways and test prints I have accomplished. There could be a lot of baby quilts in my future. Inspired by Hopewell's Courthouse Steps Baby Quilt and a quilt my mom made with my minty Longlegged print, I jumped right into the pile.

I paired some gorgeous buttery Art Gallery Pure Elements solids in Empire Yellow and Peach Sherbet with my very own Hortensia in citron (available for sale in my Etsy shop). Magically, I had a sumptuously soft peach floral stashed that went perfectly for the backing.

When I sat down to quilt it, I made a discovery. My stitch guide does not attach to my walking foot. How silly is that? (I have now seen Nicole of Modern Handcraft masking tape her guide to her foot, so I will try that next time.) Not to be stopped, I had a masking tape party with Paul and Mary of the Great British Bakeoff. Together we plowed our way through cakes, biscuits, and quilting. I have found my new favorite quilting companions!

Initially I thought a fun stripy citron binding would do the trick. However, the longer the stripes sat on the folded quilt, the more I felt they clashed with the backing. At the last second before walking out the door to sewing night, I traded the stripes for Pure Elements Apricot Crepe. The result is delicious.

Per encouragement from my mom, I practiced my machine binding skills to give it a sturdy washable finish. It truly is much faster to machine bind. (If you get it right the first time and don't take the whole thing out twice like I normally do.) I think I am going to keep practicing machine binding. It adds a quick and sturdy finish to quilt.

And on the next baby quilt! (Shh don't tell, but I've actually already finished the next one and will be sewing on the binding tomorrow night.) Can't stop. Won't stop. Have a lovely Tuesday.

Modern Courthouse Baby Quilt | featuring minty Longlegged

My cousin is having a baby! We all know what that means: baby quilt time. Her nursery colors are mint and grey, and she is expecting a boy. Mint and grey boy baby quilt. Challenge accepted.

My mom (also an avid quilter) and I decided to tag team the effort. I picked out my coveted minty long-legged flamingo fabric print to use as the central print. (After all, if I will not cut into my hoarded fabric for family, is there anyone I will cut into it for?) Then my mom went to Pink Castle Fabrics to find more greys and mints. (I may have slowly siphoned them all out of her stash and into mine...)

Mom decided to pattern the quilt after our mutual quilt-design idol, Hopewell Quilts. Although Hopewell has closed their doors, you can still find many of their quilts on Pinterest and Instagram. The pattern we chose was their modern Courthouse Steps variation.

There were many iterations of color choices. Sometimes choosing just four fabrics is much harder than choosing ten! I didn't see or feel the final product until my cousin opened it at her baby shower, but backed in light gray double gauze, it's just about the softest cutest minimal modern baby quilt I've ever seen. (I, of course, am biased, but there you have it.)

I now want to make a baby quilt for every one of my hand-printed fabrics. It requires less than a fat quarter of the focal print and then can be paired with solids and low volumes from your stash or local quilting shop. Which of the prints in my shop would you like to see made into a baby quilt next?

In all honesty: I have an entire slew of photos ready to post about the second Modern Courthouse Quilt I just finished a few nights ago, but I realized that I should perhaps post the inspiration first.

Propeller Pillow | by Suzy Quilts

When Suzy of SuzyQuilts posted her new pattern the Propeller Quilt pattern, I knew I had to try it. Bright, fun, and geometric, this pattern goes together in a cinch. As I was pulling out fabrics for this quilt, the hand-printed Maze and Vale fabrics that my mom gave me for Christmas fell from the shelf. I decided it was a sign. Beautiful fabric is meant to be used. 

That grey and white dash is one of my favorites of hers; it hurt to cut into (can you say fabric hoarder?) but now I get to enjoy it on my couch everyday! The mustard and white dandelion is a Maze and Vale print as well, and it went so well with my own hand-printed citron pistachio fabric, that I knew they needed to come together in this pillow.

Plus, this is my year of sewing my stash. (Yes, last year might have been as well, but we didn't make any progress on that so here we are again...) I am looking forward to using up all the yummy design goodness that I have stored away in boxes on my shelves. I'm coming for you, you gorgeous Lotta, April Rhodes, and Cotton + Steel.

The piecing flew! It's amazing how much faster it is to quilt when you are following a pattern and not designing at every step! My finished block was 20" x 20," (I modified those corner pieces to be large enough to fit my pillow) but even at 14" square, the blocks are a nice size to whip up a larger quilt in no time. What little weekend projects have you made time for recently? Have you committed to sewing your stash in 2016?