Gwennie Inspired Medallion QAL

It took me a while to do the final round, I think because I am still not totally convinced on the last one (stars).  But here's my process:

Seaweed/kelp and sea glass.  Both remind me of spending my growing up years at the beach.  The Puget Sound is not warm, but as a kid it is a great place to explore.  My grandparents used to have a house that had the backyard right on the beach... and then right around my preteen years they moved 40 minutes away.  The running complaint was that when my cousins and I were old enough to be able to cross the railroad tracks on our own and go to the beach, they moved to Monroe--which at the time (and still to a lesser extent) was a cow town.




My cousins and I liked to find the long kelp and jump on the heads.  If you lucked out, you found one that was still intact and it would make a pop sound (like bubble wrap, but better).  I'm sure that's not environmentally friendly, but we were kids and it was a fun adventure!

There were a lot of great memories of visiting their house (we lived in the same town, but they obviously had the best house to visit!).  I recall a time when my grandparents and parents were commenting about watching a crazy person being pulled by a parachute behind a boat (this was the pre-fancy parasailing days).... it turns out that it was my brother and his buddies. He always had fun adventures as a teen :) My parents didn't learn about a lot of those adventures until later of course.


The kelp was a fun process, as was the sea glass.  Both very Gwen Marston in style, but it isn't working for me.





Trying it with just the sea glass:


BTW, on sea glass... I was talking to the husband about my idea for the quilt and he had no idea what sea glass was.  I guess that's inland living for you.  So I explained the process of what happens to glass when it's being exposed to salt water and rocks/sand, as well as showing him some pictures.  We always seemed to find brown sea glass--likely beer bottles.  Occasionally we'd find some blue--which many could have been old fishing floats, and the clear was another that often found.

I ended up ripping off the kelp (I'll save that for something else), and decided to make more nordic stars.



My challenge is that the taupe fabrics came in a fat quarter pack and I am running out so I am getting creative in what I am putting together.  My yellow was a fat quarter from something else, and I am now totally out of that.  Fortunately I found another yellow in my Cherrywood Fabric stash, but the sea glass round has different yellows which works great.   With the stars it is about 29" square, and then the round with the sea glass, it is about 37"square.

To end the quilt, I am planning to do some embroidered flowers (or maybe some sort of pie variety writing? hmmmmm..... maybe some forks!) and then perhaps a round of red before the final taupe.  This was out of my comfort zone to make this quilt, it's not exactly my style, but I enjoyed the process. I have to admit, I unexpectedly like this top so far. I think the change I made between the last round and the sea round helped.

Linking up here for the final round of this QAL: http://humblequilts.blogspot.com/2016/10/gwennie-inspired-medallion-finale.html

Gwennie Inspired Medallion PT 4: Stars

I finally had a chance to work on the QAL this last week.  I am not sure if I am going to leave the stars round like this and add on the next theme to the other two sides or if I will continue.  I'm letting it just sit.



My yellow stars are not where I initially meant for them to be... rats.  So much for trying to be both intentional and time saving at the same time :)

Next theme is "Something Fishy".  hmmmm... lutefisk anyone?  blech.  I am actually considering something sea-worthy that fits with my genealogical project this seems to have become (at least with my grandma's pies round and now the nordic stars for my mom).  Anyway, we'll let it simmer with ideas for a few days.

Linking up here: http://humblequilts.blogspot.com/2016/09/gwennie-inspired-medallion-round-4.html

Gwennie Inspired Medallion QAL

When it was stated that the next round is about log cabins, I had an idea in mind to bring my basket on point.  I finally worked on it this past week,and I do like how it turned out.  Along the first round with my "Grandma's pies", I have an idea in mind for embroidery as well, I will likely work on that later on.

For the latest round, I dug into my bin of strips and found several different fabrics that I felt worked well with what I have started.  From the pile, I decided to just stick with red and brown strips of various widths.  I also picked out a coordinating background fabric and cut three different strip widths.  And the center of the log cabins is the yellow from my basket block.


I created two log cabin blocks which ended up being close to 15", cut them on the diagonal, and then I laid it out to see how it looked.....


Originally I ended my log cabin blocks in the background fabric, but when I put it altogether I didn't like how the outside brown fabrics didn't line up on the outside.  I am fine with the variety of widths, but I wanted a more clean look.  I trimmed up the block to a 1/4" from the basket points and added four border strips.



Maybe it's not as "free" as what so many of Marston's quilts are, but this is more me.  And I didn't worry about the strip widths, so there is that :)  Looking through many of the finished 2nd rounds so far, mine is pretty subdued.  There are a lot of fun ideas that others have done.  Take a look at the link up.

Linking up here:  http://humblequilts.blogspot.com/2016/08/gwennie-inspired-medallion-qal-part-3.html
The next theme is..... Stars!

Gwennie Inspired Medallion: Childhood

So many different thoughts went into what I could use for this round.  I decided to go with Grandma's pies.  Some of her pies were tasty flops (like some pieces in my round as you'll see!), but regardless, every Sunday was spent at my grandparent's house with my aunts, uncles, and cousins, and it is one of my more favorite memories.  As the cousins and I got older, we would typically groan at having to "sacrifice" a weekend day away from friends, but I am glad to have those memories.

My favorite pie that Grandma made was pecan.  Unfortunately I am the only one in MY house that likes that kind of pie, so I have to really consider it before I make it for a holiday (there are about a million calories in each slice!).

I couldn't decide which way to arrange it:




I actually had something totally different made with some other fabric scraps (with the same idea of "pie"), but in the end I did not like how it turned out so I ripped it off and went back to the drawing board.  I think it might have been fine if I had chosen different fabrics.



I may decide to do some applique or embroidery, but I'll decide that after the next round.  It's 12" now, so I may need to put the corners on it soon before it gets too big.  We'll see :)

If I wanted to really be exact with my drunkards path blocks, I would have made a line down the center of my template to line up with the half square triangles that I cut into--but I went with just guessing, and I am ok with that for this quilt.


And here is my quilt room kitty, aka The Quilt Inspector.  When he isn't attacking my design wall (thank goodness I'm not using foam panels!), he is usually curled up in this spot so he can watch what I'm up to.

Linking up: http://wabisabiquilts.blogspot.com/2016/07/childhood-border-link-up-gwennie.html

Adding, next month's theme: Log Cabins.  I already have some ideas brewing!

Gwennie Inspired Medallion QAL

I finished up the center medallion of the QAL (today... oops!).  A cute 8" grape basket block.



It's not much to look at yet, but as the borders go around, it should become more lively :)

I plan to do more yellow quilts, so a yellow basket medallion it is!  I think my friend Julie cringed when I told her my plan for a yellow quilt I have in mind to make! LOL!  I did buy a bolt of Kona Highlight when I saw it was the color of the year too.... I can't help it, it's the color of Daffodils :) (add several heart emojis right here....)  :)

To view other basket medallion blocks, check them out here: http://humblequilts.blogspot.com/2016/06/gwennie-inspired-medallion-qal.html
Happy Monday!