Morris Tiles blog hop

Tammy Silvers of Tamarinis, a fellow Island Batik designer, is celebrating her new Signature Collection, Morris Tiles, designed by Kathy Engle.  She asked me to join in and while I couldn't squeeze in time to sew up a new sample in those new fabrics, I did fall into the EQ rabbit hole, playing with existing designs and new digital fabric swatches.

It may not surprise you that from all those options, those few blue/teal fabrics  caught my eye.  I've been looking for the perfect recoloring for Starlight Plaid for some time.  

The original quilt in greys and red was very bold.  These fabrics make a softer version. You can see how the prints blend a bit to soften the edges in this close-up.

Trying to do justice to the whole collection, I went back to the oranges, which made me think of fall, which led me to Leafy Pathways.   A customer at the local quilt shop once told me every quilt needs a "party girl" fabric, a fabric that sticks out just a little to liven up everything else up.  I think the pop of teal fits the bill. 

The prints add a lot of texture and interest to a simple design.

Finally, because I gave the teals a quilt all their own in Starlight Plaid, I thought I'd try to give the rest of the colors a quilt all their own as well.  Here is Connecting Geese, reimagined with a light background instead of the original dark.

The colours in the collection are strong, as you saw in Leafy Pathways.  Pairing them with a light background gives them a lighter touch.

I encourage you to visit these blogs to find more Morris Tiles inspiration:

Tamarinis

Kate Colleran Designs

Tourmaline & Thyme Quilts

Katie Mae Quilts

If you would like details about the specific fabrics I used in my recoloring, you can find those here.

Happy quilting,

Joanne

When you make a purchase from my Etsy shop from a link in this post, I may receive a refund of some of the transaction fees Etsy usually charges me for a sale.  There is no additional cost to you.

I'd love to meet your guild!

Happy New Year!  It's still January, so I think the wishes still apply :)  What have you been up to so far this year?

I've been dealing with a kitchen renovation (very excited about that!) between blizzards and a record-breaking cold snap, learning the ropes as the new president of the Ames Quilt Guild (it's a bit more than I expected), sewing two quilts I can't share with you until next winter (an exercise in keeping my lips zipped) and planning a mystery quilt-along (details to follow soon).  So, not much I could chat about here on the blog. Well, I could share about the kitchen. It's not quilty, but let me know if that interests you.

I have also had a lovely couple of evenings joining two separate guilds on Zoom to present a lecture slide show.  The talk was going the be about the B's of quilting: backgrounds, blocks, borders, bindings and backs.  It mostly is, but fabric selection needed attention too and that ruined my "B" theme.

I shared about looking at a quilt on a pattern cover and reimagining it in some way, through fabric choices and various little tweaks.  I spent a considerable amount of time digging through my quilt photos to choose just the right ones to illustrate the possibilities, and drawing more possibilities in EQ, because let's face it, I have more ideas than I have time or resources to actually sew up! 

Here's a peek of what I suggested you could do with Shiny Blossoms:

Crossings came up a couple of times, including in a discussion about fudge factors in pieced borders.

If you think your guild might like to dive into this topic with me, I'd love to visit virtually (or in person if you're in Central-ish Iowa).  There's more info about my three current lecture offerings here.

Meanwhile, I'll be working on those quilts I can't share, enjoying not having to wrestle with the drawers in my kitchen, and virtually reimagining existing designs in new fabrics.  A fellow Island Batik designer asked me to join her in a blog hop celebrating her new signature collection so I'm playing with digital fabric swatches.  Come back tomorrow to see what I come up with (yes, I'm a bit last-minute...)