Quilt Class 101 - Week 2 Design

Week 2 - Design

Thanks for joining me again! Im excited to share with you my next passion... Design. I just love Designing new Quilts.

I have found, there are different types of Quilters… Which one are you??

a) The Quilter who follows patterns.

b) The Quilter who gets fabric, starts cutting and creates a quilt as they go along.

c) The Quilter who designs before they sew.

I LOVE Quilter a), because its YOU lovely Quilters who buy my patterns and help me keep Quilting…
What type of Quilter am I??  I have been each of these quilters at different times. For today's class, I want to help give you some tools so you can get the courage to become a little more of quilter c..... The Designer.
I, like all of you, LOVE fabric. They are all so amazing and i wonder how could a fall in love with each new range that is released. I'm not sure what it is about fabric that i'm drawn to. Whatever it is.. i just cant get enough..
One thing i found a few years ago, when i went to my first quilt show was, there were so many amazing fabrics... but yet i COULDN'T really find a quilt design that i felt suited any of them. I found alot of them were 'old school' in their design just with new modern fabrics. To me it was like, they had taken NO consideration of the fabric, when designing the quilt. None of the quilt patterns let the fabrics shine. I have tried to keep this in mind as i design my quilt patterns. I think it is such an important part when your designing a quilt or buying a quilt pattern, that your pattern and fabric match and that they work together.

Where to find inspiration???

I tend to look for designs in everything around me. I'm like a scrapbooker taking photos, for the next scrap book page. I look at the world through quilt design eyes. Crazy i know!! I see designs in architecture,

Walls and wall papers,

 Picture frames,

 Patterns on Advertising Packages, Furniture, Decorative screens/pieces,

 Landscapes, Clothing and of course i get most inspiration from the fabric.

There are also many places on the Internet that you can find inspiration. Just type in Google search Pictures of Fabric, pictures of wall paper.. or pictures of anything and everything, and you will have millions of images to look at. That's where I sourced the above images.
I also have, favourite blogs I read (down the right side of my blog). They are full of inspiration and ideas...(I have two great Quilters featured for you over this next week.  Jennifer from That Girl that Quilt, and Amy from Amy's Creative side. They will share with you how they design they're quilts...)
I find inspiration from Flickr. I have found some of my favourite Flickr groups you can flick through pages and pages of quilts.. HERE, HERE and HERE. As you flick through hundreds of quilts... start to take note about the type of quilts you are drawn to. In Flickr, you are able to save your favourite quilts into your own folder... so you can easily flick through them again at a later time. If you add favourites, you will be able to see in your folder at a  glace, the types of quilts you  have chosen and you will be able to narrow down the types of quilts you like. The next step is to...

Decide what you like??

Do you like Quilts that use alot of solids?

 Do you like your Quilts busy? Do you like both?

 Do you like your fabrics to be side by side or broken up with sashings, solids or smaller patterns?

 Do you like squares, strips, wonky, applique, diamonds, curves,

Do you like traditional or modern blocks?

Quilting books are also a great source of inspiration...I have a few quilting books that I often flick through, and each time I read them, I notice something different.

Quilting Books are great for block designs and details.

 You will find different books have different styles and contain lots more info. They are full beautiful pictures and techniques,  piecing, different colour combinations or block shapes, machine quilting,  hand quilting ideas.

Take note for the way different people border the centre of their quilt or how they used sashing. Books are a great source of inspiration and tons of info to get you sewing... Some of my favourite books, I bought HERE.

Next Important step... Incorporating your fabric.

 Sometimes you may find designs and recall them again when you choose your fabric.. Other times you have the fabric and go hunting for a design to suit... Either way, It is important to keep the fabric in mind and use it as a main source of Inspiration. Once I have the fabric, I decide on.....

 What parts of the fabric i like best?

 How can i best show this off?

What is going to suit your fabric you have chosen?

 Is the design of the fabric small?? So a small design that includes smaller pieces would be better?

 Or do my pieces need to be large to show full images in the fabric??

There are so many things to consider. Have you ever finished a quilt and your not happy with the way it turned out?? You loved the fabric stacked nicely on your bench, but once its been cut and sewn back together... it just doesn't quite work?? It has happened to me!! You need to carefully think, what design is going to best suit the fabric.

Designing..

Squares, Rectangles, Diamonds, (after doing this quilt I swore I would never do large diamonds again), Half Square triangles, Strips, Wonky blocks, Curves,. Do you want to use a template?? Or cut pieces to size? Unfortunately/Fortunately, the possibilities are endless!! So you just need to start drawing. After a little while you will find a design that you feel will suit.

Birds Of Paradise, Jim shore, Hungry Caterpillar, Random sketch, Star Jewels.

How To Draw your own Design?

I use this..

A 5mm Graph book.

 I find its just the perfect size and proportion for designing my quilts. I use the scale of

Each 5mm square = 2 Inch Quilt square

So, if I draw a rectangle… 2 x 5mm squares across and 3 x 5mm squares down… My rectangle measures 4” x 6”. Does that make sense??

I find if I can get it to all work out in my graph book… I can sew it into a quilt.

For my Quilt for this class (What should I call it?? Teaching Quilt??? Or Quilt Class Quilt???) I'm going to use some fabrics from Anna Maria Horners Solids range.

I am going to pair it with Kona Cotton Snow, and I'm going to teach you the very simple block and quick technique of, Half Square Triangles. There are so many many different designs you can do with such a simple block. So feel free to follow along with my design… or if you want… Get thinking and planning your own design!

Here is my scribbled design for the Quilt Class Quilt...

I have also scribbled a few block variations around it. This is how I do all my designs. First, I scribble pictures on any sort of scrap paper...Once i like the design. I draw it out in my Graph book. This is some of my drawings for Tanner's Quilt. I wanted it to be different. Not traditional, a little crazy.. not uniform..So after drawing this....

It was made into this,

It did change slightly from the original drawings...

 Once the design is drawn into my graph book I work out dimensions, block sizes, sashing, borders. I figure out how big the quilt will be. If you draw it to scale, you can figure out how big your fabric pieces need to be cut. You just need to remember to add 1/2" for length and 1/2" width to allow for your seam allowance (next class) I sometimes even use the graph book to draw a cutting diagram just to make sure I don’t waste any precious fabric. If i have a Fat quarter and I draw a rectangle measuring 18" x 20". I work out how to cut each piece of fabric so i don't waste any. These books are fantastic…and I think it cost me $1 from the grocery store or Kmart, so you cant complain with that!

I use this sketch from the book to sew my quilt together. Like Tanner's Quilt, I may change parts here and there, depending on how its all coming together. But that's the other fun part.. Seeing your sketches and drawings turn into Quilts!!

I then take this one step further and make my designs into my Quilt Patterns. I take this design in the graph book and together, my hubby and I, draw the quilt up to scale on his Architectural  CAD drawing program. I then, pull the diagrams apart to make a Quilt Assembly Diagram, to show you how to construct the quilt. I'm actually talking more about designing and drawing my Quilt Patterns on Sew Mama Sew’s blog this weekend. SO keep watch! You can learn how i made this Sherbet Pips Quilt.

I hope I have inspired you to start designing your own quilts. We have a great new shop jumping on board with our Quilt Class 101.... Skye Reve Fabrics. She has a gorgeous shop.. Pop over and check it out. Once you have your fabric, or even before....Get drawing... you will be surprised what you can come up with.

 If you can draw it in a graph book.. you can make it into a quilt!!!