Chelsea's Raffle Quilt for the Geology Club

Yes, quilters are either generous or we have sucker written across our forehead and don't realize it.  Well, it's not really being a sucker if you love your daughter and want to help her succeed.  Which is the case for me and my 2nd DD, Chelsea.  She's working on her Master's Degree in Geology at New Mexico State University.  While at college it's important to get involved and Chelsea is trying to help earn some funds for the group.  So guess who she turns to for help in fund raising, her local quilter, me.

I chose this pattern, called Gems which is a no brainer pattern, the best for raffle quilts, most times.  But, it being a geology club, I chose fabric that had a certain stone like quality.  You know if you click on the pictures you can get a close up of the picture and you will see.  I'm liking the floating effect of the bright squares.

In order to make a quilt like this it is vital to have a design wall.  This is one I've had for a long time, it's flannel that's quilted in 2 inch squares.  It's really valuable when you make a watercolor quilt, but, I use it for designing anything.  Another design wall is using batting.  Pin it to the wall and the fabric pieces will stick to it for easy move around design.

Statement Quilting

This is a quilt I finished that was made from a book published by That Patchwork Place.  It is a Tennessee Waltz quilt.  I put some statement quilting in the "rest the eye" blocks.  I was pleasantly surprised by the way it enhances the arches that are an optic illusion created by the pattern.  All the pieces are straight lines but, when combined with the angles that join the blocks it looks like they are curved.

On my horse quilts I made for my girls the quilting is not statement quilting, it helps to enhance the horses on the quilts.  On Chelsea's Japanese Horse Quilt, I let the background fabric design the quilting and went around the squiggles and grass for the quilting.