Urban Couture quilt

I finally finished (well, not finally, it didn't really take me that long) a quilt using the Urban Couture jelly rolls I picked up at Beverly's. These are designed by BasicGrey and is produced by Moda. I also used a brown and red Fairy Frost prints (Michael Miller) as accent fabrics and backing. In addition, I used a solid lavender dupioni silk, which I pleated in two strips as a dimensional accent, and a gold cotton/silk blend (I believe by Robert Kaufmann) for the outer border. I used brown Moda bias binding (which I actually buy by the roll now) to complete the quilt.

The pattern is my own. Basically, I assembled the Jelly Roll into strips of five strata, and then cut them into large right triangles. I then sewed those into squares, using Fairy Frost and an extra BasicGrey brown print, and arranged them as I desired.

For quilting, I did straight-line quilting on top of the BasicGrey patterns. Then, I did free-motion quilting throughout all the brown areas, to make the dark areas recede. After adding the binding, I also added some iridescent beads to the centers of each large flower in the brown floral print for added dimension. (I think I'd skip this part, also--too labor intensive, and it doesn't add much to the overall look of the quilt.)

The quilt is about 70" square, finished. If I were to make this pattern again, I think I'd only sew strips of three to four strips together when making the strata, so the squares didn't end up quite so large. I really love the shine silk gives to quilts, though the dupioni frays like crazy. It helped that I used my serger on the edges.

Baby batik

Here is a small strip quilt I made with about half a batik Strip Club jelly roll from Cozy Quilt Shop. I didn't use the (gorgeous) pattern that was included with this fabric pack--I wanted to do a few baby quilts instead, and this is a non-traditional baby quilt.
I grouped the strips together first into warm and cool hues, and then from light to dark shades. Then I sewed them together in sets of six. Then, I cut large 90 degree triangles from these strips, and arranged them into an inset square as shown.
As you can see, I didn't keep even seam allowances throughout, and my angles could have been cut a little bit more exactly, so my squares would have matched a bit better, but I think the effect is still kind of cool. I also think a true triangle ruler helps in this process.
In quilting, I used my new sewing machine, an Artista, and the Bernina Stitch Regulator, loaded up with Sulky variegated thread. It was very easy--and my first attempt. Click on the photos to enlarge. I was surprised at how quickly this process went!
I used yellow binding because it was what I had on hand, and surprise again, I like it.