Storts Market

by Lesley Storts

Tag Archives: rainbow


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Anna Maria Horner Fabric Asymmetrical Irish Chain Quilt

I joined an Anna Maria Horner (AMH) sew along (SAL) in 2017 hosted by Isabel Kelly (IG @lambandwolfie). I was so excited and inspired because the SAL gave me a chance to fussy cut and highlight specific elements in AMH prints. I finally had the top quilted in the fall of 2023.

You can see in the whole quilt that these little snapshots of prints were arranged within an asymmetrical Irish Chain pattern.

I’ve been looking at this quilt for weeks now that it is on the wall. At the time I made the quilt, I used almost every print of AMH fabric I had on hand. The layout provided 14 spaces for prints to fussy cut. The limitation of fabric on hand is the reason the Irish Chain is open on the bottom. If you look at it long enough, you can see that there is a rectangle on point but not completed at the bottom. I’ve asked myself if I like this quilt. I like the symmetry of quilts – rows and columns. There is symmetry but not completely. I do like this quilt and here are the reasons:
–I adore AMH prints and her art on fabric
–The colors are intense and saturated
–By arranging the quilt in a rainbow, there’s a sense of order
–The white chain popping against the color
This quilt reminds me of a photo or drawing that is intentionally cropped. It would be interesting to see it larger and see the symmetrical pattern appear. Maybe I need to make another one – even larger! I will add it to my wish list.

Happy quilting and crafting! ▶︎ ▶︎ ▶︎


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YouTube Video Making a Salt Cellar Pincushion

I have been asked for many years to create a video of how a salt cellar pincushion is made. Some of the parts of this video are sped up, but all of the steps are still included within the video. I have a pattern on Etsy that has the details of making these little pincushions. Click HERE for the link or find the link at the top of the blog under Etsy Shop. This is a fun pincushion because of those rainbow gummy bears. They are all lined up and look like they are ready to dance. Making these little gems is so fun because you can complete a whole project in a short amount of time AND utilize what you have made. They also make great gifts! I enjoy making the pincushions and learned a lot while making this video for YouTube. I hope you enjoy the video.
Happy quilting and crafting! ▶︎ ▶︎ ▶︎


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The Glass Bunny (aka Nancy Smith) Cabbage Beads Plus Kaffe Fassett Brassica Fabric

In mid 2020, I was searching for interesting glass beads and found Nancy Smith on Etsy. Nancy is a glass artisan who makes her own glass beads via lamp work. The Crucible has an informative article describing the lamp work process. Nancy makes all kinds of shapes including food beads. Inspiration came after finding Nancy’s colorful cabbage beads. I’m familiar with many types of fabrics and thought it would be fun to pair Nancy’s cabbage beads with Kaffe Fassett’s cabbage fabric. Technically, Kaffe Fassett’s fabric is named Brassica but I’ve always referred to it as “the cabbage fabric” – haha. I placed a custom order with Nancy for a full rainbow of glass cabbage beads.

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Lorraine Turner’s Calico Horses Fabric and Pincushions

Last fall, I drove out west with my daughter Lucy for her return back to college. While visiting in Utah, I made a trip to the The Quilter’s Lodge. Have you been there? It is a beautiful store as well as a venue to provide retreats for quilters. While browsing through all of the fabric, I found an interesting and colorful line. The fabric artist, Lorraine Turner, was new to me, and for good reason – she’s a new artist for Free Spirit Fabrics. Her first line, Calico Horses, had several prints that I felt would work well as pincushions.

The art throughout the fabric required planning for various cuts and matching up with different sizes of glass. I was originally going to use the large white milk glass hobnail ashtray, but the glass is so shallow that I didn’t really like the way the pincushion looked in that glass. So I found another large ashtray. I really like the finished product and feel like the glass complements the print.

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»Patty Young Fabric and Pincushions«

My latest batch of pincushions was made using Patty Young‘s fabric line, Lucy’s Garden, by Riley Blake Designs. In an Instagram post, Patty talked about her inspiration for this colorful line. I realized after reading about Patty’s inspiration, that there is a definite ‘art deco’ feel to the prints in this fabric. That element is so appealing to me and probably one reason I really like this line. In addition, I have a daughter named Lucy who was named after 2 grandmothers – so I really like that name.

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»A Look Back At 2017«

I’ve enjoyed reading so many people’s blogs and Instagram posts looking back at the past year. In compiling my projects for the last year, I’ve enjoyed seeing what I completed too.

Ohio in Blue made with Katarina Rocellas’s fabric was one of the most fun quilts I made last year! I was pleased with the finished quilt.

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My Pike Quilt made from Sharon Holland’s fabric was challenging to design and make, but an enjoyable process at the same time. The free pattern for this quilt can be found HERE on Craftsy.

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Lucy and I made dozens of saltcellar pincushions! I have so much glass I need to get busy making more.

Rainbow Pincushions
Pincushion Swap
Rainbow Love
Saltcellar Pincushions
Saltcellar Pincushions

I was surprised at the number of quilts I made that I did not keep! If I didn’t have pictures of these, I would have forgotten.

Fiber Optics Lap Quilt
Fiber Optics Quilt
AGF Market Quilt
Halloween Quilt
AGF Quilt Top
AGF Quilt Top

In February I created a quilt for RJR Fabric’s quiltwithlove.com blog – also known as #whatshadeareyou. Creating the Game Night quilt was a challenge and a quilt that I had been wanting to make. I’m happy to be able to check this quilt off of my list and enjoy it.

Game Night Quilt
Backgammon
Chinese Checkers
Playing Cards

One final quilt for my year of the rainbow is my Lucky Point Quilt.

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Overall I would call it a successful year! And 2018 is off to a good start because I have a couple of quilts that are almost finished that get counted as 2018 finishes 😉

If you made it this far — well, thanks! And one last goodie that I found of our driving dog while I was searching for quilt pictures…


Happy Quilting! ▶︎ ▶︎ ▶︎


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»Prismatic Chill Quilt«

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As I sit here writing this post, the snow is coming down outside. That is to be expected since it is January, but 2 days ago we had 55 degree weather. The weather here is nuts! And that is where the inspiration for this quilt ended up…with the weather. Here in central Ohio, we are considered one of the cloudiest cities in the country averaging 283 cloudy days per year. Those clouds make for great filtered light and picture taking, but also a longing for sunny skies and color!

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When I first sketched this quilt, I was unsure about the palette. After coloring the sketch and playing around with it, I decided to use rainbow colors and try solids from Art Gallery Fabrics. I ordered a color card to help me choose fabrics.

Intense, saturated colors were what I first pulled, but I wanted those balanced out with some softer shades too. As I began making the quilt, I really loved the colors I chose, but realized that I needed one more dark in the green/blue family so I ordered a teal to add to the mix.

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The background is Essex linen by Robert Kaufman. I used Essex linen in my Great Granny Squared quilt and loved the look. I ordered a metallic but changed my mind and ended up at my local quilt store, Sew to Speak, to pick out fabric with all of my AGF solids on hand to make sure I liked how they looked together. I really wanted the background to be a soft, grayish blue that represented those cloudy skies in Ohio. The Essex linen in chambray is subtle and compliments the rainbow palette. I enjoy the mix of two different textures of fabric in this quilt.

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By using Quilters Dream Wool Batting, the greater loft provides more depth in the center and around the perimeter where the quilting is not as close. Prismatic Chill was backed with Carolyn Friedlander’s Crosshatch in Pacific. Quilt was pieced and quilted with Aurifil 2600.

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As a side note, while I was making this quilt, I affectionately called it the rainbow quilt or winter rainbow quilt. It’s the quilt’s pet name. Is there such a thing? I like to think of Prismatic Chill as the formal name, the one you would see on the birth certificate that no one really says. Haha!

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You can find this quilt and the pattern in the Winter 2017 issue of Modern Patchwork.

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Happy Quilting ▶︎ ▶︎ ▶︎

 

 


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»Rainbow Mini Mini«

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Late last year, I joined round two of the Rainbow Mini Swap hosted by @katebasti on Instagram. My first two swap experiences were very rewarding and I thought I would try it again.  I’ve been working here and there on my mini to give away and will talk about it more in another post. What I really want to highlight today is a little mini mini I made for myself as a reminder of the beautiful fabric and experience.

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I decided to improv piece – a technique I have been wanting to try. I used the scraps from cutting out my pieces for the mini I’m giving away. I knew this would result in a small quilt, but really just wanted a reminder and knew this would work. I laid out all of my pieces and took a little time deciding how I would proceed. Initially I thought I would use some of the colors more than once, but decided that one of each fabric would be sufficient.

I began by placing all of the pieces that I wanted to use side by side. This worked with this improv because I was just doing a long row of colors. I began piecing each color to create my long row. The pictures below show the steps, minus a picture of me sewing two of the greens together.

Once I completed my whole row, it was time to iron then trim.

The strip ended up being smaller than I wanted and thought it would be, but I learned 2 things. The first was that if I wanted it bigger, I needed to start with larger pieces. Yep, it’s true: bigger fabric = bigger quilt. The second was that had I pieced some of my blocks a little differently, I could have manipulated the outcome to make it a little larger.

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In finishing, I added a white border with Kona white and matchstick quilted. I loved the look without a binding, but prepared one anyway but did not have time to put it on before my quilt guild meeting. I took my mini mini with me to the meeting for show and tell and all of my quilty friends encouraged me to leave it with a raw edge! I was happy to have a little validation that it looked just fine the way it was.

I’m glad I tried this technique and look forward to future projects that are larger.

Happy Quilting ▶︎ ▶︎ ▶︎