It’s hard to believe that this year is nearly over! Today’s post marks our last for the 2020 Slice & Stitch series, a year-long partnership with our friends at OLFA. It’s been a wonderful and inspiring year and we hope that you’ve had just as much fun as we have!
Throughout 2020, we’ve published a new Slice & Stitch post every other month. With each new installment, one Aurifil Artisan + one OLFA Ambassador received the same products with the challenge to make one new project to share with all of you. The twist for this year was that we sent everyone the Aurifil Color Builders. Since there were only 6 Slice & Stitch posts and 12 Colors Builders, we featured 2 Color Builder sets per month. The Aurifil Artisan received one and the OLFA Ambassador the other. In addition, our friends at Michael Miller Fabrics graciously provided coordinating fabric solids from their Cotton Couture line. If you missed any of the posts from this year, head HERE for a recap.
NOVEMBER CHALLENGE PARTICIPANTS
Sarah Goer AND Amanda Brown
PRODUCTS
OLFA: 28mm Rotary Cutter w/ Rotary Mat
AURIFIL: Florence Color Builder (Sarah) & Carrara Color Builder (Amanda)
MICHAEL MILLER: Cotton Couture Solids in Khaki, Ginger, Brown (Sarah) and Soft White, Clay, Black (Amanda)
Sarah Goer and Amanda Brown are the perfect pair to usher us to the finish of this year’s Slice & Stitch. Their projects are stunning and we simply can’t wait to give them a try! We’re excited to showcase Sarah’s project here, and don’t miss more about Amanda’s project over on the OLFA page. Enjoy a bit of color inspiration!
Hi. I’m Sarah of Sarah Goer Quilts. I drooled over the beautiful Aurifil Color Builders when they were announced for 2020 and I’m excited to be participating this month in the Slice and Stitch Challenge! I received the Florence Brown Aurifil Color Builder with three large spools of 50wt in Ermine (#2312), Toast (#6010), and Chocolate (#2360), a trio of Michael Miller Cotton Couture fat quarters in Khaki, Ginger, and Brown, an OLFA 28mm rotary blade (with refills), and a 24” x 36” OLFA cutting mat in Navy.
I love planned improv, starting a project with an idea in mind but not a finished vision. I start with some rules and then see how it goes. In this project my rules were to use these threads, fabrics, and tools. I decided improv curves for the piecing since they are so easy to cut with a 28mm rotary cutter and I was off.
Initially I was thinking of a table runner, but in order to make my front, back, and binding entirely out of three fat quarters I changed my plan into a table topper.
I wanted to use the Brown solid for my binding, so I tried piecing my remnants of Khaki and Ginger to make my quilt backing, but that would have been a bit too small. So I pieced in one section of Brown to get the width I needed. Many years ago when I was a new quilter we had a speaker at my guild who referred to her pieced backings as “back art” so I always think of that when I do something a little more interesting than a single fabric for my backing.
To complement the curved piecing, I opted for organic, curved walking foot quilting in four colors, adding a little splash of color with Aurifil 50wt Dark Turquoise (#4182).
My finished quilt is 16 1/2″ x 16 1/2″.
I generally favor machine binding, but with the pieced backing I opted for a hand binding and no label to create a reversable table topper. This made my “back art” into a second front.
Thank you to Aurifil, OLFA, and Michael Miller for supplying me with everything featured in this quilt. Hop over to my blog for more details on cutting and sewing improv curves.
P.S. Stay in touch with what I’m up to as well as color and design inspiration from around the web by signing up for my newsletter: Sarah Goer Quilts Newsletter
Head on over to OLFA’s blog to check out Amanda Brown‘s project!
ABOUT SARAH
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Sarah is a quilt artist, pattern designer, teacher, and lecturer who is passionate about using bold color and geometric design in both traditional and improv quilts. She enjoys inspiring others in their creativity. As a former math teacher Sarah loves the geometry and math of quilting. She is currently visiting guilds virtually to present lectures and workshops on Zoom. Sarah lives in San Jose, California with her husband and two quilters kids.
Keep up with Sarah by signing up for the Sarah Goer Quilts Newsletter.