Walking on Sunshine

Walking on Sunshine Various fabrics and thread, machine pieced and quilted by Sarah Atlee, 2016 66 x 56 inches

I absolutely love working with donated fabrics. You get a bunch of things that were never meant to go together, and you make them go together.

Walking on Sunshine is headed to the Community First! village, an innovative housing solution in Austin, TX.

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What is the Community First! Village?
Contribute your quilting skills to the Community First! Quilters

Dot Dot Dash

In Dot Dot Dash, I set out to explore visual rhythms. We know that I love stripes. Turns out, I love dots too.

I had so many fun fabrics to choose from. Some donated to the Community First! Quilters, some I purchased myself. In particular, I've been in love with this Dottie Jean Jacket print by Rashida Coleman-Hale for Cotton + Steel.

Does it get any better than strip-piecing?

So much fun to quilt this thing!

Aah, texture.

On the back: cream-colored flannel, and a variegated blue thread.

Along one edge, Community First! is spelled out in Morse code, using buttons. Light buttons for dashes, dark buttons for dots.

Dot Dot Dash was donated to the Community First! village, an innovative housing solution in Austin, TX.

Learn more about Mobile Loaves & FishesWhat is the Community First! Village?Contribute your quilting skills to the Community First! Quilters

Making Hay

Let us make hay while the sun shines.- Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote de la Mancha

So I had a pile of reds, golds, and browns, culled from the donated fabric bin at the meeting of Community First! Quilters. The fields are ripe, they said - it's harvest time.

The front and back are both improvised strip-piecing. The emerging pattern reminded me of aerial photographs of farmland.

See the burgundy? It was in my fabric stash for ages. It was just waiting for that exquisite harvest-gold botanical print to pair with.

Like, hey, what's up cheese? I'm that wine you've been thirsting after.

This spring-green patch was left over from a previous quilt.

Making Hay was my first ever longarm quilting experience. Many thanks to Jessica and Ellie at The Cotton Cupboard for their patient teaching!

What is Modern Quilting? Learn more about Mobile Loaves & Fishes What is the Community First! Village? Contribute your quilting skills to the Community First! Quilters

As the Bat Flies

As the Bat Flies Improvisational patchwork quilt created for Community First! Sarah Atlee, 2015

What is Modern Quilting? Learn more about Mobile Loaves & Fishes What is the Community First! Village? Contribute your quilting skills to the Community First! Quilters

The Community First! Quilters group relies heavily on donated fabrics. I love the challenge of taking colors and prints that don't look like they should go together... and making them go together.

This is my variation on the traditional Flying Geese quilt block. I call it Flying Bats. See the grey print with the little insects? Bats eat insects. There you go.

Do you know about Austin's bat colony?

I was surprised at how difficult it was to make these blocks come out how I'd imagined. After a lot of trial and some error, I settled into a method.

The back.

Stitching detail. This was my second-ever quilt finished on a longarm machine. While I don't yet feel entirely adept at the process, I enjoy the speed and flexibility of free-motion quilting.

Whee!