Repetition: E
Repetition: E
Reclaimed garments, vintage sheet, and other cotton and wool fabrics, machine pieced and quilted. 44" H x 39" W, 2022. $850 Click here to purchase.
Quilt Blocks Are Small Problems.
A small problem, created and solved, over and over. That's how I think about making a quilt. Build the blocks, then build with the blocks.
But wait - Sarah, aren't you an improv quilter? I thought you didn't make quilt blocks.
I actually make a ton of quilt blocks. I just don't make them all the same size or shape or color. That's where the improvisation comes in.
In Repetition: E, the building blocks are easier to see.
This is one of the quilts I started in early 2022 during the Abstract Piecing workshop series with Sherri Lynn Wood. It had snowed that week, and I was noticing the shapes made by different tire treads in the show.
The blocks are composed from very simple elements. All rectangles, one horizontal, the rest perpendicular to that one. Most of them are only two colors, to make the brain read the shapes as letter E's. Kinda like those charts at the opthamologist's office.
As with Don't Stop Me Now, I challenged myself to use mostly striped fabrics, which enforced the rectangular motif.
More Rule-Breaking
I could have made all of the E blocks the same size and shape. But my curious mind says, "Never make a rule unless you intent to break it." And rubs its little brainy hands together a-la-Mr.-Burns.
What if this block had 3 colors instead of 2? What if this one had 4 stripes, or 5, or 6? What if this one didn't make the E shape? What if this one was longer, or shorter, or wider? And so on. I can't help myself. I gotta try everything.
Basic Split is another example of this approach: Start with a very simple block construction, and make multiple variations on that theme.
Repetition: E is now available in my web store!
Click here to bring this bit of coziness into your own home.
Not Quite Right? Commission Your Own!
Like what you see, but want it in a different size? Different colors? Another variation? Let's talk about your custom quilt! Check out my Commissions page and book your Quilt Customization Session today.
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.
Learn more about Mobile Loaves & Fishes
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
Piece of Pie
Piece of Pie is a quilt completed in 2016 for an expert pie-baker (and her new baby).
I love improvisational curves! There's so much room to make mistakes.
Banana-shaped free-motion quilting to go with the upcycled sock monkey bedsheets.
Quilting lines, seen from the back.
The seal of approval.
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!