Cassandra Beaver

This foundation paper pieced quilt features twelve of my favorite zoo animals and includes full-color FPP templates and instructions.

National Zoo Lover's Day is today, and The Zoo Family Portrait Quilt is based on animal photographs I took during visits to my local zoo.

Today, the pattern for the Zoo Family Portrait is 20% off to celebrate!

thenotsodramaticlife.etsy.com

Clippings from foundation paper piecing my Mocha Mousse Mini Quilt

My #pantonequiltchallenge mini quilt is all foundation paper pieced so a lot of my cutting and process work looks like a pile of clippings!

#pantonequiltchallenge2025 #miniquilt #modernminiquilt #modernquilt #pantonecoloroftheyear #foundationpaperpiecing

Fabric pull for the Pantone Quilt Challenge featuring Ruby + Bee Field Mouse and strips of a fabric in a rainbow of color

This year’s #pantonequiltchallenge2025 features a truly challenging color for me. I am using Ruby + Bee Field Mouse for the dominant Mocha Mousse, and the rest of this mini quilt includes bits of a rainbow of fabrics. Most of the fabric is solids, but a few prints appear too!

I missed all of last year!

My favorite fun beverage is fruit-flavored lemonade, and my block features a foundation paper pieced icy raspberry lemonade with a whimsical straw and a lemon on the side.

It’s the March Quilt Block Mania release day, and that means you can download more than a dozen free patterns for quilt blocks featuring this month’s theme of fancy drinks!

https://thenotsodramaticlife.com/make-this-free-raspberry-lemonade-quilt-block-before-summer/

24" x 24" Description: This mini quilt uses half-rectangle-triangles (HRT) in colors ranging from pale green to deep violet to evoke the colors of the sea. The color moves forward and back in an uneven gradient to emulate the movement of water in a geometric form. Solid fields of color are broken with 1/8" wide pieced slivers in one-half of each HRT unit.

My partner for the MQG mini quilt swap said she likes geometric designs and the colors of the sea. I landed on a half-rectangle-triangle design incorporating my favorite 1/8" wide slivers and a loose gradient from pale green to deep violet.

thenotsodramaticlife.com/a-creative-s...

Description: How do thread color and weight combine with quilting density to alter the overall impression of simple patchwork?  This quilt consists of four nine-patch quilt blocks featuring bright colors. The intense color continues with the 50, 40, 28, and 12-weight quilting threads. While the thread color repeats throughout the quilt, the appearance alters depending on the fabric color behind it. Decorative machine stitching creates additional density within the plaid effect of the quilting. 

I recently returned to exploring straight-line quilting as a key design element, and this time, I went with bold colors for both the piecing and the quilting! This quilt is displayed at QuiltCon this week in the small quilt category.

17.5" x 17.5"

36" x 36" Description: I enjoy using quilting stitches to create an illusion of transparency, but what happens to that stitching when the entire quilt is translucent? In this quilt, I used three layers of silk organza to develop a design reliant on transparency. The first two layers are simple stripes that alternate directions to create a plaid effect. The third layer of white organza creates a pastel version of the design when the quilt is reversed.

The MQG announced a transparency challenge category for 2025, and I decided to go the most literal route by making a transparent quilt. The top and middle layers are pieced to form the overall design, and the final layer is white to create a pastel version of the quilt when the piece is reversed.

You have a beautiful space!

Description: How does an up-and-coming color trend meld with a traditional shape? For my 2024 100-Day Quilt, I used the Pantone Color of the Year, Peach Fuzz, in a design featuring Apple Core Blocks. I improvisationally pieced rectangles of fabric for individual blocks before using an Accuquilt to cut the final apple core shape. The piecing within each block enhances the unexpected diagonal gradient that moves across the quilt.

100 Days of Apple Cores was my 2024 100-Day project. For each apple core shape, I improvisationally pieced a section of fabric and then used an Accuquilt machine to cut the final shape. I’m over the moon that this quilt won third place at QuiltCon in the Modern Traditionalism Category.

52" x 61"

Yes, the technique is almost exactly the same. This one has some smaller pieces of appliqué that overlap.

37" x 41" Description: Photographs of desert plant life at a Nevada botanical garden combined with the red rock formations of Southern Utah inspired this needle-turn appliqué quilt. Using AutoCAD, I translated these images into a template line drawing. As I turned the edges of each fabric section under during the stitching process, the gradient background was revealed, creating a stained glass-like effect. The gridded quilting is reminiscent of observing the outdoor world through a window screen.

I am thrilled that my appliqué quilt, Oasis, received second place in its category at QuiltCon 2025!

Based on my photographs from a road trip last summer, Oasis captures desert plants and red rock formations as needle-turn appliqué. This quilt is in the appliqué category at QuiltCon this year.

Description: Photographs of various plant life at the local botanical garden inspired this hand needle turn appliqué quilt. Using AutoCAD, I translated these images into a template line drawing. Over 100 days, each section of the line drawing was cut from a separate piece of fabric, and the background ombré fabric was revealed during the appliqué process, creating a stained glass-like effect. The gridded quilting is reminiscent of observing the outdoor world through a window screen.

100 Days of Greenery is my first major pictorial appliqué with a modern twist. None of the appliqué pieces touch each other, exposing the gradient background fabric and giving the piece a stained glass effect. This quilt received third place in the appliqué category at QuiltCon 2024.

35" x 41"

Description: Stripes were the theme of my first 100-day project for 2022. Between January 1st and April 10th, I explored the use of stripes in my quilting practice. Piecing techniques included inserting ⅛ " wide strips, interleaving, Y-seams, and traditional piecing methods. As the quilt grew from the inside outward, I focused on using the contrast (or lack of contrast) in the striped components to draw the viewer's eye around the composition.  This quilt was edge-to-edge quilted with the design U-Turn by Bethanne Nemesh.

An exploration of stripes and maximalism led to the quilt Keeping It 100, which I made as my 2022 100-day project. It was rejected from QuiltCon 2023 but accepted in 2024 as part of the Maximalism exhibit.

58" x 66"

Description: How do scraps from one project take on a new life? Emergence, the predecessor of this quilt, was created from start to finish in the 100 days leading up to QuiltCon Together. A pile of fabric strips was left next to my sewing machine when the virtual event kicked off. As I watched lectures, I used those scraps with additional solids, prints, and hand-dyed fabrics from my stash to create the quilt top for Next Verse, Different Than the First.

I recently shared my quilt, Emergence, that I made leading up to QuiltCon Together in 2021. Upon completing that quilt, I had a pile of scraps that I turned into Next Verse Different Than the First during the virtual event. This quilt went on to get juried into QuiltCon 2024.

37" x 45"

Description: Tipsy explores Viva Magenta, the Pantone 2023 color of the year, and the use of line in a quilted composition. Line-work in most art forms exists primarily as dark lines applied to a light background. This piece flips that expectation using mostly white lines within the pieced composition. Based on an improvisational log cabin, the narrow pieced lines hold great visual weight by appearing to tip the central composition off-center. The tilting effect is enhanced with the overlay of a quilted grid running parallel to the edges of the quilt. This highly regular ½" grid is created with a 28-weight thread. The heavier thread weight enhances the juxtaposition of regular, regimented lines with the spontaneous effect of the semi-improvisational piecing.

Tipsy was inspired by the 2023 Pantone color of the year, which is a mix of solids and prints with extensive use of pieced 1/8" lines. This quilt was juried into QuiltCon 2024.

18" x 18"

Description: Where do we connect? The top for this piece started as dark blue fabric basted over the same amount of medium blue fabric with arc-shaped lines that intersect at a single point. Each line is created by cutting a slit in the dark blue fabric and sewing down either edge with needle turn appliqué. Through this process, the quilt's personality is revealed line by line. Once quilted, the piece continues to evolve by removing a circular section of the quilt. The revolution of the inner circle breaks previous connections and forms new intersections with its current positioning. Throughout the entire construction process, none of the original fabric is removed; it is only altered, just as we change through our connections and experiences, but we continue to carry past versions of ourselves forward as we change throughout our lives.

After I appliquéd and quilted Where We Connect, I cut out a circle, bound the cut edges, rotated the circle, and hand-stitched it into the new position, creating a modern reintroducing of a potholder quilt. Where We Connect received third place in the appliqué category in QuiltCon 2023.

44" x 35"

16" x 16" Description: Inspired by the traditional quilting motifs of squares and triangles, this mini turns them on end through scale and alternative grid work. Traditional and foundation paper piecing techniques are used to create a design with piecing as narrow as ⅛ inch.

Angled was inspired by the Modern Meets Modern Challenge, sponsored by the International Quilt Museum. We were given four historic quilts to reinterpret into modern designs, and my resulting mini quilt was accepted into QuiltCon 2023. This is the first one of my quilts to sell at a QuiltCon event!

This was at the National Quilt Museum in 2020, but one of my other quilts, Infused Plaid, is a similar technique and in the permanent collection.

Description: As the pandemic wore through 2020, we all needed something to look forward to, and virtual quilt shows were a bright spot in an otherwise dreary Winter. I created Emergence as a 100-day countdown to QuiltCon Together. Each day, a small amount of sewing grew consistently to emerge as a finished quilt by the time we gathered virtually. Bright, warm colors evoke joy, and the mix of hand and machine quilting creates a cozy texture.

When the world shut down in 2020, I did four 100-day projects, ending with Emergence, which I constructed in the 100 days leading up to QuiltCon Together, the virtual event in 2021. This quilt was then juried into QuiltCon 2022.

46" x 61"

Description: Inspired by traditional diamond one-patch blocks, this design embraces the diamond shape while drawing it into a curved form to evoke feelings of a growing wave. The pairing of a soothing blue and turquoise color palette with an energetic diamond motif develops an ebb and flow, echoing the underlying energy of a calm ocean.

Oscillation started as a two-color (plus values of those colors) challenge for a local quilt guild. I chose blue and turquoise to create Oscillation, which was juried into QuiltCon 2022. The curved right side of the quilt is my favorite feature of this quilt!

30" x 39"

Description: Inspired by a photograph of downtown buildings, Urban Cabins is a contemporary exploration of a traditional block.  Central log cabin motifs grow improvisationally to embrace the hustle and bustle of a downtown community.  Prints, solids, cottons, and linens create diverse visual and physical textures.

Urban Cabins started as a guild challenge to reinterpret a photograph of buildings in downtown Columbus, Ohio, and it appeared in QuiltCon 2022.

30" x 40"

Description: Each year, I construct a quilt using the Pantone color of the year. For the 2019 color of Living Coral I decided to create a quilt using a value scale surrounding the key color. I drew on my experience as a scenic painter for the theatre to emphasize value in a manner that creates the illusion of dimension in the finished design. Five colors of quilting thread were used to match each fabric color to maintain focus on the pieced design.

In 2019, Living Coral was the Pantone Color of the Year, and I used four values to create a 3-D illusion. The Value of Coral was part of the virtual 2021 show QuiltCon Together.

56" x 70"

Description: Inspired by the string art made in childhood, this whole cloth mini quilt used ten colors of 12-weight thread to create the rainbow color effect in the design. The negative space includes a grid of matchstick quilting in a matching white 50-weight thread. The negative space shifts into an unexpected focal point by omitting the fourth corner of the design.

Dense quilting in white and ten bold colors make up String Theory, my only wholecloth quilt that has appeared in QuiltCon. This piece appeared in the virtual show QuiltCon Together in 2021 and in person at QuiltCon 2022.

11" x 11"

Description: Each year, I construct a quilt using the Pantone color of the year. For the 2019 color of Living Coral I decided to create a quilt using a value scale surrounding the key color. I drew on my experience as a scenic painter for the theatre to emphasize value in a manner that creates the illusion of dimension in the finished design. Five colors of quilting thread were used to match each fabric color to maintain focus on the pieced design.

In 2019, Living Coral was the Pantone Color of the Year, and I used four values to create a 3-D illusion. The Value of Coral was part of the virtual 2021 show QuiltCon Together.

Description: Two simple blocks are cut into strips and reassembled to form this small quilt.  The first block was a simple circle in warm colors. The second block was made of wedges in cool colors.  Combined, the two blocks evoke the feeling of a sunset over the sea.

I combined two simple blocks using a variation of an interleaving technique to create Forward and Back, which appeared in QuiltCon 2020.

Description: Resonance uses colorful quilting thread to create a sense of outward movement and reverberation from central points.  Threads that coordinate with each fabric create a blending sensation as the quilting merges the appliquéd circles with each other and the background.  This quilt was my first 100-day project, from New Year's Day 2018 to my birthday, which fell on the 100th day of the year.

Resonance continued my exploration of using colorful thread as a bold design element. This was my first 100-day project, and it appeared in QuiltCon 2020 and the accompanying QuiltCon Magazine. Resonance was rejected from the 2019 show, and I'm glad I entered it again!

This week, on the blog, I’m sharing the process I use to construct and attach a quilt sleeve to hang your masterpiece!

thenotsodramaticlife.com/make-an-easy...

Your map quilt was one of my favorites! I hardly had time to look at the quilts, but I kept coming back to this one.

Description: All solid fabrics are cut and pieced into the stripes, forming the basis for this semi-improvisational design.  Stripes of various widths, as small as 1/8 inch, were stitched together to create a piece of fabric before being cut and assembled into the blocks that make up the quilt top.  The circular blocks were devised as stand-alone units and placed on a design wall to develop the overall composition by adding more striped units.

Stripe Club uses all solid fabrics with color blocking in large blocks and narrow stripes to create the pattern within the quilt. Stripe Club appeared in QuiltCon 2020.