BAMQG Round Robin Returns…Again

Rhonda brought my BAMQG Round Robin back to me when we met at the CQFA meeting. I had to hunt around the blog for which challenge it came as I couldn’t remember. I also wanted to see the changes. I remembered that Kathleen worked on it and Kelly had it, but I couldn’t remember anything else about it. 🙁  Kelly had it for a long time and since she is much more into quilting than piecing, I wasn’t surprised to see no changes.

BAMaQG Round Robin
BAMaQG Round Robin

I remember Kathleen and I talking about ways to make the piece more horizontal as it started out very vertical. As it is now, it is very traditional in layout. It is turning into a  medallion quilt, which I don’t find that interesting.

Round Robin detail
Round Robin detail

The piecing is really good. I have asked for some other volunteers to work on the piece. We’ll see if anyone volunteers. If not, I will finish it and give it to a kid I know, I think. I don’t think I am really interested in working on it anymore.

 

Related Round Robin Posts

Stars #2

I needed a break from quilting to do some piecing.

I had the Star blocks on the wall and had figured out how I wanted to put them together. I also wanted to get them done since the guild meeting is coming up and I’d like to having something to turn in. Since my design wall is overrun those blocks seemed to be the most logical project.

Stars #2 top
Stars #2 top

I put the blocks together in, basically, the arrangement I showed in the previous post.

I didn’t put the blocks together completely. I omitted some of the corner blocks in order to make the arrangement a little off balance. Some of the blocks share corner blocks. I think this adds movement to the quilt.

I think this quilt really shows what can happen if you keep the blocks on the design wall for awhile and look at them.

I have four more of these blocks and will make another quilt in a similar, but slightly different arrangement. I am not quite done playing with the arrangement.

I made a back for Stars #2 as well and will give both to the guild at the next meeting.

Final Tula Quilt

I wrote about the Tula quilt we were making for our friend Kelly who was moving to Scotland. We got together a few weeks ago to present the quilt. We had breakfast, chatted and made Kelly cry.

Kelly's Good-bye quilt 2017
Kelly’s Good-bye quilt 2017

Rhonda hosted the party and did the most work on finishing the quilt. Amanda and Gerre did the amazing job with the letters on the borders. Some of those pieces are tiny!

The rest of us made 2 blocks or the equivalent and did some of the quilting. The whole process was pretty fun and went smoothly.

Kelly's Good-bye quilt 2017 with peeps
Kelly’s Good-bye quilt 2017 with peeps

Amy’s Color My Quilt

Yes, this appears to the be the week of Color My Quilt.

Amy's Color My Quilt piece in process
Amy’s Color My Quilt piece in process

I decided that I would start work on Amy’s Color My Quilt piece right away. I used it as leaders and enders while I sewed fabric pieces that didn’t require a 1/4″ foot. It was a good plan as I have made enough progress to hand it in today even if I do nothing else.

Don’t get the idea that I was doing a shoddy job. I was eyeballing a seam allowance rather than using the 1/4″ foot guide so I could make progress, but not being shoddy. If anything most of the seam allowances are larger than 1/4″.

Of course, I want to do more. I think it needs more blue. If I don’t do anymore, I’ll be happy and not embarrassed to give what I have to Amy.

Color My Quilt WOW

The BAMQG meeting was….sometime in the recent past. I have a lot going on and can’t quite remember.

Karen M. Color My Quilt
Karen M. Color My Quilt

Anyway, one fabulous thing that happened was that Karen M brought her finished ‘Color My Quilt’ piece. I thought it looked fabulous. She talked quite a bit about how she put it together and where she added strips and bits and pieces.

Keeping the colors in the same family with a bit of spark really made this quilt come together.

Karen was asked to do a workshop on teaching people to put their own pieces together. She may do a hands on tutorial at the next meeting.

MS Color My Quilt

Michelle's Color My Quilt
Michelle’s Color My Quilt

The Color My Quilt project reared it’s lovely head again and I got busy making something for Michelle. My goal was to use my scraps, though I was determined not to skimp and paw through the fabric closet if there were no appropriate scraps.

One of Michelle’s words was shiny and I found some fabric that had a lot of shine, so I grabbed that. I also found some perfect purples. I was embroiled very hard in another project and this little piece allowed me to play a bit.

Stars Even Better

This project makes me feel like I am beating a dead horse.

Finalizing Stars #2 Design
Finalizing Stars #2 Design

I kept making Flying Geese to turn the 16 patches into stars and putting them up sort of higgeldy piggeldy on the design wall. Suddenly, I saw I design that was better than the straight set I had been planning.

I am not sure about the fifth block. If I keep it, where will it go? If I chuck it out, will there be too much white space? The white space will be background fabric – plain white.

More Stars

I am slowly working on the Stars donation quilt. I have a few full stars made and am working on the others.

I am working on these as a leaders and enders project in between another project. The other project has a lot of applique’ so I don’t always get to piece the stars. Still, the stars are appearing.

Stars Donation Quilt #2 - in process
Stars Donation Quilt #2 – in process

Due to the fact that I still have not set my large design wall back up, I am using an inadequately sized design wall. This means that pieces get overlapped and crammed together, which can be annoying, but can also be inspiring.

I was determined to do a 9 block baby / small child quilt for donation. Upon seeing the stars partially made and crammed together, it occurs to me that there are other design options. I think I will make more of a free form layout rather than a straight set. It will be more interesting and have a bit more negative space for someone to express their  quilting artistry.

Star Donation Quilt #2 – in Process

I liked the previous Star Donation top so much that I decided to make another one. As I have mentioned, I have a lot of leaders and enders opportunities, so I am not making as much progress on donation tops and blocks right at the moment. Still, slow progress is better than no progress.

Sawtooth Stars to be - Donation Blocks
Sawtooth Stars to be – Donation Blocks

At the moment, I have the blocks done. I will make Flying Geese to add to make them into Sawtooth Stars.

Not all of the blocks have black background patches, but I did try to keep the background patches dark so as to continue to explore that look.

I also decided to make this one larger – 9 blocks instead of 4. Still, looking at it makes me think I could make two donation tops with these blocks for the NICU, if I wanted to make them smaller. I will see what I think when I finish making the blocks into stars.

More Tula

Kelly's quilt
Kelly’s quilt

As I implied yesterday, I was part of a group making the Tula quilt. The group, I think, really struggled with what blocks to make. I don’t think people were reluctant to make the blocks. I think we were just having a hard time getting inspired. If there had been a theme, like stars or Flying Geese or something, it might have been easier. Still we all came through with flying colors! There was some cohesion in the blocks that were contributed, which was fabulous. Of course, the Tula fabric help make them all hang together.

Amanda and Gerre worked on the layout, but I think the block makers feeding off of each other made it easier. The large Flying Geese type panels can certainly bookend any other layout. Cheryl’s castle is a great center.

I am so pleased with how this all worked out.

All Tula All the Time

Back in the Spring, I received an email about contributing to a lovey quilt for a friend moving to Scotland. She is a Tula Pink devotee and that would be the theme. Of course I wanted to participate, but I am not a Tula devotee and I only had one Tula fabric as far as I knew.

Fat Quarter Shop Purchases
Fat Quarter Shop Purchases

I went online and bought a couple of pieces. I didn’t want to buy a lot as it isn’t really fabric I generally use. I was pleased to find a fat quarter pack of Tula solids. I knew I would use those, so I scooped them up with a couple of the more Tula-esque prints and started thinking about a design.

This was to be a modern quilt from Tula fabric and I really was at a loss about what to make. I would normally default to Sawtooth Stars for a lovey block as they are great all around and work well with fussy cutting. They didn’t seem right for this piece.

I needed to get busy as the deadline was approaching and my work travel + Grand Parlor were all coming up quickly. I decided on a modern house block a la the Clerestory quilt.

Both Tula Blocks
Both Tula Blocks

I wasn’t really excited about the house block and hadn’t started yet when I saw another member of the group working on hers at a Sew Day. She was making a Pineapple block. This made me think that a house block would be hard to fit in, so I decided that a wonky log cabin would work better. I am not a huge log cabin fan and wonky log cabins are worse. However, I could fussy cut the special motifs and work around them in a way that would really scream ‘TULA’. That is what I did. I am pretty pleased with the blocks. They didn’t come out exactly as intended, but they look nice and people seemed to like them.

More on Sew Day

I wrote about Sew Day the other day, I had more to say so here I am again.

Belinda's Block
Belinda’s Block

Belinda was making blocks for a donation quilt. I thought the design was great. It was great for all quilts, but especially for donation quilts.

The rectangles are 2.5″ x 4.5″, which is a size I am cutting for two future quilts, so not unfamiliar to me. The blocks can be made from any size rectangle as long as the rectangles are proportional.

Belinda used a Bali Pop, which looked really great. I thought that cutting rectangles from a variety of fabrics as I cut other fabrics up for my projects would be interesting as well – a scrappy look.

I figure that the blocks are about 12×12 finished, so making 9 would make a good sized donation quilt. I’ll see about making one once I have the other two, which are in process, finished.

Sew Day-July

Sew Day was Saturday and, as usual, it was great. My guild has such a nice, caring group of people. I feel so fortunate.

Thanksgiving Style Sew Day Setup
Thanksgiving Style Sew Day Setup

We have started to just put out a few tables and then let people add tables as they arrive. The day is very informal and people come and go as schedules permit. This also makes cleanup easier. If we don’t put out tables that go unused, we have less to put away.

Recently we have started to use a “Thanksgiving” configuration for the tables. This means one long table. It is hilarious and wonderful as well.

White - will be Sawtooth Star Legs
White – will be Sawtooth Star Legs

I took stuff to cut, though I did consider bringing my sewing machine for a minute. I am working on a database for a client and my neck and shoulders need to be pampered, so I just brought cutting. I didn’t even get through all the cutting I brought, but I did get A LOT done, which was great.

I cut some white to make the Flying Geese for my next Sawtooth Star donation top. I liked the one I made before and wanted to make one a little larger this time. All the blocks are made, but I needed to cut some backgrounds for the Flying Geese. I also need to cut some colored squares, but one thing at a time. I didn’t have the wherewithall to pull out many prints to bring. These are supposed to be from scraps, according to Jaye rules. I want to go through my scrap bins and find pieces I can use before I cut into yardage. I need 5.75″ squares, which I am unlikely to find in my scrap bins as my scraps are generally smaller, but you never know. It’s worth a look.

I chatted with Tim quite a bit. He has Janome machines, too. I always tease him about getting his 15k repaired. He had some issues free motion quilting and is now a little scared of the machine. I might go with him to get it repaired to act as moral support.

Tim also claims that he is going to make the Poolside Tote, so I am kind of waiting for him, but I want to get it done to test out the 6600 (more on that later), so he has better get busy.

Mary was fluttering around setting up and helping people in her wonderful way. We chatted about the outfits I saw at the Heard Museum recently. The Retreat Committee met. I am signed up and can’t wait to see what they have in store for us. Gerre came. It was great to see her. Rhonda is finishing a super secret project. I can’t wait to share it with you all.

Color My Quilt Part 2

Gerre's Color My Quilt
Gerre’s Color My Quilt

I finished Gerre’s piece on Sunday. I was almost done on Saturday, but had a bit more to do.

This did not come out as I envisioned, but I still like it. I saw that butterfly and it made me think of Gerre.

On both pieces, I had blocks on the mind. I really didn’t feel Improv in my piecing plan this time, so blocks it was. I had some leftover bits that I didn’t use, so I included them with the packet as well.