We had a Winter Extravaganza-palooza last Saturday. We had a regular meeting (see the notes on the BAMQG blog) and then we had food laden party. Part of the party was that the swappers exchanged gifts. I talked about that in the BBE post. A lot of people made bags as gifts. There was an exceptional amount of good work.
There were a lot of good show and tell as well. I didn’t have anything finished, so I only showed the BBE.
Claire’s Vintage Quilt
Claire showed an amazing vintage quilt. It gave me an opportunity to voice a design thought I have been mulling over.
This pattern in this vintage quilt looks like a Sawtooth Star to me. I have been thinking that taking some of the Postage Stamp donation blocks and adding Flying Geese to each side would make an interesting star.
I mentioned it to the Charity Girls, Peggy and Michelle, and they loved the idea. I am going to see how it would work using my Wing Clipper.
Exciting color choices
I really liked some of the color combinations of this quilt. They were really bold and exciting. I have to remember to think about it when I am choosing fabrics. I just don’t think about it.
The blue and the dark salmon (pinky red??) are a really excellent combination! I want to make something with that color combo!
The quilt is in horrendous condition and I am not sure it can be saved. The design inspiration CAN be saved, though.
Amanda’s Love Quilt
Amanda finally finished her Love Quilt. At least, I called it a love quilt. She made it for friends who had a wedding anniversary. It is her own design and I have seen her working on it for a few years. I am sure others would love to make this and think she should create a pattern.
CC’s Fireworks
CC made a really interesting quilt that looked like fireworks or something exploding to me. In a good way, of course.
There was too much going on to really relay it all. You should come to a meeting. The first one is free.
At the meeting the other day, everyone doing the IRR challenge got together and we swapped pieces. We changed things up and I now have Angela’s IRR piece. We were not originally in the same group. Her group was small and everyone had worked on all of the pieces at least once. I didn’t have one to work on so I volunteered to work on Angela’s.
The pieces are getting quite large. I quickly put a signature strip on the side and then started thinking about what I could add that would look great. I liked the castle fabric, but wasn’t sure about just putting in a big strip of towers.
The diamond motifs caught my attention and I started working on adding free form diamonds.
Free Form Diamonds in Process
I have a hard time being completely free form/improv-y, but I did my best. I tried to make the diamonds not in alignment. I didn’t like the way they looked. I sewed the diamonds to backgrounds and played around with them a bit.
I looked at the piece and saw that dark grey kite fabric. I played around with that fabric and came up with a kind of checkerboard effect.
Finished Angela’s Piece
I like the way it turned out. I think the dark fabric adds a bit of a frame to the piece and sets off the diamonds as well. I also like the visuality of the dark fabric going around the corner.
As I mentioned the other day, I had Rhonda’s piece and I worked on it very quickly, then sent it off to Cheryl.
Rhonda’s IRR piece – November 21, 2015
When I got it from Rhonda, it was getting to be quite curvy. There is a lot of nice piecing and I did not want to touch the bottom portion (ignore my slippered feet!) as I didn’t want to ruin anything.
I took a leaf out of the notebook I used in a class at Fort Mason. Sonya Lee Barrington taught a beginning quilt class and one of the techniques I learned was called “Curved Strip Piecing.”
Rhonda’s IRR with my signature fabric
I laid the piece over my signature fabric and cut along the edge. I made quick hash marks across the two fabrics and pinned them together. It made it easier to sew the curve, which came out mostly flat. My addition came out super bold. I hope people know they can cut off my signature fabric.
My contribution to Rhonda’s IRR
For the rest of my addition, I used some piecing that was already done. I added some more and then sewed what I made to the piece.
I would have never thought to put half a piece on to someone else’s round robin, but I saw Michelle do it and decided it would fit with my timeframe. Again, I used some curved strip piecing to help make the piece fit.
I the original idea for this IRR was to exchange the pieces at the meeting. Our group has been exchanging like crazy for the past two months. I have worked on several as you might remember from the series of blog posts.
I think it was the first time our group had been together since the initial start. We looked at all the pieces and traded them around. Some people changed their boxes to bags for easier mailing. We took the opportunity to exchange IRRs again and we got to see the work that has been done on the various pieces of our IRR exchange.
My IRR piece – November 21, 2015
I was thrilled when I saw the work on my own piece. People used the solid turquoise as a background, which was my intention. This gives the whole piece a cohesive look. It is also mostly a square and getting to be quite large. I think I I’d like this piece to be in the bed-sized range.
People have not continued the Flying Geese after the first round or two, which is a little disappointing. There are a lot of rectangles, which I know are much easier than anything else. Hope springs eternal.
Michelle matched the motifs on the pink and blue fabrics in the left middle area beautifully.
Diana’s IRR – November 21, 2015
I was very pleased with the work I did on Diana’s. I saw that round motif and couldn’t get away from the idea of fussy cutting it. I wanted to make it more elaborate, but I waited until the the morning of the meeting. I made a cutting mistake, which kind of prevented me from doing what I wanted. I am also not sure my skills were up to the task. Diana loved what I did to her piece, which pleased me.
Rhonda’s IRR piece – November 21, 2015
Rhonda had her piece at the meeting so I grabbed it. She has tried to jump to another group, but we aren’t letting her go. I am supposed to send her piece to Cheryl after I am done. Other Club Doodlers are clamoring, so we will have to see.
The BAMQG Meeting was Saturday and it felt like an eternity since we had a meeting. We really just missed the October meeting (because of PIQF). Still it was too long. I enjoyed seeing people and the show and tell was amazing.
Going to the meeting
This is a photo of what I took to the meeting. Fortunately I didn’t come home with nearly that much.
As a result of missing October, there was a lot of business to cover. The question of the month was good but hard, because the “low hanging fruit” was taken right away: For what are you grateful in the quiltmaking realm. Some of the answers were:
Time to quilt
Rotary cutter
Eleanor Burns
People who accept and love quilted gifts
Design board
Internet tutorials
Online buying opportunities
Playing with fabric
Electric sewing machine
Organized charity function
Designers
Modern fabric
Space to sew
Creative inspiration
Kelly, who went first since she is the boss lady, said she was very grateful for all of us. She said in such a sweet and sincere way that we were really touched. At least I was. Many people agreed that the guild was a great group.
To Do List
QuiltCon entries due November 30. Kelly encouraged everyone to enter. While I want my quilts to get in, I think that everyone’s work is spectacular and high quality enough to get in.
Reimbursements
Claire talked about reimbursements.
Charity
The charity Sew Day was a success. About 10 wheelchair quilts were completed and will be donated to a local nursing home.
The guild has donated 65 quilts to local charities this year, which is so fantastic! This is less than last year bit many of those were larger quilts than were donated last year.
Opportunity Quilt
Winning ticket was drawn and someone in Pacifica won.
Cat Beds
Are back! The kits I cut and packaged joined the kits that Amanda brought and were all swept by willing members. She gave a little presentation on making cat beds, which I think got people excited about it again.
Challenges
New one due in January using Carol Van Zant fabric. I received a piece of fuschia. I don’t know what I will make, but perhaps a simple journal cover.
MQG
The guild will not renew the guild’s membership. The board decided that the promised technological infrastructure, other promised features and functionality, especially roster management, had not been realized. The board wants to focus its resources on local activities and members. Members were encouraged to join the MQG individually since the benefits are much more robust for individual members. The guild will pay for Mike’s membership and he will continue as MQG liaison for guild members. He will also advise the Board on MQG matters. The group will reevaluate MQG membership in the future.
I plan to join as an individual member for at least one year. We’ll see if I renew in 2017.
Membership
Alison will be transitioning membership function to Annemarie.
Swaps
Favorite blog swap coming to an end and Joy-Lily will produce a paper and virtual list for everyone.
2016 Speakers
Angela Walters cancelled her workshop with us, because she no longer wants to do 2 day trips. While I didn’t know this workshop was coming, it is huge blow to Amanda who has been working on getting AW to us for 2 years. It makes me upset that she would just cancel like that without consideration for the work Amanda put in.
Officer Elections
Nobody has stepped forward to be president so Ruth and Joelle will share the role of point person this year and a Mistress (or master) of Ceremonies will be selected for each meeting. Lynette and Gerre will be co-VPs. Claire has agreed to continue on as Treasurer. Angela will be Workshop Coordinator and others will take on other roles.
Next Meeting
Winter Extravaganza swap and party is December 12.
Presentation: Ruth’s Scrap Management
Ruth gave us a presentation about her use and management of scraps. She called it Scrap Magic and talked about her system of scrap organization.
Scrap Organization
Scraps can be better used if they are organized. Everyone’s organization system will be different and personal to them and how they work. Remember mine?
She uses scraps as soon as she is done with the quilt so that she doesn’t have to file the scraps away. This is a little ambitious for me since I am usually sick of the fabrics by the time I am done with a quilt BUT they are exciting again after they have sat for awhile.
She said that using scraps adds interest to your quilts. I agree! I never thought of this, but her view is that making scrap quilts is like getting a free quilt. Since you don’t have to buy the fabric for the new quilt, the quilt is free.
Advantages:
faster to sew into quilts
saves space
Makes quilts more interesting
Disadvantages:
can lose possibilities because you cut to a certain size.
Organize what you keep so it will be useful. Identify your scrap limits before you start to organize:
Size – is there a size that is too small for you to use?
Personal taste – do you like the fabric enough to keep it around?
Quality – is it good enough quality to continue to use?
Shape – is the piece a weird shape or a shape you don’t want to keep?
If your scraps are still overwhelming you, your limits might be too low.
Ruth talked about cutting scraps to defined sizes. She, mostly, doesn’t do it, because she feels it limits her options. If she cuts a 4.5″ scrap down to a 2.5″ square, she has lost an inch or so of fabric that could have been used when a larger piece was required.
Nota bene: I cut defined pieces if I have a project in mind for them. I wrote a post on scrap organization, which will give you other ideas about cutting to defined sizes.
Ruth also curates her scraps. When she chooses fabrics, including scraps, she has an idea of the color scheme or motifs she wants to use. She tries to avoid the Scrap Vomit look. She selects parameters to create cohesion. Not everything works well together, despite what some experts say.
Scraps are good for paper piecing.
You can cut pieces to add to a pre-cut project
replace unsuitable charms or strips
add darks or lights as needed to a fabric line
Start by selecting yardage and then bringing in scraps to add interest.
I thought the presentation was interesting and a good addition to what has already been posted here about scraps.
I was kind of shocked to realize that the last time I devoted a post to this project was back in September. I did mention it last week and meant to write a full post. I was out of town for most of the week for work and it never happened.
Red & Black Improv Top
On Saturday, I got back to the machine. I worked on this top, in between other projects. For the Improv top, I seem to be able to make progress on this project, but only while working simultaneously with other projects. For some reason this project does not inspire me to buckle down and work on it by itself.
I tried Improv again and it still doesn’t inspire me. I guess I like the technical precision of regular blocks. Does that make me boring? Perhaps.
Three blocks was the sum total of what I needed to finish to put this top together. The end was in sight! (Let’s not talk about back or binding at the moment). I finished one block completely on Saturday and made major progress on two more.
Sunday, I finished the blocks and then put all the blocks together into the top.
I started on the back, for which I am making different color choices just to give it a different feel. I am choosing some blues so that the back will have a different feel.
More progress has happened on the BAMQG Improv Round Robin. I worked on Cindy’s and then handed it off to Michelle. Jen posted in the guild forum that she worked on mine.
Cindy’s IRR Before
The first thing I did with Cindy’s was look through all of the fabric she provided with the piece sitting next to me.
I thought it had a lot going on. I decided to use the turquoise solid (shown at left) as the background with my signature fabric to continue the Flying Geese motif already used a couple of times by other contributors. With a vague plan in place, I got busy cutting and piecing.
The piece I made was a little too short so I added a pink square. There was a pink solid in the group of fabrics, so I used that.
Cindy’s IRR After
I really did, mostly, cut without a ruler, but my piece looks very precise compared to the rest of the sections. I know that my arm injury is affecting my cutting. Mostly I have to rotary cut much slower and, apparently that equals more precision.
I like my part. It balances the turquoise on the left side and the Flying Geese do bring repetition and continuity to the piece.
This is also a good exercise in what I can do in 20 minutes. I am not counting cutting, because of the injury, but sewing and designing. I think looking at the fabrics first was a good thing to do. I think it helped jumpstart my process.
My IRR after Jen’s work
Jen posted about my piece. Michelle had worked on it and made it into a L. I was a little concerned about that, but only a little. I knew my Club Doodle (the name of our group) pals would come through for me. Jen did with flying colors.
It is still keeping that turquoise background feel, which I am happy about. There are more Flying Geese, which I am also happy about.
I am also glad that the Queen Street fabric is finally getting its day in court.
In terms of administration, I have worked on Jen’s, Michelle’s, and now Cindy’s. I feel like I have worked on more of them, but, perhaps, that is because I also worked on mine. I need to work on Claire’s, Diana’s and Rhonda’s.
I spent almost the whole day last Saturday working on the Carpenter’s Wheel blocks and the Red and Black Improv quilt.
I was really struggling with the Improv quilt and it was taking up space on my design wall so I wanted to get it done and off. Done and off the wall meant making more blocks. Somehow making more blocks has lost their appeal.
3 Carpenter’s Wheels + a Stepping Stone
I decided as I worked on the Carpenter’s Wheel blocks that I would intersperse pieces and parts for the Improv quilt and make some progress at least. I am so pleased with the progress I made! And I had fun.
The Carpenter’s Wheels are very cheerful and that makes them fun to make. I sewed the second block together (top left) on Saturday and am enjoying looking at the two blocks together while the third block is in process.
Improv Quilt – Late October
I had started out on these blocks, but the Improv quilt was nagging at the back of my mind, so, as I said, I pulled out some black and red strips and started to work on an Improv block in between working on the second Carpenter’s Wheel block. When I finally pulled my nose away from the needle and assessed my day’s work, I found that I had completed a whole side of the quilt! I only have three blocks more to make to finish the top!
This quilt is a monster, which should surprise nobody, which makes it hard to photograph, but you should be able to see some of the work and the progress. There will be no border and sewing the blocks together should be a challenge, but not so much of a challenge that I can’t do it. The seams will be long, but over quickly, I think.
I was doing such good work that I was angry that I had to leave on Sunday for a work trip. I was looking forward to the work trip, but it just came at an inconvenient time and I was hoping I wouldn’t lose my momentum, especially with the Improv quilt.
Saturday and Sunday, when I wasn’t working on Michelle’s IRR piece, I was working on the Improv Quilt. I know both are Improv projects.
Improv Progress, September 2015
The last time I made any progress on this piece was over a month ago. That progress felt forced and unsatisfying even though I didn’t know it at the time. I had the piece up on my design, which meant I had to look at it and that frustrated me. Frustrated me, because I wasn’t happy with the work as well as frustrated because it was taking up my design wall. I need to learn to make smaller quilts.
This weekend’s progress felt good. It was fast and intuitive and right. The piece is starting to look like something I won’t hate looking at.
I am not sure the blocks will end up where they are placed now, but there is a good bet some will stay where they are.
Improv Corner Block
One thing that happened to jolt me ahead in the process was that I laid in bed one night, trying to get to sleep. I spent the time thinking about this piece and made a plan. I decided I would cut a big piece of red to use as a start to make some corner blocks.
I wasn’t completely on board with making ‘B’ blocks for the corners, so I made corner blocks, which are similar to the ‘A’ blocks. I did what I thought would look good. I can always make something different, right?
I like the corner block shown at left, but I wish I had varied the length of the neutral strips more. I did a bit, but not enough. It will be fine once the rest of the quilt is done and I am not going to worry about it right now. I do reserve the right to change it if the design needs it later.
New ‘B’ Blocks
I did sort of learn from this block and the first two ‘B’ blocks. I didn’t want all the ‘B’ blocks to be heavy, so I varied the length of the strips to give them less weight — or less perceived weight. I also made the centers a bit more interesting. I want people to be interested in looking at the piece.
I have about 7 more blocks to make on this monster. I have some slim hope I can finish it by next week and take it to be quilted. I am laughing, but you can stop. 😉 I know it is a pipe dream, but I would like to move this project along.
As mentioned the other day, the IRR is going well. I worked on Michelle’s piece on Saturday. It is, as also mentioned, a 20 minute exercise, so I worked on it early and got it finished.
Michelle’s IRR Start
I started with Michelle’s piece, by putting it on the wall and looking at it for a few days. That tactic would have worked better if I had taken a look at the fabrics she included. 😉
I decided, however, that I was going to work on it on Saturday and get it out of my hair.
I did loosen up a bit on Michelle’s. Even I can admit that mine was a bit more uptight than improv. I guess that is part of the process.
Once again, I have a shortage of design wall space. I really think I need a whole room with movable design walls all over it. OR I need to clear my mind of the jumble of projects in it. My mind is an insane mess right now.
Michelle’s IRR with my contribution
I should have balanced the piece out by putting my contribution on the bottom, but I wanted to continue those dark solid lines. I really do like the strips of bright. the top of the piece is very happy.
The basic idea is that you spend 20 minutes on each round, including the start. I had to pick out fabrics and a signature fabric. I used Queen Street by Jennifer Paganelli and my signature fabric is a Philip Jacobs. You can see my signature fabric on the bottom of my starting piece.
The signature fabric is a fabric that we add to each piece we work on to know that we worked on it. I just had to use a Philip Jacobs as it is uniquely distinct to me. Many of the other modern quiltmakers don’t use Philip Jacobs fabrics that I have seen.
Wanting to try for a piece that was not square, I made my piece long and thin. Cutting is difficult for me at the moment, so I gave myself a bit more time on that piece, but then sewed like a demon so as not to break too much of the rules.
I kept looking at the Flying Geese TFQ and I have been exchanging. I decided to incorporate some of them into this piece, but the rest are just squares and rectangles. The solid is supposed to be the background.
IRR Start with Michelle’s work
Michelle was kind enough to send me a photo of my start since I, apparently, forgot to take a photo of it. She also sent a photo of what she added to the piece, so I can see how it is progressing.
I like that more of the Flying Geese have been incorporated.
I joined the Improv Round Robin at the last BAMQG meeting. I was really busy last week and didn’t get my stuff together until the morning of the meeting. I forgot the crucial thing: my starter piece. DUH! Fortunately everyone is really nice and I wasn’t the only one. I took Jen’s piece to work on and Michelle and I met near my house and we exchanged starters.
Jen’s IRR Piece
After the meeting last Saturday, I came home and worked on Jen’s piece.
I thought there was no possible way she could have made her piece in 20 minutes (more on that later) until I saw that some of her piece looks like piecing, but is really part of the fabric. So that was her trick. 😉
I added the bottom, which I curved on one end to give someone else the opportunity to do some curved piecing. They may just cut it off or do an angle, which is OK, too.
One of the things about this project is that we each have to have a signature fabric that we add to all of the pieces. I had to use a Philip Jacobs print! It is the green and purple fabric on the right hand side. We are assured that everything will go together just fine.
Jen’s IRR piece before trimming
I added some more piecing at the curve, but cut it off. You can see what I did in the bottom photos.
You can see the kind of wonky piecing, which is what inspired me to cut off the end. I added the left side as well.
While I was trying to decide what to do, I pieced some strips of Jen’s fabric together. I ended up just putting them in the bin without using them. I kind of like the thought of adding something that someone can springboard off of.
I made more donation blocks last Saturday as I worked on sewing together the FOTY 2014 patches. I thought green would be good and chose a lot of medium greens, though I had to use some darker pieces as my green scrap basket dwindled. I used, mostly, grey for the background. As you will, a little pink and some other colors crept in.
Using the leaders and enders technique, I just kept sewing the 2.5″ squares in between the FOTY 2014 patches and came up with all of these donation blocks. I joked about making enough for a whole quilt, never thinking I would be able to do it. I am close, though, especially with the blocks from the other day.
I saw a quilt on Valerie’s Twitter feed that has these blocks with Flying Geese on the outside to make them into stars. I am sorely tempted, but I have so many projects that I am going to force myself just to turn these blocks in and let someone else make a pretty quilt.
I am very pleased that this will be a quilt (or quilts) that will make someone happy.
Unlike Pam, I do not have piles of 2.5″ squares laying around, though I am starting to think I should. I cut the foreground squares from a FQ I found that I won’t use in a quilt. I decided to make the blocks, because I had some leftovers from a One Hour Basket I made. That fabric became the background. There isn’t a ton of contrast, but they are pleasant blocks. The best part is they will go to a good cause. I haven’t done as much charity work this year and it makes me feel good to add to the BAMQG charity pile.
As I started to sew the FOTY 2014 together on Friday (started last week, but got really serious on Friday), I realized that I needed leaders and enders. After I sew each FOTY pair, I need to sew something in between so that I can keep the FOTY patches in order. I have been using the Octagon 9 Patch as leaders and enders pretty regularly, but I am at a weird place with that project, so for the moment it won’t work. I gave away a bunch of my neutrals, but dug around and found some suitable greys for more donation blocks. I used leftovers of some Bonnie and Camille greys. They are a little too taupe for me, so I have been using them for projects I don’t plan to keep. Since I also have a lot of green scraps, which I don’t use much, I cut some random 2.5″ squares from those and made a couple of blocks.
Green & Grey Donation Blocks
Now I have a random thought to make 12 more and have enough for a quilt. I suppose it is possible since FOTY has a lot of pairs needing sewing, but the cutting of the 2.5″ squares – enough to make a quilt before next week is a little daunting.
I think it will be better if I get over my Octagon Nine Patch hump so I can make progress on that project, not that donation blocks are a bad thing.
I am still feeling like I am in some weird in between place with my projects. There are projects where I am at a strange point that seems to be stopping me. I have to count up all of the FOTY squares and figure out how big I need to make the quilt. I need to cut some more squares for the Octagon Nine Patch, which has been languishing for, what feels like, a long time.
Improv Top in Progress
I decided to work on the Improv quilt again and get that project farther along.I finished a second ‘B’ and decided to sew it, along with the first ‘B’ block on to the quilt. I like what is happening and I can see where I go next, to a certain extent, but I think those 2 blocks look heavy. I might put them on the bottom, but I will see if I can lighten them up with more red on the three sides.
One idea I had from looking at the photo above is to make sure some red meets the red on the bottom and continues over almost to the corner. That will mean making that part of that corner side block last and making sure I remember. I think if I do that, there will have to be a bit of one of the black and white prints in the corner – or a strip of red alternated with black and white prints.
Improve top – turned
I also thought of making those blocks the bottom. Heaviness works on the bottom. The photo (left) is the same one as above, just turned so you don’t have to turn your head.
It looks ok, but I remembered that there will be other blocks on each side of those new ‘B’ blocks.
Yes, all the blocks are sewn together. I just wanted them sewn.
