BAMQG – Page 47 – Artquiltmaker Blog

Bay Area Modern March Meeting

I hadn’t been to a BAMQG meeting since the meeting at the beginning of December. It felt like a thousand years ago. I was actually a little reluctant to go because it has been so long and I can’t decide if I am having a relapse of the dread illness. This was, pretty much, my first weekend outing since our trip to the North Coast. I promised I would do a sleeve demo, so that motivated me to go.

I was glad I did. I talked to a few people who were glad to see me, which was very nice. It is a different crowd than CQFA and there are different quiltmakers there I like. Ruth of Pippin Sequim is now the president and due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control, sometimes we meet at a new location. I love the new location. the light and colors are gorgeous! There is a little space around with waving grasses and the Bay Trails are nearby. It is also a gorgeous branch library (YAY! Libraries!) with elements of the Monterey Bay Aquarium embedded in the decor. There are lots of rounded corners, sea colors and an overall feeling of calm. Loved it.

I was a little late today, so I sat in the back, but that was ok, because I felt safer (from being away) and Chris sat next to me. BTW, she showed the top from her 2/3 blog post at the meeting and it is great.

The meeting was jam packed.

Charity

Kits were available for the new blocks. There are two: scrappy Trip Around the World and postage stamp. April 20 is the Charity Sew Day. 10-5 will be charity sewing and after 5 people can work on their own projects. It will be held at the Los Altos Public Library.

Cat Bed kits were also available. Amanda had some with some really soft (and slippery and shed-y!) fabric. I had a big bag of scraps from the past 3 months of sewing, so I took two. Look for a post about the one I finished soon.

April Meeting

The April meeting will be back at the Main library and there will be a destash party. the information will be posted on the BAMQG blog closer to the meeting date. Everyone participating is supposed to bring stuff they don’t want and there will be a race to get the good stuff. People should bring fabric, notions, patterns, magazines, scraps (organized in ziplocs only). I have never seen it done quite like this, but people who are not participating will organize all of the bags of stuff, then people will line up at the starting line. The starting judge will yell “Ready Set Go!” and there will be a big scramble to get to the stuff first. People are not to bring stuff they would throw out (no stains, stuff beyond repair). Upholstery fabric is ok. I don’t know if I will participate. I can’t think of anything off hand that I have to get rid of. I don’t want to bring used stuff into the studio really.

Klippies

The group is doing Klippies in a new way. There are teams. I didn’t really collect the Klippies last year and have already missed too many meetings this year to really understand what is going on. I did notice that there were a lot of opportunities to collect Klippies this time, so that was good.

Modern Quilt Guild Membership

Apparently, the MQG has opened up memberships to chapters. The Board is going to review the materials sent out. They will do a cost benefit analysis and prepare a presentation for the June or July meeting so the group can vote. Ruth didn’t want to start a discussion before all of the information was in and the Board had a chance to review it, so she didn’t provide a link to the original presentation. All she said was that the cost would be a significant part of our budget for the year, which sounds a little ominous. I immediately wanted to see the link and see what was up, but then I decided I had enough on my plate and it really didn’t matter to me. If the cost of membership goes up enough to make it untenable, then I won’t rejoin. I might be gone at both those meetings as they are around the time I travel for work. I need to sync up my calendar. I have to trust that the group will make the right decision. Are any of your guilds discussing this?

Retreat

The retreat is coming up. I am not going, as of this moment. Again, I have to sync up my calendar. I think that may be the weekend I get to go and be political wife with DH. If not, perhaps I will commute there. They don’t have any single rooms left and I don’t know anyone well enough to want to share.

Activities

Swap: Joy-Lily organized a fabric swap and people exchanged bags of fabric. I am not sure what that was about (again, I was gone, so missed the detail), but people seemed to enjoy it.

Color Group: Ruth had asked people to bring colors to the meeting. I wasn’t sure what she meant when I read it in the blog so I didn’t bring anything, expecting not to participate. Ruth organized it so that everyone could participate, which was great. I am in a group with Suzy, Kelly, Patti, Jennifer, Chris. I wasn’t really in the mood for any agonizing, so I suggested a couple of the colors from the group that people brought. Nobody objected, so we are using purple, pink and bright yellow. Next month we need to bring fabric scraps. I meant to get mine in order yesterday, but really didn’t have a lot of time, so need to get that I my agenda. I don’t want to be doing it at the last second before the next meeting. Then we will decide what we will make next. We have a tentative plan to make blocks and make them into a charity quilt and also a plan to make tote bags. We will see.

Madrona Road Challenge: I missed this, but I thought the fabric was ugly anyway. I was mightily impressed with the bags that people came up with for this challenge. Really great work and a good use of the fabric. People took the best parts of it. Apparently, Ruth did a great zipper tutorial at one of the recent meetings and people really used that tutorial to enhance their bags.

BOM: The Block of the month is still going strong. Joy-Lily (who must have taken over as BOM coordinator (?), swap coordinator (?) or something) did a demo on this month’s block, which is Snail Trail. I started to watch the demo, but drifted away when I saw how she was doing it. It isn’t a hard block. Joy-Lily doesn’t do matching of points, so she showed a method of putting on a larger piece and then lopping off part of it. I know how to make a Snail Trail and I wanted to talk with Rhonda.

SCVQA: Kelly has done an awesome job of organizing the exhibit of Modern quilts within the SCVQA show. I should enter. I meant to talk with her about it, but forgot. I guess I will send her an email.

Sleeve demo: I did the sleeve demo using the method from Robbi Joy Eklow’s book Free Expression. [<– If you buy from that link, I get a small amount of money.] I had made the step outs that were coded to a very detailed handout, but when I went to look for the handout, it was nowhere to be found. I probably saved it in some weird location on my computer and it will show up in 3 years. People had a few questions, but they told me that they liked the demo and I think I convinced them that the double-sided sleeve was the best idea. I hope I made sense.

Show & Tell

Show & Tell was a little paltry IMO. The new policy is to only show finished things. That made it a lot shorter and fewer people participated. I had 3 quilts to show, but a few other things in progress I didn’t bring. I showed Calm, which is finally finished and I have posted the Finish post here yet, FOTY 2011 and the Stepping Stones quilt. Calm and Stepping Stones now need to be sent off. I don’t think the new policy is good for encouraging quiltmaking. I was really inspired by Mallory’s top and made Sparkle Pink as a result. I am not in charge, though, nor do I want to be in charge, so I am keeping my mouth shut.

San Mateo County Fair

It is coming up. You can enter online; no photos required. There is a big reward for entering even if you don’t get a prize: free passes to get in and a parking pass. That is at least $35 for entering. Rhonda will coordinate entries.

If you are not local, look into entering in your local county fair. You do great work and people want to see stuff like you make. Trust me.

I was glad to see some people that I hadn’t seen in awhile. It looked like a smaller group than the December meeting. I didn’t see Kathleen and I missed her. I had a little chance to talk to Adrianne about her studio reorganization. It was great to hear that Alison sold her house in LA and now will be looking for a place here.

I [tried to convince] told Kelly about the Petrillo Bag-a-Long that Pam from Hip to Be a Square Podcast and I are doing. It will be starting on about March 23. You need to buy the pattern now, because there are some specialty supplies you need to probably get online. It is only $8 and downloadable. Pam talks about the Petrillo bag challenge in episode 121. I’ll write a blog post about it soon.

Last Patchwork Wheels

These are the last two Patchwork Wheel blocks. I can now prepare the top and back and finish this project.

Patchwork Wheels

Here are some more Patchwork Wheel blocks. I am a bit stuck on the last few, because I misplaced a stack of fabrics. Sigh. I hope to have found it and be back on track by the time you read this.

I am having fun with Ribbet. Sometimes I don’t want to deal with the formatting of multiple photos and Ribbet is a good alternative. I can do some quick collages, basic editing and pull from Flickr. It is free, you don’t have to register (though you get more, if you do) and it is relatively quick.

Patchwork Wheels Possible Layout

I am redoubling my efforts to do good with fabric. To that end, I am thinking that I would like to finish the Patchwork Wheel blocks before Christmas and, thus, I need to think about layouts.

I mulled publicly sashing this piece in the last post and was pleased to receive an email from SherriD with her Photoshop handiwork allowing me to see the effects visually.

I like the space between the blocks that the sashing provides and I have plenty of Kona Snow to make sashing. I am not quite sure if Kona Snow will match the background used in the blocks, though, and that might be an issue.

The sashing-less version is much more chaotic, but it does look like roads winding through a town.

Thanks, again, to SherriD for taking the time to create this image for me.

Patchwork Wheel Donation Blocks Continues

I am continuing to work on the Patchwork Wheel blocks. As I have said, I need 20 and I have about 12, so not much more work. There are a few seams in these so each one takes a bit of time.

These are very bold blocks. I am just using the kits I was given. I may add some solids or some tone-on-tones to the last few blocks. I could scatter those as yet unmade blocks throughout the quilt top and perhaps they wouldn’t look too out of place.

In a way, this is my first truly modern quilt. I assume all of the fabrics are considered modern fabrics. I don’t know really as I am not an expert on modern fabrics.

The combination is really bold. The choices the person who prepared the kits made a lot of bold choices with these fabrics.

I’ll have to think about whether to put sashing between the blocks or preserve the interesting secondary source that is produced when the blocks are set right next to each other.

Pincushions

I made a couple of pincushions for the raffle baskets that will be up for raffle at BAMQG.

I have decided that I enjoy making these pincushions, so there will be more in my future. I have more of the Sandy Gervaise fabric from the charm pack, so I will make at least one more of these. I have more roving and more pellets, so I think I will make even more from other fabric.

I don’t know if tickets will be available of meetings, but if so, I will let you know.

You might also be interested in my last post on pincushions.

BAMQG Meeting pt.2

One part of the meeting I didn’t write much about Monday was the party part. Kathleen headed up the party committee and the table decorations and food were amazing.

I really like the vase she and Kelly made. It is modern and fun and just a nice centerpiece.

People seemed to like the food. You can see the nice view outside. I really like the trees and the green. The room was a bit warm and the windows didn’t open, but the view was great, especially after the rain stopped.

One of the nice things that happened was that Adrianne acknowledged all of the coordinators. She had everyone who contributed to the success of the guild this year stand up and be thanked. It was an impressive group.

I don’t know how many of these people will continue, but I hope that others will step into their shoes.

We couldn’t do it without Kelly’s big wagon. This is a fold up wagon that holds A LOT! At other meetings she has helped me by carrying some of my stuff into the room. She hauled a lot of stuff for this meeting.

Fat Quarter Swap

I know I did all the fabric-y stuff in the last post. I didn’t have photos of my fat quarters, thought and I wanted to make sure my fabulous swap partner was acknowledged and thanked. Yes, I will write a thank you note, but a nice public note is nice, too.

As I said, I came home with a headache and that ended any thought of additional blog work. I finally did a massive photo shoot and was thrilled with the fabrics that Peggy, my swap partner, picked for me.

She picked out Ty Pennington’s Impressions for me. This isn’t a group I would have chosen for myself, but I like the variety of scales in the pack. I usually don’t buy dark blues, so it is good to see some for a change. My stash of them is low after the Stars for San Bruno quilts.

All in all, a great meeting and a much appreciated guild.

BAMQG December Meeting

The meeting went well. It was held at a different location, because of the crazy traffic last year. I really liked the space around this Library’s community room. The schedule of the meeting had a lot of different parts.

One of the activities was a fat quarter swap. I am terrible at wrapping gifts, which is why I use gift bags. I wanted this package to be pretty. I thought and thought and could not figure out how to be a successful gift wrapper. Friday I took the fabrics down, because I was on a deadline. I had to wrap the gift. I looked at the fabrics and realized that I had chosen fabrics that were pretty and cheerful. I went rummaging through my ribbon stash and found this lovely orange fabric ribbon. I decided to use the fabric as the wrapping. For a wrapping challenged person, I am pleased with the way it turned out.

Peggy was my FQ swap partner and she bought me a set of blue and green fat quarters from the Fat quarter shop. they are really cool looking. She wrapped my group in another piece of fabric.

The packages looked really pretty wrapped up. People did clever things wrapping. I always get ideas and then I can never remember to use the ideas later.

I showed the A-B-C Challenge quilt and back. A few other people brought their finished A-B-C challenge pieces. Michelle and Lynette both brought their pieces and they did a really good job. A lot of us did similar blocks, but with the different arrangements and layouts and fabrics, they all look different. Others brought their blocks. Kathleen worked on her blocks during the sew-in. Rhonda worked on putting sashing on her blocks. I don’t know if we will have enough to finished quilts to enter in the San Mateo County Fair as a group.

I really like the graphic nature of Kathleen’s blocks and fabric choices.

I also showed the cat beds and the Baby blocks quilt I finished for the Charity Girls. I was pleased to see another 6-7 quilts brought in for the charity drive. It is amazing how people keep bringing in quilts that they have finished. It is amazing that everyone works together on getting the quilts finished. I love it.

I forgot to bring the Spiderweb to show, but brought all the parts to baste the Corner Store. I decided I wanted to try and quilt it myself. I want to finish it and the only way that will happen is if I do it myself right now. Rhonda and Deborah helped me baste, which I appreciated so much. They are awesome at basting and that quilt looks good. We used every single safety pin I brought. I could have used more, but it worked with what I had. Perhaps I will quilt it while I am off work over Christmas.

I was really pleased to be able to stay for the sew-in for a little while. I came home with a headache, though, that lingered through yesterday.

BAMQG Meeting

As usual, the meeting was great. Lots of people, quilts and a good demo. For some reason, my camera does not want to take photos when I am out and about. The battery (not fatal) ran out at CQFA and I forgot the spare at home, so I only took a few photos with my phone. Something has to be done about this camera. Perhaps I just need a few new batteries?

Pincushion Swap

I decided to participate in the Pincushion Swap after I spoke with Joanna Figueroa at PIQF. Once I had the pattern and the know-how I picked out the most modern fabrics I could think of and really had a good time making it. I am going to make one for the raffle basket that will be given away at the Holiday party.

There were a lot of really great pincushions. One I was particularly enamored with was a Cathedral window pincushion. I never thought of that pattern before, but a pincushion seems doable. I am not going to make one, but I admired it. There were probably a dozen that were given in. It will be interesting to see what the Kansas City Quilt Guild sends us back.

Donation Quilts

I finished another donation top and back. I had the blocks done over the weekend. When I had a day off on Wednesday I put all the blocks together. I have used sashing before, but I decided to just put all the blocks together next to each other. I like the way it turned out. I like the movement of the squares of color. I almost randomly picked the border fabric, but not quite. I am pleased with how it turned out. It looks cheerful and happy.

For the back I used some more golds. I wanted to make one side a bit calmer. I hope it isn’t dour.

I was hoping for calm, as I said, but I also picked some fabrics that had a bit of color. It is a really different back that front.

I also wanted to clear off my sewing table. I need space next to my sewing machine, which I will probably fill up with other fabric “junk”. 😉 I had cut up a bunch of 2.5″ squares for future donation quilts. I have several left, but am kind of done with the checkerboards. Perhaps not completely, but mostly. I made some blocks with some of the parts I had and will give those to the Charity Girls.

They are kind of fun, but I don’t have enough parts to make a whole quilt with any of the colors. Peggy took them as well as some 2.5′ squares, so it will be interesting to see what she does with them.

I kept enough background fabrics in both grey and white to make another top, but I don’t know what fabrics I will use for the foreground. Jennifer saved me some kits for the Patchwork Wheel block and the next charity quilt I make will be from that pattern. Change of pace, you know.

I posted about the Patchwork Wheel blocks I made a few days ago. I realized as I was packing for the meeting that I had kind of a lot of donation quilts to give in. I posted about the quilt I bound and the Pink & Green donation top I made a week or so ago. It is a good feeling to give.

Peggy made this Cross/Plus quilt for the charity effort as well. I was told that we are up to 99 quilts for the year. I don’t know if the one I turned in bound was counted.

The colors in the photo don’t do it justice. The quilt is a really nice combination of turquoise and scarlet.

I believe that Kathleen made a quilt like this in a swap earlier this year. These may be the leftover or reject blocks from that quilt. If they are rejects, they are perfect in this quilt. I am partial to the color scheme, but I still think that some youngster will like it.

Show & Tell

There was a lot of great show and tell in addition to the pincushions. One of the quilts that I really liked was a from a pattern called Sparkling Cider by All Washed Up quilts. The fabrics used for the packaging doesn’t do it justice. Mallory used Tula Pink’s Plume Collection from a few years ago. I always liked the larger prints in this collection, but didnt’ buy any because they were too large. I am not scared of really large motifs, but I have a lot of them and they are hard to use. there are two blocks in this piece and you can turn the block with the smaller Sawtooth Star different ways to create more movement and achieve balance. One thing I like about the Sparkling Cider pattern is that the blocks are large, but the quilt design is not boring. I am way past large squares in my quilt life. There are some nice renditions on Flickr.

Adrianne's Modern Amish — Adrianne’s Modern Amish

Adrianne saw an advertisement for modern Amish quilts that were needed for a book. The deadline was very short and since publishers require that a quilt not be published anywhere else, including on a blog (I am so totally screwed on this front) that many quilts people had already made were in eligible. Adrianne got inspired and started work on this quilt. She said she didn’t make the deadline, but she finished the quilt and it is a really interesting piece. The negative space is a really interesting shape. This could be made with the Fons & Porter Pyramid ruler.

I know you can see it, but the quilting is horizontal lines across the whole quilt, which looks great.

Alison's baby quilt — Alison’s baby quilt

Alison brought a baby quilt made from fabric from a Malka Dubrowsky’s first hand-dyed looking line, A Stitch in Color. I really like the way it came out. It sounded like she said she did a sort of Jelly Roll technique, but I think she managed it more than the directions for a Jelly Roll Race quilt.

She added in the parallelograms to break up the fabric motifs as well. I like those parallelograms; I think they add a bit of stability to the design as well.

Sew Time

A few of us stayed until the bitter end. Only Alison was doing anything remotely related to sewing. I don’t know what my problem was, but I forgot to bring a hand project. Alison was basting another baby quilt. That girl makes as many baby quilts as I make donation quilts! Rhonda and Kathleen chatted about what items to put in the raffle baskets at the next meeting. Alison and I chatted about the house she is selling in LA (in Glendale) and I put my two cents into the raffle basket conversation as well. It was very pleasant.

Not a lot of people are staying for sew time, which I don’t understand. I love the social aspect. I get a few things done and it is usually pleasant. I think it is a pain to bring the machine for only a couple of hours, but there is plenty of cutting to do in a project, so people could do that. It will be interesting to see if this is just because of the busyness of Fall or if it is a trend.

Even More Doing Good

I decided to try out the 3rd quarter blocks (though I thought they were for the 4th quarter. I am behind – whatever), Patchwork Wheel, for the Charity Girls at BAMQG. The kits I picked up made 2 blocks each and they are quite…exciting? Loud? Wild? blocks. I don’t know which. I kind of like their exhuberance, though.

The square parts were already cut, but I had to make the HSTs. No problem. They included the fabric cut the parts and I drew a line down the middle and sewed. Worked like a charm.

I have to say that I did start putting these together stupidly. Instead of waiting to finish the HSTs and then put the blocks together in 4 patch segments, I sewed allt he squares together and had to put them together in rows. Yes, I could have unsewed, but I didn’t.

They came out well. There is nothing hideous about them.

When I saw the four of them together, i decided I wanted to make an entire top from such blocks just to see how it would turn out. Jennifer is saving some kits for me, so I can make more blocks and sew them together in a quilt.

Yes, the fabrics are wild and crazy, but I think they will be perfect for some kid with a wild streak in her. It hought of making some HSTs for the the project using my Triangle Technique but I am not sure if that would be helpful. Each pair of squares makes 8 HSTs and I think the blocks look better scrappy. I’ll have to see.

I wanted to finish another top before the next meeting , as a result, I have been making yellow and pink checkerboards.

These blocks are really cheerful and I am enjoying making them.

I am doing something a little different with these blocks. After the mosaic result of the pink and green blocks, I decided to be a little more choosy about the pinks and yellows I chose. The pink with the gold rings (upper left block, lower left corner, last row, 2d patch) is about the darkest pink I am using. All of the yellows are light and cheerful. I weeded out some of the Pat Bravo yellows-tending-towards browns for this particular project. There are a couple of pinks that are a bit too light and some different pinks that blend a bit with one of the Pat Bravo yellows, but all-in-all I am happier with how this project is turning out.

At the moment I am out of yellow and need to cut some more before I can make more blocks. I do have some that I sewed together randomly to white, black on white, etc. I could rip those out, but I don’t know if I am that ambitious. We’ll see.

I want to clear off my sewing table of 2.5″ squares and pink and yellow were what I had left. Good thing they go together. I might give away the rest of the squares and move on to something else. We will see.

Finally, I took a photo of the back for the Pink and green donation quilt. These colors are a little darker than the fabrics on the front of the quilt, but they are first quality fabrics that I was not going to use in my own work. I really liked some of them, but the pattern or the colors prevented me from putting them into a quilt. I hope someone will enjoy this back.

Jennifer told me today that the group has made 93 finished quilts for charity this year. I think the one I put the binding on might be 94. I would love to believe that is some kind of record for a guild. Probably not, but I like to think this program was a success. Jennifer and Deborah are rock stars.

Pink & Green Donation Quilt

If you are wondering WTF? then you are with me, because I keep looking at this quilt thinking “what was I thinking?”

This is NOT a horrible quilt. I am not embarrassed to give it to charity. It is not ugly. The workmanship is excellent. Not trying to be arrogant, but I do my best to make well made quilts. One of my biggest pet peeves, in case I didn’t mention it before, is bad workmanship. I could write a whole dissertation on THAT subject, but will spare you at the moment.

I have to admit, though, that it is not my best design work. The problem was I couldn’t figure out completely what was going on. I knew:

I should have been more selective about the shades and tones of the pinks and greens I picked.
I should have picked a 3rd color for the sashing and a 4th color for the cornerstones.
I knew something was wrong so I just put borders on with fabric that was large enough. I stopped worrying about the top being a great design. I actually like the batik border fabric a lot better after I cut it up.

Other than that, I was stumped. Then I listened to Sandy’s podcast on space with her guesthost: ME and think I figured out the problem.

An aside: I listen to all of the podcasts that Sandy and I record. I am cringing less and less. I want to hear what you hear. This episode on Space was a mind bender, even for me and I had been living and breathing the content for months.

Listening to the episode clarified the concept and I was able to figure out the problem with this quilt. In the episode I said that definition of space is “the area the design occupies”(for purposes of the design series) of space. I used the example of a 4’x3′ piece of fabric as space for a quilt. On that background or Picture plane or Space, the maker places his/her objects.

In the case of the donation quilt, the space, which is supposed to surround the objects (shapes in a piece), is confusing. If I had chosen all the same pink fabric, it would be clear that the pink was the background/space in the quilt. Same with the green. I didn’t do either. I just put a bunch of pink and green squares together and sewed for broke.

The donation quilts, such as the pink or the blue or the yellow, where I used the black on white background work a lot better, because it is clear to the viewer what fabric constitutes the space. Even though the black on white fabrics are different prints, it is still clear that those fabrics are the background/space.

I am ok with the quilt, especially now that I think I know the problem. The quilt will still keep a little missy warm. Live and learn.

BAMQG October Meeting

Saturday was the October meeting of the Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild. I know I am late getting this up, but I had to juggle posts around as I was sewing on Sunday instead of writing.

The meeting was fun as usual! The sad part is that I forgot my camera, so I don’t have any of my own photos. I could have taken them with my phone, but just didn’t. Adrianne, the current photographer got the photos up on Flickr pretty quickly, so you may see some.

There are a lot of upcoming events. If you are a member, you can participate in the FQ swap and the pincushion swap. I haven’t decided if I am going to participate in either. I am leaning towards the FQ swap. I want to look at patterns for pincushions as I haven’t made one and I don’t want to commit to something that will come out crappy.

It is also time for new officers. I don’t think anyone signed up, so I am nervous about what will happen. Adrianne will not continue as president. I can’t really blame her. After 2 years, she needs a break and guild needs some new blood. Adrianne has great ideas, but groups, organizations need new leaders to shake things up a bit periodically. I am not really presidential material, so didn’t sign up either. I am still doing the blog (would love to hear your comments over there, BTW!!!), but if you only have time for one comment, comment here at Artquiltmaker. 😉

Someone emailed me and wants to help out with the blog, so I am excited about that! I hope I am not taking candidates away from the leadership of the guild.

A-B-C Challenge

It was the end of the A-B-C Challenge block-making portion of the challenge. We asked people to finish their tops by December and the whole quilt by the beginning of May. Our goal is to enter them into the county fair as a group.

Rhonda was the only other one who showed blocks, the other participants were absent.

Whole Cloth Challenge

Here is the big reveal of all of the quilts. I wrote about my quilt earlier this week. I do have a detail that Adrianne took with her nice, fancy camera.

Charity
I was sad not to see the Charity Girls, Jennifer and Deborah at the meeting. They were both off having lives. I turned in the Froggy Cat Bed, but there weren’t any new cat bed kits to take, so I took some of the Patchwork Wheel block kits and am having some fun with them. I only took two kits, which seem to make a total of 4 blocks. The kits have pretty crazy fabric combinations! Perhaps I will move on from the checkerboard blocks I have been churning out and make some more of these blocks?

At the last possible moment, I also took a quilt that someone quilted to bind. I put the binding on it on Sunday by machine and am trying to decide if I will test sewing the back to the quilt by machine or if I will hand sew it. It is in the hand sewing area now (down by the couch), but I can always bring it up. I have some Aurifil monofilament to try out and this might be the perfect opportunity to try something new.

Whole Cloth

I have to say that I find it very frustrating not to be able to show every little detail of the progress of this piece. I couldn’t stand it any longer and wanted to give you a little peek.

I worked on it on and off all weekend last week. I also put in a few hours during the week, especially on Tuesday, when I was off, and in the evenings last week as well. Yes, I was on a mission to finish this piece by the deadline.

Whole Cloth - Mostly Vase — Whole Cloth – Mostly Vase

That was my plan again this past weekend since it is due next Saturday. When I started stitching on Saturday, I had all of the spirals done, and had, mostly, straight stitching to finish.

There is a lot of starting and stopping and thread sinking required, but I am enjoying this project for some reason.

I was able to finish the top on Saturday after working on it all day. I spent Sunday trimming it, making the binding, machine stitching the binding. After I folded the laundry, I started to hand stitch the binding down. I was pleased that it going very quickly. In an hour or two, I had more than half of the binding stitched. I was too tired to work on it last night, but, perhaps, tomorrow.

I have a slim hope of making the sleeve this week as well. We will see. I can’t forget to prepare the Renewed Jelly Roll Race for the show. It is due on Friday.

September BAMQG Meeting

Once again, BAMQG and CQFA were on the same day. I had a long week and couldn’t make both because of some unexpected tasks that fell on me. I was sorry to miss the CQFA meeting, but I am glad I was able to get in some quilty love today.

TFQ came with me again, as she is visiting, and we spent a lovely 45 minutes chatting on the way down. the meeting had just gotten started when we arrived and there were a ton of announcements. Now people are coming from other guilds to get us to be a part of their activities.

SFQG came to invite us to their show, which will be held in March 2013.
The SCVQA wants to give us a spot in their show to exhibit modern quilts.
Adrianne mentioned the Alden Lane Quilt Show, which will be held September 22-23 I Livermore, CA

We have such an active and fun group!

Charity

We are up to 72 or 73 finished quilts to give to charity this year. Some competitive types want to get us up to 100. I turned in the pink donation quilt this time, but didn’t get the green and pink top done yet, so that will be for next time.

Amanda asked that cat beds be filled full, rather than 3/4s full, but not overstuffed.
Show & Tell

Show and Tell was fairly amazing. Below is the list of quilts that Amanda (secretary) provided to me. I was stunned at the number of quilts and amount of work that were shown today and just had to share.

1. Amanda – 3 quilts: Yellow & Dog/cat print coin quilt; Dark brown and blue/greens wildlife quilt; Cream and purple and muted color quilt. One of the things I like about Amanda’s quilt (right) is the cheddarish color around the edge. It isn’t as bright as cheddar, but is very effective. I think the cheddar is reacting with the browns to soften the quilt a little bit.

I also like the Chinese Coins pattern. This quilt was amazingly flat.

2. Deborah A. – 3 quilts: 1) Vibrant multicolored houses on black background; 2) Kaffe Fasset quilt in pastels; 3) Vibrant batik quilt with the back of Kaffe Fasset fabrics. First of all, using the back of the Kaffe fabrics is a stroke of genius. Mostly what I thought of when I saw this quilt was that it would be a great showcase for my Philip Jacobs fabrics. The blocks are large enough to show a piece of the fabric, but the sashing and cornerstones keep it

3. Cheryl S – 1) vibrant colored baby quilt in squares; 2) Yellow, orange and red and pink zig-zag quilt.

4. Jen A (one of the Charity Girls) – 1)Yellow and blue Out To Sea Quilt; 2) Indie quilt in multi colors

5. Chris C – 1) Handbag in brown and red, blue, yellow, green batiks; 2) Green and white and brown and blue/purple quilt, very modern blocks

6. Claire F – Little bag for her daughter at college and for her roommates.

Peggy's Jelly Roll quilt — Peggy’s Jelly Roll quilt

7. Peggy – Charity Quilt Blocks; 2) Jelly Roll Quilt – Amy Butler Fabrics and white; 3) Back of quilt (black and white); 3) Jelly Roll Race she tried on her own in rows with white borders; 4) back in green and yellow for jelly roll race; 5) Final jelly roll quilt in strip blocks with white sashing; 6) Yellow & white & blue backing. Peggy has been quietly working through her stash. This quilt (right) is her Jelly Roll quilt. She also didn’t like the way it come out, so cut it up and set it differently. I think it looks very Hawaiian. I want to try another Jelly Roll Race quilt. Perhaps I will do it with the new Marmalade line from Bonnie and Camille? We’ll see. I am not sure I am ready to make another diamond quilt if it doesn’t look good.

8. Heather K. – 1) 2 dolls – shy girl in blue and green, and then Zombenstein boy doll; 2) Out to Sea maps

9. Kelly O – 1) Ice dyeing, scarf-sized, 6 pieces; 2) Cover for her tablet in Dr. Who fabric; 3) Doctor Who bag; 4) Dragonfly quilt back and front from Dan Rouse’s class

10. Deborah A (the other Charity Girl) – Converging corners in blue and red and yellow and grey

11. Joe – 1) Winter twister in black and white; 2) Antique Japanese fabric and African fabrics “Patchwork Quilt” in yellows, oranges, blues and maroons; 3) 1871 (House with tree in front, all quilted, black on white).

12. Joy-Lily – Placemats – 1) Pair of Olive Green and mint green; 2) Pair of Gingko leaf surrounding brights; 3) Pair of bright green and pink with gingko leaves

13. Diana L – Pink & Brown roses with green leaves on white background 2) Blocks for the ABC Variable star, underground railroad, wagon tracks (Green, white and black)

14. Lynette – 1) Charity quilt string strips (pieced, quilted and bound it!); 2) Stars in teal and red and white and grey; 3) Pinwheels in red and brown and blue and green on white background, did long arming herself; 4) Blue and purple and grey and bright green stars and hexes 5) ABC blocks Waterwheel, Xs and squares (grey, green and blue)

15. Sara M – Joel Dewberry quilt in pinks and blues and purple

16. Ruth B – 1) Made from patchwork squares that were her mom’s in blues and pinks and teals, 2) Quilt as old as the guild, pieces from the upholstery shop in greens, blues, yellows and browns

17. Jaye – 1) Charity Quilt in pinks with backing in pinks; 2) Jelly roll race cut into diamond, got accepted into New Quilts of Northern California 3) ABC blocks – Rambler; xquartet; Japanese x block; variable star, wampum and underground railroad (in pinks, greens, teals and sashing

18. Michelle – 1) Orange snowball pattern; 2) Green quilt with squares in blue and yellow 4) Placemats in 5) Blocks Union square, windblown square, xquartet, yankee puzzle (in blue and white)

19. Colleen – Charity Quilt in tulips and butterflies – going to a group that gives quilts to kids in foster care

20. Rhonda – two blocks Wyoming valley & X marks the spot (greys, blues and whites

21. Kathleen – Windmill two and the X block (black and white and red)

22. Mary – 1) Tulip charity quilt in retro fabrics 2) Oh Fransson clothesline quilt in oranges and grey; 3) Jelly Roll Race quilt in polka dots

23. Erin – Whole Cloth challenge, hand-quilted, with several different colors of threads on taupe on one side, green on the other.

24. Mallory – 1) Tula Pink birds and bees quilt in plus pattern 2) Zig Zag quilt with brown, pinks, white and maroons; 3) Plume quilt on white for a baby; 4) Momo quilt on white; 5) Art Gallery picnic quilt in greys, teals, pinks and purples; 6) Plus blocks with wide mint-green expanse of solid with white circles on it

A-B-C Challenge

You might be wondering why I am writing about my A-B-C Challenge blocks when the BAMQG meeting was definitely not yesterday.

First, I am sewing pretty slowly lately and I am short on things to write about. Yes, you will see some more book reviews. 😉

More importantly, Rhonda finished all of her blocks. Yes, all of them, through Z. She sent a message to us saying she was done and I thought that I had better get busy. I had been thinking about finishing them all anyway. Finishing all of the blocks will buy me time later. Who knows how long figuring out the &^%$ sashing will take?

Yes, all of my blocks are done.

Yes, there are more than 26, because I made some bonus blocks. What the heck?

The first block I sewed over the weekend was the Ninja Throwing Star, according to Sandy of Quilting for the Rest of Us, Darla of Scientific Quilter, and Gretchen (@mafiretones) of 120 Blocks. It is actually my X block and the official name, according to Around the Block is X Quartet. It does look like a Ninja Throwing Star and once I caught up with their Twitter hijinks, I thought their jokes about wrapping myself in black Jelly Rolls and wandering around throwing the X Quartet were pretty funny.

X Quartet was a pretty straightforward block to put together and I like the way the color combination came out. And, I have to admit, it does kind of look like a Ninja Throwing Star.

I really wanted to make the Japanese X block that Kathleen combined to make into a pillow for the Pillow Swap challenge at BAMQG for X. I was nervous that the other participants would call me out since the block doesn’t technically start with X, so I decided to make it as a bonus block. I really like the design and want to explore it a little more in the future.

I have been trying to use more of the Zoe Pearns dots to create some continuity in the blocks. I don’t know if it is working, but the blocks, in general, are looking quite cheerful.

I skipped Y at first and went straight to Z. Y and Z are difficult blocks, mostly because not a lot blocks have names that start with Y or Z. I didn’t see any that I liked that started with Z. I thought about Zanzibar, the block from Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr that I resized and used for the FOTY 2009 quilt.

Been there done that, so I looked around to see if there were any other options. I found a printout from the Judy Martin site of a quilt made from a block called Zipper. It has a little different look than the other blocks I have made, namely because of the lack of HSTs, but I made it anyway. I like the way it came out.

Then I got to Y.

Y was a problem.

The first problem was finding a block I wanted to do. The next problem was making it. There are a lot of Yankee something or other quilt blocks. None of them really spoke to me. I had books opened to sections on Y blocks all over my workroom. Finally, I decided on Young Man’s Fancy. It has a nice propeller look in the center and I am not scared by long, thin, pointy triangles.

Young Man's Fancy: Fail — Young Man’s Fancy: Fail

I should have been, because I had no idea what I was doing with this block. No matter what I did, this block would not go together. Remember: I am making 6″ blocks, so I am sure the size had something to do with my problems.

Finally, I gave up.

The thing I did like about this block is the outside row of squares. The colors are grouped so that two pinks are in two corners and two greens are in the two other corners. I like the way that looks and will keep it in mind for future blocks. The suggested coloration had the border squares of this block colored in that way.

So, I was back to the Yankees. I just picked one, which turned out to be Yankee Puzzle, made it and moved on.

I have to say that my favorite color combination in all of the blocks is the color combination in Yankee Puzzle. That fun pink (may be called Lipstick) coupled with the dark, but cheerful greenish blue are awesome. You can see, from the photo at the top, that I have used this color combination a lot.

After Yankee Puzzle I had one open spot left in a 5 block x 6 block layout. As an aside, I am not sure why I picked that layout. I put all the blocks up on the design wall and I thought it looked good, so I went with that layout.

The last block I decided to do was the Rambler. The X of Flying Geese stuck in my mind as I looked through block dictionaries. I also liked the way the Flying Geese were sort of backwards.

The layout of the patches reminds me of something (a gift?), but I can’t think what. I especially like the way the first Flying Goose highlights the square-in-a-square in the middle.

This block has a lot of scope for imagination, as Anne Shirley would say, I think. I may make more of the for another project, but larger next time.

I have a vague recollection of a car called Rambler, but I don’t think my parents ever owned one.

I thought I would get a lot farther, but the Young Man’s Fancy and the Rambler took me a long time. I wanted to make some progress on the sashing, but only was able to sash one block.

The grey looks dark in the photos, but it doesn’t look dark in real life. It looks perfect. I am considering buying a whole bolt of that fabric.

You might think the sashing is wide, but I purposefully made it wider than the ratio calls for so I could trim all the blocks to the same size. Most are about 6 1/4″, but there are a couple that are nearing 7″. I think it has to do with me trying to figure out the math for quick piecing HSTs. I am thinking I will trim them all to 8″ and then put one of the red dots from the sashing post in between the grey of the sashed blocks.

I like all the blocks, but some of the fabric choices could be better. There are a couple of blocks that I may remake. I’ll think about it and see.