BAMQG – Page 48 – Artquiltmaker Blog

July BAMQG Meeting

I have to admit that with everything that is going on I almost bailed on the meeting. It was a bit strange to have the BAMQG meeting in the middle of a long weekend. It was also a nice diversion. I am really glad I went. Kelly and Patti helped me with my Accuquilt Go! 2.5″ square die, I chatted with Kathleen about the next block challenge, caught up with the Charity Girls and dove into cat bed land by taking a catbed kit to make.

BAMQG Block Design Contest

You know I love a good block.

This is similar to the QuiltCon Block Design Contest. Ruth organized a block design challenge for the guild. I sent off my QuiltCon Blocks (there will be a post about them later), but I turned in my BAMQG Blocks yesterday.

Some of the blocks are from the Block-a-Long or modified from blocks I designed for that project. I haven’t made all of those Block-a-Long blocks, so I was glad to have the opportunity to do so.

I found the colors for the QuiltCon challenge to be quite limiting.The BAMQG challenge was even more limiting, but I made it work.

I am pleased with the way all of the blocks turned out despite the challenge of the color choices.

One thing that was on my mind throughout the challenge was the asymmetry mentioned on the Modern Quilt Guild website. I didn’t want to design Liberated blocks like Gwen Marston creates, but I did want a sporting chance, especially with the QuiltCon blocks, so I tried to add some asymmetry.

I have named this block #3, but I actually made it first. This one only has asymmetry in the coloration, not in the placement of the patches. I couldn’t help myself in that there is some good in symmetry, I think.

Sadly, my great work looks crappy next to the other blocks that people made. Not that my points don’t match or my technique is bad, but their design work was awesome.

Ruth's QuiltCon Block Challenge Block — Ruth’s QuiltCon Block Challenge Block

I am absolutely NOT saying this in an “oh poor me” kind of way. I am saying this, because Ruth’s creativity is something to which I want to aspire. I love the way she has used different fabrics in this piece, especially the grey. This block might look dated in a few years, but the dynamism and movement of the design will trump the fabrics. I would love to see a whole quilt made of this block. I am so thrilled for Ruth and excited to see her development as a quiltmaker.

Ruth’s block also reminds me of the ‘pushed neutral’ concept I learned back in the dark ages from Mary Mashuta. Essentially, the quiltmaker uses more than one fabric for the background in order to add interest. Ruth has done this in her block, though the greys are much bolder than Mary Mashuta imagined when I learned this concept. The boldness does add movement and interest to the piece.

People’s blocks for the BAMQG part of the challenge all look good together. The star at the bottom implies the BAMQG logo, which was clever. My attempt at asymmetry falls a bit flat in light of the asymmetry that others created. Perhaps my blocks will provide some resting space for people’s eyes?

One of the cool things about seeing the two different groups of blocks is that people who made blocks for both challenges often used the same block. I love seeing the different colors used in the same block.

The blocks also look really good together.

Rhonda had a bit of a vacation theme going in the work that she showed today. Her block is the glass of lemonade with the umbrella sticking out. There was discussion about whether it was lemonade or a margarita.

In some other work Rhonda showed appeared palm trees. I hope she has a beach vacation planned. 😉

Speaker: Terri Thayer

I have known Terri for a long time, have her books and have been to meetings and retreats with her. I have never heard her speak and it was a distinct pleasure. She talked about her quilts and the development of her writing career. I was especially interested in that part. She mentioned a writing group and I am going to look into it so I can get my novel going again.

A-B-C Challenge

Lots of block making went on during the past month. In addition to the BAMQG challenge, the A-B-C Challenge continues and I made my two blocks, of course, Simple Flower Basket and True Blue.

As I mentioned earlier, I needed another basket block, so Simple Flower Basket did the trick for me. I just like the shape of True Blue, so I made it.

People are still working on their blocks, but I think there was a smaller group of blocks this time. Vacations and such, I am sure. We are hoping that people will finish their quilts so that we can enter them as a group in the San Mateo County Fair in 2013. We have 6 people working on quilts, but that number leaves no wiggle room for “life events.” Fingers crossed!

The blocks look really nice. I brought something to work on, but focused on talking with people and found out some interesting things about the way people are thinking about their A-B-C blocks.

Michelle, intelligently, planned out all the blocks she was going to make when she started. Using only two fabrics is a real challenge, so it was smart of her to take the time to plan out the blocks. Some blocks simply need a 3rd fabric and that wouldn’t work with her idea.

Her blue and white diagonal grid blocks (upper right hand corner) is interesting and cool.I wonder what it would look like in a quilt with fabrics gradated from light to dark. The lights could blend into the background and then appear somewhere in the middle of the quilt.

I have to say that one of the great things about this challenge is that I get to see a lot of different blocks.

Angela was back with her Hawaiian print blocks.

Rhonda is diligently catching up and making current blocks. Diana, as well.

I really got a shot in the arm at this meeting. Nothing special happened, but I felt good when I left. I felt excited and like I had my equilibrium back.

June BAMQG Meeting Notes

I am just back from the meeting and it was a crazy meeting! Crazy in a good, packed and exciting sort of way. Julie of Intrepid Thread brought me a giant (did I really buy that much??) package of fabric. At this writing I haven’t opened it yet. I know the Vintage Modern is in there. I’ll have to get started on that second Stepping Stones quilt soon.

A-B-C Challenge Blocks

These are my A-B-C Challenge blocks. Both blocks are from the Around the Block series. There was only one block that started with ‘Q’ in the whole series (that I could find). In EQ7, there isn’t really a way that I found to search successfully by the first letter of a block name. Later I went to Quilter’s Cache and the owner has several blocks there as well. None of them are 6″, though, so I would have had to resize one.

I like this block well enough, especially in the 6″ size, so it worked out. Kathleen did the same block in the 12″ size so you can see the difference. It would make a great exercise in negative space. I will think about making several to demonstrate negative space for the upcoming design series podcast on that topic.

I am having a very hard time with the Pure Elements Empire Yellow. I used it in the above ‘Q’ block as the background. Pat Bravo says that it goes with everything. I am not so sure. I am using it, because I have a limited number of fabrics to use and it does add an element of interest. Still, I am just not sure I would use it in another project.

I also brought my blocks for May, which I talked about in the last BAMQG post. There were only a few blocks this time – Leslie, Kathleen, Rhonda and I. Rhonda is catching up so she included her C & D blocks as well.

QuiltCon/BAMQG Block Challenge

Blocks for both challenges are due in July. There was just a brief mention at the meeting. I thought they were due in July (BAMQG) and August (QuiltCon). Something must have changed. I have a block or two for the BAMQG challenge done. I think I will just send in my QuiltCon blocks myself. We’ll see. Perhaps I’ll just do them and move on. If you are interested in participating the QuiltCon blocks have to arrive by August 15, 2012. See the QuiltCon Directions/information to get all the info.

Workshop!!!!

I was excited to hear that BAMQG’s first workshop ever is coming up!!! It is a dyeing workshop with Joy-Lily. As you know, I don’t dye, but if you want to participate, check out the BAMQG blog for contact info. Space is limited.

QuiltMarket Report

Julie and Adrianne spent 3 bliss-filled days at Quilt Market in Kansas City. They brought back stories, catalogs, fabric to fondle (not for us to buy or take!) and their enthusiasm. Someone asked if they ate BBQ and they said they did.

I didn’t have much of a chance to look at the stuff they brought back, but what I did see what interesting. Not sure what I’ll buy in terms of new fabrics, but we will see.

They talked a little about what was coming and what they saw:

Trends:

nautical themes
butterflies
magazines: GenQ’s new issue came out in a small format (think Ellery Queen Mystery magazine size), because they said they had printing problems. The content reflects what has been showing up on their Facebook page. Amy and David Butler are coming out with a new magazine called Blossom, which will pull in many of their creative friends and include non-quilt related artwork.

Fabric:

Michael Miller has new fabric laminated on the inside. I can’t quite picture this, but Julie said it would be good for diaper covers and shopping bags.
Amy Butler’s new Cameo line looked amazing to Adrianne and Julie
FreeSpirit’s new lines have a very sophisticated look
Robert Kaufman had adjunct color cards which have their new colors
Moda has Brigitte’s ZenChic

Demos

Today’s demo is the beginning of a 4 part series loosely around the idea of making a quilt. The series includes:

Design (June 2012 meeting)
Piecing (August 2012 meeting)
Quilting (September 2012 meeting)
Binding (November 2012 meeting)

I gave a short demo on design. You can see the Design Overview from when Sandy and I did our podcast, but I will post some new notes with some changes on the BAMQG blog soon.

Swap

“A Stud & a Dud” went forth with much hilarity. I did not participate. I didn’t know that there would be stealing going on and I don’t really like activities where that happens. The reality was that I just didn’t have time to organize myself and get some books together. There was choosing and swapping and stealing that all went on. I think the library where we meet benefited from some donations as well. Thanks to Amanda for organizing the swap. She is really a creative swap organizer.

Show & Tell

As usual, Show & Tell was great. There is so much good work happening in this area!

Right is Sheetal’s quilt. I encouraged her to finish out the pluses into the border. I think this is a great pattern for large prints. The question was about the fabrics. They are flannel and she hasn’t washed them. She wasn’t sure if she could get more of the same fabrics again (they are old Anna Maria Horner fabrics), but she liked the idea of continuing the motifs out to the border and will try.

We talked about another quilt of hers that she made from old shirts. I really liked it as it was and she did, too, but her husband complained that it wasn’t large enough. I think we decided that not all of her quilts had to keep his 6’4″ frame warm and toasty.

Jennifer made this quilt (left) with 10 fat quarters. It isn’t very large (large lap or nap quilt, definitely bigger than a baby quilt), but it isn’t tiny either. It makes me think of how much fabric is really in a fat quarter, a half yard, a yard and…. I don’t think I want to go there.

Jennifer’s quilt is really effective. I like the movement, which I think is partly the fabric choices. There is something about the pieces interlocking with each other that I think would be fun to play with.

Jennifer does so much for the Charity project that I was really glad to see that she is able to do her own work as well.

Kathleen’s Liberated top is somewhat of a departure for her. She said it was the first piece in this style that she has made.

It is wall sized. She explained the exercise (online) and it sounded like a lot of fun, but also lot of frustration, too. She didn’t know what was coming, so it was hard to make design decisions about the part on which she was working. I think it sounds like a good exercise, but you have to be willing to go back and change elements that would make the design better. It sounds like she is going to do that for a couple of the parts and I look forward to seeing how this turns out.

I didn’t make a note of who made this quilt (so sorry!), but I really like the design. I can imagine it with fabrics placed a little differently so it would look even more woven than it already does.

I definitely get the feeling that I am looking through some kind of lattice or bamboo screen.

Notice the equilateral triangles? I love those, as you know. 😉

Door Prizes

WOW! There were a ton of door prizes! I won a book, but there were charm packs, fabric, patterns – all kinds of things. Thanks to Angela for her hard work.

Charity Quilts

Jennifer was there with her well prepared table of packets and prepared fabric. There were at least 5 tops and one finished quilt handed in. The guild members are amazingly generous with their time, materials and enthusiasm. These quilts will be filled with good energy when the children receive them.

Amanda made the top with the circles. It is fabulous. One of the things I like about it is the 4 rows of squares in the middle. There are a lot of possibilities using that element. My mind is swirling around that element.

Donation Blocks Galore

I am still having an inordinate amount of fun making these simple blocks. What is it about them?

I brought out the Accuquilt Go! cutter over the long weekend and cut a bunch of larger squares I had been saving into 2.5″ squares. All pink all the time. Yes, I am going to make a pink top for some wonderful child. I hope s/he likes pink, because none of my nieces or nephews do and I have a lot of pink.

As you can see, I did cut up some slightly larger squares to make 2.5″ plain background squares. I’ll have to see if that block fits in with the other blocks that have black on white fabrics.

The Charity Girls at BAMQG have put out a new block design. I know they want to keep people interested, but I am still interested in this block. They said they would keep taking these blocks, so I will keep making them. I am doing to keep these pink ones and put the top together myself.

I am still cutting 2.5″ squares when I do my normal “new fabric” cutting, so I have other colors besides pink as well. I will give these non-pink blocks in so someone else can work on them.

I found a few different blues, so I cut some squares out of them to work with.

One of the fun things about this project is putting the squares together in different ways. In the blue block, I probably should not have put the two solids in the same row. Fortunately, in the grand scheme, it probably won’t matter much. This blue blocks looks rather cheerful, I think.

I have a lot of the same fabrics for the pink blocks, because I cut up large enough pieces of fabric to make 9 2.5″ squares.

I did dig out some scraps that were large enough to make some 2.5″ squares out of. I was surprised since TFQ cannibalized my scrap bins quite efficiently. The few different fabrics will add interest and the similar fabrics will provide cohesion. That is what I am telling myself anyway. 😉

In the back of my mind I am planning to use all of the black on white fabric I bought for the Flower Snowball. It is a lot, because I will never learn just how little fabric a quilt really needs, especially if I use the fabric for one piece in the quilt. We’ll see if I actually use it all. I like the black and white as background. It prevents me from going to buy more background fabric.

Enjoy!

BAMQG May Meeting

I went to the CQFA meeting today, but not BAMQG. 🙁 , I know. Too much family stuff going on and I needed at least a few hours off. We have more tomorrow, so choices had to be made. I miss the BAMQG people. I really thank Angela for bringing a bunch of stuff to the meeting for me.

A-B-C Challenge

I made the O and the P blocks for the A-B-C Challenge.

I am pretty pleased with the way these blocks turned out. They are the first blocks I chose based on what type of blocks I need to finish the quilt. The Peace & Plenty block goes well with the Electric Fan while the Ocean Wave goes well with the King’s Crown in terms of shape and style.

Q and R are next month. I hope there is something good for Q!

Donations

Angela agreed to drop off the Blue Donation quilt I made so somebody can quilt it.

I also finished the back yesterday. I made the back from the cut off edges of the Stars for San Bruno quilts. I could only find enough of those large strips to finish about half of a back, but decided to just bite the bullet, pull from my stash and finish it. I had pulled out some fabrics last weekend, but didn’t think there was enough. There was one big piece that started the finishing process off and that piece made the back nearly large enough. All I had to do was put a couple more inches on two sides and, unless someone plans to longarm the quilt, I was good to go.

The back is one of my usual pieced backs, but not very ‘modern.’ I hope they don’t mind. It is what it is.

I also had a few donation blocks, but not very many. I felt bad about that until I realized I had put a whole quilt AND Frankenbatting AND back together! Now I don’t feel bad and I am moving forward on the next donation piece!

I decided I wanted to work with pink. I actually have been cutting pieces for a pink quilt for awhile, but I want to work with pink for a donation quilt. I am sure there are some girly girls out there who will appreciate it. I am prepping pinks to cut into 2.5″ squares to combine with the black on white fabrics. I am interested to see how those blocks will look. Hope the Charity girls don’t mind my experimentation. 😉

Kona quilts

The group is entering Kona challenge quilts into the Fair as a group, so Angela took my Kona challenge quilt to the meeting as well. Amanda kindly agreed to drop it off for me. I have to do the paperwork, though. AND I need to do the paperwork NOW!

I wanted to enter something into the Fair and this is as good a thing as any. Perhaps I will still get the parking passes.

I am off to sew. I am determined to finish the latest Swoon block today and perhaps get started on those pink donation blocks. Have a great rest of your day!

Blue Donation Quilt

Last weekend I finished the Blue Donation top that evolved from blocks into an actual top.I am pretty pleased with the way it came out. Chunking made this go together really well.

Last night I made a Franken-batting for it and started a back, but I don’t think I will finish the back. We’ll see.

This is for the BAMQG Charity project. Although it is not completely finished, I am putting it in MY finished category, because someone else will take over the quilting and binding.

BAMQG April Meeting

The BAMQG Meeting was yesterday. There hasn’t been a meeting since the February meeting, so people were anxious to see each other. TFQ thought there were about 35 people at the meeting. Sara reported about 50 members total. Adrianne was sick, so she didn’t make it and we missed her smiling face. Kathleen did a great job standing in. It was good practice for when she is Prez next year. 😉

A-B-C Challenge

We had the big reveal of the A-B-C Challenge blocks and they are great. this time we were asked not to bring all the blocks as the “design wall overfloweth” — heh! — just the ones for the past two months (K-N). My March blocks were King’s Crown and Lincoln. My April blocks were May Basket and Northwind. Now I have to get busy with O & P. I have O selected, but not P. We’ll see what Around the Block has to say about P blocks!

Whenever I see what others have made, I want to make more blocks. I like Kathleen’s Jester (don’t know real name) block (top left) and Rhonda’s Kansas Dugout block (bottom right, circle-ish).

I hope we have another block challenge when this one is done. I was trying to think of what would be good parameters for another block challenge. In my mind, a good block challenge would have some constraints, but not so many that people couldn’t make what they wanted. I thought of blocks based on a 9 patch or 4 patch grid, but haven’t thought of anything else.

Swaps and Challenges

Both the Echo and the Pillow Swap were due on Saturday. People did GREAT work. I especially noticed it on the pillows. The work made my Teacher pillows look sad. There were zippers and covered buttons and piping and ruffles, etc. I was impressed and glad I didn’t participate, because my pillows would not have looked nearly as good as these. I was so pleased to see people doing their best work.

Joy-Lily used one of the patterns from her book, Carefree Quilts, for the pillow she made. One of my favorites was the pillow that Amanda received. I liked the block (the maker used 4 of them) the maker used to make the pillow. It has that Lozenge shape I have been thinking about.

My camera is acting up and this photo does not do justice to Marci’s awesome work. Her personal challenge this year is the Storm at Sea block. She said she used every scrap of the challenge fabric and other bits from her stash. Marci did not buy any fabric for this challenge.

Someone brought a journal cover for the Echo challenge. I wanted to see it closer, but unfortunately she left before I could talk with her.

Show & Tell

Kathleen showed the blocks for this quilt before. She made them in a Flickr Swap and it has taken her awhile to put them together. I really like the way this quilt turned out. She said she won’t put a border on it, but will bind it in orange. The blocks were wonky 9 patch blocks. I really like the setting. They don’t look like wonky 9 patches. I think I need to sew faster, because I just thought I would like to do something like this.

A number of people said that they were very productive, but had already sent off their finishes to their swap partners from Flickr or other sites. This reminds me of doing swaps when the Internet first became available.

Claire was inspired by my pencil rolls to make to make a sewing tools holder. She did a really clever job with the top. She added a kind of elasticized cover to the top so that the tools wouldn’t fall out.

Sew Time

I have been a slacker about the binding for Stars for San Bruno #3. I am so close and yet, I have have been working on the Flowering Snowball during my hand sewing time instead of the binding. SO I brought only the Stars for San Bruno #3. I did not have anything else to work so I had to work on the binding and when I wasn’t chatting I made some progress. I sewed down the binding on one whole side and just rounded a corner before it was time to pack up. Being int he groove, I also worked on it in the evening. Still not done, but I want those quilts out of my hair and I want a finish, so I am going to get myself in gear.

We stopped at Nancy’s after the meeting and had some cocktails and cocktail snacks. Nancy and I need to hop back on the Tsukineko ink bandwagon soon.

Donation Blocks Again

I made a few more donation blocks in between another project I am working on. I know I said this, but I enjoy making these blocks so much. I have only two more blue blocks to make until I have enough blocks to make a large enough Donation quilt.

Donation Blocks

This has been a great couple of months for donation blocks. I made a few more the past few days in between sewing for the Renewed Jelly Roll Race. I am unreasonably pleased with these blocks. I find them so fun to make. I am not sure why. The only thing I can think of is that there is an opportunity to play with a bit of color.

Tother thing is that they go together so quickly using Bonnie K. Hunter‘s Leaders and Enders method. My only stumbling block right at the moment is I am out of the kits the Charity Coordinators made, so I am cutting my own patches from scraps and I seem to be constantly short of the right color or background. I used some various black on white prints for the blue block above and hope that will be ok and not ruin the look the Charity Coordinators are going for. I am about to get out my Accuquilt Go! 2.5″ square die and cut a bunch of backgrounds for future use.

This block has a weird background, because I took the photo on my bathroom rug. As hideous as the carpet is in my workroom, it does make a fairly inoffensive background for my photos. We had a fairly dramatic shower of sparks which heralded the demise of the overhead light in my workroom. I have some task lighting, but the floor was just too dark for photos. The bathroom floor is small black and white tile, which, I thought, would have been too busy.

Yes, it is a brown block. The boys need quilts, too, and brown works for them. Green and blue, too, I imagine. This fabric is from the scraps of the back of FOTY 2011. I tried to get some of the words for these squares, because I like words on quilts. Letters (as in the snailmail kind) are even better.

These greens are, mostly, more boyish also, if boys can be pigeon-holed into liking certain colors.The Young Man adores red, not the greyed or browned down reds, but scarlet-type reds.

The blue blocks are definitely the ones I will make the most of, but it is nice to make some other blocks in different colors as well.

The one yellow-green (with the x-es) looks quite out of place in this block. I am glad there is another slightly yellow-green square in it (upper left hand corner) so that it is looks a bit like it goes. I am not ripping it out.

You will see some of the same fabrics in this second blue block as you saw int he first one. I hope that the Charity Coordinators will receive enough blue blocks with different fabrics to mix my blocks into different quilts.

I did fussy cut a bit on this one, in order to get that cherry and whipped cream into the patch rather than in the seam allowance. I thought it would be fun.

I have a small stack of squares waiting to be sorted into color groups. I try not to duplicate a fabric in the same block unless all or most of the fabrics are the same. I also have lots of scraps to be cut. I am trying to decide if I should cut larger scraps into 2.5″ squares so I have more patches to use or if I should continue to cut one or two squares out of scraps and leave the rest of the scrap for another project?

I had an incorrectly cut hexagon from the Flower Sugar Hexagon quilt, so I measured and found it would yield one 2.5″ patch. I needed a green patch, so I cut it. Nice to have fabrics from a variety of projects show up in these blocks.

I think I have made 11 donation blocks so far in the past two months. I have one more close to being finished and I have at least another week before the meeting. I think that could be a whole quilt. If I had a wish, it would be that people did not need to be comforted by the quilts I am helping to make.

Donation Blocks

These are the latest blocks I made from the BAMQG kits the Charity Co-Coordinators put together. I wasn’t able to get kits of all the same colors, but I think these look nice.

I also cut some 2.5″ squares from scraps of my own as I worked on some other projects. I am trying to cut 2.5″ squares from scraps and fabrics I am working with, so that I can contribute more to the donation effort at BAMQG.

I was able to make 2 blocks from my own scraps. I like the blue.

BAMQG February Meeting

The Bay Area Modern Meeting was yesterday and fun as usual. There is much talk of the upcoming retreat and also of the recent Sew Day. 46 people, the most EVER!, attended the meeting and the group had its first ever speaker. Lots of firsts.

A-B-C (A-Z) Challenge

We displayed our A-B-C Challenge blocks. Mine are Jewel Box and Indian.

There are about 7-8 participants. Diana just joined by doing one block and Jennifer joined, doing a-J (minus I). I really like this challenge. It is great that I have a reason to make a block every month (not that I really need an excuse).

Angela brought two Hawaiian blocks (far left). I love it that she is doing these blocks in Hawaiian fabrics. Most people don’t use Hawaiian fabrics as regular fabrics for regular blocks.

Michelle is doing her blue and white blocks (also far left). We are getting so far along in the project that not all of us were able to put up all of our blocks and Michelle was one of them. It occurred to me that she might have the hardest job of all since not all possible blocks are suitable for two colors.

Kathleen’s blocks are still the black, white and red ones. She is doing a good job choosing how much print to put into each block.

Jennifer is using the Lazy Girl ruler for her blocks (middle with all the points). She has just started the challenge and is catching up.

My blocks are on the top right. Lynette’s are the grey and green on the bottom right. I like the way Lynnette’s blocks have an on point sort of look. Many of them have half square triangles in the corners. She made a Glacier Bay block as well and it is really great to see how different it looks from mine. She uses fussy cutting in her blocks and the technique in Glacier Bay is particularly effective.

Speaker

Joy-Lily brought books, Carefree Quilts, and quilts to her talk. The quilts she brought were all from her book, so we didn’t get a sense of the evolution of her work. She organized the talk to coincide with sections of the book, which was a good idea, especially if one had the book and could follow along. A clever portion of the book is that if you make all the blocks you end up with an extra block from each of the projects with which you can make a sampler quilt. Joy-Lily had someone else make the sampler quilt and the maker did a great job. I really like the colors.

All the quilts from the book are all kind of wonky. Joy-Lily doesn’t think that people can do perfect matching seams and has written her book to that end.

The Leaf quilts are very inspired and I think that that block is one of my favorites from the book.

Sewing Time
Adrianne was a madwoman (in a good way!) on getting us to our sewing time. We were done with show and tell at 3:05 and everyone started moving tables, setting up machines and working away. I sat with Chris and TFQ and worked on the border test I have been wanting to do for a long time. Chris and TFQ were both working on hand projects. TFQ is handquilting a lovely quilt (which I forgot to photograph) with Perl cotton. Chris is working on an art piece where she is couching down some threads that have, what look like, little flowers on them. Again, I was so wrapped in my own project that I didn’t take a photo. Perhaps she will post to her blog.

I wish I had gotten a photo of the little sewing pod in the middle of the room. Ruth, Adrianne, Kathleen and bunches of other people were set up there. Such a buzz of activity! It was wonderful.

Charity Quiltmaking

Deborah and Jennifer collected bunches of more fabric and quilts and other necessities for the charity quilts the group is making for the NICU at Stanford. I can’t be too upset about the lack of a Cal connection, because it feels good to be helping children and their families in need. I posted the 16 patch blocks I made yesterday. The selection of fabric packets wasn’t stellar, but I retrieved 4 more batches of fabric, but I also spoke to Jennifer about the background. She said any white is fine. I have some white-on-whites that I will use with some of my scraps to make my own blocks. I gave them most of the Pineapple blocks that were the wrong size, so I can, now, cross that off the 26 Projects list.

I realized that one reason I enjoy working on this project with the BAMQG people is that Deborah and Jennifer are so kind and serene about the whole endeavor. I am not sure if those are the right words, but I know that they express genuine gratitude with donations and they do not harangue or guilt people into participating. They are also really well organized and the 16 patch block they selected, as I am sure I have said before is a stroke of genius. I have never felt like I am really contributing to a charity project as I do with this one. I also feel like it is fun. All in all a very good experience.

Jennifer and Deborah have a goal of 24 quilts in mind for this year, but they think they will surpass that. They already have 6 quilts, including one that I donated, the Crazy Quilt Test. I meant to send it to Japan after the earthquake, but somehow it never made it.

January BAMQG Meeting

The BAMQG meeting was yesterday. I was lazy and didn’t blog as much for them over the holidays as I should have. I blame the cold I had. I am having a hard time getting back into the swing.

Thanks for your Service

The 2011 Officers did a great job. I kind of nudged people to get some gifts together. People really ran with the idea, which was great.

A few people made bags and everyone else added little bibs and bobs to create nice gift bags. It was nice not to make all the bags and I enjoyed seeing the different patterns and fabrics that the bag makers used.

I made the purple bag which ended up with Kathleen. The bits and pieces were nice to look at. Rhonda had put together the parts that we solicited from other members.

Some of the things in the bags were pins, fat quarters, needle cases, the Joen Wolfrom Design ratio tool, disappearing pen, grip dots, scarves, machine sewing needles, Invisigrip and many other fun things.

Ruth and Adrianne were really busy and I wasn’t able to get photos of their gift bags. Check the BAMQG blog and perhaps I will be able to post some photos there.

A-B-C Challenge

We have five participants who brought blocks for the A-B-C Challenge this time. Angela was too busy to make her Hawaiian versions, but I am sure she will bring some next time. 😉

Some people brought both G and H, others brought G, some of us brought all of our blocks. Kathleen and I have done a number of the same blocks and it is fun to see how different they look in the different sizes and fabrics.

This is my G block for the A-B-C Challenge. It is called Glacier Bay and is from Around the Block Again by Judy Hopkins (pg.68). It is also a 6″ block and I cut nearly every piece a little bigger and then trimmed. It still came out a bit wonky, but I like the general effect. I think it would make a really cool secondary pattern if I put many of them together.

I don’t remember ever seeing this block before. Lynette has the 501 Rotary Cutting Blocks version of Around the Block, which I thought had ALL the blocks from the three books, but Glacier Bay was not in it.

I am really like this challenge as it allows me to make one block rather than a whole something every month. Kathleen wants to speed the challenge up a bit, so we will be doing two letters each month for the rest of the year. Next month are I and J.

I am resolved to make the blocks sharpish rather than waiting. I have even thought of making the rest of the alphabet all at once and being done with it. I have a sashing idea that I got from Pam. I am thinking about starting adding the sashing as I go along so that I won’t have to do all the cutting at once. We’ll see.

Question of the Month

Rhonda creates the QotM and this month it was: “What are your quilt resolutions?” Most were normal resolutions about finishing and curbing buying, but some were really interesting. I wrote them out as people said. These aren’t my resolutions, necessarily.

use more than I buy
finish one project before starting another
buy less fabric
use scraps to make scrap quilts
finish virtual swaps and bees projects
teach
quilt one per month on the longarm
take sewing machine to be serviced
end year with 5 fewer UFOs than the year started with
improvise
organize so sewing does not take over house
make something from solids
stop fearing binding
make one charity quilt
bring something to show and tell
spend more time with real people than with sewing machine
trust the experience I am feeling
don’t buy fabric I don’t like
make husband a quilt
documenting quilts (labels and such)
be liberated and wonky
use orange and yellow
start a quilt/craft blog
make mom a quilt
try curved piecing
re-sort/organize fabric
finish husband’s quilt
plan less and do more

Charity Quilts

Art Gallery Fabrics offers a bag of scraps free for people who will be using the scraps to make charity/donation quilts. Contact Pat Bravo for details. I don’t have her email address, but Art Gallery has a page on FB so, perhaps, you can inquire there.

Deborah made a version of Elizabeth Hartman’s Mod Mosaic quilt with scraps (quite large scraps, actually) from Pat Bravo. What a nice idea.

Two quilts were finished. A very large number of the postage stamp kits from the December meeting were turned into blocks and returned. I only took one kit last time, but took several during this meeting.

Schnibbles for Cat Beds

Sadly, Amanda has too many scraps and will hold off taking any more until she has made more cat beds. She said that her garage is being overrun. She really needs help making the actual cat beds.

Angela and I were able to spend a few minutes chatting. I spent a lot of the sewing time chatting and looking at what other people were doing. I couldn’t be bothered putting up a table to work on my own projects, an action I will regret later.

BAMQG Meeting

This is my ‘F’ block for the A-B-C challenge. There were a number of blocks with names beginning with F that were appealing, so it was hard to choose. I might do another one.

I really like that blue. It comes out a little darker on my screen than in real life, but is a very calming color.

Kathleen did the same block, but in black and white. It it always fun for me to see the same blocks done in different colors and sizes. As I have said many, many times, that is one of my joys in making blocks.

I saw Kathleen’s Electric Fan at the last meeting. Even though ‘E’ blocks were due last month, I really liked this block, so I decided to make one. It gave me the opportunity to try and figure out how to use the triangle technique for a block from Around the Block. I didn’t make the Flower Pot that I posted, but am seriously tempted. You can just have one basket block in a sampler quilt!

I like to use fabrics at least three times in a quilt and preferably in odd numbers, if I use them more than three times. I looked at the total fabrics I had used in the previous blocks and used some I hadn’t yet used as much. I used the Empire Gold in another project so it was out, so I used that. I also had only used the yellow-green in the Basement Window block.

Heirloom Challenge

These are the log cabin blocks I made for the Heirloom challenge. I added the Empire yellow solid from the Pat Bravo Art Gallery line. I think it goes well with these fabrics. I think the one flower fabric with the pink and burgundy reminds me of the Flea Market Fancy line.

I meant not to do this challenge as I don’t like making log cabin blocks. They are a bit too…fiddly for me. I am not sure if fiddly is the right term, but not a lot of bang for my buck, I guess. Still, I signed up so I stepped up. I tried using the technique that TFQ uses, which is to cut the strips the width they need to be rather than cutting a longer strip and trimming later. That worked ok.

Zoom in to see the variety of log cabin blocks that people came up with within the log cabin format. Amazing!

There were a few blocks that I particularly liked. The wave one (far left) would look great in a quilt with a variety of its fellows. I wouldn’t make it, but I would admire a quilt made with such blocks quite a lot.

The block on the bottom left has lovely graphic quality. The block ont he right looks like a doorway and I really like the fussy cutting.

December Secret Swap

This is a small detail of one of the ribbons on one of the gifts. I love the idea, but would never make it-at least to put on a package. 😉

Above are the members who participated in the Secret Swap. I just couldn’t commit to the time to make a gift and boy am I glad I didn’t participate, because these ladies are a hard act to follow! Everyone really did their best work. I was impressed and pleased to see such care.

Kathleen's Secret Swap Pillow 2011 — Kathleen’s Secret Swap Pillow 2011

Kathleen received this gorgeous pillow. The thing I like about it was how full it is. No matter how many pillows I make, I feel like they aren’t very full.

Show and Tell

There was a lot to tell and many quilts and projects to show. Sewing Time, despite all the other business was quite productive as well.

Elections
The “new” officers are:
President: Adrianne
VP: Kathleen
Secretary: Amanda
Treasurer: Sara

Thank you very much to Ruth, founder and 2011 Secretary, who will be leaving the board and taking over the challenge coordinator position.

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