These blocks got some quality time with my design wall – for about 10 minutes – this past weekend. I put them up thinking that I would get a chance to sew them together, but other quilts interfered.
These are going to be sewn together as shown and I think I will leave the border off so that I can make progress and get this baby to the quilter. I want someone to sleep under it or drag it around for comfort sooner rather than later. I feel like this is the longest it has ever taken me to finish a donation quilt. AND I am not even finished.
The blocks are a little crazy, but I had fun making them. I would like to try this block with some different fabrics. I’ll put it on the list. It might be a good donation block when someone is making a lovey.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Enjoying the food
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.
Great Team!
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.
Kelly’s big wagon
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.
People enjoying themselves.
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.
Fat Quarter Swap fabrics
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.
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.
Fat Quarter Swap Fabrics
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.
Fat Quarter Swap
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.
Kathleen’s Blocks
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.
Donation Quilts
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.
Corner Store basted
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.
In looking for the Original Bullseye, I came across two other projects. One was additional blocks for the Spiderweb. Those are going straight to the Charity Girls at BAMQG. I am not working on anymore of those blocks. I also found several Stars and Stripes blocks.
This foundation pieced pattern was given to me by a guild – the San Francisco Quilt Guild, I believe – a long, long time ago. They were collecting blocks in blues with white centers for some kind of quilt around 1997. I had a tiny baby, a new house, a new job and a DH with a new job at the time so my memories are little foggy. I don’t remember and I don’t know if I took a photo. I remember making at least one block to donate, but I really became enamored with the design of this block. I began making it in pinks, oranges, reds and yellows.
Unsewn block
Then something happened and I lost interest. Actually, I think “lost interest” is a nice way of saying that I made some bad design choices, and started to dislike foundation piecing. The combination became deadly.
This was about the time I started the Spiderweb. I loved the possibilities of foundation piecing at that time. I still like the possibilities; I am just less enamored with the foundation piecing part. I couldn’t fix the design issues without redoing a lot and I abandoned the project. I have decided that it will stay abandoned. Not the pattern, because the pattern is cool, but this particular rendition of the pattern.
I know that this will make a really bright and cheerful donation quilt, so I don’t mind giving it away.
Much.
Sewn Block
I always have a pang of regret every time I decide to abandon something. I feel bad that I don’t want to finish something, but frankly, I feel like I can’t finish everything, especially the projects that are so old I barely remember starting them. I can move through projects, even complex projects, much faster now, so there is less figuring and testing.
Once I get through the 26 Projects List, I don’t intend to let projects linger or put them away for ‘later.’ Famous last words. Stay tuned to see if I live up to my intentions!
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
Vintage Modern Pincushion
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
Yellow & Pink Donation Top
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.
Yellow & Pink Donation Back
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.
Random donation blocks
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.
Cross/Plus charity quilt
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
Sparkling Cider by Mallory
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 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 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.
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.
Patchwork Wheels Finished
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.
Donation blocks 1-4/Yellow & Pink
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.
Donation blocks 5-8/Yellow & Pink
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.
Pink & Green Donation Quilt back
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.
I have been, as they say, feeling the love for making donation quilts. I have talked about how good it makes me feel to make the various donation quilts I have made such as the pink and green one shown here.
I recently had the opportunity to actually finish one of the donation tops someone else (or multiple someone elses) made for the group by hand stitching down a binding. It felt like such a small thing to do, but then I had the opportunity to give one of these quilts to a child in need. I asked, the guild leadership agreed and the quilt is in transit to provide comfort to a girl who doesn’t know what her body is doing. I felt so good knowing one of those quilts is being sent to someone I know.
I am a sap, I know, but sometimes I need to be reminded why doing good is important.
BAMQG Donation Quilt
The binding I stitched down is for a quilt made from the checkerboard blocks the guild did in the first quarter of this year.
I don’t know if I made any of these blocks, but I recognize some of the fabrics. Perhaps they used fabrics I donated? I don’t know.
I have to say that there is something to be said for using blocks of many colors. My versions with the sashing and monochromatic color scheme have a very different look. Mine are bigger also, because of the sashing and borders. I don’t think I have seen one of my tops completed by someone else yet. I am scared and eager to have some of them go out into the world.
BAMQG Donation Quilt detail
The binding uses leftovers, which was interesting. I tried to line up the colors in the quilt with the binding colors. It worked ok, but did not match exactly all over the quilt. That is ok.
Whoever did the quilting did a great job. The hearts are subtle and I hope they convey love.
UGH! I am making myself sick now. This post is DONE!
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.
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?
Checkerboard Charity Quilt
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.
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
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.
