BAMQG – Page 59 – Artquiltmaker Blog

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.

More of Doing Good

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.

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.

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!

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.

Pink & Green Donation Quilt

I know you must all be bored of seeing these checkerboard blocks put together one after another with little variation. I have to say that I am getting a tiny bit bored, but the color work is still interesting enough for me to keep making these pieces.

This quilt is taking me longer to get done. I am not sure why, aside from reasons I have discussed, and the usual busyness, but it seems to be taking forever. I am not working on a piecing project at the moment, so can’t move this quilt along using the leaders and enders technique, so that must be the problem.

I am pleased with the way it is coming out in general, though I do see some specific problems. Nota Bene: I really don’t want sympathy. I am learning by doing and reporting on what I find.

I don’t know why I chose this color combination. It is fun and kind of a trip down memory lane to the late 80s (??) and the Preppie Handbook. I almost never use green, so I needed to use some up. The back will be green as well. I also was kind of feeling like I would scream if I had to sew another black on white square to something else. Good time to take a break.

SIL pointed out that these blocks no longer look like a checkerboard. She is right. I paid special attention to only using the lighter pinks in this piece. I didn’t like the darker batik pinks mixed with the lighter pinks in the Pink Donation quilt. The values of the pinks and greens are mostly the same. That muddies the design. In some cases, I put in some darker greens and they stand out. If I were to make a pink and green quilt like this again, I would use the lighter pinks and darker greens. I might even use the same green for the ‘background’ squares.

Pink & Green Donation Quilt blocks with sashing

I am now putting the blocks together. I sashed them all on Sunday, so it shouldn’t take me long to do the rest. I just didn’t feel like it.

One thing I did differently was cut the sashing down to 1.5″ finished (2″ cut). That means I had to cut .5″ off all of the sashing strips and cornerstones. The leavings will be stuffing for cat beds.

I think the slight change in with enhances the overall design. Small detail.

Perhaps when I make the perfect donation quilt, I will then move on to another pattern!

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.

August BAMQG Meeting

I wasn’t able to make the meeting, so this will be a paltry post. Not sure what I will do for the BAMQG blog post. Hope someone comes through to help me out.

A-B-C Challenge

This Underground Railroad block has become one of my favorite blocks. I used it, differently colored, in the Stepping Stones quilt. After the Stepping Stones experience, I knew I had to add it to my collection of blocks for this challenge. As I have said many times, I love the way one slight change can make a block so extremely different. The coloration in the Stepping Stones quilt makes the fabulous overall pattern. The version to the left would have an Irish Chain kind of look if I put a bunch of similar blocks together.

I almost brought a W block, completely forgetting that V comes before W. In fairness, it isn’t completely my fault.I was relying on Around the Block and that book has no V blocks. It went straight from U to W, so I made a W block (yes, I am ahead, but you have to wait to see it). Then I realized what was happening and found the Variable Star in Around the block again. They use a template for the middle, rather than rotary cutting directions, because they want you to cut it on grain. I just cut it and was careful while sewing. I think it is probably off grain, but whatever. It is the middle of the block, so I am not worried.

Donation quilts

Yellow Donation Top - no borders — Yellow Donation Top – no borders

I love those Charity Girls. Have I said that? They are awesome. They REALLY make me want to make donation tops. Here is the yellow top I turned in this week. You have heard all about it in another post, so I am not going to say much more about it.

It is the top without borders. If you read the other post, you get the borders. I gave the top to Angela and she said that people really liked it. I am happy about that.

TFQ and I talked about other colors to use for these tops. I want to make an orange one and she suggested using another color besides black-on-white for the background. I think it is a good idea and thought of blue. That combo would really pop.

I am, however, on to the next top – another pink one. I have cut enough pink squares for almost the whole guild to each make a pink top. What was I thinking?

Workshop

Rhonda (organizer extraordinaire) did a great job on the improvisational piecing workshop. I have a spy who told me. I can’t wait to see the pictures.

I really like the BAMQG group. Some of the people are becoming my peeps! I was invited to join a small group, which is awesome! I am excited about that. More on that later.

More Yellow Donation Blocks

As mentioned last week, I am working on the yellow donation quilt and it is going well. I made several more blocks while I was off over the Fourth of July holiday.

I was spurred on by seeing the finished blue donation quilt. Jennifer finished it on her longarm machine and did the binding as well. It looks so great to see it done.

It made me think that this Yellow quilt is an even better exercise for me, because the yellows are really different than what I have done with yellow before.

The brown-y yellows are a challenge, but I like the prints, so I am working with them.

I still have a few more blocks to make, but already have cut some pieces for sashing in hopes that I will get this top done before the next BAMQG meeting.

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.

JulieZS on RivetingWednesday, February 18, 2026
This was fun to see how the whole riveting process works. I love that leather punch.
JayeL on Lupine Blocks DoneTuesday, February 17, 2026
Thanks! I am so relieved that the quilt doesn't look awful.
Mary Carroll on Lupine Blocks DoneSaturday, February 14, 2026
It is amazing how your colors all work together. I love it!
JayeL on Amazing Sew DayFriday, February 13, 2026
It was completelly unexpected and really great. We missed you.
JayeL on The Pandora Charisma is FinishedFriday, February 13, 2026
Thanks! I can't wait to see your #12 in progress.