Sew Day

October Sew Day

We had another in person Sew Day the other day. We all wore masks and did quite a bit of physical distancing. We each had our own 6 foot table, which was nice not only for safety, but also because we could spread out.

In addition we had, as usual, cutting tables, ironing boards and a free table. The usual, overflowing snack table was strangely empty. I did not have a chance to make coffee cake, so I wasn’t surprised that other were in the same boat.

As usual, it was great to see people. Mary and I tested the 5 ironing boards the guild has and decided two of them were substandard – one was too wobbly and one tilted in an odd direction. We have been wanting to do that for awhile, so it was good to get it done.

The Sew Day was actually a Super Sew Day in that people came on Friday and Saturday. I put together two door prize bags, which were won by Amy and Joelle. I wish I could have attended on Friday, but work and taking off the Friday before prevented me from attending.

Someone from the church donated her mother’s fabrics. The mother had died and there were 12 garbage bags full of fabric. Some guild members sorted the fabric. People chose pieces they wanted. Most of the fabric was Joann quality. I didn’t take any, but some went to make pet beds. I think some will go to the community quilt project as well. The rest of the fabric will go to FabMo for others to pick through.

My workspace was good. Having a 6 foot table to myself allowed me to leave Rosette #1 flat on the table while I worked with the smaller chunks.

It also allow people to see the big part of the piece and not disturb my progress. As I said before, people are very interested in the progress of my piece. They were less interested this time in English Paper Piecing in general. The La Pass rosettes are very impressive and my Rosette #1 is no exception.

Month 3 arrived and I was able to press the fabric as well.

Melinda's AGF piece — Melinda’s AGF piece

Rhonda's Round Robin — Rhonda’s Round Robin

People were working on really nice projects. Rhonda sat across from me and shared a design wall with Melinda. Rhonda’s piece (right) was fantastic! She is working on a round robin with Cheryl, Kelly, Ruth and some others. It is one of the best round robins I have ever seen. She told me that Ruth did a lot of the design work. I love everything about it.

Melinda’s piece was also really great. The colors aren’t exactly my colors, but I did like the combination. It is really different. I also like the variety of plus (cross) blocks. I received some of these fabrics in one of the Modern Handmade modern boxes I got last year before they stopped the subscriptions.

Other people were working on interesting projects as well. Bonnie was working on a quilt top that looks woven. Nancy was quilting a community quilt. Alice finished a great block that I think was paper pieced.

Amy found a project that has generated interest throughout the guild. She found a pattern for a zipper organizer. She made one for Mary C as a gift and Mary started to use it to organize pieces for a quilt she is working on. It looks like it works really well! I think I might need to make some as gifts.

Zipper Organizer - detail — Zipper Organizer – detail

Mary clipped the various pieces for her Aftershock quilt in groups and then hung them on the zipper organizer, which is now a project organizer. I can see using it for bag parts and other projects.

Mary's Aftershock quilt — Mary’s Aftershock quilt

The other thing I noticed was the quilt on which Mary was working. As mentioned it is called Aftershock and is from Wren Collective. Mary picked her colors and then didn’t have enough of the background. Also, the quilt store was out of it. The quilt store, Bay Quilts, was very helpful in that they pulled Mary’s foreground colors and suggested several different background colors. Mary picked the maroon-ish you see above. She admitted that it wasn’t one she would normally pick, but that it worked really well. I have to agree. It isn’t a color I would pick, but it looks great with her foreground colors.

All in all it was a really good day!

September Sew Day

Sew Day Rosette #1 Workk — Sew Day Rosette #1 Work

Sew Day fell in the middle of Labor Day Weekend. I was happy to go. I didn’t take as many photos this time, because I was devoted to my La Pass Rosette #1.

I got a lot done, though not the whole thing. I am feeling some pressure, because I haven’t started Month #2’s work yet. Month #2 adds on to Rosette #1.

I found that I could walk around and sew, so I walked around with my sewing and talked to people. Lots of people were very interested in my project. Some had never seen EPP so complicated which was a surprise to me. I thought everyone knew Willyne Hammerstein‘s work. I also explained how the Block of the Month program worked.

It was interesting just doing handwork.

Everyone wore masks, which was great. It is fun to see everyone’s projects. Lindsay came and put together the top and back of a Buffalo Plaid quilt, then began working on her foundation piecing block of the month. She sews really fast. I am constantly amazed at her output.

Lynette was there. She had a pouch that was an excellent example of what good fabric can do.

This is a fairly simple looking pouch pattern, like the Persimmon Pouch from Sew Sweetness. With the great Kaleidoscope fabric, it looks super impressive.

More donation quilts were exchanged. There was a free table to which I contributed some fabric and things. it was good fun.

Sew Day – June 2021

For the first time in over a year, we had an in person Sew Day! It was GREAT. We took special precautions to keep everyone safe and followed the guidelines laid out by the church where we meet.

SIL#2 and I drove down together. We drove my little car and it was filled pretty well. We had a lot of stuff to bring for projects as well as items to hand in or exchange.

I mostly cut out projects. I cut out napkins for the YM, a pillowcase for the YMG (YM’s girlfriend), starting cutting out 3 more Sew Together Bags, which will be gifts, the Westchester Dolman shirt and a few other projects.

BAM Sew Day - June 20211 — BAM Sew Day – June 2021

There was a lot of standing around and chatting. Even though most of us have been in touch over the course of the pandemic, most of us have not seen each other in person for months. Also, there are things people don’t really want to talk about in email. There was a lot of catching up to do.

Amy commandeered a table and everyone at the table worked on a quilt with Amy. She has been making slow progress on the piece for months (or maybe years), which is a gift for another guild member.

BAM Sew Day - June 2021 - Design Walls1 — BAM Sew Day – June 2021 – Design Walls

The design walls were put to good use. These large office dividers make great designs walls because of their size even if one does need some pins.

Joy-Lily came a bit late and worked on an improv block piece. I think she was using some of her hand dyed fabrics. A number of people worked on their Put a Ring on It pieces from the class with Latifah Saafir. The one in the photo above is Gerre’s.

I believe this was Christine’s first Sew Day. She worked on a quilt using the Quilt-As-You-Go method. The large design walls enabled people to work together to lay out blocks or see problems through fresh eyes.

CLW Donation Quilt - June 2021 — CLW Donation Quilt – June 2021

CLW Donation Quilt - June 2021 -back — CLW Donation Quilt – June 2021 -back

Technically, it was a Community Sew Day. I didn’t work on donation quilts as I have Tim’s Improv piece and the Yellow Strip donation top in progress. SIL #2 finished a charity quilt from the last Community Sew Day. I really like the way it came out.

Peggy's Community Quilt - June 2021 — Peggy’s Community Quilt – June 2021

Sue S created a new pattern for the Sew Day and Peggy made one quilt top using the pattern. This is a variation on one design that I have made with the 16 patches before. Just goes to show that nothing is new in quiltmaking. This design is made with all half square triangles rather than including Flying Geese, like mine does.

I might have made a couple of the 16 Patches in Peggy’s quilt. I love the joint effort!

During the pandemic, people have still been working on donation quilts. 12 were handed in at Sew Day, including several of my tops that had been quilted.

Sew Day Projects

I had great intentions to get the pockets of my Ultimate Carryall Bag made during Sew Day. I also wanted to set a good example by working on it and encourage people to get it done.

Best laid plans.

I forgot my mesh and the interfacing. In reality, I thought I had everything already cut and prepared. I hadn’t cut the mesh and the interfacing wasn’t adhered. People were very kind and tried to help me out, but I gave it up as not possible.

St. Patrick's Day Donation block — St. Patrick’s Day Donation block

I turned to charity work. I grabbed some packs of 2.5 inch squares, which Peggy always has available, and started to make some squares.

I didn’t want to waste bringing my machine. If I couldn’t work on my own projects the next best thing was to do community service work.

I sewed the squares into blocks. It is an easy mindless task, though I did pay attention to color and print placement. I was able to follow the conversation fairly easily and still sew. My plan was just to sew a bunch of blocks. It turned out that I was pretty fast. Mary helped after she finished her project, so we were able to finish a baby quilt. Mary took the top home and will put borders on, then bring it to the meeting.

St. Patrick's Day Donation Top — St Patrick’s Day Donation Top

I am sad I didn’t get to work on the bag. The quilt project wasn’t planned, but I am pleased that I didn’t drag my machine down for nothing.

Sew Day Saturday

Sew Day was small and I got there late, but I did accomplish something. The Mondo Bag is looking like a project that will never die. I work on it at Sew Day in September, but I started it at Craft Night back in March! I didn’t think it had been laying around THAT long, but the blog doesn’t lie.

I arrived at Sew Day after 2pm, because I was enticed to go to CQFA first. The enticement was lunch with Julie afterwards. I didn’t have much in my bag, but the Mondo Bag project pieces and the stuff to cut out another Running with Scissors tote.

I decided to work on the Mondo Bag, so I laid it out and looked at the layout of the squares on the fusible. I rearranged and replaced some of them. Finally, I was happy. Fortunately Amy was there. She had everything including a mini iron, so I was able to fuse the squares to the interfacing.

When I got home, DH was watching football, so I was able to sew the squares together.

I am really glad I spent so much time arranging and rearranging the squares. I think the layout looks really good. I am not done by any stretch, but I did make progress. I am thrilled.

Community Giving Sew Day

I spent the day yesterday sewing for good. It was the guild’s Sew Day and we made zipper pouches for the Grateful Garment Project. The project provides a variety of items to assault victims. You can read more about the project on their website.

We ended up with 31.5 zipper pouches. I have one that I need to finish, which is the other half. 3 of us made over half of them, but everyone contributed. Mary talked to me about a production line where we could more done in the same time frame. I like that idea and hope we can do it again soon.

I also like the variety we came up with. Peggy, the awesome, put out a bin of fabrics and we were allowed to choose the ones we wanted. This meant there were fabrics with which I had never worked and that expanded my horizons a bit. I think some of them will be suitable for men, too.

I chose fabrics I liked, but I concentrated on producing as many well done zipper pouches as I could in the allotted time.

The first zipper pouch I made was the hardest. It came out fine, but was a challenge to get oriented to the pattern. After making the first one, I consulted with Mary on the zipper. We traded tips and after that our zippers came out as well as can be expected. I made two using the green and yellow fabric combination.

The second one I made was from purple fabrics. I liked the various motifs and like to use fabrics I enjoy.

I wasn’t a big fan of the white zipper, but there wasn’t a lot of choice in zippers. Peggy bought a bulk packet and there were no purple. Needs must and all. I think it looks fine.

Midway through I made two bags from the dots and stripes. I couldn’t, of course, resist the dots and the stripes were just great.

I like light interiors for pouches bags and handbags. Black interiors: blech! The light insides/linings allow one to see what is inside the bag. Light can also reflect on the light fabric to aid seeing what is in the bottom corner of your bag. I am sure I have said this before.

I had a lot of the dots, so I made a third pouch with a different interior. I liked the stripes better, but the light white on white (or maybe a very light pink) is fine. It does show the red dot fabric through a little bit, which is a shame.

By the time I made all of these pouches, I didn’t need a pattern. I was just making them over and over and refining as I went along. One thing I should have done was sew the lining with a larger seam allowance so that it fit inside the pouch better. It didn’t occur to me until I was almost done. I’ll do that on the last one.

BAM July Sew Day

I got myself organized after the week’s strange schedule to head to Sew Day. Surprisingly, we had 15 or so people in attendance. I was the first to show up after Mary and she was pleased because she wasn’t sure if anyone would show up. Holiday weekend and all, I suppose.

We always set up and clean the tables first. As we were doing that, others showed up and offered help.

I brought cutting and organizing only, after bringing my machine last time for the Jelly Roll Rug. I have a number of projects that needed attention and brought them along.

First, the Flapper apron I am making as a gift needed some corners. It took me longer than expected to get these corners ready to sew, but I finally accomplished the task and moved on to the bag.

I decided to make a Poolside tote as a gift. Mine was a pain to make, but I started using it for my knitting and find it very useful. I think my recipient will probably find it useful as well.

En Provence - Peaky & Spike example — En Provence – Peaky & Spike example

I also brought the Mondo Bag to arrange, but didn’t get to it. Cyndi and I spent some time talking about Deb Tucker rulers. She recently bought the V Block ruler, which I think works on the same principle as my Split Recs ruler with a slightly different outcome. The V Block ruler makes Peaky and Spike blocks, like I used for En Provence. Perhaps I’ll try it when I get around to the next En Provence quilt.

I brought a pattern for a nightshirt that I wanted to cut out. Mary is a master at garments and she finished all of her projects. I asked her to cut out my nightshirt and she agreed. This means I got a third more done than I thought I would!

Marty's Flying Geese quilt — Marty’s Flying Geese quilt

People were busy at Sew Day as well. Marty was working on a binding. Her use of mustard is the best I have seen. the colors in general are great. The piece is not too depressing, but also very neutral. It’s hard to see, but the background fabrics are low volume text (and text-like) prints. She used some that I used in En Provence. I also like the way she placed the Flying Geese. This is Marty’s fourth quilt! She was able to finish the binding today and we all cheered.

I was pleased to see Cyndi’s Jen Carlton Bailly blocks. She decided to make enough for a large wall hanging or small lap quilt and was working on them.

The fabrics she is using are very cheerful. I saw one overlap with my Circle tablerunner!

I didn’t get a photo after she finished it, but I did see it and it looks really great.

Once finished with the circles, she took out a different piece she is making from Camille Roskelly’s Simply Retro book. I saw the quilt she is making in the book and didn’t think much of it, but Cyndi’s version uses more dark fabrics in the background. It is much more appealing *to me* that way.

Gerre's Jen Carlton Bailly blocks — Gerre’s Jen Carlton Bailly blocks

Finally, Gerre also brought her Jen Carlton Bailly blocks. She had sewn a couple of rows together and was able to get the top done by the time Sew Day was over. She used Amy Butler fabrics and the piece is fantastic.

I have some new projects to work on and some of the small tasks ready to move me to my next steps. I am happy!

One Long Seam

I sewed one seam on Saturday.

Sew Day was Saturday and I went with the Jelly Roll long strip batting and 4 wound bobbins in my bag.

Amy and I pretty much got to it as soon as we got set up. She is making the rectangular rug and I am making the oval version.

Since I already had my strips sewn together, I started closing up the jelly roll’s seam. It took me several hours to make headway and I didn’t even finish that one step. I had grand illusions of getting the whole rug finished because I had sewn my strips together. HA!

This is not a difficult project. It is slightly tedious, but great for Sew Day because I could easily talk and sew and not make mistakes.

I used up one whole bobbin already. One seam one bobbin. It’s crazy since I am not even finished with that seam.

Sew Day was on January 5. It seems like a long time ago, but I was so thrilled with the projects I got cut out. Yes, I did prep work.

I used Thanksgiving tablerunner n.1 on my dining room buffet all through Christmas because someone spilled on my everyday tablerunner. I took it to the dry cleaners after Thanksgiving and it was after Christmas before I had the time to pick it up. Thanksgiving did not fit into my Christmas decorating scheme, so I decided to make a seasonal tablerunner for the buffet.

On the way back from Portland, I stopped at Stitch again. Stitch is a mostly modern shop in Ferndale that I have visited at least one other time. After being closeted in Portland for a week, I was ready for a treat. Part of the treat ended up being the Mod Lights pattern, from which I will make a tablerunner.

Yes, I am still excited about the Quick Curve Ruler and the fabulous results. I had to buy the mini version for this project, but I intend to use it for another project, as yet undetermined, as well.

I pulled out some solids I bought at QuiltCon. They have a more contemporary feel than the typical dark red and green of traditional Christmas. I also had enough of the background left from the MetroScape quilt to use as background. That fabric is a little sparkly and will look festive.

I won’t use all of the solids shown in the photo, right. I’ll use one of the pinks, the lime (bottom left) and the turquoise. I also chose,from the back of the fabric closet, a dark green to light green Pointillist Palette ombre.

Having assembled all of these project pieces, I was also able to cut them all out.

Classmate Bag for Lindsay -open - BAM Swap — Classmate Bag for Lindsay -open – BAM Swap

Next up was another Classmates tote. This you will have to wait to see as it will be a gift and I know the recipient peeks in to look at the blog. I made this previously for the BAM Swap, so you can see it there. I left some of the fabric for n.2 at home, so I was only able to cut out half of it. It was ok, as the person was at Sew Day and would have recognized some of the fabric.

Finally, I cut out two more Little Cell Phone Wallets. These most recent two have been on my list for sometime. It took some doing to find the white dots on black fabric (Michael Miller or Kaffe dots??). I know I bought some fat quarters for the purpose of this wallet. I couldn’t find it anywhere, which was extremely frustrating. Finally, I rummaged around in my black bin and found enough leftover from the tunic to make the wallet. Just enough. Later I found the FQs in my ‘to be washed’ pile. Sigh. Regardless, those are ready to sew as well, except for the tabs for the D-rings so I can use the chain rather than a fabric strap. I am excited to get them off my list.

Sadly, I took no photos on BAM’s Sew Day.

Last week, I was feeling a bit sad and lonely so I went to Katrina’s Sew Time at Scruffy Quilts. This is basically time to sew in the company other others. I am so often alone that I needed a bit of human contact so I went. It really was just what the doctor ordered. Despite the time away from home, I got energized and spent the following day crossing house and work things off my list with alarming speed.

I finished cutting out the Classmates tote, so that is ready to sew. I was able to bring the fabric I forgot to bring to Sew Day. I also did a little organization of the pattern. I find the pattern to be very strangely written. I like to know what pieces I am cutting out as I cut them out. I like to know so I can choose the fabrics carefully. That is not included in this pattern and that made me choose strangely for the BAM Swap (the BAM Swap bag doesn’t look bad, but I would have chosen different had I known what I was cutting). I went through and amended my pattern so that I will know what is what in the future.

Finally, I cut out another Flapper apron. I know! I know! This one is for me. I already made one for myself, but I decided to send the first one to a friend. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, so I am making it over.

Yes, over two Sew Days, I cut out a lot. I haven’t sewn any of it yet, but will get to it soon.

Walker Bags

BAM had a Charity Sew Day on May 6th. Peggy and Michelle created kits and a pattern for walker bags for a local nursing home. I made three, though not without mishap and only with the help of SIL.

The first one I made was the pink and purple version. I liked the fabric combination.

While SIL turned the first one (the first seam is right sides together), I started in on a second. I wanted to kind of do an assembly line and get as many as possible completed. I don’t use much patriotic fabric, but I did like the flags. They are cheerful and a little jaunty.

I was kind of confused about the various seam allowances so I did have to rip a bit. SIL also ripped for me some.

I stuck a ruler in one of the pockets to show the depth. It was a little too tall for the pocket, but I am sure they will work for smaller items.

All around it was a good day. We finished about 25 bags and there was a lot of laughter, which is important as well.

BAMQG Sew Day

I finally made it to a Sew Day at the new BAMQG location.

Gerre emailed me while I was in Portland and asked if I was going. I thought ‘why not?’ and Gerre was willing to sew with me again. Even though the YM is home and lounging around, he is old enough to be alone and didn’t want to come with. Why would he? He would be bored.

It was fantastic! I was thrilled to be there and thrilled to be sewing. Gerre brought the Orange T quilt and it is finished. I have to take some photos and then I will post a finished photo.

We had a great time sewing and chatting and working on our quilt. We had decided to work on a circle quilt as a donation quilt. We got the inspiration from Simply Moderne magazine. I was attracted by the cover and bought an older issue at QuiltCon.

We started out by cutting the background pieces in the Pushed Neutral technique I learned from Mary Mashuta 1,000 years ago.

I brought the neutrals and Gerre brought the foreground fabrics, though we didn’t know it would end up that way.

We had talked about using greens, so I brought my green bins along with my beige and brown bin (which thankfully is almost empty). We pulled out the last of my light and tolerable beiges and cut them into 10″ squares and put this together as a background.

Gerre then showed me some plaids she had and we decided to use the plaids instead of greens and make a boy quilt. We cut circles using both the Go cutter than Pati brought (with her circle template!) and my newish circle cutting ruler.

I wielded the circle ruler while Gerre took over the Accuquilt Go! I only had my normal 45mm rotary cutter and I think it would have worked better with a smaller cutter. I only have one of those and it was at home, so I did the best I could. I may need a new blade after cutting the circles.

We decided not to have a lot of large circles, because the size of our quilt was smaller than the example we saw in the magazine and we didn’t want the entire surface to be covered.

After putting the background together we laid out the circles on the background. I didn’t take a picture of that stage so you have to be satisfied with the photo on the right.

We decided we had to do the quilt in layers so that we could sew around a whole circle and not have to stop and start.

We didn’t bring fusible so we glued the first layer of circles down on the background, pressed it and then Gerre sewed.

While she sewed, I worked on the pieced background.

The fish and leaf fabric is OLD! The selvedge says “Sykel Enterprises 1993.” I don’t even know if Sykel exists anymore. It is certainly no Moda or Kaufman. I am sure TFQ could tell me where I bought it. 😉

It was in the brown bin and good for a boy quilt. I also had about a yard, which was a great start. It was in two pieces, so I added the strip in the middle. We also cut off a strip so we could see about applique’ing some of the motifs somewhere on the quilt. The center plaids are a couple Gerre brought.

We were able to sew the first layer down. These were the largest circles.

We don’t intend to necessarily go from largest to smallest, but we wanted to start with the largest.

So far, it doesn’t look like much, but the next layer (no photo) looks better.

Stay tuned.

BAMQG Charity Sew Day

We finished 10 quilts and almost 11.

Peggy and Michelle did a great job organizing the Charity Day Race Game and 8 of the quilts we made were from the kits Michelle and Peggy put together before the event. They are awesome, dedicated and well organized.

We all got kits and set to work. Peggy had done a lot of the cutting already, so we all only had to cut backgrounds and sew.

Michelle and Jennifer worked on a red version of the T quilt with a lot of Joel Dewberry Notting Hill fabric.

I was on a team with Gerre and she took the first sewing shift. I wasn’t really paying attention to how other teams organized their sewing and cutting and pressing and pinning, but our organization worked very well.

Rhonda and Ruth worked on a turquoise version with some Pearl Bracelets and a lot of fish fabric.

Diana worked on a pastel version with some Aneela Hoey fabrics and Jennifer finished a second green top that really looked like light in a forest.

Karen and Joelle finished another red top with a lot of card game fabric that they joked they would give to Kenny Rogers. Peggy made a brown version that looked like candy and Michelle finished a second top with a blue solid background. Gerre and I finished a top with green Ts and a light background. the quilts all used the same pattern, but were so different and fun.

Gerre & Jaye's Bonus Quilt — Gerre & Jaye’s Bonus Quilt

After the T quilts were done many people worked on making postage stamp blocks, including Gerre and I. We made as many pink and white postage stamp blocks as we could, then we added in some yellow and white blocks in to bring the quilt up to size. We didn’t finish it. Gerre put me in the sewing driver’s seat and I kept screwing up when sewing the blocks together, so we pinned the blocks together and Gerre will finish the top at home.

BAMQG Sew Day – September

Right after CQFA, I hot-footed it, with Gerre, to the BAMQG Sew Day. It wasn’t packed, but we had to set up new tables when we arrived so we could work. It was a kind of a holiday prep day with demos on small gifts to make for the all-too-quick-approaching holiday season. I was there for the pencil case and grocery bag demos.

The pencil case is one that, using elastic, is slipped over the cover of a journal. It can also be used as a bookmark. I really liked the idea and Jolene’s way of making it.

Kelly did the demo for the grocery bags and they were like the shape of the plastic grocery bags. It has curvilinear shaped handles, which is a nice difference to some other bag patterns I have seen.

Gerre brought a piece to work on, but ended up thinking more about the quilting than anything else. It is a great piece and I can’t wait to see what she does with it.

Angela brought her opportunity quilt materials and Ruth provided input on making up the blocks. It was good to see what Angela was doing and hear what Ruth was saying about her vision of the quilt. I had a kit and the discussing inspired me to get busy on my block.

I sat, mostly, and finished up the binding on the Wonky 9 Patch.The binding seemed to take me a long time and I became determined to finish it.

Once I was finished, I worked a bit on the Serendipity Lady. I was only able to add a few pieces to that piece and have decided to approach it a little differently. Look for more on that in an upcoming post.

I put my two cents in when Diana was trying to figure out what to do with her piece.

She had a limited amount of fabric and was able to make the pennant banners in the picture. There wasn’t enough to make a whole quilt so she got the blue solid and was trying to figure out a layout for the pennants. We laid out the banners a little differently than one would first consider. That brought up assembly issues, so we talked about applique’ and other options that might allow her to put this quilt together.

It was a long day, but it was also great to see friends and engage in quiltmaking.

LDSI Report

I wasn’t a very good participant in the Labor Day Sew-in. I only made a half-hearted attempt at participating via social but I did sew like a demon. I had a goal of piecing the top to FOTY 2013 and making blocks for the donation top.

I accomplished my goals and made a bonus journal cover – not the whole cover, just the front, but I did it as leaders and enders while I put the rest of the quilt top together.

I have to get some new journals before I get to use this cover. I am going to try to just use ShapeFlex on both insides of this one. If I decide to use flannel, I will measure this time. 😉

BAMQG Charity Sew Day

It almost feels sinful to enjoy sewing for charity so much. Odd, I know.

I spent all afternoon on Saturday sewing at the Charity Sew Day. At first, since I don’t like lugging my sewing machine around, I thought I would run around and cut and press for people. Nobody responded to my forum post about that idea so I brought my back up machine. What a waste! I forgot the foot pedal so I ran around and used other people’s machines while I was doing an improv quilt top, then Gerre let me use hers pretty regularly when I started on the second top.

One of the great things was showing Gerre how to do leaders and enders. She was charmed and made 2.5 blocks at least in between her Dr. Seuss wonky log cabin blocks. That means another person knows how to do leaders and enders and more blocks will get made.

Michelle and Peggy were really well organized, as usual, and had a number of different solids to use with our scraps.

I took the ends of quilt backs, which Colleen cuts off and returns to me. They aren’t much good unless I want to cut them up into squares or something and I never seem to get around to that. It occurred to me that I could make some Improv quilt tops with them so I brought them along. Two birds, one stone: gets the ends out of my house, adds comfort and, hopefully, beauty to someone else’s house.

The first top I made was made from the leftover back pieces from the Flower Sugar hexagon quilt. Edge pieces were quite large and I sewed them together relatively quickly. This is not great work of art, but it isn’t completely boring either. I brought it home to make the back for it. I’ll use some of the leftover Flower Sugar fabrics. I still have a lot of them and I am happy to use them for a good a cause. I may also ad something to the bottom. It looks a bit unfinished.

Next, I took the edges from the Star Sampler and worked with those. Michelle had an idea to make a sort of easy log cabin, but I thought the pieces were too small and I made them into rectangles. I got pretty far – to putting on the sashing – but I wasn’t able to finish the top, which would have been my preference.

I still have trimming to do and the sashing to finish. I will have used all the green fabric, from the charity stash, before I get to the two outer borders, so I have to figure something out about that. I don’t know what, but something.

I have two long strips of Philip Jacobs Chrysanthemums that I will put on the outside. I’ll probably put another border on after that, but we will see. I pinned a lot of it together so I could just sew on Sunday.

It was also fun being there with other people. Gerre, Rhonda, Susan, Leanne and Lindalee, with our bosses, Michelle and Peggy, of course, were all there sewing and we were laughing quite a bit. Kelly stopped by, but couldn’t stay.

Rhonda's Improv Medallion — Rhonda’s Improv Medallion

Rhonda made a large house block quilt and then worked on an Improv medallion piece. The stripes were made by sewing 2 parallel straight lines the width of the black and white fabrics (right sides together) about an inch apart, then she cut 1/4″ away from the sewn line and had strips already sewn together. I want to try the idea.

We played around with the placement of the stripes – both width and direction. It was kind of a group activity and really fun to see how people interpreted the design.

That coffee cup fabric is really nice and in a colorway I haven’t seen. I have some with a teal background. This colorway goes well with Rhonda’s overall design.

Rhonda's House Block quilt — Rhonda’s House Block quilt

Rhonda has only been quilting for a few years and I am continually impressed with her design sensibility and what she chooses to tackle. The house block quilt reminded me of my house block quilt, mostly because of the placement of the house block.

In case you can’t tell, she made the door open, which is a really nice touch.

I also really liked the four patches she used as windows in the upper story.

Gerre was using Dr. Seuss fabrics to make wonky log cabin blocks. The red in that line of fabric is very primary, making the blocks really super bright. Working at her table made me feel very cheerful.

Leanne brought some fabrics that were not her style and she was trying to figure out what do with them. They felt as though they had never been washed even though she said they had.

Lindalee was making strip sets and ended up with two strip blocks, where the strips are on the diagonal. She does really nice and precise work.

Michelle was working on two really, really Improv quilts. One was blue and gold and had inset strips throughout the blocks. The other was a beige and purple piece with a lovely New York Beauty-like arc as part of the design.

Peggy's Brown & Turquoise Charity Project — Peggy’s Brown & Turquoise Charity Project

Peggy was working with brown and turquoise and she did an excellent job. I really love the color combination and know that my sister would love it as well.

there was a lot of discussion about layout and at one point the two shorter sections were down at the bottom, placed symmetrically. I’ll let your imagination consider what the visual symmetry could have symbolized. Someone suggested moving one up and filling in top and bottom and that solved the problem. It is really a nice looking quilt and a good use of color.

Even though I sewed steadily, I didn’t get as much done as I expected. I have high expectations, but am satisfied with what I got done.

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