Baby quilt for a new little MQG member

Jessie, the president of the DC Modern Quilt Guild, just had a baby.  I was lucky enough to get to put together the blocks from the MQG members to make the quilt for the new little bundle.



I was inspired by Teaginny's Tiny Log Cabin Quilt.  So I asked for monochromatic log cabin blocks in each member's favorite color, out of their favorite fabrics and measuring only four to five inches.  I also asked each person to send some pale neutral scrap for the sashing.

Once I received quite a few blocks in the mail, I arranged them on my design floor.  I like to use the back of a picnic tablecloth.  The flannel side is very sticky and the other side is slippery so it is easy to roll up or fold and then flatten it back out without my blocks getting rearranged.




Then I started improv piecing around each colorful block with whatever low volume bits I could find that worked.  Here is the first quarter,




the second quarter (after Henry trampled on it),




the third quarter,




and the fourth.




Once the top was all assembled I basted it,


and then did some quilting with white 20wt thread.


Then I added some black hand quilting around each block...














(that cerise block is mine!)


...and I hand stamped the back of the quilt with the first name of the person that made that block.




Linda attached the binding and hand stitched most of it and Anne finished the rest.  I'm so grateful that some people like to add binding because it is my least favorite step of the process.




I stamped DCMQG and wrote the year on it.

 


These are 11 of the 24(!) people that submitted blocks for this quilt.

Miscellany

I'm getting caught up in Ringo Pie bee blocks.  This one is for Charise's Paris theme.

This one is for Marit in Ringo Pie with her butterfly theme. (Inspired by Anna at Life Sew Crafty)

I took a picture of the bee blocks I've received from my Ringo Pie bee friends.  I feel like the luckiest girl in the world!  These will end up in a very special quilt for Henry. (Blocks left to right starting with the top row are by Amber, Penny, Leila, Charise, Anna and Kerry)

And, lastly, here is a picture of Charise and me from my recent visit to Seattle.  It was so much fun to hand off her block in person and it was even more fun to go fabric shopping with her.   I guess I have no shame when it comes to fabric.  I bought 48 fabric cuts!  Thank goodness that a lot of those were 1/4 and 1/8 yard cuts.  

So, there is a lot of little bits of progress over here. Well, except for any stash minimizing. I can't seem to manage that at all.

Flitting like a butterfly

Henry has recently fallen in love with The Very Hungry Caterpillar all over again.  And now we play "cocoon" twenty times a day.  I ask him to "lay down like a caterpillar" on the couch, cover him completely in a quilt and then flip the quilt back as we declare the he is a "beautiful butterfly!!"  We are still working on the graceful sweep of the arms to mimic wings flapping.  I think (at nearly four years old) that this is his first pretend play and I am so proud.

Anyway, I was thinking about that as I flitted between sewing projects today.  I was trying to decide what I should work on next.  I could continue my progress on my rose star blocks.

Or I could finish Charise's Paris-themed bee block for the Ringo Pie Bee (those darned y-seams have me procrastinating).

Or I could decide what solid to use to put a border on this long-overdue quilt top.  (You'd think I could be bothered to iron this quilt top before taking a picture and sharing it here, but no.) 

Or I could work on piecing some blocks for my husband's quilt.  (It sure was fun to come up with the new fabric combinations.)

Well, this butterfly will settle on something soon. Maybe some more hand piecing tonight and continue to procrastinate on the bee block? Hmmm...

 How do you decide what to work on next?

Catching up to the curve

I was sick most of last week and then I was just behind the curve of life for a few days after that.  But I'm finally feeling better and ready to share a few photos here.

This is a block I made over a week ago for Cynthia in the Pastiche Bee.  She asked for old school graphic design art supplies.  I fear there isn't enough contrast between the prints for the background and the arms of the compass, but I think some targeted quilting could take care of that.  

I made this Farmer's Wife block over a week ago, too.  It is a remake of this block.  Just four more blocks to go!

I've been working on the quilting for my Mommy Neighborhood quilt for a few weeks now.  It will take a l-o-n-g time to put all of the quilting in that I want.

And, lastly, when I was feeling too crummy to sit at the machine or to wrestle with perle cotton, I've been working on expanding my green hexies.  I cut out another 100 hexies for this project.  I think I may have too many green fabrics....

So what's new with you? It has been too long since we chatted.  :)

the itsy bitsy spider

Erin asked for a nursery rhyme themed block for her month in the Cocorico Bee.   I have always wanted to make a spiderweb block and this seemed like a great opportunity.  For awhile I was stuck on the imagery of "down the water spout."  As soon as I decided to skip the water spout in the block, the rest came together. 

I had initially planned to do raw edge applique for the raindrops with some dark blue fabric and then embroider the spider. But then I decided to carve stamps for them both and I'm happy with how they turned out. 

 

The spider looks a little misshapen, but believe me when I tell you that it is hard to carve a realistic looking spider without it looking creepy.  Since this block is going in a new baby's room, I opted for blobby spider vs. spooky spider.

 

You can see that I carved a few other stamps for an upcoming block (on the right in the photo above). If you can guess what those stamps represent, you get bonus points and a fabric scrap pack from me.  Or, if there are no correct guesses by Tuesday at 5pm Maryland time, I'll pick a random commenter for the scrap pack.

Uncorked

Now that I'm "unstuck" on the Gypsy/Bohemian block for the Pastiche Bee, I find myself sewing "like the wind" to get all of the other ideas out of my head. I finished this porcupine design last night and pieced it today.

And I finished this portal block yesterday. This was another one I was a little stuck on. I think portals are a great theme, but the only idea I had was falling down the rabbit hole. I hope it the recipient likes it.

Well, I can't chat more. I have to clean up new stray threads and old dust bunnies. We have a babysitter coming over so Ben and I can go on a date!

I hope you have a good night, too.

Struggling with a theme

I am ridiculously behind in bee blocks (I think I have seven to make? or more??), but I hope to fix that starting with this block.  This is an accordion block for the bohemian/gypsy theme for September in the Pastiche Bee.  This theme stumped me for the longest time.  I just didn't even know where to start.  Then I finally sat down with wikipedia and looked up both terms.  That was less than inspiring.  I tried google images and got nowhere.  Lastly I tried searching everyone's uploads on flickr with the term "gypsy" and I stumbled on this image.  Finally, it clicked.  I had to do an accordion. 

Incidentally, this block was sitting on the floor last night (my craft space is already covering my dining room table so I've been cutting fabrics on the floor) and Henry came up and tried to play the keys on this accordion a couple of times.  Then he called it a mandolin.  I guess we need to review his folk instruments again.

Sweetie Peach Quilt

My friend has a baby girl that smiles from ear to ear all of the time.  And now she's even cuter because she has her bottom center teeth and the top 3rd and 4th teeth but not the top center ones.  She's a smiley little milk and yogurt vampire.  I started a quilt for Catalina when her mom was pregnant, but I finally finished it this week (she's 13 or 14 months now).

I started with the color scheme of a favorite vintage sheet (the red, pink and yellow pansies) and then I grabbed lots of other scraps and coordinating fabrics and just cut and sewed, added and subtracted until it was 50" square. 

I used my walking foot with the arm and quilted concentric circles.  This was my first attempt at it so it isn't perfect.  But Miss Catalina gave it a huge grin and nuzzled it with her nose and then hugged it close right before she fell asleep under it.  I think it is a hit.

This kind of random scrappy quilt is my favorite to make.  I think I don't do it more because I'm afraid to cut up favorite fabrics that aren't vintage sheets.  I'll cut into them just a little bit to make little blocks like the Farmer's Wife blocks, but that's about it.  Now I need a new challenge to do the same with a favorite Japanese fabric or something equally rare.

On a roll

Charise requested house blocks for the month of April in the Cocorico Bee.  One of her inspiration photos was this one.  I modeled this block after the third building in from the right.

I've always wanted to try using Heather Bailey's Welcome Road print as bricks.  I feel like the stripes in that print are just begging to be cut up and sewn back together at right angles.

I chose not to paper piece this block.  I could get perfect parallel lines and ninety degree angles that way, but I didn't want this block to look rigid.  I love the character in old buildings, and I feel like improv piecing gave this building more character.

Don't you just want to knock on this door to see if the residents will let you have a look around?  Maybe that is just me...


I want to add a thank you for the comments on the cow block.  Bessie humbly thanks you, too.  We are both wishing you all a lovely weekend.

Making progress

I'm behind on replies to comments, but be assured that I appreciate each and every one of them.  In fact, I think they have motivated me to finishing a few more projects that have been sitting on my to do list.

Here is my Pastiche Bee block for March.  Suzanne is a teacher and wanted vintage school and office supply blocks.  She specifically mentioned wanting a block with her glasses frames.  She thinks they look school marm-ish but I think they look cool.  It took me forever to decide how I wanted to do the background for the glasses on her block.  but as soon as I settled on piecing hexies for the background, the block was done in three days.

And Charise, in the Cocorico Bee, wants house blocks.  I had to start with the windows because I love old window panes.  In high school I spent a summer working at a historical park stripping and repainting the old buildings.  I didn't enjoy all of the detailed woodwork around the windows then--picture 90 degrees in the sun, wearing a gas mask and using a heat gun to strip the old lead paint off of the woodwork.  But I old windows and woodwork now.  My favorite thing is to be inside an old building and looking through the glass to see the ripples and flow and how that changes your view of the outside world. 

Well, I'm off to plan and start a few more bee blocks that I'm behind on. Thank you for the supportive comments lately.  They were just the kick in the pants that I needed. :)

My first finished block for the Pastiche Bee

Marilyn's theme for January was An Ode to John Keats. We chose quotes from separate poems and designed blocks using the poem's imagery. Marilyn plans to stitch lines of the poem directly into the quilt.

This is my portion of "Fancy" by John Keats
Freckled nest-eggs thou shalt see
Hatching in the hawthorn-tree,
When the hen-bird's wing doth rest
Quiet on her mossy nest;

I did a little thread sketching on this one.  It took a long time to find the motivation to make it, but I did savor daydreaming about this block.  I'm excited to see what Marilyn does with these blocks.  You can see some of the other Pastiche Bee creations here.

Block in progress

I was a sewing madwoman last night.  I was tossing scraps around, ironing like a crazy person, and digging in my newly organized stash.  All for this block.

This one is for the Pastiche Bee.  The theme for February is Alice in Wonderland so I chose painting the roses red.  The block still might need some top stitching, but it is exciting to get a bee block together again. 

I felt a little rusty before last night.  I haven't designed a block from scratch since early November.  But, you'll see a lot more designed blocks this year.  I'm in the Cocorico Bee, Pastiche Bee and I was invited to join the Ringo Pie Bee.  I'm super excited to be surrounded by so many talented sewists.  The inspiration in these bees is unparalleled.  So far I'm drawing blocks for a John Keats poem and a theme of Pippi Longstocking.  I can't wait to see what comes next!

Sun to photograph by

I swear I haven't seen the sunshine for a week or more.  But this morning the sky is clear and blue.  Finally, it is a good day for quilt photography!

This was my initial sketch for a quilt for our friend (soon to be one year old!) Miles.  I bought some water themed fabrics and tried to include them all in the quilt plan.

Soon after starting my piecing plan, I realized that the prints were too bright and with strong contrast.

They needed more solids to balance the design. 

The turtles and the zig zag stripe are from Wendy Slotboom for In the Beginning.  The whales are Anne Kelle Urban Zoologie.  The octopus/whale/submarine print and the school of fish are from Cosmo Cricket Snorkel.  The big bubbles are Jennifer Paganelli Bell Bottoms.  The solids are Kona white, Connecting Threads ocean mist and marine (I think marine is discontinued).  

The quilt is bound in the marine fabric also.

I made a lot of adjustments and added solids as I went along with the cutting process.  

I think it worked out. 

I hope a certain one year old likes it!

(Photos of this quilt were brought to you by sunshine and a patient husband 

willing to stand and hold up a quilt on a frosty morning.)

One pincushion down, two to go.

I got so excited by the number of comments on my custom pincushion giveaway, that I decided to make three of them.  Well, I have one finished now.  Charise requested a "C" in red, aqua and/or mustard.

I used a mix of paper and improvisational piecing.  Straight paper piecing will give accurate results and a clean finished project, but I'm often too lazy to go to the copy store to reverse my drawing and also too lazy to wrestle with the paper for the tiny piecing.  So, first I start with a detailed drawing. 

Then I make at least two regular copies of my drawing (my copier at home can do this much) and I cut out piece 1 like a template and I cut out pieces 1-7 all joined as a second template. 

You'll see that pieces 6 and 7 have extra hash marks because the red fabric has to be joined to the aqua background fabric before joining it to piece 1.   So, next I prepare pieces 6 and 7 by sewing two small strips of the two colors together.  Then I use my template of piece 1 to cut the aqua background fabric adding a 1/4" seam allowance all around.  Next I sew pieces 1-7 together and use the 1-7 template to trim off the excess fabric (remembering to add a 1/4" seam allowance).  Then I continue piecing 8-16 on.  Then I trim that to a square and make it into a pincushion.

I don't know if that clarifies anything, but I thought I'd try to explain my process a little.  Someday I'll have to remember to take more pictures when I'm in the midst of this piecing.  (I think I turn into a sewing/cutting/ironing whirling dervish when I'm in the middle of making these blocks, so the photos may be awhile.)

I placed some plain white fabric behind the front and back squares of the pincushion before sewing them together.  I stuffed this pincushion with crushed walnut shells--otherwise known as "lizard litter" at the pet store.  Then I whip stitched the opening closed.

Okay!  This will be on its way to Charise soon!
I have a "V" and an "S" pincushions left to do for the giveaway, so stay tuned. 

For those of you that want to try paper or improv piecing and designing your own blocks, I highly recommend practicing with letters of the alphabet. Especially L, T, H, V, M, A or a squared-off O. Then you can try curved letters C, U, D or a curved O.  I'd save a curved S, B, G, Q, R and lowercase e and g for last.  I did other posts here and here about my designs for a couple of other letters.  Good luck to you!