Brighton Modern Quilters - Paper Bag Challenge

I've been a member of the Brighton Modern Quilters group since it almost began. It's been fun meeting up with local quilters to talk about techniques, share ideas, and be surrounded by beautiful fabrics and quilts!

If you're local to the area (or semi-local, like me), be sure to check out one of our meetings! We meet at Monarch Quilts on the 4th Monday of the month. Our next meeting is August 23 at 7:00pm.

A handful of our members even have blogs...Rossie, Sarah, Debbie, Lynn, Angie, Bonnie, Lynn, and our fearless leader, Andrea!

At our latest meeting, we shared the results of our paper bag challenge. Back in May we each brough a paper bag filled with a fat quarter, some fabric scraps and some random notions. We swapped bags and then had a few months to turn our bag into a quilt or project of some sort. It seems everyone in the group put off this project until the last minute (myself included - I was up at six the morning of to finish sewing and stuffing my project).

Here's what I started with:

A great big pile of dark batiks! Batiks are so not my thing, but I was able to salvage one strip of green batik fabric to use in the challenge (we had to use at least one piece, so I stuck with the bare minimum :)


I combined my green strip of fabric along with some other greens and blues from my stash. (I should say right now that I was hoping to make a mini quilt for the Doll Quilt Swap and turn this project into a twofer).

I wanted to make a patchwork cutout strip (like in this project seen in my flickr favorites), so I cut the fabrics into strips and sewed them together.


I cut out some junk mail to make my template in the general shape I wanted to use.


Then I laid everything out on my base fabric and added the brown for extra contrast.


I pieced the brown to the fabric strip and then appliqued the other side of the brown down to the background fabric. At this point I went back to read my Doll Quilt Swap partner's preferences (just in case) and realized that I missed the fact that she hates brown. Oops!


So, instead of turning this into a quilt, I turned it into a decorative pillow for our living room. And now I have officially made a new throw pillow to replace the other pillows on the couch. This one is fluffier than the old pillows and much more suitable for Sunday afternoon naps!

2010 Garden: Week 10

It's come to the point in the summer where I start my neglecting the garden. It happens every year around this time. I've finally realized that it's not because I'm sick of gardening. It's actually because my job is sucking up all of my energy. My big catalog deadline is looming (next week, Thursday!) and I'm working myself to the bone every day. By the time I get home at night it's all I can do to find something to eat and crash in front of the tv before falling asleep for the night. You'll notice that there was no update for Week 9. That's actually because I didn't go in our back yard at all last week (lame, I know!). Thank goodness Jon keeps it watered for me!


Needless to say, next Friday I will be reclaiming the garden (or what's left of it that the weeds haven't taken over!)

For now, I'm dreaming of fresh pesto made from my 6 thriving basil plants and lots of butternut and spaghetti squash this fall and winter (can you spot the tiny squash growing at the top of the trellis in the first photo?).

Ann Arbor Area Quilt Show

On Sunday afternoon, I visited the Ann Arbor Area Quilt Show. As always, getting to see a wide variety of gorgeous quilt is is always such an inspiring way to spend the day!

Here are some of my favorite quilts from the show:

I've been drawn to traditional quilts in modern colors lately and I love the look of this Irish Chain.


Debbie's Traffic Pattern quilt is one of my most favorite quilts in a very long time! The pattern is for sale here. She's in the Brighton Modern Quilters Guild with me, so I always get to see what she's been up to.


This Bargello patterned quilt photo is for Christine. I read on the description that this quilt design came in a kit from a Quilt Shop in Illinois (probably why it's identical to this quilt seen at the Oakland County Quilt Guild show I visited earlier this year). The quilter actually enlarged the pattern by 1.5 times, which is why it's slightly different than the other quilt in the link.


Me really liking this quilt is just another sign that I am turning into my mom as I age! She had a thing for patriotic quilts back in the 80's.  Maybe it's the antique background that I really like set off against the bright red?



I am really liking bright bright quilts lately (high volume, if you will)


I love this color combination. I will try an orange peel block someday!


I have a feeling that an amish style quilt is in my future! Black mixed with bright jewel tones? Yes, please!


And, finally, can anyone tell me the manufacturer of this bright floral or point me in the direction of a similar looking fabric? I feel like I've seen this before in oilcloth, too.

ahh...the memories

Good news: I have friends living all around the world that I've been fortunate enough to visit.

Bad news: My friends live all around the world, so I don't get to see them too often.

Lucky for me, I was able to meet up with Kate in Grand Rapids last weekend. She was back from Nicaragua for her yearly visit home for the summer. Kate and I met in Calvin Band (surprise, surprise - I really am a band geek!) in college and we lived in a house together (and shared a room) our junior year. We are actually a Myers-Briggs type indicator compatible personality match and she is the perfect zany to my seriousness  After all, only Kate would give me a large piece of smoked salmon wrapped up in a Victoria's Secret bag for my birthday! (for MBTI geeks out there, she's an ISFP and I'm an ESTJ)

For nostalgia's sake, I dug through my archives to find other trips and things I've done with Kate since starting the blog...exploring Jackson Hole, WY, learning how to play Guitar Hero, a Detroit-a-thon museum tour, visiting Ohio with a rainy trip to Cedar point with 4/5 house roommates, and, of course, traveling to  visit her in Nicaragua with Jon two years ago.

My camera caught a picture of a car driving through our heads back in our old stomping grounds on 60th St. - perfect!

We caught up with each other over a visit to Frederik Meijer Gardens and Fields Fabrics and a leisurely dinner together. I really miss having close friends living nearby, so it was the perfect pick me up after my long week!

Dale Chihuly's glass sculptures were on display at the Gardens and I loved seeing how he incorporated these in with the garden landscapes. I wish they had shared details about how each piece of glass was physically added to the space (chains, buoys, long poles, etc.?), but it was fun to guess on our own.

bee blocks

Here are the latest blocks I've completed for the various bees that I am participating in.

Common Threads

First up is a tall, sweater wearing girl for Wendy. I used light weight washable yarn for the sweater portion.

 
And here's a block of pluses and minuses for Amanda.


Maverick Stars for Jessica.


Jess' block (see her quilt inspiration here)

 
A textured block with a pop of color for Sarah (full shot of block was blurry so here's just a snippet of the block).


Bee Beautiful



Patchwork blocks for Audrie.


A tulip block for Penny.



Neptune squares for Julie.

 
And Spiderweb blocks for Natalie.



A few months ago, Rossie invited me to join the new bee she started with Cheryl (of Naptime Quilter). The bee is based on the mid-century modern design aesthetic and all of the blocks will be mostly improvised and pattern free.


(photo by r0ssie)
Her concept for the month is creating a kelp quilt with these varying shades of red and orange fabric that she flat dyed (simply robin tutorial here).

Here's the kelp block I made. The hand dyed fabric was really fun to work with. It's so saturated and full of interesting little variations.

Emily's baby gifts

My college roommate, Emily, is expecting her first kid in September, and I've been planning on things to make for this this baby girl ever since I first found out she was expecting. After all, making baby stuff means getting to work with cute prints and small projects, so it's easy to go a little bit overboard.


...I made some bibs and burp rags. The bibs are backed with white flannel and the burp rags are quilting cotton backed with chenille and are 12"x18". I used the same fabrics that I used for Chikage's baby gifts, and was able to get one bib and one burp rag out of a fat quarter (with a small scrap left over).


...I sewed a nursing cover (tutorial here). My fabulous male nursing cover model is back in action! I finished 20 minutes before Emily stopped by for a little visit. Thank goodness I had the fabric cut out in advance or I never would have finished it in time.


...and I made this quilt/blanket. The fabric for this is the Porcelina line by Michelle D'Amore from Marcus Fabrics. I actually purchased this before Emily found out that she was having a girl because it totally screamed "Emily's daughter," so I was really happy that she found out she was having a girl so I'd have a chance to use it.


I stalled making the quilt because I was trying to come up with the perfect pattern to use for the quilt. I had toyed with using a raw edge circle applique pattern, but raw edge circles are a bit too unfinished for Emily. I was going to do a simple charm square patchwork, but wanted to step up the patchwork for this. Then I narrowed down the piecing options to a disappearing nine patch or a box in a box, which I ended up using. I went with the box in a box because the dimensions in this tutorial created the right size square for the size backing I was using.


For the backing, I used a 32" x 35" piece of minky fabric. This is my first time working with minky and I was afraid that it would pucker or bunch weird when quilting because it is so stretchy. Based on the recommendation of the quilt store employee, I stretched it out on the floor, taped it down and applied a generous amount of spray baste. Then, I laid the patchwork top on the minky and pressed it down with my hands. I quilted it with a walking foot in the same way that I quilt normal quilts with batting and a fabric backing. I tried to minimize the amount of quilting I did, because I didn't want to pull on the backing too much.


I made a scrappy patchwork binding with each of the fabrics included in the quilt and attached the binding using this technique.

The finished blanket has a really light drape to it and the backing is so soft and cuddly. Now I want to make a grown up sized blanket with a minky backing like this.

another 365 days around the sun

In an attemp to relax and enjoy life more this year I will refrain from creating a list of 29 things to do before I'm 30. It's killing me not to make a list though!


This morning Jon treated me with a Nook and chocolate chip waffles. I hadn't ever considered getting an eReader until I realized that with the Nook you can borrow ebooks for free from your local library if they participate in the Overdrive program. I've checked out The Lacuna, Going Bovine, and American Taliban and hopefully I'll be able to finish all three before they're due in 21 days.


My friend, Harriet (find her on ravelry here), treated me with this amazing handspun skein of yarn (details here) that was such a fun surprise in the mail. Can you believe she's only been spinning for a few months? We met back in high school band and are very good at enabling each other with supplies crafty hobbies (I didn't think I was a band geek until I realized that I met all of my friends in marching band...busted!). If we follow our track record, she will be weaving and I will be spinning by the end of this year.


I treated myself with this adorable pouch made by Sarah at Hip To Piece Squares (picked up at the I-Art Festival in Redford today)

And, the best treat of all was finishing my urgent crafting to do list. That's right, I finished all 5 of my bee blocks, my Paper Bag Challenge Project for the Brighton Modern Quilters meeting tomorrow night, and my Doll Quilt for DQS9. It was a busy sewing day yesterday and this afternoon! I'll be sharing everything later this week.