(photo from Pam @ Mama Spark)
At the end of July, I made a little road trip over to Grand Rapids to attend the Margaret's Hope Chest Summer Work Party and to meet Amanda Jean of crazymomquilts. We stayed in this gorgeous bed and breakfast in the Heritage Hill area of Grand Rapids (right across from Frank Lloyd Wright's Meyer May house. side note: I'm a huge FLW fan, as evidenced here and here).
On Saturday morning, our group met up at a local church (if only I had this much space in my own craft room to spread out!) and got to work on Amanda Jean's pattern, Fair and Square, that was specifically designed for Margaret's Hope Chest. (you can get the free pattern here).
Amanda showed our group the quilts that she designed and made and walked us through cutting out the fabric, working with scraps, and gave us lots of great quilting hints and tips.
We all got to work making our own versions of her pattern. I used some squares brought by Pam and we both made the same quilt but with different sashing. It's fun to see how different colors of sashing look in a quilt.
One woman at the sewing day made this fantastic top with all of her blue scraps. She just sewed all of her scraps into small blocks and used pieced blocks instead of fabric squares for her quilt. I'm definitely going to use this idea with my fabric scraps.
Amanda and I
I had a wonderful weekend meeting these fun quilters and learning more about Margaret's Hope Chest. It was so much fun to work on a collective project with so many enthusiastic quilters!
If you'd like more information on Margaret's Hope Chest and how you can help, be sure to check out the MHC's blog and CraftSanity's Episode No. 105 interview with the founders, Carin and Carol.
That looks like it was a lot of fun. I love the quilt design - perfect for charity quilts, fun, fast and flexible!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a great time for a great cause - the quilts are wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI wish I could have stayed to quilt, too! Thanks for posting all the lovely pictures. Looks like you ladies had a very productive weekend!
ReplyDeleteThis looks like too much fun! You were just a hop,skip and a jump away from me...I wish I would have known :) Glad to see you're back!
ReplyDeletesounds like a wonderful trip and what beautiful quilts you all made!
ReplyDeleteit really is amazing what a difference the sashing makes!
ohhh that must be wonderful!! I wish have a weekend like taht ;)
ReplyDeletelove your quilt, lolve the brown sashing!
what a great quilting retreat! and with amanda jean no less? jealous! :)
ReplyDeleteWow, I didn't realize the fabrics were the same in those two quilts until you mentioned it. The sashing really makes a huge difference!
ReplyDeleteYou do the coolest things! What an awesome trip!! I'm jealous :)
it was so great to quilt and meet you! you wrote up a lovely recap. i loved seeing the different sashing results, too.
ReplyDeleteVery cool! Great cause and how fun to have met a fellow blogger.
ReplyDeleteWow, so jealous that you got to meet Amanda Jean! She is so amazing and so inspiring. What a great opportunity. It looks like you had an amazing time, and I love your quilt top.
ReplyDeleteAww man! You got to meet Amanda Jean! That is so cool. I love both yours and Pam's quilt tops. Looks so different with a different colored sashing.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me wish I stilled lived in Michigan...almost. Looks like a load of fun!
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