Big Blue

Doing some quilting today on a challenge/project piece, reimagining
a blue and white sampler quilt in a modern way. 

My chapter of the MQG, Lincoln MQG, is taking the blocks from an older traditional sampler quilt and redoing the blocks using modern techniques and fabrics. Can't wait to see what everyone has come up with. We can only use blue and white. We pulled the block images from a bag and I got Bachelor's Puzzle.

Been a while...

I know it's been a while since I posted anything, but I have been sewing so here are a few of the things I've done.

Did a mini quilt swap with a sister guild. Why is it always the piece you love most is something you have to give away.

Played with some half-square triangles. Always wanted to do something like this and I'm very happy with it. I do a lot of improv so it was nice to get back to some more precision piecing

A few more recent finishes.

I don't quilt my own stuff often, but the smaller sizes I have been making are easy enough to do as I don't have a long arm for projects over 30" square.

Peaks and Valleys

Took stacks of 12" x 11.5" solids and cut a 60 degree triangle then grabbed and sewed. One of my favorites for sure.

Plus This

I have seen this pattern of pluses done many times and just thought I should do one. All from scraps. Don't know if I will do another, but it was fun to do at least once.

Bamboo

This was done for a minimalist challenge. They were the end cuts of another block and I saw them laying together and just put this together in about 10 minutes. It's nice when everything falls in place.

This piece was the result of a class I took. Learned how to work with triangles and what "low volume" really means. Another favorite I will be hanging on to.

Lets get Wonky

This Saturday id National Quilting Day and I will be manning the Habitat for Humanity table for the Lincoln Modern Quilt Guild at the International Quilt Study Center & Museum. We make wall hangings with a house theme to give to each family when they move into their new house. I was put in charge of wonky houses...I have never made a wonky house.

A member of my guild, Kris Jarchow of Sew Sunshine made a really fun wonky house quilt and I thought..I can do that! HAHA

I tried with prints...huge fail. Then I tried with solids. Much better results. This is South Beach since I made it with soft pastels, it reminded me of Miami.

Then I did one with very limited palette and some prints and am fairly happy with it.

I will be sewing on site during the event, and had started a couple of small houses with print doors and a contrasting roof and added them to another house I wasn't super pleased with but paired with the smaller houses it worked well. Of course it needs quilted, but that comes later.

So, all in all I am pretty comfortable now with making wonky houses. Just had to find my way to make them.

Left Turns

Left Turn and Urbanite

I don't quilt my work generally. I need to change that especially on the smaller items. I quilted 2 items that have been sitting for a year on one, and almost 2 years on the other. Finally got off my duff and went for it. While the quilting is very simple, I am still not completely comfortable working on my domestic. I always feel like I need just one more arm but know that the more I do, the better I will get.

Left turn - Derived from an image of a modern rug. It just screamed, I am a quilt, not a rug.

I found an image while searching for mid century art or images or some such and came across a picture that I liked in both shape and color. 

Then, on the QDAD FB group, a challenge was put forth based on an image of architecture with a specific palette I really liked. 

Took me over a year to put the two together, the shape I liked and the palette I loved. The result is Urbanite.

I participated in the MQG Mini Swap and was paired with another Julie in Australia. We got to chat a bit via messenger so got to learn each other tastes a bit more. Julie liked oranges and teals, and i said, "Like the patina of aged copper?", she looked it up and said yes, exactly that so I knew precisely what palette I would use.

Patina for Julie Haywood, my MQG Mini Swap Partner down under.

Lincoln MQG 2018 QuiltCon Charity Quilt

I couldn't be more proud of my guild mates from the Lincoln MQG. While the design was mine, so many of my fellow members gave input and hard work in making my vision come to life. There will be an official post on our blog, but I just had to share it here. Because I live an hour away from where our meetings are held, I have not seen the quilt since it's completion and am looking forward to touching it.

Whats new!

So, the Lincoln Modern Quilt Guild had a really fun challenge this last month. It was called That's Modern and each member drew a card from a bag with an element of modern quilting on it, such as improvisation or minimal. I got bold and graphic. We were to make a 16" finished piece with black, white and one other color in solids. It was so fun to see all the different interpretations of each prompt. Here is what I came up with

Also, from our last show and tell, I made these cute little mid century houses.

Challenges..

I took part in a group improv challenge and it was such fun. The challenge was to use scraps and orphan blocks ( ones left over or never finished) and create an improvisational piece from a picture.

So, I had found this picture of a nice little mid century credenza, but really loved the art sitting on it more.

It was the perfect starting point for me. So I went thru my orphaned things looking for blues and greys and lights that would work well. Then I hit the scrap drawers and pulled more fabrics

I had some nice things in the orphan pile like some cyan prints done at a LMQG class and some other piecing left over or not used.

So, off it went to play, and here is the result.

I call this piece Metro and it reminds me of San Francisco, where I grew up. 

The moral of this post..challenge yourself..you will usually be pleasantly surprised with the results.