Wednesday, April 23, 2014

April Bee Blocks

First up...granny squares for the do.Good   Hope circle.  Our new member Heather asked for granny squares using a small print/white background for the outer row and rings of color for the inner pieces.  Woefully I have little in my stash that met her request for the outside pieces.  I used what I felt came closest however my blocks are noticeably different than those posted by others.  I hope Heather will be OK with them!

Next are the SMQ 3 blocks for Sarah and Christina.  One asked for Sunday Morning and the other for Scrappers Delight.  These are relatively easy blocks to make although the frequent requests for "low volume" are challenging since I also do not have many of those in my stash!

And last but not least - Modern Instabee 2014.  This is Kara's month to be the Queen and she asked for "Come Together" as her block.  I love how this one came out!

MMRR - finished center mailed off!

I finished up the starting centerpiece of my Modern Medallion quilt and shipped it off to Laurie, the first  of 5 contributors.  I am super excited to see the progress!  It will take a year for the quilt to make its rounds.

Now I wait for Sharon's completed center.  She has posted a picture and so my creatives juices are flowing as I contemplate my contribution.

This is going to be so much fun!

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Modern Medallion Round Robin (MMRR)

I recently joined a quilt round robin and I am so excited about it!  I have been wanting to do this ever since I heard about the "traveling quilts."   It is such a great idea.  Everyone starts the center of their quilt and then mails to the next person on the list who adds to it and then mails it again and so on.  Our group  has six quilters  and I think it will be very interesting to see what great ideas everyone has for these quilts.

So...since it is a "modern" medallion, I have been trying to make a center in keeping with that principal and this is what I have come up with so far.  I really would like to add one border before sending it to the next quilter since the half square triangles along the edges are a bity unruly and I want her to have nice edges to start.  I am having trouble moving beyond the initial piece of patchwork.  I have auditioned a few ideas.  I would love to have some comments and suggestions so please let me have your thoughts!

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Oops - Almost forgot to post the finished batik!

This quilting is for my first long arm customer! I am so excited and a little bit nervous. Her quilt top is so beautiful I was hesitant to get started for fear of somehow ruining it! However all went well (not without some thread shredding issues solved with help from the Innova tech) and I am pleased with how it turned out.
I was aiming for the quilting to create a secondary diamond shape pattern and I think I succeeded. It is not very obvious in the pictures of the front of the quilt but shows up great on the back!
One more picture for good measure!

Margaret's new quilt - Ledgerock

We bought a beautiful Bali Pop strip pack today and Margaret has been busy cutting, pressing and sewing. She does not like for me to take her picture but I stole this shot and told her she had to have some baby pictures of her quilt. Stay tuned - the finished project will be gorgeous! We already making plans for the quilting!

Do.Good Stitches- Sapphire Dreams (quilting)

So...I finished up the batik and immediately loaded the next quilt. This one is the January Do. Good Stitches - Hope circle improv log cabins quilt.
I had requested the Bee team make log cabins with a light center and gradually use darker blues to end with a gray border around the entire block. The sashing is a dark gray tone on tone that I picked up at Wal-Mart (sometimes they have good stuff!). I have been worried the quilt will be too dark but the Aurifil thread I am using lightens it up quite a bit. The quilting in the borders and sashing will be continuous curve.
In the blocks, I am quilting "square spirals." I'm not sure that is the technically correct term - but they look cool!

Friday, April 4, 2014

ModernInstabee2014- April

I decided to get a jump on April Bee Blocks and stitched up this  block for Kara.  The blocks for this bee have been going together very easily and I LOVE how big they are!  This one must be  16" square so the queen will have a decent sized quilt when she receives all the blocks. 

I added a little more of my favorite Alison Glass text  print.  I had to order another yard since it  seems to be a 'go to' fabric for me lately.

Check out Instagram #moderninstabee2014 and #hive7  for more pictures!

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Do. Good January - quilt top complete

A  big shout out to the Hope circle of the do. Good Stitches bee.  The blocks I requested for the January quilt are awesome!  I love the combination of  blues and gray with just a hint of teal in some places.

I am doubting the dark sashing at this point but I am planning to use a light gray thread which I hope will lighten up the whole quilt.

The finish is going to be late  since I was waiting for some blocks that were late (and actually never arrived).  I finished up the missing blocks myself as I had to do the last time I was the quilter.  Our group is a little lax  however the Bee leader has recently been a bit more assertive in enforcing the rules (for which I am grateful!) 

Min Skatt complete!

Yay!  The quilt is all finished !  I finished up the last stitiching on the binding and Iam happy to call her complete.  I LOVE this quilt!  The colors are just gorgeous - thanks to Jeni B for designing such a beautiful fabric line! 

I am so pleased with how the quilting turned out.  The black border is probably my favorite and mostly because it is an original idea.  I sometimes feel like I am very good at copying, but not so good at having my own ideas, so this feels  good to me.    I also love the gray border.  The leaves add so much texture.

I consider myself to be a 'modern' quilter but after all the talk lately about what is modern and what is not, I am not sure whether this quilt can be called 'modern.'  I feel like to oversized hexies are modern, as well as the FMQ, and the sprinkling of solids although the borders and symmetry of the piecing seem to push the quilt into the 'traditional' bucket.  What do you think?  Please  leave a comment as I would love to hear your opinion.

Another March Bee block

This one is ticker tape for Christine.  I made one of these   blocks for round 2  also and I have to say  what a difference it was to use my new Juki.  The thread cutter is the bomb!    I shipped this one off on March 31 (nothing like a little procrastination!).  I hope she likes it!

I also finished up some wonky pinwheels for the March do. Good bee.  I forgot to take a picture so you will have to check out the Flickr page if you are curious.