Monday, March 8, 2010

A little of this, a little of that....

I made my very first pinwheel the other day and it was so much fun! I never thought I'd be able to do triangles and pinwheels. Rachel Griffith is hosting a Pinwheel Samper quilt along on her blog p.s. i quilt. If you've never tried these before this is a great way to jump in. I hope I can get a couple more finished this week.

I'm using fabric from Moda's Three Sisters line called Aviary. I fell in love with it last spring when I saw it during the local shop hop. And when I say love, I mean LOVE. When I went to visit my mom early in the summer she had the whole line in her quilt shop and I was trying to figure out how to fit a fat quarter of each into my budget. Then I was trying to figure out which prints I could live without. I was so surprised when my mom brought fat quarters of the whole line to a family dinner for both my sister and I that I just squealed with delight! I had no idea what I would do with it but I had a lot of fun going through my patterns and trying to decide. When I saw Rachel's quilt along I knew that this was the project perfect this fabric. Never, never feel guilty about growing your stash (to a reasonable amount) because its so wonderful to have just the right thing to pull when you need it. Thanks Mama!

I am noticing a little puckering along some of my seams. I've been playing with my tension on my machine to try to fix it. So frustrating when you can't just sit down and sew. Hopefully I'll get it worked out.

I got started on a couple of blocks for my red and aqua quilt. So, so easy! I think I may save the rest for an upcoming retreat. It might be an easy thing to start on that first night to get me in my groove.


I picked this book up from the library a while back. I was drawn to it because I knew that my mom had submitted a couple of our family quilts to the Kansas Quilt Project back when I was in high school. It didn't really go into great detail about most of the quilts discovered in that project bu used some of the data collected to discuss the history of quilts in Kansas. I planned on just browsing this book but I ended up reading most of it. The excerpts of diaries were really interesting as well as the photos. "Kansas Quilts & Quiltmakers" is by Barbara Brackman, Jennie Chinn, Gayle Davis, Terry Thompson, Sara Farley, and Nancy Hornback.


Hopefully I'll be back soon with some more pinwheels!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild


Last Wednesday evening, I attended the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild's second meeting and had a wonderful time! It was so exciting to visit with so many quilters who were absolutely as nice as could be. The show and tell was so inspiring. We saw quilts from beginning quilters, very experienced quilters and everything in between and they were all beautiful. In fact it was SO inspiring that I had a hard time sleeping that night because I was so excited.

Tula Pink was at the meeting and gave us all a challenge. She brought charm packs of her new Plume line of fabric that Moda donated to our group. The challenge is to use the charm pack and a half yard of fabric, along with any fabric for the backing and binding. I love so many of the designs in this line as well as the colors but it's really out of my comfort zone to use some of the colors in the charm pack together. It took me several days to finally figure out what I wanted to create.

I made three Disappearing Nine Patch blocks using Rachel Griffith's wonderful tutorial on p.s.i quilt. I then framed them with a chocolate brown solid from Moda. I'm considering an attempt at free motion quilting with this project. The challenge participants will share their creations at the April meeting. It'll be fun to see what everyone came up with.



The pink feathers on the pink background is a favorite.


And so is the large scale floral which is surprising since I usually don't care for large scale prints.

I have a thing for keys so I'm really in love with the keys dangling from the vines/trees. You can see the pink and green versions here.

Edited to add: See finished quilt here.




It was fun to branch out and try something new which is exactly why I was interested in joining a guild. The Modern Quilt Guild is popping up in many areas around the country so check to see if you have a guild near you.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails