Thursday, June 7, 2012

Oh, THIS is going to be addictive!

It's all Susie's fault.  Today on the Clothworks blog, she posted about this cool new tool from Sherwin Williams -- the paint people. 

The most fun part of quilting for me is seeing how the colors will work together.  With Chip It, you can select  out the colors from any photo on the WWW.

Like this one I took in Idaho last month:



See?  There are the main colors right there!  I can't wait to get to the paint store.

There is even a "more colors" option:
 
Can you just imagine a modern quilt made with these colors? With all the new shades of Kona Cotton from Robert Kaufman -- I am in BIG trouble!


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Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Bag Lady

Front Range Modern Quilt Guild is hosting a "shopping bag" exchange for our June meeting.

I love to make bags, and since I've been a bit under the weather, this seemed like the perfect day to make something really easy and quick.

My bag is a combination of a pattern by posie rosy little things by Alicia Paulson, -- the Jane Market Bag -- and a tutorial from my favorite blog, "ihavetosay" by Randi of Fresh Squeezed Fabrics.

The exterior fabric is Kokka from The Fabric Shack in Waynesville, Ohio.  The lining is gingham from Riley Blake. 

 
I think I'll try making a bag lined with Pellon Insul-Fleece to carry milk home from the commissary.  It's getting hot here in Colorado, even though it's still only early June!


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Monday, June 4, 2012

Block 0' Monday

Quilters love Blocks of the Month -- because we think "Oh, I can do one block a month, no problem."

Then we put the blocks in a bin and suddenly, there are eight months of blocks to make. I started this BOM last October at Cindy's Quilt Retreat at the Ashley Inn in Idaho.  I made one block, then . . . .

So I decided to dedicate the first Monday of each month to "BOMs."

The BOM project I worked on today is from Jackie Robinson, 3D Sampler.


Jackie gives the quilter a choice to sew all four of each style together, or wait until all the blocks are done and set them separately.
:I must say, this is the easiest flying geese technique I've ever tried!  I love the 3D look, and it only takes about 45 minutes to do each set of four blocks.




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Sunday, June 3, 2012

Sunday Scraps, Schnibbles -- and Surprises!

 First of all, look what I won!


I didn't even know the Schnibbles Parade came with prizes -- and I won!  This wonderful fat quarter bundle of Circa 1934  by Cosmo Cricket for Moda is compliments of Carrie, the clever designer of Schnibbles.  Thank you Carrie, and thank you Sherri and Sinta for hosting "Another Year of Schnibbles."

Carrie also is providing all the Schnibbles Parade participants with a free pattern for next month's Parade.  "Leap Year" is perfect for a Sunday is for Scraps quilt.  I decided to use a different color scrap for each block, here is my first:


I doubt I will have any problem finding enough fabrics for the whole quilt, here is just one of my 5" Squares boxes:


I also loaded a quilt on Meggie today and practiced "loops and stars."  This is yesterday's Fat Quarter Fun quilt, "Lovers Lane."
 
 I do think it looks better with borders.  


Here is a closeup of my "loops and stars."  I used the King Tut thread I bought from Superior Threads when I was at the Cincinnati Quilt Festival in April:

 Won't it make a perfect "picnic quilt" for someone this summer?


 
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Saturday, June 2, 2012

Fat Quarter Fun -- and Fat Quarter Foul-up

Wow, this is one of those days I'm glad we live close to the mountains -- all kinds of tornadoes and tornado warnings in far Eastern Colorado.  Pretty colors on the weather map mean bad news!

Today was Fat Quarter Fun at Ruth's Stitchery.  Yesterday I finished the FQF quilt from last time, "Hot Tamale."

The strip of fabric on the left is my "border audition"  The pattern doesn't call for a border, but the other folks in the class added one and I think it will finish off the quilt nicely.  First, a narrow border of Kona "Cerise," then a wider border of the olive/fuchsia/cerise print.  I blogged the details on this pattern yesterday

Today we made another Villa Rosa Designs pattern, "Lovers Lane."  I love these simple, quick quilts!


I didn't notice the mistake until I took the photo!  Oops!  This will have a narrow red border and a wider border of the navy patriotic print.  I will quilt this on Meggie, practicing my "loops and stars" quilting.

Tomorrow is Scrappy Sunday, I am planning to work on my Anna Lena's Block-a-Day pyramids.  Only 18 days until the first day of Summer!  



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Friday, June 1, 2012

Friday Finish and What's Up for June

First Finish
  The first finish of the month of June (OK, all I had to do was sew on the binding):


I used Susie's Magic Binding with the small blue print as the piping.  The fabric is Stockholm by Robin Zingone for Robert Kaufman in the Autumn colorway.  The background is a linen/cotton blend I picked up at Sew to Speak in Columbus, Ohio.  This is my first try at using linen as the background, and I think it really sets off the modern print nicely.  I also used the linen as the main color for the binding.  I was worried that it would be too heavy, but it worked beautifully.

The pattern is a new one from Modern Quilt Relish, "Brioche and Baguette." 

 I love MQR's patterns, not only are they fresh and modern, but their directions are so well written, their quilts take no time at all to sew together!

This quilt is going to a friend who grew up in Stockholm.

June WIPs
  Today is June 1st, Rabbit Rabbit Day and the day I draw two numbers to determine which WIPs I will work on for the month.

The first draw is lucky number 7 (well, 7A):


And it is a classic 30s reproduction quilt from a 2001 issue of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine's "Quilting An Indoor Garden."  This must have been my 30s reproduction  phase, because I have a stack of 30s WIPs from around that time.


The second draw is an interesting choice:


I love these fabrics together, but there is no pattern in the bag.  What was I thinking I would make?


Maybe it was this pattern from Cozy Quilt's Strip Club, "Autumn Braid?"

Autumn Braid

Ah ha -- the turkey on the strip in the first photo is the clue.  These are the leftovers from my Thanksgiving wall hanging.  So I can choose another pattern for this stack of fabrics!

B.O.M.onday
  I try to work on Blocks of the Month on the first of the month, but since tomorrow is Fat Quarter Fun day, and because I didn't get to go to FWF last time, I'm going to designate Monday as B.O.M.onday -- the first Monday of each month will be BOM day.  (Marta, is that a run-on sentence, or just a long one?)

Last FQF, the pattern was "Hot Tamale" from Villa Rosa Designs:


Villa Rosa publishes these cute little postcard patterns -- easy designs at an easy price!  I chose this colorful collection mostly from Anthropology fabrics:

I just love chartreuse!


This is a super-easy pattern, so I should have the second June finish, and the 33rd quilt of 2012 completed by bedtime tonight!  Come back tomorrow to see what we make at Fat Quarter Fun (it's another Villa Rosa Design).

Oops, almost forgot!  I'm linking up to Lily's Quilt's Fresh Sewing Day:

Lily's Quilts



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