For the love of swaps

I’ve participated in a lot of swaps over the years, from Block Swap Adventure to online bees to handmade Christmas gifts.  Sometimes I’ve been blown away by the creativity and skill of my partner.  A few times my partner was a dud or never answered any communication.  Oh well, the positive experiences far outweigh the negative ones.

The DCMQG hosted it’s first swap among members this month, a mug rug swap!  My partner listed red and white fabric and batiks as dislikes.  She asked for a big-sized mug rug (around 10-12 inches) and I stalked her blog a little and found out she likes cats and dogs and dislikes tea and possibly likes retr0-looking funky fabric.  So going on that information, I got to work!

Am I the only person who finds making wonky stars completely mind-boggling???  I know I’ve said it before, but visualizing where things will go is SO DIFFICULT!!!  Luckily it turned out that all the letters were upright.  I used white Aurifil thread to densely quilt straight lines on a diagonal.  (Aside:  I sent my sister the Aurifil piecing box for her birthday this month and she is now an Aurifil convert as well.)

I wasn’t sure if my partner drinks coffee or not, so I sent some of my favorite hot chocolate and this cute owl mug with the mug rug.

The backing fabric is this pretty Color Me Retro blue/purple/green  floral print.

It was mailed yesterday, so it should be received today or Monday. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

100 Quilts for Kids

The DC Modern Quilt Guild is collecting quilts once again for 100 Quilts for Kids.  This year I was able to make some blocks for a group quilt, and finished up one new quilt to be donated.

I had some premade binding left over from another donated quilt that looked pretty good with the top and backing, but of course it was about 12 inches too short to fit.  It would have felt great to use up, but it wasn’t meant to be…

The rainbow striped fabric is just as cheerful!

The backing is a fabric that’s been in my stash for years and years.  That felt good to use!

The front of the quilt was made using up two fat quarter bundles my mom gave me for Christmas a few years ago.  There are no scraps left over!

And I used Connecting Threads cotton thread in Persian Blue for the quilting.  I decided to do straight lines on my DSM and seriously, about 6 inches in, I started to doubt my decision.  I could have stippled the quilt in a quarter of the time it took me to quilt all those straight lines!

 

This quilt was mailed off today to be donated together with the other DCMQG quilts to Carpenter’s Shelter.

Thanks for stopping by!

DC Modern Quilt Guild Sewing

There are several group projects in the works at the DC Modern Quilt Guild and this past week I made and mailed off some blocks to contribute.

Sending love and wishes for good health to a member undergoing breast cancer treatment.  The request was for all sorts of variations of granny squares in aqua, coral and low volume prints.

This block has my favorite “low volume” print in it.

The doves are (hopefully) a subtle message of love and peace.

A block for a baby quilt.

And blocks for a group quilt for 100 Quilts for Kids.

This economy block square was paper pieced and the pattern can be found here and the directions here.  It was so easy to do and all the points and seam allowances are spot on. 

I was hoping to make it to the guild meeting this weekend, but school starts next week and I’ve been feeling quite “cat’s in the cradle”-ish so I’ll be staying home with the family this time and enjoying one last summer weekend of beaches, boat rides, and pool days. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Katie Blakesley & Laura Gunn

Recently I attended the DC Modern Quilt Guild’s exhibit at the Anacostia Arts Center. 

Four of us from Southern Maryland rode up to DC together and another friend who recently moved out of the area met us there.  We had brunch at the arts center café which was amazing!  Then we spent an hour cruising the exhibits, checking out all the beautiful quilts on display, and chitchatting with fellow quilting enthusiasts.

I took some photos of the quilts, but I felt like a big dork with my camera, so I didn’t take quite as many as I wish I had!

A hexi masterpiece by Melinda Newton.

Gorgeous machine quilting by Meli Mathis.

A quilt by the man who started it all, Frederick Nunley, who blogs at Orange Explains It All.  One of his quilts was in a previous exhibit at the arts center and it garnered the most attention out of all the artifacts on display, prompting the curator to ask him to facilitate a display of work by local quilters.

And, leave it to me to pick the simple ones, but this was my favorite quilt in the exhibit.

 

“Pinocchio” by Susan Fuller.  The green wall behind it just made this quilt glow.

As soon as I saw a few people entering the auditorium, I hustled my friends into line for the presentation.  I wanted front row seats, baby! 

First up was Katie, who presented ideas and designs from her collaborative book Vintage Quilt Revival.  There was a gorgeous trunk show featuring the quilts she made from the book, plus she even showed us the first quilt she made by herself!  It was interesting to see how she, Lee Heinrich, and Faith Jones took traditional blocks and made the quilts more modern by adding negative space, increasing the size of the blocks, using more modern fabrics and color schemes, and putting the blocks on point. 

And then fabric designer and artist Laura Gunn did a presentation about color.  It was high energy!

She discussed the color wheel in depth and showed us how different color combinations can alter the way colors look to the human eye.  In this picture there are three canvases with the same color aqua.  It’s not the best picture (the auditorium was quite dark) but you can see the aqua looks so much brighter on the orange canvas and less vibrant on the yellow canvas, but they are the same shade of aqua.  I asked a lot of questions and if you can believe it,  won a door prize of 3 yards of her poppies fabric in one of the drawings.  But I don’t have a photo because right before she drew a name, I told my cousin I hoped she won because the fabric looked so much like “her.”  It was hard to part with that beautiful bundle of fabric after I held it in my hands, but I was rooting for her after all. 

Afterwards, there were “pop-up shops” where a mob of women descended into a space about 50% too small for the lot of us.  I left with some loot of course!

I’m happy to report I already used most of the linen frogs for my shamrock table runner and some bits of the two purple prints for my Pantone pillow.  The Midnight at the Oasis pattern is by Jen Kingwell, and although I might not make it for a long time, I don’t think I’d ever have the chance to buy it in person again, so I got it.

My kind of day!

It’s For the Birds {plus a giveaway}

The giveaway is closed.  The winner was Rina Mason #106 (Crickets Corner) and has replied to my email.  Thanks everyone who entered and left a comment!!!

Thanks for checking out my stop on the hop today!  When I saw a bird-themed hop it was a no-brainer to jump right in.  I have a serious love affair with birds ever since I started staying home with my kids.  The first winter we got a bird guide book and a bird feeder and it’s just exploded from there to multiple bird feeders, birdhouses, every kind of hummingbird feeder, mealworms for the birds (yes, mealworms!), and even a month long adventure of raising a baby robin last fall.

When we found “Lucky” he was a pinkie, which meant he didn’t have any feathers and had to be fed every 20 minutes from sunrise to sunset.

We took him everywhere with us those first few weeks, including to the pool in his shoebox home.  We’d just sit him on the table in the shade, keep him fed and clean with a toilet paper trick we learned from a helpful rehabilitator, and no one was the wiser that we had a baby bird with us while we were splashing it up!

Once he was a fledgling and did a lot of flying around the yard, we were able to find a licensed wildlife rehabilitator to take him.  You see, when they are so small and require so much care around the clock, places that rehabilitate animals cannot meet those sort of demands with volunteer schedules and the fact that many people who do that kind of work also have regular jobs they have to go to.  So we kept him for a little over a month until he didn’t need to eat so frequently and required less care.  What a meaningful month we had taking care of him!

So what did I sew for this hop?  Well basically I’ve tried to incorporate birds into nearly everything I’ve sewn since I signed up for the hop.  I started a Mooshka quilt for my daughter, but it’s not finished yet, so I am sharing two other sewing projects today.

With the explosion of friends who are having babies this year, I’ve made quite a few pairs of reversible fabric baby shoes.  This sweet bird print (no idea what it is) looks darling paired with pink polka dot fabric.

I’m not sure which photo I like better.  I had a lot of fun staging the shoes for a photo op.

Here they are with their “friends.”

Then, the DC Modern Quilt Guild had a nametag challenge last month, so I thought I’d pick something with a bird in the design, of course.

It took no time at all to stitch up.  The pom pom trim was a little tricky to pin into place (I have a really hard time with fiddly things like that), but overall it was pretty simple to make and I had fun wearing it around the entire day (like even into the Chinese restaurant to pick up carryout, and at the dinner table at home much to my husband’s amusement). 

So there you have it!  Now if you follow me regularly you might have seen that our squirrel-proof bird feeder stopped working last week.  I took a few photos of an especially daring squirrel with strong teeth and sent it into the local newspaper, and they printed it!

Our new birdfeeder arrived yesterday and the girls and I put it up today.

It must work because I’ve seen about a dozen squirrels checking it out intently but never touching it.  I picked it up on Amazon here.

I ordered a few more new feeders from Amazon, you know, while I was already looking...

No birds at this window feeder yet.

But I’ve seen a couple hummingbirds at this one already.

Be sure to check out the other stops on the blog hop today!

http://ssparrowinflight.blogspot.com

http://Hillvalleyquilter.blogspot.se

http://mcsqrd.blogspot.com

http://loveitsewit.blogspot.com

http://piecepeacenc.blogspot.com

http://grammieq.blogspot.com

http://meadowbrook-Kristen.blogspot.com

http://scrapbook-ChickADoodle.blogspot.com

www.craftyshenanigans.blogspot.co.uk

http://Stitchingbythebeach.blogspot.com

www.thebusybeequiltshop.blogspot.com

http://morestarsincomanche.blogspot.com

http://lesquilts.blogspot.ca

http://suebeesworld.blogspot.com

http://mtnmommy2.blogspot.com

www.thatlookslikeitneedsstitches.blogspot.com

http://www.freshcutquilts.com

And a huge thank you to Madame Samm and Mary Winegar (rhymes with vinegar) who put this hop together!

I have a little giveaway today…a charm pack of Winter’s Lane by Moda that features a lovely cardinal print perfect for bird lovers.

The North American Cardinal happens to be my favorite bird.  What’s yours?  Leave a comment to be entered to win.  Open to anyone anywhere.  Followers of my blog can get a second entry.  I’ll announce the winner this weekend.

Have a wonderful Friday!!!

Old and New Projects

This Saturday was the DC Modern Quilt Guild’s field trip to Material Girls in La Plata, Maryland.  Five of us met up there to sew and shop and have fun.  I left with these two patterns.

I haven’t opened them up yet, but I have plans to use the Bizzy Kid pattern with some beach themed fabric as a gift for friends who let us use their condo in Ocean City.

As for old projects, I got the top pieced to my Shoo Fly quilt.  Now I just need to piece together all the flying geese I accidentally made when I sewed the wrong squares together in the beginning of making the shoo fly blocks and make the backing.

And as for new projects, yesterday I finished up all the blocks for my Tula Pink quilt I plan to enter into the Sew Along.  Full Moon Forest was my second ever designer fabric purchase and I’ve had two fat quarter bundles since the line came out.  It’s time to cut into it I guess!  I also used some Prince Charming, Birds and Bees, and some Amy Butler and Anna Maria Horner fabrics.

I read a little bit about making scrappy quilts “work” and tried to use all different scales and values of fabric, but I fear I may have missed the mark on this one.  I hope to have the finished top to share later this week.

My friend Donna is having a giveaway on her blog for a pack of Lecien fabrics and a copy of her pattern “Sweet Scrappy Love.”  It would make a perfect Valentine’s quilt.  I hope I win, but you should pop over and enter yourself, too!   The giveaway closes November 2nd.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Field Trip!!! {plus a discount}

On Saturday, October 20th, the DC Modern Quilt Guild will be meeting at Material Girls Quilt Shop in La Plata, Maryland.   Never heard of La Plata?  Well, it’s the town I was born in and graduated high school from!  And I happened to be in the same high school class as Amy, one of the owners of the most beautiful modern quilt shop in the area.  The shop is a family affair and her mom and sister also work there and they are the friendliest and most knowledgeable ladies around!

The sewing lounge will be available for our use from 10-4 that day.  Don’t worry, the shop machines will be put out of the way, so you can bring your own machine to work on whatever projects suit your fancy.

The lounge is a huge space with plenty of room for everybody!

Or perhaps you might be interested in a little retail therapy?  Amy is generously offering anyone from the DCMQG a 10% discount on all merchandise except machines—the shop carries Bernina by the way.

This wall has some awesome patterns.  Material Girls has all the Cluck Cluck Sew patterns, and Bizzy Kid and Pow-Wow are on my list of must-haves!  But this wall of patterns is only the tip of the iceberg.  Everywhere in the store you can find patterns and samples to inspire your creativity.

If Chicopee or Madrona Road are on your wish list, look no further!

And with Halloween around the corner, you might be interested in some Tula Pink Nightshade!

For the batik-lovers out there, Material Girls carries an extensive collection of yummy batiks.

There is also a huge section of sale fabrics in the back of the store.   Everything is marked 30% off with a one yard minimum.  I got some Heather Bailey Fresh Cut and Nicey Jane. 

Not sure where La Plata is?  It’s about an hour from Alexandria, just south of Waldorf on Route 301.  Directions can be found here.  There is a nice sandwich shop in the same building and plenty of restaurants within a mile or two.

Hope to see you there!  Leave a comment if you plan to attend!