May Block-of-the-Month

Hey everyone, it's Andrea here bringing you the block of the month for May!  

I have a fat quarter pack of the Michael Miller cotton couture QuiltCon colors that I’ve been dying to cut into.  When I saw this block I thought it could be very cool to vary the colors from block to block using the QuiltCon colors.  The block is called “Binary” and is designed by Angela Pingel.  While it looks simple enough, it is important to be precise in your cutting so that everything lines up properly.  

FOR EASY TO PRINT INSTRUCTIONS: CLICK HERE

Let’s get started!

Cutting Your Fabric:

From your background fabric (in this case, white) you will cut:

1.  2 strips 3 ½” x 12 ½”

2.  1 strip 2 ½” x 12 ½”

3.  8 strips 2 ½” x 1 ½”

4.  2 squares 2 ½” x 2 ½”  

5.  From your four colors you will cut:

    (in this case dark grey, light grey, orange and lime green)

     (a)  1 rectangle 1 ½” x 2 ½”; and 

     (b)  1 square 2 ½” x 2 ½” from each color

Construction:

1.  Using my completed block photo as a guide, arrange the two columns using the 1 ½” x 2 ½” white and colored rectangles and the 2 ½” x 2 ½” white and colored squares.

2.  Sew the colored pieces to the white pieces using a ¼” seam allowance with right sides together. 

3.  Once your two columns are complete, take them and sew to either side of the 2 ½’ x 12 ½” white strip with right sides together.  Press your seams away from the pieced columns.

4.  Add your 3 ½” x 12 ½” white strip to either side of your block from Step 3.  Press the seams away from the pieced columns.

5.  Trim the block to 12 ½” x 12 ½”

Voila!  You are finished!!  This block has a lot of possibilities including, but not limited to, rotating the block 90 degrees or switching up the colors from block to block.  

Have fun!

For those of you at home keeping score, here's where we are!

April Flaunt Your Finish

Just as you shouldn't drink and drive, I believe you shouldn't be medicated and blog. With that said, we have some great finishes to flaunt. Not knowing I was going to do this (some had more to say than others) I'm going to let the creators tell you about their projects in their own words. I'd probably just slur mine.

Remember to link YOUR finish at the end of this post!

Ann says:

Here is my favorite composite photo of my Madrona Road Challenge mini quilt. I like the idea of its translucence.

Everyone at the April meeting saw my interpretation of a macro view of the Broken Herringbone pattern within the MR line. I substituted one of the MR patterns for each of the solids, double checked the angles, and corrected the motif because I completely overlooked an error in my first layouts.

Turns out the vertical band on the front perfectly overlaid a vertical on the back. I did my regular picture taking on the stockade fence and then took photos backlit hung on the wrought iron fence. Nice effect.

Bri says:

Hi!  This is my one April finish.  It is the Madrona Road Challenge mini.  I used Elizabeth Hartman’s Octagonal Orbs pattern.

Jemellia says:
A quick little tote I made while retreating with my mother-in-law at their cabin (yes, it's near the van down by the river). 

Kristine says:

Sooooooo frustrated with this camera. It yellowed and made lines on every pic I took. Here is a purposefully blurred, color corrected one. I will be replacing this camera very soon. Sigh.

Anyhow, this is my own design. The leaves and stems and flowers are all hand appliqued. Machine quilted on my Bernina. I love how it turned out. I wish the pictures could really show it!

Ann has more to say:

Another project I knocked out was a quilt for a sweet little five-year-old girl recently adopted from Ukraine. Her adoption was in the works when their president cancelled all international adoptions. My friends were there when this happened and were heartbroken. They had to summon up all their faith and assure her they would be back for her! As it worked out, adoptions already approved but not completed were allowed to go through, they returned to pick her up and little Polina was on her way to her US home. (Read the story.)

I knew I wanted to make something for her and in early April, I saw a triangle square layout I liked and remembered a pack of charm squares (moda Fairy Tale Friends) I'd bought sometime last year. I'd also bought matching solids. So I put them together and came up with this. I was going to do a coordinating backing, but saw that more of her colors were 'princessy' and thought the hearts fleece kinda went that direction. Finish size was 36" x 36". Did a simple hand tying.

Agnes says:
Somebody (Amanda maybe?) asked me about the thought process I put into quilt design. In my case, I am not sure there is much thought process, more like ideas piggybacking on each other. 

This is a pretty good example:
a)  Started out with a more-or-less conventional US flag design, then thought....hmmm
b)  this could be so much more fun if the stripes radiated out of the star, almost like a 4th of July firework!...then I looked at it some more and....
c) I thought, ...a mug rug ...is separated into "hot" and "cold" areas, isn't it? The blue cubes are kind of abstract ice cubes, while the star turned into a radiating flame,....but wait...
d) now the whole thing is like a big fish, ...that could be eating a small fish! etc.

Love these small scrap projects - instant gratification!

What project did you finish this month? Link up and Flaunt It!

April Block-of-the-Month

Happy Spring!  

I (Amanda L.) signed up to do the April BOM for the guild, and the block I am choosing to share is one I created for our “recent” Michael Miller Challenge Quilt.  

This block has a bit of history to it as it is designed after a portion of the Oklahoma City National Memorial.  The bombing occurred on April 19, 1995, and the resulting memorial is a place Oklahomans hold dear to their hearts.  It is a place of grief, history, and hope for the future.  As a relatively new Oklahoman, but someone who was affected deeply by the events of 9/11, I can relate very closely to the feelings of Oklahomans on this terrible tragedy, and so I created this take on the memorial as my way of paying tribute to those families and this lovely state who has accepted my family and me into its folds so generously.

April's Block-of-the-Month:

 A fat eighth of each of these fabrics is enough, but if you have large enough scraps those will do as well.   Of course you can also cut down fat quarters and use those, which I have done in the past as well.

For easy to print instructions: Click HERE

Cutting it out:

Orange (Fabric 1):

1a:  3” x 5.5”
1b:  Cut 2 –  2.25” x 5”

1c: 1.5” x 5.5”

White (Fabric 2):
2a:  4.5” x 5.5”

Navy Blue (Fabric 3):

3a:  2” x 5”

3b: Cut 2 – 4” x 12.5”

Sewing it together: (Use scant ¼” seam allowances, press seams open or to the dark side.)

1. Begin with the “chair back”. Sew each of the 1b pieces to 3a to create the center back of the “chair”.
2. Sew 1a to the top of the unit you created in step 1. 
3. Sew 1c to the bottom of the unit you created in step 1. 
4. Sew 2a to the bottom of 1c. 
5. Sew each 3b piece to the sides of the “chair” unit. 
6. Square up your block to be 12.5” square. 

There you go!  A complete OKC Memorial Block.  Thanks for joining me in April’s BOM.  Don’t forget to add your block to the flickr group.

Join us next month for May’s BOM!

March Flaunt Your Finish

Welcome to our March Flaunt Your Finish!  

It's been a long winter for some of us and we're happy that Spring is right around the corner. Here in Oklahoma, that means it will be summer in two weeks.  If we're really lucky we might have four whole weeks of Spring! I exaggerate, but not by much.

With Spring and Easter quickly approaching, some of our members have been busy sewing clothing. Andrea made this adorable Easter dress for her daughter using the "Stella" pattern from Violette Fields Threads. The fabric is from Sarah Jane's "Out to Sea" collection.

Jemellia has also been sewing dresses and although they're not shown here, she's made at least two for herself as well as this cute one for her daughter. This one is the "Geranium Dress" pattern by Rae Hoekstra. Jemellia says she's may challenge herself to round out the month with 1-3 more apparel pieces.

Agnes made this beautiful quilt inspired by the Quilts of Gee's Bend. Using fabrics from Windham Fabrics "Quilts of Gee's Bend" Series, Agnes' quilt is an interpretation of an iconic quilt by famous Alabama quiltmaker Loretta Pettway Bennett.

Having personally visited Gee's Bend a few years ago, making this quilt was truly inspirational and insightful for Agnes. She's now come full circle as far as exploring this very important influence on the Modern Quilting Movement.

We've mentioned before that several of our members participated in the Madrona Road Challenge sponsored by Michael Miller Fabrics and The Modern Quilt Guild. Our guild challenge was to make a mini-quilt and here's Andrea's. Andrea has never done any improvisational cutting/piecing before, so she played with that idea a bit. Great job!

It seems like we're always talking about bags at our meetings. Jemellia brought this bag to our last meeting and we all just loved it! And here's Melissa's version of the Holiday in London Duffle Bag by Bari J.  Melissa used the fabric line Comma by Zen Chic. (Look for it at your local quilt shop!)

This is a really great sized bag and let me tell you this: Unbeknownst to either of us, I'm also making this bag from the Comma fabric line. And while I'm piecing mine differently, I'm hoping it looks as great as Melissa's bag!

Ann is a new member and this is her first Flaunt Your Finish!  Ann saw this next project in The Liberty Book of Home Sewing.

It took a bit of time for Ann to collect the fabric she wanted to use, as she quickly discoverd she would not be able to find the Liberty Fabrics specified in the book. (If you are a Liberty of London fan, you know how quickly they go!) At the time, Ann was well in the throes of her batik phase. The body fabric was a pretty easy decision, but she didn't know how she was going to replicate the tail feather 'eye' look. Ann even went so far as to buy feathers to use!

Buying a fat quarter here and there of fabric she thought might work, Ann also searched for pins and sequins. She finally came across this exotic piece of Ombre Marrakesh by Michael Miller and felt her prayers were answered! As it turns out, this beautiful print is only seen if you look at the underside of the "feathers". The wrong side has smaller batik pieces appliqued onto them.


Everything finally came together and this is the finished project, only a mere 50 weeks later! She's so excited to give it to her friend who...wait for it...goes by the pseudonym...Gwendolyn Peacock!  Great job Ann, and definitely worth the time to find the right fabrics.

And finally, in more ways than one, we have Amanda L's "Little Apple Orchards" quilt. Amanda began this quilt June 2012, with a charm pack of "Little Apples", some coordinating solids, white and quilters linen. The apple cores are English Paper pieced, and the quilt is hand-quilted with a combination of No. 8 Perle Cotton and a variegated Sulky blendable thread. Congratulations Amanda, it's beautiful! 

Thanks for joining us this month for Flaunt Your Finish! We hope you've gained some inspiration to start a project of your own or complete an unfinished one lingering around.

Now, Flaunt YOUR Finish by linking up your blog or Flickr page below.  It doesn't have to be a brand new post, just one from the month of March.

Check back next week for April's Block-of-the-Month!

March Meeting Recap

Happy Sunday Everyone!

This is my first time taking over the meeting recap so I hope you will bear with me.

Of course there was talk of QuiltCon since this was the first time we had all been together since the big event.  There were pincushions to swap and swag bags to pass around as well.  We also talked a little more about out Quilt Show that we will be holding in 2014.  Such a long way away!  More time to make some great quilts I guess :).  Another topic of discussion was about the different types of techniques we would like to try in order to expand our sewing skills.  Some of these ladies came up with some things I had never thought of before, but will look forward to trying in the future (there was ONE that I'm not quite sure about, you all know what I'm referring to :P).

And lots of great new projects to show off...

Stephanie brought a beautiful mini quilt that she made to match her Christmas tree skirt.  Whether it's three months late or 9 months early, we'll never tell.

Debbie showed off a great boxy zippered pouch with the tiniest hexagons!  Love her fussy cutting!

Agnes made a pincushion for Andrea using scraps given to her by Anna Maria Horner herself!  I'm sure it will be cherished!

Shana, being an overachiever, had TWO things to show off...her name tag--cupcake of course :) and her new crocheted scarf -- which is now available in her Etsy shop.

Another overachiever, Amanda finished up her Apple Core quilt that she started in June 2012, and with that much hand stitching its no wonder it took about 9 months to complete.  If I understood correctly, this is her original design.  WOW, impressive!

She also brought her brand new Art Student Tote using the pattern by Anna Maria Horner.  Her use of the Essex Linen has made me add some to my stash :)

Amanda R. brought a baby quilt she made for a special little someone that is due this spring.  Lucky kid!

Elizabeth shared her pillow made with a sheer overlay (is that the right term) and some appliqued patches.  It was complete with cute tassels at the corners.

Andrea bragging about her wonderful pincushion :)

And showing off the adorable dress she made for her daughter using a Clover & Violet pattern.  (Wonder if it comes in adult sizes?)

Emily also had two items to show us.  The first was her completed Madrona Road Mini for the challenge.  She thought it wasn't modern enough, although I think she's the only one.

Her second finish was the adorable embroidered quilt that she had been working on with her mother for quite some time.  Each block has an animal representing a different letter of the alphabet.  Too cute!

Mandy showed off the bag that was made for her as a sort of "consolation prize" for being unable to attend a retreat due to her husband's Valentine present (the flu).

Leslie had an older item to share.  She brought a placemat that she made in a loom class several years ago.  I, for one, had never seen anything handmade on a loom.  So neat!

Jemellia brought her HUGE duffel bag that she made using a Bari J. pattern and Glimma fabrics.  Very impressive!

And last but not least, Melissa brought a cute little baby quilt for a dog loving friend. 

That about sums it up.  I hope that I've gotten all of the details right (I will be taking notes next time, don't worry).  Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with for the April meeting!