Wednesday, February 27, 2013

February Flaunt Your Finish


Welcome to February's Flaunt Your Finish! 
Don't forget to link up at the end of this post!



Our members have some great finishes to flaunt this month, so let's skip the chit-chat and get right to it!

Trina made this quilt for her daughter's full-size bed going off a pattern one of our guild members used for a bee block. And we're happy to hear that Trina's daughter loves it! I love it too and what a cute room!


 Most of the fabrics are by Amy Butler, with a few other things thrown in. Yum-o!


Agnes made this small wallhanging at QuiltCon and it's a color-sketch of sorts for a later quilt. The QuiltCon class required bringing an orphan block (the small one in the middle) and she worked around that block, enhancing and supplementing it with other blocks in an improvised manner. 

Raw edge applique over hand-dyed cotton fabric, raw edge binding.

In her quest for the "perfect" bag, and after searching patterns and internet tutorials, Agnes decided to go indie and she set out to make her own from scratch. 


The epic "Colors" bag is an amalgamation of shape, colors, and features that Agnes wanted or had seen elsewhere - with a good dose of blood, sweat and tears that it took to figure out how it should be put together! Hmmm...looks to me like there was a lot of math involved....


I hadn't heard about this Fractured Pervalong until I saw this top by Angie. Holy cow that's cool!


Amanda completed several projects that she took with her to QuiltCon.

Noodlehead 241 Tote; Journal Cover inspired by Stitched in Color; Anna Maria Horner's Art Student Tote
While they aren't all perfectly matched, as Amanda enjoys a little splash of everything, she did use Kona Yarn Dyed Essex in black in all three to create a sense of uniformity. Amanda says she's not sure that worked, but we think the results are lovely. Amanda also says that it was really fun venturing into the non-quilty realm for a change of pace. But, after QuiltCon, she's refreshed and ready for some quilting!

And I finally...FINALLY...got a little sewing in myself, because I couldn't take a plain old notebook with me to QuiltCon.


Okay, we've shown your ours. Now it's time to show us yours. Link up a finish from your blog or flickr account. Thanks for joining us! 

Look for our next Block-of-the-Month on Monday, March 4th!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Coffee Talk Interview: Angelina


Our monthly Coffee Talk Tuesday is now a quarterly feature. We are happy to introduce you to Angelina Seha. I'm really excited for this interview because I think Angelina  has a unique perspective and since she and I haven't had a chance to chat too much in real life, I'm excited to get to know her better and discover her inspirations.



So, Angelina…one day on Facebook a few of us were pressuring…I mean encouraging…you to start your own blog. Have you started one yet?

A friend and I are working on it. I'm hoping to have it up and running in a few weeks. It will be called MODstitches.

Well, just know you have some immediate followers when you're up and running. What about an online shop?

I destash at figure8angel.

How long have you been sewing?

About 3 years.

How long have you been quilting?

The same amount of time.

I think that's rather brave to start sewing and quilting about the same time. What made you want to jump right into quilting?

My friend Cornelia (and fellow guild member) started me off embroidering and I really enjoyed it. She quilted, so I got interested through her. She had a friend named Wilma that was a great help to both of us in all our crafty endeavors. That woman could do anything!


Quilt for her boyfriend who loves orange and brown. It was quite a stretch for her, as at the
 time she wasn't too fond of those colors.  She snuck in a lot of red and green, as well as a bit of aqua.

What drew you to modern quilting?

Hmmm…I think I just have more of a modern aesthetic right now. Until I was in my mid-twenties, I was into more traditional, Queen Anne furniture kind of décor. Then, one day the owner of the furniture store I was working at left a Design Within Reach catalog on my desk and, surprisingly, I loved almost everything in it. From then on, I was in love with everything clean-lined, minimal, and modern. I asked her one day why she left that catalog with me and she said she just had a feeling it was for me. She was right! I appreciate the work that goes into traditional quilts, and I love learning about the rich history that quilting has, but the traditional works simply aren't my style.

It's interesting how a closer look at something we hadn't previously paid attention to can change our whole perspective.

So, is there anyone in the world of modern quilting that inspires you?

I find Chawne at Complete Cauchy incredibly inspiring. She's made some quilts that some people might call profane, tasteless, tacky, whatever…but I love them. I feel like she's a true artist working with fabric, needle, and thread as her medium. She often leaves me pondering the issue(s) behind her work in a more in-depth manner than I might have otherwise. She seems so fearless! I really respect her work and she inspires me more than anyone blogging today. Sure, other people might make quilts that are "prettier" to look at, but those quilts never get me thinking. They never get me on the phone to friends in the middle of the night to discuss serious issues. They never make me want to be a better person. They're just pretty, ultimately. And that's OK, too. Just a different sort of inspirational, I guess.

I'm also completely gobsmacked by this quiltThey don't have a quilting blog and only have a few quilt tops in their photostream, but their work is ridiculously inspiring to me aesthetically. As in, jaw on the floor, holy crap, wtf just happened here. I will never make anything that amazing. Just hang it up, awesome.

You have me laughing with your enthusiasm, I love it!

I feel similarly about the Amish quilts posted here.

Just so amazing, I wonder why I bother.


Angelina's most recent Jack White/White Stripes inspired quilt. "I wish I had gotten a photo of it after I finished the top, before I sent it to the amazingly talented Angela Walters to be quilted. After this photo was taken, I added a 2” strip of black to the left side, and trimmed it square. It reads, “White flowers, cups of coffee, and love letters”, which is from Hand Springs, one of my favorite White Stripes songs." 

Well, I'm glad you bother because you definitely have a voice of your own.
If fabrics can speak, which ones are speaking to you?

Solids and saturated colors with white patterns are what I find myself drawn to the most lately. Free Spirit solids have a really beautiful hand and the colors are just lovely. I also love the Michael Miller couture solids, but slightly prefer the FS solids for quilting because they're a bit thicker, and that seems to work better for patchwork.  Moda crossweaves are probably my favorite solid. I just love the depth that the different color warp and weft threads give to the fabric. I've also really enjoyed Lotta Jansdotter's lines, especially Echo and the upcoming Glimma.

My exceptions to the simple 1 color + white preference would be Anna Maria Horner and Echino. I'd like to have a big pile of all of their fabrics and just roll around in them. Probably naked. hey, we've all done it! Haven't we? :unsure:

Ha, Ha! Now that I have that visual and am wondering what fabric I'd roll around in… Is that when most ideas strike you? When you're rolling around?

My ideas come at all times of the day. I can be listening to a record and have a quilt idea pop in my head. I'm a night owl, so I'm most productive in the evening or late at night. I think my ideal schedule would be to go to bed as the sun comes up, then get up around 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon. I've only had occasion to test that once or twice in my life, but man, was it nice!

Do you have any ideas or patterns you hope to tackle in the near future?

I don't have any quilt ideas on the horizon as of right now. I'm kind of focusing on getting my sewing space organized and finishing up works in progress that have been languishing. Maybe once I get a bit caught up on those things, I'll be more inspired to start new projects. I feel kind of blocked right now…Maybe something improvisational would get me back in the swing of things.

[groan] Sometimes those unfinished projects can just weigh you down.
I've seen some of your creations. Which one are you most proud of?

The creations I'm most proud of are the ones I work on with my circle at do. Good Stitches. Our circle makes one quilt a month, and those quilts are then donated to Project Linus, whose mission is to "provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer "blanketeers."" I love being a part of this charity bee. I'm a stitcher, so I only contribute a few blocks a month, but it's the most rewarding work I do. If my machine wasn't such a jerk about quilting, I'd volunteer to be a quilter, which are the ones that choose the quilt design and palette each month, sew all our blocks into a quilt top, make the quilt back…then quilt, bind, and drop off the quilts each month. Maybe when I get a new machine and am more confident of my quilting, I will be able to do more. 

You can see all of our finished quilts hereMy favorite of these is probably this one, but it's a tough choice. They've all been gorgeous!
"I completely love these blocks I made for the most recent 4x5 bee on flickr. My boyfriend says he wants a quilt made out of this style block. I told him he better learn to sew. ;) "

That is a wonderful project to be involved in and it just goes to show what can be accomplished when everyone chips in!

Okay, now I want to hear about a disaster project. Have you ever had a quilt go terribly wrong?

Not horrifically wrong, no. Not yet, anyway. I've had things not come out quite how I envisioned them in my head and have had to unpick my fair share of jacked up stitches, but that just seems like a normal thing.

Normal to me too.

If you had to choose one must have book or blog to visit for modern quilting, what would it be?

This question is tough and I don't know if I will answer it. It's so wide open. Do you want my must have book or blog for eye candy, basic skills, what I consider "modern", or other? Someone that is curious about what is modern quilting?

Hmmm…good point.
How about some good general advice?

If it's someone that is just getting into quilting, I'd say to jump right in. You're going to make mistakes, and that's okay. Seam rippers exist for good reason. Just do it! You will get better and you will be proud. Making something with your own two hands is one of the most fulfilling things, in my opinion, and many people never try it because they're afraid they'll mess up.  It's okay to not be perfect. Just keep at it! You'll be amazed at what you can accomplish.

Good advice indeed. Thanks Angelina!

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Meeting Recap: February 2013


I love attending our monthly guild meetings. We have such a talented and diverse group of women and it's always fun to see what they've created (and they're all nice as can be!)

We sit around several long tables placed end-to-end so we can see each other, like a big family Thanksgiving table. We keep growing, so I imagine, one day, some of us will have to sit at the kids' table. Until then, we're one happy and together group.

While most of the chatter was about QuiltCon, which starts this week, we had a group discussion about thread. How much could you possible say about thread? You'd be surprised. It's amazing how many different brands are on the market. And while there were many commonalities among the group, we all have our own individual preferences and we like what we like and it works for us. The main idea I came away with from the discussion was that sometimes our sewing machines are finicky and you have to find the right thread not only for you, but for your machine as well. 

We also had a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! June 14-16, 2013 will be our next QUILT RETREAT! We'll be going to Bluebird Lane Scrapbooking and Craft Retreat again, which is a fabulous place! Check out the EVENTS tab on the Private Facebook page for additional details/price/times and sign up to attend!

And because I can't remember what else was said...on to Show & Share!

Many of us are participating in a Pincushion Swap that will take place at QuiltCon. We'll be swapping the pincushions we've made with those made by another guild. Here are just a few from some of our members:

Angela's cute pear pincushion.

 Shana's pincushion. Yes, there's cupcake fabric!

Elizabeth's pincushion. She made another in a different color. 
Hmmm....I wonder if she's keeping that one for herself?

This sweet little thing is Amanda's handiwork. A gazillion french knots.

 
 Some of us are also participating in the Michael Miller Madrona Road Challenge. 
Here's Stephanie with her cute mini-quilt!

Jemellia was in charge of February's Block-of-the-Month.
Here's the sample block she made...
which is awesome...
and reminds me I haven't made mine yet...

Angie just joined our group last month. I don't know if she knows that several of us have been talking about making this Art Student Tote, pattern by Anna Maria Horner. And darn if she didn't beat us all to it. She did a beautiful job on it and now I'm re-inspired to make one myself.

Agnes is working on a quilt using selvages. I know. Wow.

Mandy showed us the quilt she's making for her husband. 
You can't see it, but the blue border is hand-quilted with a large dragonflies. 

And if all that wasn't enough, we also had a couple of swaps.

First, our Solid Fat Quarter Swap. Those participating bought 3 yards of one color. We had a sign up on Facebook so that we didn't duplicate colors. Then, we cut our yardage into fat quarters and tagged them with our name, fabric manufacturer and color. I know I tend to gravitate toward certain colors, so it was fun to come home with a dozen colors that I may not necessarily pick myself.

Our second swap involved this sweet little girl.

I think she likes those bright fat quarters.
Looks like her mama is raising her right!

Hope to see YOU at our next meeting! And keep an eye out for Flaunt Your Finish the last week of February!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

The Winner Is...

Before I announce the winner I want to say a HUGE GIGANTIC THANK YOU to everyone who donated to the Red Cross and the Empire State Relief Fund!  We know your donations meant a lot to those organizations and the people they will be assisting.  

We raised a whopping:

$1,270!!!!!!!!

So a big pat on the back to everyone for being so generous!  

Now I know everyone is eager to know who won the gorgeous quilt.  :)  


After giving everyone an entry for every ticket purchased, in the order they donated, into Random.org's free generator (which doesn't give me a fancy graphic to show you) I got this -

Random Sequence Generator

Here is your sequence:
 40


 Which means that our winner is:

Margaret Knox

Congratulations, Margaret!!!  Margaret was SUPER generous and donated $150 to the Empire State Relief Fund.  Way to go, and thanks so much!!!  We will be e-mailing you later today to make sure we get the quilt off to the correct address.  


Thanks again everyone for your time, talent, ideas, and generosity!  And a special thanks to Oklahoma Quiltworks for hanging our quilt in  your window display!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Donate and Enter to Win the Red Cross Charity Quilt

Time is running out, but you can still enter your name in our drawing for the Red Cross Charity Quilt! 

For every $10 donated to one of the organizations listed below, you get one entry into a drawing for this quilt.  For every $50 donated you will receive 6 entries into a drawing for this quilt. Please e-mail us the receipts for your donations to okcmqg@gmail.com.  This will allow us to create the correct number of entries for you as well as ensure that an actual donation was made.  We promise that your privacy is of the upmost importance to us.

Receipts for donations must be emailed to the OKC Modern Quilt Guild no later than midnight (Central Standard Time) February 13th.  A winner will be drawn and announced on February 14, 2013.  We will be sure to announce the winner on our blog and facebook page.  We will also e-mail the winner to get in touch with them about shipping the quilt.  Thank you in advance for your contributions to these organizations and helping those in need.

The quilt measures 72" square, is made with 100% cotton fabrics and 100% cotton quilt batting.

Donation Details:

You can donate to:  

For every $10 donated you receive one entry.  
For every $50 donated you receive 6 entries into the drawing.

Please e-mail the receipt for your donation to us at okcmqg@gmail.com.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Block-of-the-Month: February


Hi!  It's me, Jemellia!  You should know that by all of the exclamation marks!

It's already February!  It's time for our Block of the Month!  This month, we are doing a Wonky Star, it is a fast block to put together, I promise.

For easy to print instructions: Click HERE


Let's start with fabric requirements:
(8) 4.5" squares of a background fabric
(4) 4.5"-5" squares for star points*
(1) 4.5" square for center


*A quick note about star points--make sure your squares are AT LEAST 4.5 inches, they can be bigger if you would like (you will trim them later).  Your star points can be all one color (as well as the center) or all 8 different fabrics like I did on this wonky star quilt.


Let's get it started!

Take your 4 star point fabrics and cut them in half to make 8 triangles.

Sort your fabrics. Place your 2 star points with 1 background fabric.



Take one background fabric square and one triangle, with right sides together, place triangle at a slight angle, pin, if desired.  




Before sewing, leaving room for a seam allowance, fold triangle back to make sure that you have covered the entire background square.

¡Sî!



This is what you want to prevent:

¡No bueno! 


With right sides together still, stitch a 1/4" seam along the triangle (no picture, oops!)

Fold triangle where the right side is up and press.  It should look similar to this on the back:



Trim your point fabric, you can do this one of two ways: square up block to 4.5," fold back triangle piece, trim background piece (pictured in pics 1 & 2).  You can also just fold back triangle piece, trim background within 1/4" of stitched line, fold triangle back and then square up to 4.5." 
Take your second triangle and repeat steps to make another wonky star point.  Press and trim, square up block to 4.5" (pics 3 & 4).


Repeat 3 more times with remaining 3 background squares and 6 star points to equal 4 blocks.  

Now, lay out your nine squares as pictured below, I couldn't decide on a fabric for my center, so, I just took some scraps and sewed them together slightly wonky to make a 4.5" square.

Sew top row together, press seams either open or to one side.  Sew second and third rows, if you press seams to the side, alternate direction for the next rows.

Next, sew your rows together, press seams open.  Square up your block to 12.5 inches and you are done!  See, so fast!



Don't forget to add your block to our Flickr group.


Join us next month for March's block!