Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Visit from Lisa Calle

After much thought and planning we here at OKC Modern Quilt Guild celebrated an exciting milestone for our guild...our first workshop and speaker!!!  :)  We were thrilled to have Lisa Calle (founder of the Dallas MQG) come and speak with us, on the behalf of Moda Bake Shop, with regards to the use of Moda precuts in Modern Quilting.


Lisa has a lot going on these days!  Not only is she running the Moda Bake Shop, but she has a highly successful blog "Vintage Modern Quilts", has entered the pattern business as "Vintage Modern Quilts Pattern Co.", and she is involved in a couple of new books!  The first is entitled "Classic Modern Quilts". (Please visit her blog for details on all of these exciting ventures.)

One of the guild's goals this year was to have a speaker come to visit us.  I, Amanda L., was lucky enough to meet Lisa at QuiltCon this year, and we struck up a friendship that led to inviting her to come and give these presentations; the first of which was a workshop on Improv Curves using Layer Cakes.

Lisa has a natural rapport with people and has a thoughtful and thorough approach to teaching as well.  Quite the natural.  She also brings a unique and experienced eye for color and design to a project.  Taking her workshop was a lot of fun, and I think everyone came away with an in progress quilt that they were extremely pleased with.  Unfortunately, my photography skills were less than stellar that weekend, so please pardon the lack of pictures.  It's always hard to balance the fun of absorbing everything going on and remembering to photograph it as well.  :)

Agnes is probably aware that all of my pictures are going to turn out blurry!  :/

There was a flurry of activity while we worked and lots of fun chit chat as well.



On Monday, Lisa visited with us at our guild meeting to talk a bit about her work at Moda Bake Shop, how to become a chef for the blog, what types of precut bundles Moda has available, and some examples of how they have been used in a variety of projects (quilts, clothes, home decor, etc.) and specifically in Modern designs.  She also shared some useful details on the information that comes with Moda's precut bundles.  Handy stuff!


Thank you so much, Lisa, for coming to hang out with us!  We very much enjoyed our time with you!!!

Of course we built in a little time for some OKC Modern Quilt Guild "Show & Tell" as well.  We had to show off what we can do!
Mike share his sweet little Halloween wall hanging.

Audra brought the quilt she made for the "Quilts of Valor" charity organization.

Kristine shared this sweet quilted lady bug costume she made for her daughter.

Jemellia brought her do.Good Stitches charity group quilt which used Elizabeth Hartman's "Octagonal Orb" block tutorial.
Amanda brought a quilt she completed for her husband using Denyse Schmidt's "Cog + Wheel" pattern.

At our next meeting we will be holding our annual elections, so if you're a member interested in running for a position please let Jemellia know ASAP!  See you in November!!!

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

October Block-of-the-Month


Here it is! The final block in our Block-of-the-Month feature. You'll remember that we showed two blocks in both July and August. Join us next month as we put it all together and prepare for quilting.

This month's block is presented by Agnes:

This Arrow Block is meant to be a tongue-in-cheek "…to be continued…" message at the end of our BOM quilt.  I certainly hope there will be many more to follow!  The inspiration and basic proportions came from Anita at Bloomin' Workshop.  Her arrow was a 6-inch block, so I increased it to 12 inches.



For Easy to Print Instructions: Click HERE



INSTRUCTIONS:
Materials Needed:
Two contrasting fabrics


Cutting Your Fabric:
Fabric A: (the arrow)
A1.  Cut one 7" x 8"
A2.  Cut one 6" x 13"
Fabric B: (background)
B1.  Cut two 4" x 8"
B2.  Cut two 7" x 7"

Sewing it Together:
1.  Sew together on the 8-inch sides, B1 on each side of A1. Press towards the darker color.
2.  Place each B2 background piece with RIGHT sides facing on the A2 arrow head piece.
3.  Line up corner to the right.  The background piece will be about an inch longer on the left. 
4.  Trace a line from the upper left corner (where the two fabrics meet), to the lower right corner. Sew on traced line. 

5. Trim 1/4-inch from stitching and press towards darker color. 



6. Repeat steps 2-5 on the other side.



7. Trim the arrow head piece to get a straight line (about 1/4-inch).



8.  Find and pin the center of both pieces. Sew together with a 1/4-inch seam. Press towards the stem of the arrow.



9.  Place 12.5-inch square ruler over block (or use the grids on your cutting mat) and trim block to 12.5 inches square.




Done!

Don't forget to show us your block on our Flickr page!