Friday, May 29, 2015

Flaunt Your Finish - Special Edition

Welcome to our most recent installment of Flaunt Your Finish.  The "Special Edition!"  Why is it special, because we are covering two months of lovely work instead of one.

And, as always, don't forget to link up your project at the end of this post!



First up we have Agnes who feels like the rest of us that this month has just flown by.  She didn't get around to her "a quilt a month" but did manage to complete some smallish projects, partially for the Budapest mug rug swap, and others as friends and family gifts.

 For the feather Agnes borrowed the x- stitch quilting idea from Angelina (who actually made the feather itself).
Cathy made her youngest grandson a baseball themed "tooth fairy" pillow for his birthday.  She says, "I was a little late since he'd already pulled his first tooth.  He loves his money so he may end up toothless!"
Vicky made this cheery quilt for a baby girl arriving at the end of July.
 Robin has been busy whipping up some cute dresses for her daughter before her son is born in July.  The octopus dress is a gift for a friend's one year old daughter, using a pattern by tie dye diva and a fun undersea panel from Northcott fabrics. The rainbow dress is an impulse gift for my daughter; I found some pre-shirred My Little Pony fabric at the big box fabric store, and couldn't resist making a quick sundress out of it. I know I should be working on stuff for the baby (I'm due in July), but it feels good to get these projects out of the way.
Chanda finished this double sided holiday wall hanging featuring Easter on one side and 4th of July on the other.  What a smart idea!


Becky just completed this sweet Elephant quilt for an upcoming baby shower for her grandson, due in August.  The first image really shows off the quilting, while the second shows the vibrancy of color.



Leslie busted out this Box Car Tote for her mom for Mother's Day.
I used extra stiff fusible interfacing so it would stand up on its own. It's the perfect size for my mom to fit her portable cutting mat in and take to quilt class.
Amanda completed teacher appreciation quilts for both of her children's teachers.  The first is the "Neighborhood" pattern from Elizabeth Hartman's book "Modern Patchwork."
I embroidered the student's names onto the quilt above the houses using their actual signatures as templates.  Their handwriting is so sweet at the age of 4/5 it helps make the quilt feel extra personal.
There you have it folks!  Please share what you're working on by linking up with us below.  We love to see your work.

Monday, May 18, 2015

May 2015 Meeting Recap

Wow!  May was a jam packed meeting with a wonderful program and many fantastic show and tells! Before we get into the pictures... just a few "reminders"...

- NEXT MEETING will be held at Oklahoma Quiltworks.  We will be having a social and demo night so please bring a snack to share and be ready to have FUN!

- If you are not receiving email updates from the Modern Quilt Guild (remember, that's the larger group not our local chapter) you may need to go in to the Modern Quilt Guild site and complete your registration information.  If you're unsure of where you are in the process and you have questions about that please email OKCMQG and someone will help you out.

- Speaking of technology, are you on Instagram?  If so, don't forget to add #OKCMQG and #MQG on your posts.  It makes it easy for everyone in the guild, and in the Modern Quit Guild, to find all of your wonderful work!

- If you are interested in participating in the "Road to Oklahoma" Quilt Block Lottery please click here or on the image in the sidebar to find out more details.

- We have a possible opportunity for a show at the OKC Museum of Art and Leslie has challenged us to create quilts with an alternate grid layout.  There is great discussion happening over on the Facebook page of what this looks like.  More details to come!


Now that we're through the business side of things, we had the wonderful Brenda Esslinger speak with us about her Fractured Quilt technique.  Brenda is the author of two books on the Factured Quilting technique, which are available in her Etsy Shop, and she was kind enough to share a bit about how she discovered a faster and easier way to accomplish this look.  She brought along several of her lovely quilts to aid her in describing the technique which involves cutting from several squares of the same image in a variety of ways to create this choppy slightly out of focus look.
 Brenda has used this technique in so many unique ways, at times she uses her own pictures, or finds interesting prints or panels to try it with.  The number of images you use, the width of the strips cut, the seam allowance used, and the direction in which the fabrics are cut can all affect the end result in dramatic ways.
And sometimes she discovers new techniques from cutting errors of her own or from the classes she teaches which create new and interesting effects.
There were so many beautiful and interesting quilts in Brenda's presentation and we so appreciate her taking the time to come and share with us this fascinating style of quilting.

And continuing on the pretty sewn items front we had a wonderful show and share as always.
 Dana not only made her super cute dress, but she also completed a darling Box Car Tote (pictured above) and a WIP plastic zipper bag.  How handy is that?!
 Cathy was tired of awkwardly using her iPad in bed and created her own iPad Pillow!  Genius!
 Jennifer and Carol took a quilting class together and made these darling quilts!  And you would NEVER guess that this was the first quilt for BOTH of them!!! Way to go!

 Bob made some "Road to Oklahoma" blocks for the lottery, but then made a few extra for himself, and he created this stunning American quilt for Moda's Piece and Comfort Challenge, in which he placed 1st in Area.
 Nancy made this lovely chevron quilt using half of a layer cake.
 Regina is making sibling quilts and this one is for her brother.  How fun is the bottle cap fabric?!
DeeDee made a jean quilt for her Son-in-Law and used mens shirts for the centers of the blocks.  It's one heavy duty (and heavy!) quilt.  :)
DeeDee also made this quilt in all solids which is so rich and saturated.   The picture doesn't nearly do it justice.
 And sadly this picture doesn't do Karen's One Block Wonder quilt justice either, but there are so many fun details and an amazing use of fussy cutting.
 Ellen made her brother a fun fishing and camping themed t-shirt quilt.
 Beth, color coordinated with her quilt, shared her paneled growth chart.  She's more into the quilting than the piecing and oh boy is it fantastic quilting.
 Chanda made this well deserved pink quilt for a teacher...
 and she finished this Christmas tree skirt WAY ahead of Christmas 2015.  ;)
 Elizabeth made this darling charity quilt with Denyse Schmidt fabrics.
Leslie also completed this charity quilt using uneven strips of Waverly solids and a Michael Miller stripe.  
 Amanda shared one of the quilts she is making as an end of year teacher gift.

Way to go on all of your fabulous projects everyone!  Keep up the great work and we'll see you in June at Oklahoma Quiltworks!