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.

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!

Meeting Recap: April 2015

Despite a rainy day we had a great turnout at our April meeting!  Thanks everyone for coming out to The Village Library (our "new" meeting location).  President Shirlene had some important reminders and announcements for us beginning with a possible speaker opportunity.  The Guild is considering bringing in Shannon Brinkley to speak with us and to teach a workshop about her scrappy appliqué technique...

 How cute is that bunny?!  So, take a look at Shannon's blog, and see if it's something you'd be interested in our Guild pursuing.  Members can vote "yea" or "nay" on the Guild's private Facebook page.

The "Road to Oklahoma" block lottery project was also announced.  You can find details in the April newsletter , by clicking on the corresponding graphic on the right, or by simply clicking here.

Leslie announced a possibly opportunity for our guild to showcase at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art in October.  We won't know anything for certain until this summer, but in the meantime be thinking about ideas for quilts to display similar in size to our previous October "Defining Modern" show (54" x 70").  Leslie is challenging us to create using an Alternate Gridwork design.  More details and specifications to come as Leslie learns them.

OKCMQG member, and paper piecing maven, Angie Bullard spoke with the guild about designing paper piecing patterns and offered some tips and tricks on paper piecing assembly.  Her patterns are super cute, and are available on her Craftsy page.  She brought several of her finished blocks along, and has this darling umbrella pattern available for download for the guild on our private Facebook page, so make sure you check that out.

 And, as usual we had some awesome Show 'n Shares this month.

Leslie decided to put that alternate gridwork style to work in this darling triangle quilt she made for her cousin's baby.

Agnes made this bandana quilt for her husband and the top only cost something like $19!  Note to self...buy some bandanas!

She also brought along this little elephant mini she made using the Riley Blake MQG Challenge fabric.

Phoebe showed off this gorgeous raffle quilt that she designed and quilted for the Central Oklahoma Quilters Guild.

Diane played with her new long arm (WOO!) on this sweet quilt made using V and Co fabrics.  We think she did a great job with that new long arm!

Trish is helping dreams come true by helping the DIY generation create unique quilty guest books for their life events.  Traditional guest books are so last season dontcha know.  

Jana quilted this lovely charm pack quilt up using some of the techniques she learned a class she took in Dallas.

Elizabeth got a steal on some Christmas fabrics and decided to use them to make a star quilt (her favorite kinds of blocks).  Beautiful, and the lovely all over quilting was done by Jana too.

Vicki brought in a friend's quilt to share as she's always amazed by the way in which he uses the fabrics he buys.  And he's a generous soul as well, as he sends his quilts to the Norman Guild to donate.

Melissa shared her gorgeous "Elizabeth" Sew Together Bag.  She will be teaching a class on this bag at Oklahoma Quiltworks this summer so make sure you check out their schedule so you too can learn  how to make this handy little bag.

She also finished this custom order Hazel the Hedgehog quilt in a fun rainbow of color.

Ann shared her take on Carolyn Friedlander's "Local" quilt pattern.  She kicked it up a notch by swapping out a few of the blocks in the pattern for a take she created of her own home.  She also joked that it's taken her so long to complete this project that she's been able to use a little bit of each of Carolyn's fabric lines.

I shared this little mini quilt, entitled "Copper Boom!," for which I designed a tutorial for FWFS's Mini Quilt Mania series.

And there you have it folks!  Another fun filled OKCMQG meeting!  We look forward to seeing you at the next meeting on May 11th.  Until then...happy quilting!

Flaunt Your Finish: March 2015

Welcome to March's Flaunt Your Finish! 

We hope you'll share YOUR project at the end of this post!

Agnes is still on schedule with her one-quilt-a-month resolution. February was sidetracked by QuiltCon, but this month she finished her husband's three-tone blue bandana quilt. He wears it well, wouldn't you say?

As for a non-quilty finish, Agnes says she finally made herself an artist's apron. She's been wanting to sew one forever. It will come handy with the fabric dyeing and indigo experiments she's planning for this summer!

Elizbeth has been finishing up an old UFO or WIP tablerunner.  You can tell it is old by the fabric :) It deserved to be finished and Elizabeth will use it on the 4th of July.  She had fun with the straight (sorta) stitching in varigated thread.  It's a bit wavy, but appropriate for a flag, don't you think? ; ) 

This next quilt is a quilt that Bob is turning in to The Savage Quilter for Moda’s Piece & Comfort Challenge. It's made with Moda’s Red White & Free fabric. Is it wrong for me to say . . . Vote for Me! Nope, it's not wrong at all...vote for Bob!

I had the fun opportunity of giving a presentation about modern quilting to the Spinning Spools Quilt Guild in Shawnee, Oklahoma. They were a fun group and I made a few zipper-pouches to give out as door prizes. Complete with OKCMQG pins, or course!

Link up YOUR March finish below. We'd love to see what you've created!