November do.Good Stitches blocks

Like October, our November quilter went easy on us for this month's bee blocks for the Emerge circle of do.Good Stitches. Amanda asked us to make appliqued circle blocks in earthy fall colors -- mustard yellow, navy, or burnt orange -- on a low-volume background square.

We could use any applique method we wanted -- reverse appliqué, raw edge appliqué, or standard applique by hand or machine -- and I decided to go with raw edge. She was hoping for some blocks that would really crinkle up and fray in the wash for a super cozy quilt. She wanted the blocks to finish at 12.5", 8.5", or 4.5", totaling approximately 26", so I made three blocks, one in each size. The circles could be any size, and centered or offset was fine, so I did a little of both. For such a simple quilt, I think this one is going to have a great visual impact.

Improv sky

For the last few months, the St. Louis MQG has been working on their entry for the guild QuiltCon charity quilt. The theme for this year is playing with scale, and the MQG specified this rather interesting color palette.

A core group of us met to discuss how we wanted to interpret the theme and decided on a large but partial view of St. Louis's Gateway Arch based on a photograph by a local photographer (from whom we obtained permission). We decided to improv piece the quilt so we could easily divide up the blocks among lots of members who wanted to help. Since I work at a fabric store, I offered to curate most of the fabrics needed for the quilt.

We also received some contributions from guild members, and I was joined one night by another member to cut up all the fabrics and assemble them into bags that coordinated with the parts of the picture in each quilt block.

Members worked on their blocks at our local retreat in October, as well as on their own, and we collected the bulk of the blocks at our November meeting. Our member Dottie, who's serving as the Project Manager for the quilt and will be quilting it, began to lay them out on her design wall at home. Pretty cool, huh??

(Two photos above borrowed from Dottie's Instagram. Thanks, Dottie!)

I managed to finish up my blocks in the week or so before the meeting. I don't do a lot of improv, but as seems to happen every time I do, I really enjoyed the process of making the blocks, and after finishing them, thought to myself how I really need to do more. Maybe this time I will. I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time in my schedule to work on the blocks, so I chose three blocks from the sky portion, which was a bit easier than the arch. You can see my blocks in the top left corner in Dottie's pictures above.

I am so excited to see the rest of this quilt come together. It's been great to see so many guild members involved in its creation, and I'll be really happy to see a quilt at QuiltCon that I had a hand in, especially since I wasn't able to finish some of my own quilts that I was hoping to submit this year.

October do.Good Stitches blocks

October was our group leader Kelly's block as quilter for the Emerge circle of do.Good Stitches, and she asked us to make three Cross Cut blocks using the tutorial from A Quilter's Table.

She wanted us to keep the blocks intact so she could cut them down and reassemble them herself, which made for a quick and easy assembly. We started with a 9.5" low volume square for each block and then used green and blue prints for the crosses. I gotta say, with all the busy projects I've had going on lately, I really appreciate a quick bee block. (Oh, and that green cross isn't nearly as wrinkled as the pics make it look. It did not want to photograph well.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi there! I just wanted to pop in and wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving! We enjoyed a lovely day in California with family, football (go Cowboys!), and so much food, including the classic pecan pie I make every year. We have much to be thankful for, and I hope you all can say the same.

A growing collection

Back in June, I mentioned how I was beginning a new applique project, a mostly monochromatic version of Carolyn Friedlander's Collection quilt in various shades of coral, peach, and pink. Five months later, I'm still plugging along and still loving the process. I'm so, so close to finishing up the applique portion of the quilt top, so it seemed like a good time for a look back at my progress.

September do.Good Stitches blocks

For September's bee blocks for the Emerge circle of do.Good Stitches, Betsy asked us to delve into our scrap bins to make blocks for a Patchwork Wheel Quilt.

Instead of assembling the finished "wheels," Betsy asked for four 6.5" four-patch blocks and four 6.5" window blocks to give her some freedom in arranging the final layout. The tutorial by Don't Call Me Betsy was oh-so-easy to follow, and I knocked these out in no time. It probably took me longer to sort out scraps that were big enough than to actually assemble the blocks. We used 16 different 3.5" scraps for each set of four blocks, plus four low volumes in the middle of the window blocks, so 36 different fabrics total. I always love getting to put those scraps to work.

Design Star Round 3: Results

You guys, you did it! Your votes helped me move on to the next round of the Stash Fabrics Design Star contest. We're now down to the top six -- eek! -- and the competition is stiff.

The theme for round 3 was "gender neutral," and I was really happy with how my bundle turned out. If you're interested, Stash has the bundles (mine and the other 8 finalists from round 3) up for sale in their shop, so run on over and grab one before they're gone!

The theme for round 4 is "wanderlust." Fun, right? I'm excited to get started on that one. Thank you again to all who voted! I really appreciate it.

Design Star Round 3: Voting open!

Dum diddity dum...the big day has arrived! Voting is now open for Round 3 of the Stash Fabric Design Star contest, and yours truly has a bundle in the running! Beth chose "gender neutral" for the theme of this round, which, like "vintage" in the last round, can of course go in so many directions. At least in my head it did. But I finally settled on this bundle of slate and denim blues, pale aquas, and mustard yellows, which seems so soothing and fresh to me, and I think would definitely appeal to both sides. At least my hubby said he liked it. ;)

If you like it, too, I'd love your vote in the contest. Just click on over to Stash's blog post. Thank you oh so much for your help! I really appreciate it.

And because I can't leave well enough alone, here's the original bundle I was going to use before changing course. I still really like this one but feared it was too dark and perhaps a bit too manly. You'll notice that some of the fabrics made their way over into the final bundle, so all was not lost.