Archive for Boston Modern Quilt Guild

Increments

By Liz · Comments (9) · December 6th, 2012

I’ve been trying to push through to complete my stepsister’s wedding quilt (as mentioned in my WIP Challenge list), and am making good progress. As of last night, the top is nearly finished – just needs an outside border. In case you’re wondering, the blocks have a 3″ finished center square, 1″ inner ring, and 2″ outer ring. Sashing is 1″.

#widn Nearly-finished quilt top, but past my bedtime. Goodnight!

I will forever associate this quilt with How I Met Your Mother. Sometimes I like to listen to music when I sew, sometimes I stream a movie or TV show on my iPad. I have a few friends who adore this show, but I had actually never watched it. Since all but the current season are available on Netflix, it has become my go-to sewing entertainment, and this quilt has fit neatly into HIMYM-increments.

I had the pieces for the blocks set out in ready-to-chain-piece stacks, with seven blocks per stack. One stack? Two episodes.

Time to add sashing and put the blocks into rows? One episode per row.

Assemble the quilt top? Two rows plus sashing per episode, booyah!

I’m well into the second season, now, and plenty more to go on my ever-expanding to-do list. I wonder how long it’ll take me to catch up to real-time on this show?

What about you? Do you have a favorite playlist or show for when you’re sewing? Or are you content to just listen to the whirr of the machine?

Comments (9)
Categories : Piecing
Tags : , , , ,

Summer Vacation

By Liz · Comments (5) · August 31st, 2012

Despite having to scrap my participation in the Boston Modern Quilt Guild exhibit, I finally did finish the mini quilt that I made as a part of the guild’s challenge for the show. The directions said to work with the colors of the Modern Quilt Guild’s Quilt Con block contest.  I brought my paper-pieced hexagons on vacation, and this was my hand-sewing all summer.

Summer Vacation

They’re 1.5″ hexagons, meaning I started with 3.5″ scrap squares. It’s all hand-pieced – an absolute first for me. While I don’t see myself going full-on into hand sewing (oh, the muscle fatigue!), it certainly is fun to be able to take a small project along when traveling.  The finished mini quilt is about 18″ across from one flat side to another, or 24″ from the widest points – each of the six sides is about 11″ long. (Discussing the measurements of hexagons is a lot more confusing than squares and rectangles, dammit.)

Summer Vacation

To be perfectly honest, I am not thrilled with the quilting. I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do, and then the other night I decided to just GET IT DONE. The quilt itself had no destination or deadline, so it was just lingering, unfinished, on my to-do list. I ended up doing little arcs around each round of hexagons in different colors of thread depending on the fabrics I was sewing.  For one thing, I wish I had done the arcs on every side of every hexagon, I think it would have looked better. (But I was so tired and cranky, I couldn’t be bothered to go back and fill in the stuff I hadn’t done. Lame, me.)  For another, I need a LOT more practice to get nice, even arc shapes. Ugh. Not so pretty.

But, hey, sometimes it’s better to be done than to be perfect. So there it is, done and off my list! Lessons learned.

Comments (5)
Categories : Finished Objects, Quilting
Tags : , , , ,

The Show Went On

By Liz · Comments (8) · August 11th, 2012

Alas, it was not meant to be. I didn’t finish my quilts for the Boston Modern Quilt Guild show this weekend. I swear, it could have been done. But then my littlest landed in the hospital for the better part of a week, and it all went out the window and I had to withdraw from the show.

Still, I made a point to go on Friday night to the opening reception, and I was so glad I did.  It was held at a lovely newer apartment building for artists, which has a great gallery space in the lobby. The setup turned out really well, the poles they used for hanging the quilts and the space itself seemed perfectly suited for our “modern” quilt show.

BMQG Show

From my perspective, the whole thing was lovely. I loved that it was simply an exhibit, not critiqued or judged – it works well with the supportive and relatively casual personality of our guild. I think it’s fair to say that nearly all of us were not interested in the more “traditional” quilt show experience. For instance, I have to laugh at the story Rebecca told me, that apparently some women were visiting earlier in the day and said to one another, somewhat scandalized, “it looks like some of these quilts have been… washed.” Quelle horreur!

Anyways, I absolutely hope the guild gets to put on another show, whether as part of a larger event or otherwise. And I really hope I don’t have any surprise hospitalizations to keep me out of it next time…

There were a handful of great mini quilts as part of our mini quilt challenge for the show (which mine was supposed to hang with, le sigh…). All so different, so great!

BMQG Show

There were so many others that I loved, I snapped pictures of nearly every single one with my phone. Here are a few highlights:

(If any of these belong to you, please leave a comment so I can link back to your blog!)

BMQG Show

BMQG Show

BMQG Show

BMQG Show

BMQG Show

BMQG Show

BMQG Show

BMQG Show

Comments (8)
Categories : Quilts
Tags : , ,

A Cautionary Tale

By Liz · Comments (9) · July 26th, 2012

Several months ago, on something of a dare from my husband, I designed a quilt.

G quilt sketch

Why yes, that is the Google Mobile logo.

G quilt blocks

Anyways, I put it all on graph paper, broke it into blocks, pieced them one at a time. And, honestly, the top came together exactly as I planned it, and it looks really cool. I can’t wait to show it to you.

So then I started working on the back. I decided to do it mostly in a very dark gray, with little pops of color from the front, designed to actually line up with where those colors are on the front. The plan is this: quilt it in five different colors of thread – red on red, white on white, etc..  So, on the back, you’ll sort of see the same design as the front. And the color thread would overlap with the colors on the back, so there wouldn’t be any red thread on yellow fabric – the thread would either match the color on the back, or would be on the gray. Make sense? Kinda cool, huh?

G quilt back sketch

And when I pieced the back, it came out pretty much exactly as I had drawn it. I love it when that happens.

G quilt back basted

Then I started basting. I went to put the top down onto the batting when I realized my stupid, stupid mistake. Have you spotted it, yet? Well, if not, please learn from the error of my ways.

On the quilt top, the blue is on the top left. On the quilt back, the blue is on the top left. But it SHOULD be on the top… right. If I want it to line up, the back should be a mirror-image of the top.

DAMMIT.

Honestly, I nearly had a heart attack. I called my husband in from the other room to talk me down from the ledge.  We talked through the options, but there are no straightforward ways to take the quilt back that I have and turn it into the quilt back that I need. And I simply cannot bring myself to pick out all of the seams.

OH, DID I MENTION that I already submitted this quilt for the Boston Modern Quilt Guild exhibit at the Lowell Quilt Festival? WHICH IS IN ABOUT TWO WEEKS???

LQF Postcard

Holy. Crap.

Anyways, another four yards of Kona Charcoal is on its way from Sew Fresh Fabrics, and dammit, I am going to try to re-make the back in the correct orientation. I was so psyched about that back, I can’t let myself give up on it.

So, I’ve got two weeks to re-piece the back (the quilt is 60×70″, by the way – it’s no mini), quilt it, bind it, and put a hanging sleeve on it.

By the way, any suggestions for what quilting design/texture I should do would be more than welcome – the whole thing is solids, so I feel like the quilting should add a cool texture, but I can’t decide what to do.

Oh, and my second submission, a mini quilt for the Guild’s mini quilt challenge… also not quite done yet.

Hexies in progress...

Something about counting chickens, I know, I know. Lesson learned.

Now, who wants to come watch my kids so I can sew all day for the next two weeks?

Comments (9)
Categories : Piecing
Tags : ,
     

Wish List

Ideas swirling around in my head that haven't gotten going yet...
  • Modified Bento tutorial from Film in the Fridge
  • Aqua and off-white (and green?)... something
  • Half-hexagons
  • Picnic quilt
  • Citrus (orange, yellow, green, pink?)
  • Las Brisas (orange, pink, blue)
  • Owl houses
  • Tickertape pair - warm and cool

Works in Progress

  • Forest Lake, Part I
  • Forest Lake, Part II
  • Triangle Madness
  • Avian Therapy
  • Quilt Class, 1 and 2
  • APOWB Wonky Starlings
  • Bee Addicted 2 Quilt
  • Scraptastic Owls
  • One Block Over Modern Meadow

Sharing!

Grab My Button





Archives

Goddess in Progress Quilts
Copyright 2009-2011 All Rights Reserved
iThemes Builder by iThemes
Powered by WordPress