Thursday, October 31, 2013

Blogger Quilt Festival - Baby Quilt


While at SewDown Philadelphia, a bunch of us were looking for something to do during the free sew time. I had come directly from a work trip in Milan, Italy, so I didn't have much room to pack extra fabric/projects. Fortunately, we all received charm packs of Michael Miller Cotton Couture solids in our swag bags. A bunch of people decided to do a challenge to make a quilt using the charm pack - and thus the SewDown ThrowDown was born.
While I think everyone else added additional fabric, I set out to just use the fabrics provided in the charm pack - my own personal challenge within the challenge. I knew my suitcase was nearing the max weight, so adding more fabric might have put me over the limit (I ended up three pounds over and had to do some serious moving of stuff anyway).

I decided to make half square triangles, separating the colors by warm and cool colors. Overall, I think trying to separate the colors that way was okay, but because the charm pack was full of colors that could have gone one way or another - yellow or green, or purple or pink - that the separation of colors wasn't quite what I was hoping for.  That being said, I'm still really pleased with how this quilt turned out.

I backed it using an Art Gallery print that I've had in my stash for a couple of years now. As you can see above, I quilted this quilt, echoing either side of the diagonal lines of the HSTs.

I bound the quilt using Kona Iron.


Quilt Stats:
32" x 28"
Fabric: Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids, Kona Iron, Art Gallery (I forget the line)
Batting: Warm and Natural
Thread: Aurifil #50 2600


AmysCreativeSide

Blogger Quilt Festival - Wall Hanging



Sticks and Stones is a wall hanging that I made for the Boston MQG's mini quilt challenge. For the past two years we've participated in the Lowell Quilt Festival with our own exhibit. Part of this exhibit has contained a mini quilt challenge. This was my quilt for it. You can see the rest of the quilts here. 


This quilt was inspired by Jackie Gering's Craftsy class. I've enjoyed making more improvisational quilts these days, although I'll never shy away from designing my own paper pieced patterns.


The gray background fabric made this quilt difficult to photograph though. 


This block was made as four different blocks. I started with a bunch of strips of fabrics based on the inspirational color palette.


I quilted this, offsetting a handful of straight lines, horizontal and vertical. Once I had a handful of straight lines, I quilted out from the intersection.

Here you can really see what I did for the quilting. I think it gave the quilt a really cool effect.
AmysCreativeSide

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

The Roots of Modern Quilting Exhibit

A few weeks ago I was contacted by the curator of the New England Quilt Museum, Pam Weeks. They were finalizing an upcoming exhibit on The Roots of Modern Quilting and thought my Mod Hex 2 quilt would be the perfect addition to the exhibit.

Feeling completely humbled and honored, I of course agreed to let them use my quilt in the exhibit.


The opening reception was this past Saturday. The museum was lucky to have both Victoria Findlay Wolfe and Jacquie Gering attend the opening reception.

Here's my quilt hanging right next to Angela Walters' quilt.

Here's Victoria with her third double wedding ring quilt in a series of 12.

Jacquie Gering's quilt is on the left and Thomas Knauer's is on the right.  (I totally forgot to grab a photo of Jacquie.)

And this is a Denyse Schmidt quilt. The lighting of this quilt really made it shine.

I think the most humbling thing about being in this exhibit is the fact that my little ol' quilt is on display among some of the most wonderful names in quilting today - Denyse Schmidt, Jacquie Gering, Victoria Findlay Wolfe, Thomas Knauer, Heather Jones, Molly Upton, Angela Walters, Radka Donnell and Lucy Mingo. And then there's little ol' me.

Thank you Pam Weeks for including me in this wonderful exhibit. I am truly honored. 

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Trunk Show by Victoria Findlay Wolfe

This past Friday, the Boston and Seacoast Modern Quilt Guilds enjoyed a trunk show by the lovely Victoria Findlay Wolfe.

Victoria gave a great presentation, talking about her life growing up on the farm and watching her grandmother quilt.

I love hearing about where quilters and artists get their inspiration from. It's amazing to hear how we all find inspiration from so many different places.


You might recognize this quilt from the cover of Victoria's book, 15 Minutes of Play.

I loved how Victoria talked about grandmother flower garden quilts. Who doesn't have a bunch of unfinished hexi's lying around, waiting to be made into a top.


I loved Victoria's attempt to use solids. I don't use a lot of orange in my quilts, but there's something about that orange in the center medallion that speaks to me.


And here I am with Victoria after the show, getting my book signed. 

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

September Simply Solid Bee Block

Last month was crazy, so I was a little late making my September bee block for the Simply Solids Bee.

We were to make feather blocks, but I was only able to make the feathers and attach background fabric to once side, as there wasn't enough fabric provided to add the rest of the background fabric. Oh well, the hard part is done!  This should be a fun quilt once it's all assembled. I can't wait to see it. 

Monday, October 7, 2013

Exciting News!

Last week I was neck deep in school work - spending 8:30 - 9:00 or later at school for kickoff week. It was intense, and left no time for quilting. I guess that's what I get for signing up for an accelerated MBA program.

On the plus side, I did receive some positive news on the quilting front. On Monday, I was contacted by the curator of the New England Quilt Museum, asking if they could use my "Mod Hex 2" quilt for their exhibit opening this Thursday, October 10th - "Roots of Modern Quilting, A Fresh Look at Old Quilts."  Excited, I said yes.


Given the tight time constraints, we had to meet early one morning to do the handoff. It felt like some sort of early morning deal going on outside the nearby Panera. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration.

If you're in the area, you should check out the exhibit. It opens this Thursday, October 10th and runs until Saturday, December 28th at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA. Better yet, Denise Schmidt is visiting and giving a lecture on November 15th, so you can check both out at one time. 

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

A Lovely Year of Finishes - October Goal

September was crazy - so crazy I forgot to set a goal for myself. Not to worry, I'm setting a goal for October so that I have something to work towards. With a number of deadlines in September, I'm excited to begin working on some new stuff (and eventually share with you what I was working on).


My goal for the month is to finish my patchwork tote that I started at SewDown. I have the patchwork portion of the panels done, so I just need to finish the rest. I think it's do-able, as long as I find the time!