Brown Bag Mystery Quilt

I had to play catchup with my Brown Bag Mystery Quilt. I was behind for clues 3 and 4. So many half-square triangles! This is the kit from The Crabby Quilter in Annapolis, MD.

I really like working with the solids. They're so forgiving when it comes to cutting and piecing.

This kit is from Mountain Creek Quilt Shop in Alcoa, TN. I bought two kits from them but haven't cut any of the other kit. The last clue is tomorrow and I'm ready!

My favorite tools and supplies (affiliate links):

Creative Grids 6.5" x 24.5" Rectangle Fiskars Rotary Cutter

Creative Grids 4.5" x 12.5" Rectangle Quilting Ruler

Fiskars Rotary Cutter replacement blades
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
BLACK+DECKER Classic Steam Iron
Fiskars 8-inch scissors

Juki TL-2010Q

Grabbit Magnetic Pin Cushion

Dritz Craft Pins, 1-3/4-Inch (250-Count)

Electric Quilt

Project box: IRIS 12" x 12" Portable Plastic Storage Cases with Built-in Handle, Clear (storage)

Letter Openers

Brown Bag Mystery Quilt

These little nine-patches were the first clue. 

The second was loads and loads of flying geese. I'm going to be piecing these for days.

A little bit of chain piecing makes this go quickly. I use the letter opener to quickly cut the units apart. 

My favorite tools and supplies (affiliate links):

Creative Grids 6.5" x 24.5" Rectangle Fiskars Rotary Cutter

Creative Grids 4.5" x 12.5" Rectangle Quilting Ruler

Fiskars Rotary Cutter replacement blades
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
BLACK+DECKER Classic Steam Iron
Fiskars 8-inch scissors

Juki TL-2010Q

Grabbit Magnetic Pin Cushion

Dritz Craft Pins, 1-3/4-Inch (250-Count)

Electric Quilt

Project box: IRIS 12" x 12" Portable Plastic Storage Cases with Built-in Handle, Clear (storage)

Letter Openers

Brown Bag Mystery Quilt

How can you have only one?

I discovered Mountain Creek Quilt Shop through the Brown Bag Mystery group on Facebook. I found their collection of classic book covers as color inspiration delightful. So much so, that I bought two more brown bag kits. 

I bought The Raven and The Call of Cthulhu. I even added the extra coordinating fabric for borders and binding. I really like the mix of greens and blues in The Call of Cthulhu bag. The Raven will likely be stunning with the almost monochromatic palette. 

I started with The Raven. So far I've only made the one block. I am set up to stitch the rest when I have a couple minutes. It is easy to stitch a couple when I have just a few minutes to sew. 

My favorite tools and supplies (affiliate links):

Creative Grids 6.5" x 24.5" Rectangle Fiskars Rotary Cutter

Creative Grids 4.5" x 12.5" Rectangle Quilting Ruler

Fiskars Rotary Cutter replacement blades
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
BLACK+DECKER Classic Steam Iron
Fiskars 8-inch scissors

Juki TL-2010Q

Grabbit Magnetic Pin Cushion

Dritz Craft Pins, 1-3/4-Inch (250-Count)

Electric Quilt

Project box: IRIS 12" x 12" Portable Plastic Storage Cases with Built-in Handle, Clear (storage)

The Color Challenge: A Charity Quilt

Do you remember the fabric challenge I participated in during the last meeting of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild?

Well, this is what happened. I made a huge stack of half-square triangle blocks. This isn't the final placement of the squares. This spent at least a week on my design wall while I moved blocks about.

This is what I finally settled on. Slightly different. Loads of movement.

Even the quilting has movement, but not in those straight lines. I used some of the scraps for binding. I managed to squeeze the Baltimore MQG's label into the bottom corner.

I really like this little quilt.

Charity Quilting: Quilts for Kids

Just a quick update on charity quilting for Quilts for Kids. When I dropped off quilts at the last meeting of Annapolis Quilts for Kids I picked up a couple more quilts.

These little quilts are quick to load and quilt. About an hour from start to finish.

A meander to finish this one.

I decided the next one needed some flowers. I love how the petals fill up the space. I've bundled them up and handed them over to one of the other members of Annapolis Quilts for Kids.

2016 Charity Quilt Count: 26

Nametag Swap and Fabric Challenge

At the last meeting of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild I participated in a wonderful name tag swap. The first design I made was an embroidered cat based on an image from her website.

Then, I worried that it wasn't quilty enough so I quilted one. My free motion isn't perfect, but I'm really pleased with the outcome of this name tag.

I also received a fun name tag in exchange from yet another maker. I love it when a swap goes well.

There was also a fabric challenge as part of our quilt making for charity. The challenge works like this: bring 1 yard of fabric and your scissors. Snip you fabric and rip it into two pieces. Drop one piece at your feet. Pass the other piece to your right and take the fabric from the person on your left. Repeat until you have seven pieces. This is my stack of fabric, in descending sizes. The smallest piece is big enough to cut one 4" square.

I was really digging my color choices until that little snippet of lavender sneaked in at the end. I'm going to use it, though.

I've pulled some other solids from my stash and I think this will be a fun one. This is my final pull of fabrics. I've been merrily cutting the fabrics down into 4" squares to make into an equally tall stack of 3.5" half-square triangle blocks. This will likely lead to the whole project spending too much time on my design wall, but I don't mind.

Have you joined in a fabric or color challenge recently? This one sounded great and I'm glad I joined in.

Modern Quilting Mania

As you may know, I am a member of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild.  You may have also noticed that I'm not an overly modern quilter; nor do I identify myself as a traditional quilter.  I like to say that if you need to give me a title, an arbitrary label (that is as unnecessary as any other label that our society places on the humans that reside within our society) I would like you to use quilter.  That's what I am.

At a guild meeting I was the lucky winner of a stack of charm squares in Modern Neutrals by Amy Ellis for Moda Fabrics.  (You can pick up your own charm pack from the Fat Quarter Shop.)  I grabbed some coordinating solids and started working on some improvisation.  I didn't have a plan.  I just started working to see how big I could get the piece with the fabrics I had at hand.  There was much rearranging of blocks before a final layout was determined.  I would even build the blocks to fit where I wanted them.

I pieced the blocks together in to units that were then sewn into the top.  I managed to make it so I only had to sew one partial seam.  If I had planned a little better I wouldn't have had to sew any partial seams.  This isn't the kind of quilt that wants a border, so it didn't get one.

I don't often piece backings to this level.  This is the kind of quilt that sort of asked for this kind of backing.  I embroidered the label into that little 5" charm before sewing it into the backing.

Once I got it loaded onto the frame I needed to pick the right thread.

I ended up using the So Fine from Superior Threads.  This is a great thread for blending work.  I wanted to use the gray, but it just didn't seem like the right answer.  The resulting texture really shows.

I decided to quilt it with this wood grain motif.
I think this gave the quilt just the right amount of movement.

The backing shows the quilting really well in some spots.

I used more strips from the stack of fabrics for the binding.  Scrappy bindings are the best!

This is a pretty modern quilt.  But I'm still just a quilter.

DISCLAIMER:  None of the links in this blog post are compensated.  I include them because you may be interested in some of the things I have used or talked about.  I do not receive anything from sharing these links.

The Green Bag Lady

If you haven't heard of The Green Bag Lady you totally need to head over to her site and check it out.

I've entered a couple of their give-away events and have won a couple bags.  I won this bag (#31414) just this month.  Here it is with a charity quilt inside.  I'll hand over the quilt to another member of Annapolis Quilts for Kids for finishing.  I'll have to hope I get my great Hawaiian print bag back!

This bag (#27877) I won a few months ago and I sent it to The Coast Guard Lady for the winter holiday.  I also included one I made so she would have more than one.

I went through my stash and found some older fabrics that I've had hanging around for years.  Since this is Sew My Stash 2015 I figured this was a great way to use up some of these fabrics and get them off my shelves.  Not all of these are the large size, a few of them ended up smaller based on the amount of fabric I had available.

The pattern for these is available for free on The Green Bag Lady's site (just look in the sidebar of her site for a link to a pdf pattern and a video tutorial).

I made up 14 bags, ten of them are the large size.  Four of them are smaller bags.  I did all the construction on my serger and the top-stitch finishing the top of the bags was done with my sewing machine.  They make up quick once you've got them cut.

Thirteen of these bags and a stack of cloth napkins will be headed to my cousin.  If more people used cloth napkins and fabric shopping bags the world would be a little nicer.  A boring paper napkin or plastic bag just can't compare to the smiles fabric bags or napkins can make.

What have you sewn for Sew Your Stash 2015 (#sewmystash2015)?  If you have some fabric that you know you won't put into a new project this is a great way to use some of it up and make some great shopping totes that fold up and fit in your handbag.  Save the plastic trees!

Modern Feathers - the finished quilt.

After Quilts for Kids on Saturday I had some time and a couple spots I thought would be good for taking some pictures of this quilt.

This Modern Feathers quilt was created in a collaborative project by the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild.

I was challenged by the quilting on this one but I really like the finish.  Feather Bed Quilt pattern is available from Anna Maria Horner.  The guild did not use this pattern but it is very similar.

This quilt, along with several others will be prizes at the Baltimore MQG's first Quilt Bingo event.  If you are in the Baltimore Area you should really check it out.

Modern Feathers

It has been ages since I pieced some feathers for this collaborative quilt for the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild.

Last Sunday at the guild meeting, I took possession of the quilt top and binding.  When I got it home I layered it all together and looked at it.  And looked at it.  Then, I just got quilting.  This thing wasn't going to quilt itself. 

There are so many different ways this could have been quilted.  So many ways any quilt can be quilted.  I decided to do simple filler that wasn't too dense for the background and let the feathers speak for themselves.  I did some very limited stitching on the feathers just to give them some texture.  The fabrics do all the talking.

This quilt was a little challenging as I used both simple ruler-work and free-motion to get it all stitched.

I'm really pleased with the overall effect.  All that remains is to trim and attach the binding.

I made sure I attached the label to the backing before I quilted it.  Simple yet effective.

Threads, threads, threads!

Today I spent a little time auditioning threads for this quilt.  This is the quilt from last year's Quilt Quest.

I would really like to finish this quilt before the new shop-hop begins, so here I am looking at my quilt top and all these threads.  I don't usually do color-work with the quilts.  I pick one that matches the backing and just go for it.  This time, I may challenge myself.  I'm still thinking about it.  So many choices!

All these amazing threads are from Superior Threads.  I love them all.

Do you change your threads often when quilting?  Or, do you just pick one and stick with it?  If I do change the colors, how custom should the quilting be?

Modern Quilting for The Bitchy Stitcher

WARNING:  If you think quilting isn't funny, or are easily offended by (im)mature language, I recommend you stop reading now.  You've been warned.

Back in April of this year, The Bitchy Stitcher wrote a fun post that tickled my funny bone.  I set out to make some of her amazing modern quilts.  In miniature.  I also found a short thread (that I can't find now) over on the Quilting Board where there was some butt-hurt that lasted about three posts until someone pointed out that her new book, Modern Quilting:  F*ck Yeah!, was a joke.  The original post was posted on April 1st, after all.

First I picked out my solids, because everyone knows that modern quilting demands solids.  Lots and lots of solids.  These are all Kona Cottons from Robert Kaufman that I had in my stash.  I have so many of these because they are quilting staples.  I also have batting by the roll and thread in colors the rainbow never heard of.  Don't judge.

I was going to use Kona white (there are actually several shades of white/neutral in this line) for the backing and the background for some of these.  I ended up changing my mind on the backing fabric since I decided to print the label directly on the backing fabric.  I used the prepared fabric you can get at quilt shops for printing with your inkjet printer at home.  I've had these fabric sheets for a long time and decided that I should use them.  It is only a matter of time before the sticky backing either doesn't come off or falls off before I can print on it.

To get the shapes for the front of the quilts, I went with English paper piecing.  I have an unnatural (and disturbing) urge to do this sort of sewing.  It goes against everything I am when it comes to quilting.  I am a machine sewer.  I am a machine quilter.  I finish binding by machine.  But... English paper piecing is a topic for another blog post.

I attached the shapes to my white background fabric.  Sometimes, my hand work is better than others.  The hexie was fine.  That quadrilateral challenged my sewing ability and my inner calm.  I decided to just let that one ride.  Life is too short to rip.

The quilting is where I really let this project take off.  First was Far From the Madding Crowd.  I sort of let the walking foot do the work.  This is another thing you see a great deal of in modern quilting; long parallel lines that use some of the piecing as a base and just take off across the surface of the quilt.

Here we have Dream Your Explosion Tiffany.  I used one of the fancy stitches on my sewing machine to balance the feather I put in the white background.  That feather isn't perfect, but I love it anyway.  Sometimes the feather, an heirloom quilting motif, is stitched into the negative space of modern quilts because, well, feathers are awesome.

Finally, we have Meadowlarking.  I love the quilting on this one.  Each of those little clams challenged my free-motion quilting abilities.  Overall I like this one the most.  The quilting is perfect!

I trimmed and added the binding to each tiny quilt to contrast the quilt and really help the design stand out.  Nah, I just sort of followed the book on this one.  I still love the effect.  Megan picked great colors.

Each back was printed with the label prior to quilting.  This is a great way to label your mug rugs.  I should use some freezer paper to do this sort of thing with other mug rugs.  Sometimes I'm such a genius!  (One millisecond is all it takes.)  I suppose if I do that I should also share a tutorial.

 Far From the Madding Crowd

 Dream Your Explosion Tiffany

Meadowlarking

These quilts were a blast to make.  After they were done, I bundled them up and sent them to The Bitchy Stitcher.  I can only hope I did her patterns and designs justice.

As I mentioned before, The Bitchy Stitcher is collecting quilt blocks to create the Laughter Quilt.  This is a great way to share something that makes you laugh with the quilting world.  Seriously, lend a hand.  Remember, if you can't laugh, you'll cry.  There is no crying in quilting, especially modern quilting.