The Last of the Red Blocks

  I had a goal of getting all the red blocks for my Anniversary Quilt set in a top before my last club meeting in February. Buuut...That didn't happen.

After laying out my original 15 or so blocks from my ladies I felt like I needed to make a few more to increase the finished size a bit.  I think I needed to make 6 more blocks for an even 20.  That would give me a nice 4 x 5 layout, as well as being a nice big throw size.

Here are the last three blocks I made!!

(I'm definitely ready to tie this project up as it's been almost a year in the making.)

The whole feel of this quilt is going to be "scrappy sampler" so I tried to add a variety of blocks.  I think these will go well with my others.

After all my tiny paper piecing madness on my doll quilt, I decided to enlarge the block pattern to make a 12.5 inch block.  I really love it!  My quilt club ladies wanted me to teach them some simple paper piecing techniques, so this is the block I taught them at our last meeting.  :)

A little improv...

I still need lots of practice, but who doesn't love a little improv now and then?

 And my personal fav: geese in a circle block.
I've made it at least three other times and am still not tired of it.

So there your have it.  By the time we get back from our sewing weekend these blocks will be in flimsy top form.  Yeah!
I'll show you next week when I get back...

Emily

BTW: I'll be posting up-to-the-minute photos of our weekend on instagram if you want to follow all the fun!  I am @ simplegirlsimplelife.

The Last Blocks

As the year comes to and end, so too, does my quilt club's anniversary project.  

Here are the last of the blocks I made for the ladies.  

 A dresden for Nancy, flying geese for Connie, and red and black for JoLene.

 

   

And here's Kae's finished red, white, and blue quilt. Isn't it fun? 

So far she is the only one who has even put her blocks together, let alone finished her quilt.  The rest of us are either waiting for remaining blocks or slacking. :)  I am in the waiting group...

Overall I think everyone is pretty happy with this project and the blocks they received.  I imagine that next year there will be completed tops popping up at our monthly meetings.  At least that's my hope. I'm excited to see how they all come together.

As for 2013, we are brainstorming ideas for a new group project.  Any suggestions?

 

Bee Block Catch-Up

(Warning:  heavy picture post!)

I haven't posted my bee blocks in awhile.  I've been busy...

Here's what I've finished over the last couple months.

BowTie for Liz

 Wonky stars for Linda who is envisioning something like this.
Block tutorials here.

 Another one for Linda
I felt guilty that her blocks, which were supposed to be done in July, weren't finished until Sept. so I made 2.  This one used teeny tiny piecing...

The little stars finish at 3 inches.  That means I started with 1.5 inch squares!! 
They are my smallest pieced blocks to date.  My husband liked them enough to say "Why don't you make a whole quilt out of those little stars.  That would be cool!"  Um...ya...that would take me approximately 10 years to complete!  :)  I still can't decide if ye was serious or not.

A "pastel" block for LaDean for Sept Quilt Club
Same tutorial as above with the addition of some HST's.
I thought they would give it a little more interest as a stand alone block.

Strings for Jodie
I'm almost tempted to make another string quilt using vintage sheets, almost... :)

And finally,
"Value" Zig Zags for Colleen
Tutorial 

Quilt Club Ladies

An updated picture of me and my quilt club ladies. 

I can't say enough about these women! 

While it's obvious that I am a bit out of place in a group like this, I have never felt anything but complete acceptance from these lovely ladies.  They are kind, loving, and very supportive of me and "my kind" of quilting. I know for sure that my stuff isn't their taste, but they never make me feel anything less than one of them. 

We recognize and celebrate each others differences. We encourage and support in times of need.   They teach me and I teach them.  (One of these ladies even made 100(!) string blocks after I showed my quilt one month!)  Together we learn and improve our craft.  We laugh and eat and talk.  And each month I come away rejuvenated and happy that I was there.  

Now that's the sign of a great club!!

:)

Emily

Red and White Collage

Got some more blocks for my red and white quilt from the ladies this past month.

 It is shaping up beautifully, don't you think?

Quilt Club Blocks for July

 July is the actual Anniversary month for my quilt club, so we are doing some charitable sewing as well as our normal show and tell luncheon.

A few months back Darlene brought this quilt to share with everyone. 

 (Darlene is the mastermind behind this and this.)  

 

We decided to finish it up (along with a few others) and donate it to our Church's Humanitarian Aid Project.  This year alone, our little town has pledged to make 100 quilts for this particular organization.  Isn't that cool?  A lofty goal, but I think we are well on our way!!   

 Since it's Darlene's month as hostess, she also gets her quilt blocks.  

She, like me, asked for red and white.

 I am giving her my tester block from a few months ago.
Since I will most likely be using white sashing in my quilt, I decided I needed to remake my block using red as the background with white geese.  And since the ladies tend to use darker sashings in their quilts the white background will "pop" nicely in her quilt.

For my second block I went with an "Emily" Block.  

Plain, straightforward with my favorite 2.5" squares.

Red + White Progress

I'm so excited! 

My red and white blocks have started to trickle in for my quilt club ladies!!

(Can you guess which ones I've made??)

A little mock up shows how perfectly perfect I think this quilt is going to be!  :)

Quilt Club Blocks for May

For May it's Rochelle's turn to host club.  

She is a lover of blue, more specifically dark blue.

So here's what I came up with for her.

 

I was going for a sort of "trip around the world" look. 

 The ladies tend to use lots of dark sashing in their quilts, so I thought the white would pop nicely against all the dark.

For this block I was trying to do something different than my usual 2.5 square/postage stamp style block.  If you want to make your own, start with 3 7/8" squares and cut into HST.  Should come out to a 12.5" block like mine.

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I also wanted to show you Kae's finished quilt top.

 

 As you might remember, in March she asked for red/white/blue blocks.  

Well, she was so excited to receive such lovely blocks from everyone that she showed us her finished top at our April meeting. (You can see that even my ugly block made the cut.)  We were all pretty excited to see that it turned out so great. (See? Dark sashing..) More importantly, Kae loved it!!

Quilt Club Block Catch Up

The ladies have decided that since we started our Anniversary Quilt Idea in March that we need to play catch up for the months of Jan/Feb.  Lucky for me as I hosted in January.  I told the ladies I wanted red/white blocks, sort of like traditional red work.  (I have this kind of awesomeness in mind.)  Won't that be so pretty?   

For February, Nelda wanted shades of blue.  

For whatever reason I have tons of blue in my stash.

 (Inspired by this)

 And a little menagerie of 9-patches

I love that I'm getting lots of mileage out of my 2.5 inch scrap bin these days!  I would've thought for sure after finishing my scrap-tastic quilt that I'd never want to see another small square again, but that is definitely not the case. Let's just say I can sew a 2.5 inch squares like nobody's business! 

In other happy news, today I am off to see an old friend.  Total spur of the moment trip, so unlike me, and quite possibly the world's worst time of year for our family, but I'm not thinking about that.  Instead I'm thinking only of Me, on an airplane, by myself, for the weekend!!  WooHoo!  I'll deal with the aftermath when I get home. :)

Quilt Club Blocks for April

For April, Geraldine is hosting quilt club. 

 She happens to be the oldest member at the spry age of 87.

She requested lavender and yellow blocks.

I had no purple/lavender fabric in my stash whatsoever, so I had to "borrow" some from Geraldine. :)

Here's what I made...

Block instructions Here

No instructions for this one.

Making a Dent!

Like I said before, I am trying to bust my way through my current WIP's.

I'm happy to report that I am making significant  progress!

This week I spent most of my time working on my Grandma Quilt.  The blocks have been done for awhile now, but I set about  putting them into top form this week. 

All those pinwheel seams were making me crazy, but after removing the bulk on over 200+ blocks I can now say I am pretty proficient at it!  Not my idea of a good time, though.

I thought I had the perfect vintage sheet for the backing in my stash already only to find that I had already cut into it! Bummer!  A search thru my favorite thrift stores this week yielded nothing as well.  So this quilt is on hold until I can find something I like.

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A little side project I also worked on was a "celebration" idea we came up with for quilt club.  This year marks the 10th anniversary of the club (I have only been in for 2.5 years).  After some discussion we decided to help each other make a quilt to honor the occasion.  

This is how it will work:  Each month the host of club gets to decide on her color scheme.  The rest of the members will then make her a 12.5" block (or 2)  in those colors.  After, she will have 12-24 blocks to make herself an "Anniversary Quilt."

It'll be fun to see what everyone chooses and comes up with.

This month Kae chose red/white/blue.  Since my ladies aren't too modern, I made her this block with some patriotic fabrics I've had for.ever! (They are churn dash blocks like my DQS)  I'm pretty sure she will love it, but quite frankly it's not really me.  

So, I decided to make her these scrappy postage stamp blocks as well.  They scream out "Emily" much more than the other one, don't ya think? 

I guess I'll giver her all 3 blocks and let her decide which ones make it in the quilt!

linking up to Finish It Up Friday @ crazymomquilts.
and WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

The Mad Hatter {a finished quilt}

Forgive me if I'm not very wordy today.

I wrote this post last night, and when I woke up this morning to post it, there was nothing! 

I have no idea what happened...

So you get version 2.0 which won't be nearly as clever or wordy.

Today is my quilt club day! Yay!

I'm taking this for show and tell.

 It's my completed Mad Hatter Quilt.

(You can read more about it here.)

I had some issues with waviness due to the triangles being cut on the bias. 

You can see that it doesn't exactly lay flat.  

Oh,well.  It was a learning experience.  Next time I will know better.

 For the record, my husband thinks this quilt is "hideously ugly!"

And when I took it to my quilter, her husband agreed! :)

I don't think it's THAT ugly, but I can see their point. 

It's definitely not my taste or style (other than being scrappy), 

But I am choosing to think of it as "beautifully ugly!"

The border fabric is the same as the backing.

It it's previous life it was my daughter's bed sheet, 

until the day she left her mark all over it with a ball point pen.  Nice, huh?

With the addition of the border it now measures 54" by 68".  

In our house that qualifies as a small throw.

I'm sure the ladies will be happy that I've finally finished my "flower garden" quilt.  

I think they have visions of displaying them all together this summer at our town's small quilt show.

We shall see.

Until them, I will add it to the rotation of TV watching/fort making blankets.

Linking up to Quilt Story

Quilt Club Challenge Quilt #2

While I'm off enjoying some much needed R & R with the hubs this weekend (yay!) I'll share with you my 2nd quilt club challenge quilt.  It's a crazy one! 

When I first showed Leslie what I was going to do she was like, "Whoa, That's one crazy quilt -- Like mad hatter crazy!"  The name has stuck so I'm calling it The Mad Hatter.    

The story behind it is similar to my other one.  But this is the quilt club challenge from the previous year.  The ladies were given a stack of florals (again, cut from one of the club members own stash).  By the time I entered the group everyone had mostly gotten their quilts finished.  I was given an "Oh, here's some floral squares for you!" stack of leftovers.  Again, didn't love the fabrics, so they sat and sat while I figured what the heck I was going to do with them. 

When I saw this... 

Photo from Quilt Magazine 2010

I knew I'd found my inspiration! 

It is a Kaffe Fassett quilt that graced the cover of Quilt Magazine in June/July 2010.  While I am generally not a big fan of his (Sorry Kaffe lovers!) I knew my florals could take on this same look and be awesome in their ugliness.  

I think my cheap-o, knock-off, quilt club challenge version is a pretty good one, don't you?

Updated: You can view the finished quilt HERE

Quilt Club Challenge Quilt #1

This quilt has a bit of a story behind it (...don't they all?).

At the beginning of summer one of the ladies in my quilt club came to club with bags of fabric for everyone!  She had decided to get rid of a bunch of her stash and in so doing had made "quilt kits" for each of us.  The catch was that all the bags were sealed in non-see through bags so that we had no idea what we were getting.   She included instructions and all the fabric needed to make a generous sized top.  We had to do the rest.

Over the course of these last few months the ladies have been bringing their finished tops (and even finished quilts!) to our monthly meetings.  Last month I was feeling a wee bit guilty that I hadn't even thought about my kit yet.  Mainly it's because the fabric is not exactly my taste.  But I came home from club and decided that I needed to stop being a what-ever-you-want-to-call-it and get to work.

So here's a little peek at my finished top:

I got an array of pink's and red's in my bag.  Again, not my favorite fabrics, but now that it's done I don't hate it.  The pattern we all used is called Turning Twenty.  It is super easy and and super fast to put together.  I think it took me less than 2 hours to put together.

Here are some of the other tops from the ladies in my club.  Again, no one had any idea what they were getting...

 This one has sort of a stained glass look to it. Lots of pale blues and greens.

Cowboy/Denim:  This one got quilted with loops and stars all over it.  It looked really cute with the fabrics!

Frogs/Picnic/BBQ

(There were 2 more but I can't seem to find those pictures.)
Even after cutting up fabric for 11 quilt tops I'm not sure that it even made a dent in my friend's fabric stash.  Can you relate?  Irregardless of whether I like the fabrics or not, it's been a fun little project with the ladies. I've got one more challenge from them that I will show next week.

With all this "challenging" it's got me thinking.  I should give the ladies some of my scraps and see what they come up with. That would be fun wouldn't it?!  Maybe we could turn my strings into a wonky log cabin quilt.  I wonder if they can do wonky? ...Humm


Updated: You can see the finished quilt HERE.