Modern Quilt Guild

Today was my monthly meeting for our modern quilt guild.  It was a special day because it was to be a sew in day.  We were making a Gignomous quilted tote. This bag is a free pattern on the internet and the bag is large enough to hold several quilts and quokting supplies.  It is the perfect bag to carry show and tell, supplies for a sew-in, going on retreat and for those not quilters i say the perfect picnic, beach, or pool bag.  If you didnt wish to make the bag you could choose to bring any project youd like to work on.  

I had a really fun time but only was able to get my bag half finished.  More due to my slowness in sewing and lots of chatting.   When I got home I continued to work on the bag.  It was pretty fun and not too difficult. The Ginormous Tote is by Casey York.  You can visit her blog at http://studioloblog.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/tutorial-ginormous-quilters-tote/

We are shown instuctions on making a new block each month.  We then go home and have the choice of making some to bring in for a block lottery the next month.  For each block you make up to the third one your name will be put into the lottery that many times.  You may donate as many blocks as you like.  The block we made this past month was a cross block in solid colors.  I made three blocks and was lucky enough to win the lottery.  There was enough blocks for 4 people to win.  I recieved 11 blocks. Once you win you may not enter again until you have made a top out of your blocks and show it to the guild.  I was able to pick blocks in shades of aqua, yellow, & olive green. Im looking forward to designing the quilt.  The intersting part is the blocks are all different sizes so it dhould be a great challange.  

While making my cross block i made a mistake but just went with the flow and kept what i did.  I thought it would be a neat block to use. This worked out great because my name was drawn out of a box and I was chosen to teach my block next month for May's block lottery. I'm planning on writing up a tutorial on the block and will post it closer to the time I have to demonstrate it.    

Here are the cross blocks I won.  

I put the hardware on and here is the finished bag

Craftsy Twisted Irish Chain

I'm taking the class "Twisted Irish Chain with Amy Gibson" on www.Craftsy.com.  In the class you learn how to do a regular Irish chain as well as some modified ones. I really like Amy Gibsons way of explaining things. I watched all the lessons in one sitting and then choose which of the patterns i wanted to try.  I reccommend her class to anyone no matter skill level.  She explains well.  She was also the one who teaches a free beginning quilting class on Craftsy the 2012 BOM class.

  My husband got me electric quilt 7 for Valentine's Day and I've been playing around with that as well.  I decided to use Electric quilt and put my class Quilt in there.  I truly enjoyed building the quilt and then modifying it. One of the great things about electric quilt is that you can try out different colors and fabrics to see what the quilt might look like before you actually commit to cutting your fabric.

I was also lucky in that I have been cutting up some my scrap fabric and putting it into blocks based on the size so I had a group of 3 inch blocks already to go.   It wasn't enough to complete the quilt, so i had to cut about half of the 3inch blocks myself.  I had fun going through all of my scrap bins and using the smallest scraps. If it was a piece bigger than 5inch square I didnt use it.  Great way to use up the small ones.  I was pretty random in using the scraps.  This made for a fairly quick quilt and was completely made out of fabric that I had scraps for.  

Linear Landscape Quilts Finished Project

I've been working for on an Art Quilt as my project for this months technique for GreatFul Threads Art Quilt Guild.  This year started a new monthly project.  We will be pulling two techniques out of a hat so that the choices will be random.  From the two that we pick, we may choose one or both if we wish to incorporate into a Art Quilt.  The first drawing was in December to be prepared for the January meeting. Since I wasn't at the meeting my friend Sharon from http://sharon-dancingthruthreads.blogspot.com/ was nice enough to draw mine for me.  What she drew was painting or ricing.

I'd enrolled in the Craftsy Course Linear Landscape Quilts by Gloria Loughman last year and have been a little nervous about making an art quilt so have procrastinated on working on the class project.   I've decided now was the time to get over that fear and just do it.  For the painting portion I cut up a white sheet into several sections and painted them following Gloria 's instructions.  These pieces became the bottom layer of my project while fabric from my stash are the contours. Despite my worry the project wasn't as  difficult as I thought it would be.

Once I had all the sewing and quilting done the final touches included using the ricing technique on the water and tree's on the quilt.  Ricing is a Japanese technique of Sashiko where the stitches are the size of rice and are random.  I used two different blogs to research this technique. The first was http://fiberartexp.blogspot.com/ and the other was http://www.textileevolution.com/index.php/discussions/fe-book-study-week-17-~-sashiko-and-ricing

Here is my finished Project!

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New Year New Beginnings, But first Lets end last year!

Well it is a new year and I'm ready for the surprises and quilting excitement to come my way. First I wish to finish out last year. I still haven't gotten my Tin Lizzie machine working the way it should. I'm being told that the parts are on order. I feel I'm being given the run around but I have no recourse. My biggest problem is with it sewing in stitch regulated mode so I'm learning to quilt without it for now. I did manage to get three quilts completed on it to finish out last year.

My Christmas Quilt

Sis's Pearl Jam Quilt

This one was commissioned by my mother-in-law

Tin lizzie not working properly

I'm still trying to get my new machine to work at full capacity.  With  this type of trouble it takes me longer to complete my quilts.  Hopefully this will prove it isn't user error but machine error.  I hope new cables will do the trick and have faith that the company Sewingmachine.com will send them to me. I was supposed to have been given a brand new frame but I'm pretty sure I got a used one.  I'd love it if they would replace the carriage.  Even the wood on the side of the frame is splitting in places.  Very frustrating to spend $6000 on the machine and parts and it not work as well as it should.

Halloween Quilt Finished

I finally got my TinLizzie18dls working. The parts I've been given to be replaced or added are on. Now I am just waiting for new encoders and a new flexible lamp. The light was blowing my fuses and I noticed that it had burn marks on my machine. Kind of scary but it is now unplugged and I'm using a small lamp on a clamp on the machine.

I put my Halloween quilt on an just had a wonderful time freehand custom quilting it with Ghosts, Pumpkins, Spiders and webs, Tombstones, and Monsters along with loops. I finished the edges with Halloween Fabric Ribbon which was something new for me to try.

Halloween, a set on Flickr.