5.24.13

Gratuitous Hippo Carving Picture from Museum of Appalachia

No one at Guild made the Block of the Month I showed you in yesterday's post. It is a very busy month with graduations and such. I have four sample blocks and no project in mind for them. Several members were not in town at all and usually the spring and summer months bring back our snowbirds so our meetings are full. I wonder how many will make this month's Block of the Month? We have our Guild Retreat coming up next month and I know that is a busy time for everyone, too. 

I talked a little bit about the Mystery Table Runner. Lots of Guilds do a Mystery Quilt but our ladies are a busy bunch so I designed a Mystery Table Runner which has expansion possibilities if they want a wall-hanging or larger piece. I am going to experiment with posting it here on the blog. There should be a way I can make a link in the sidebar to another page on this blog. I have heard that this particular blog provider does not make it easy to do that.

1.10.13

EDITED TO ADD photo to the right after 2.5 hours of sewing and pressing.
It was tough, but I figured out how to cut the first block for Saturday Soiree for Marcus Brothers by Faye Burgos. The little pieces of fabric came with a diagram and also a list of template sizes but NO WHERE does it say, for example, cut 6 of template A with fabric 1 being careful to reserve some of fabric 1 for template 4. 

Fabric 1

I felt like a page of the directions was missing. I suppose quilt shops all across the land are struggling with that. The quilt shops buy the line of fabric and the backing and then buy the permission to make copies of the block directions. They only have what the program gives them, so it is not really their fault. Besides, this is my first Block of the Month, so I don't really know any better, do I ?

Leftover scraps from Block 1

Mine is cut, anyway, and I hope to do some of the machine sewing and pressing today. It is a fairly straightforward block, and looks like it might be the one on the top left.

1.9.13

Today, I attend Friendship Group at Country Stitches in Blue Ridge. I DID sign up for the Soiree Block-of-the-Month and I expect to pick up my first month's worth of fabric and pattern. 

The Friendship Group also has a monthly Scrappy Sew Along, which has my name on the list, too. There were two choices and I chose 30s Reproduction Prints over fruits and vegetables. If you are a knitter and not accustomed to quilt lingo, 30s Reproduction Prints refers to the cheery small prints on bright pastels found on feed sacks and dress goods in the 1930s. I have a plan in mind for mine.

Priscilla usually hands out a fat eighth of a print and a coordinating fat eighth neutral. I am looking forward to this first step to see how it goes with the design I have in mind.

11.16.12

My local quilt shop, Country Stitches, is featuring a Block of the Month quilt. I can't decide whether or not I want to sign up. I think I do but I really want to see the fabrics first, before I make a yearlong commitment.  The BOM I am considering is called Saturday Soiree, designed by Faye Burgos and the fabrics are from Marcus Brothers. I got this picture from the website of a quiltshop in Rockledge, so if you are in Florida, go visit for me!


This is the way a Block of the Month works. The quilter agrees to pay a set fee and every month she receives enough fabric and the instructions to make a block for a quilt. The blocks all coordinate to make a finished quilt. The quilter provides batting and backing. Below is the collection's 108" wide backing print. Not bad.

It looks like the monthly fee will be about the cost of a yard and a half of fabric each month--but you barely get enough fabric to make the block. Still, that pays for the instructions, also. I have never done one, but Quilty Friend has done a few and I think Tallahassee Quilty Friend probably has done one. I AM still doing the machine quilting challenge once a month but that is no fee and I supply all the materials. I guess I just REALLY need to touch the fabrics. Maybe I can order a sample of them somewhere. If it is the WRONG blue it could be quite a painful, yearlong experience. And you can probably see the above quilt is not in the same family of blue hues as the individual fabrics below. Which is correct? If it is these below, according to my monitor, I will be signing up! Or at least buying the fat quarter bundle.

What do you think of these? It also comes in red but my shop is only featuring the blue for the Block of the Month. I like the blue better, I think. I will probably have a problem with the outer border. I do not care for a lovely quilt that finishes with a wide-ish, muddy medium value, messy,medium scale print. I prefer a solid frame of light or dark value. I could change my mind. After all, look at all the Civil War type prints I have been buying and the traditional blocks I have been considering. NOT ME, NEVER. Never say never.