Perfect Summer Weekend

Did you have a good holiday? Mine was just about perfect. I relaxed. Sewed a bit by myself. Sewed a lot with friends (hello DC Modern guys and gals!) Shopped a bit. Even cooked a bit, too!

A little patriotic quilt for the South East Early Head Start program

Fabric deals!

Homemade pesto with basil from our garden

Best Guild Ever!

The Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild, that is.

I started the guild in October of 2010. I had recently moved to Baltimore, didn't know very many people, and wanted to find some quilting friends. Before moving, I joined the DC Modern Guild (no BMQG at the time) not really realizing how far DC was from Baltimore ~ let's just say they are definitely not 20 minutes apart. One of my favorite quotes is "sometimes you gotta create what you want to be a part of" ~ Geri Weitzman. So, I created what I wanted to be a part of. I made a group on flickr, made a post, and within an hour, we had another member. We were on our way! We grew slowly yet steadily, adding new features and new members month after month. Now in our fourth year, the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild is going strong.

At the end of December I stepped down as president. A planned move to New York this summer coupled with other obligations prompted my decision.  It was bitter sweet, but time. Sadly, weather prevented us from having our end of year celebration and my final meeting.

But then, at our January meeting, I was totally surprised when the guild presented me with this beauty:

Beautiful stars, made by all the members of the guild. I can't express how much I love this quilt! The stars are all so unique (like my guild buddies!) yet work perfectly together. It's truly stunning. Pieced by Deb and quilted by Kathy. I love it. Thank you friends.

Along with the quilt came this bowl full of fortune cookies. Linda made the bowl, and my guild friends filled it with fortunes. I'm savoring all of the well wishes, and reading them very slowly. 

So, yes, my guild is THE BEST! And yes, I'm shouting it!

Thanks so much, my friends!

You can never be too rich, too thin...

Or have too many pillows.

You'd think that if you saw my projects these days.

Lots of pillows lately.

Perfect for when you want some (not so) immediate gratification.

Or just want to work out a color combination or design in your head without committing the next several weeks months of your life.

Or, feel like it's about time I did something with those signature swap blocks from 2 years ago.

Or, when you get a little bundle of fabric like this

and need to come up with something awesome!

So, maybe not totally awesome, but I'm happy with it. I'm still a fan of the "+" layout. And I was able to use all of the fat eighth bundle of Riley Blake fabric for the MQG challenge. Look at me, finished 3 months before the deadline!

And just for fun, here are Ty and Chase (black cat, white/black dog) photo bombing my pillow.

A Tale of Two Cabins, Final Chapter

You may have read this post, about two log cabins that I just wasn't feeling.

As I suspected, I just need to keep going. And I'm feeling them now!

For the vintage sheet quilt, when I put all the blocks together, it just looked like a whole lot of mush. Pretty, vintage mush, but mush all the same. I tried the gray sashing but it wasn't doing it for me. So I pawed through my stash and found the pink heart herringbone from BasicGrey. Perfect! I find sashing to be so tedious, (and don’t even mention corner stones)but I really didn’t mind with this quilt. It really perked things up and I love the final quilt. I’m so happy that a sweet little girl will cuddle up in it very soon.

For my modern log improv, I just kept plugging along, making more blocks. The more I made, the better I liked it. For someone like me who doesn't do a lot of improv, I think I could actually see my improv improve (my spell check is going crazy over that last phrase!) Whenever  I would see improv quilting classes I would think, “how do you teach improv?” but I do think there is a method to it. Or at least, for me, I found what I liked and didn't like. Another thing I liked about this quilt was the restricted color palette, and the fact that they were all scraps from other projects. I will definitely revisit the grey/red/black/neutral scheme again.  And in the end, I don’t think it’s too modern for a little boy. I think it will be just right for a very cool little dude.

All told, the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild made 21 log cabin quilts for the kids of the South East Early Head Start program! The quilts will hang in the gallery of the Kennedy Kreiger Family Center before going to their permanent home in the arms of the babies and toddlers of the center. Way to go, guild!

My Ginormous Tote Bag

At the last meeting of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild, we had the reveal of our tote bag swap. Sadly, I did not participate in the swap. (Trying to be realistic about what I can actually get done in the time that I have!) I still wanted a tote bag, though, dang it. And I wanted a really large one. On the lines of an artist's portfolio. One large enough to hold a cutting mat, pressing board, big rulers, etc. Large enough to take to guild meetings and to classes. Large enough to hold a couple of quilts. Or, even a cute toddler if we come across one. (Okay, forget that last one. Family joke.)

At the same time I was dreaming about a tote bag, this quilt top has been hanging around. It was from the guild's Row Robin that ended in December. I envisioned a sewing themed wall quilt, and made my starter row some colorful spools. My fellow "robiners" did a great job with my top. But when it was all done, I just wasn't feeling a quilt.

And then it occurred to me I could make the top into a tote bag. So I took it apart in places, did some rearranging, added some solid red to the bottom and came up with this really ginormous tote. I LOVE IT! It's about 35" wide, 25" tall and 8" deep. It holds everything I want and then some. I layered the outside with some thin batting, did some minimal horizontal line quilting, then fused a stiff interfacing to the outer layer and the lining as well. The lining is a favorite vintage sheet in an awesome red print (never seen before or since.) I already have it stuffed to take to our next guild meeting. I know this will get tons of use.

Filled with 2 quilts and a 20" pillow!