Quilty Pleasures-Modern Grunge

I was looking through some postings and realized I didn't let you see this finish, but just the layout.

A few years ago I drove to Albuquerque, three hours away, to attend a Jacquie Gering workshop on improvisational quilts. It seemed like a logical next step since I had taken a several classes with Gwen Marston, one of the original improvisationalists with her Liberated Quilting techniques. This is my Jacquie Gering inspired quilt.

I love this stuff. Just saying.

So anyway, I dorked around and procrastinated for quite some time, but finally finished it last year.

Here's a full shot. It's definitely a wall hanging and I've added a hanging sleeve to the back. Don't you love that background fabric? Keep reading and I'll tell you about it.

As you can see, it's been folded away. Look at those dang creases!

Here's a detail photo so you can see the quilting and one improvisational block. I started this block by fussy cutting a flower for the center and built from there, adding the white fabric square, some turquoise around the center and a reddish brown to complete it.

I used my Bernina's Number 4 stitch which creates this serpentine quilting pattern. To keep the quilting on the straight and narrow, I used a walking foot and its width to keep the rows (semi) regular, along with some painters' tape. Every twelve inches or so, I laid some tape down to ensure that I was not listing to one side or the other with my quilting rows.

Here's the back, but I am sorry I don't know the fabric's name. The background fabric's name is Grunge Basics by Moda. The color is Pool.

When I make an improvisational or Liberated quilt, it consumes me. I think about it; I have dreams about it. This is when I realize what an artist feels when making a painting, a sculpture, a book movie or play.

I guess I'm a sometimes artist.

Quilty Pleasures: The Chicken River Quilters Modern Traditional Quilt Part 2

The previous post was about this quilt:

And I promised a closer look, so here we go:

The individual block is called Nine Patch Straight Furrow.  You can see there are two light fabrics, a medium and a dark. The light shading is subtle. That's what we were trying to achieve.

The block came from this book:

I purchased my copy at ThreadBear, my local quilt shop.  I'm linking up to their website because they do web orders and because shopping local is my first step when looking for something I'd like, quilty-wise.

Here's is one block, close up, so you can get a sense of the subtle shading and texture created by using two "whites" or lights. We used a white on white dot paired with Moda Grunge Basics Mint. Yes, there is a touch of minty green in this white.

 

ThreadBear is now accepting quilts for long-arm quilting, so that's who quilted it. I love how the pattern is centered and reaches out to the block's sides and corners. (Just so you know, I work there once in a while, but didn't receive any compensation for mentioning them in this post. I am just so happy they are near--well, for me, 29 miles near.)

We knew what colors our friend loves, so left it up to the individual quilters in the group as to which fabrics to use. It shows how well we work together that all the blocks look great together.

And it's amazing how a traditional block can be made new by using fresh fabrics in a contemporary setting.

Quilty Pleasures: Chicken River Modern Quilters Are At It Again

One of our quilters has relocated to Albuquerque, so The Chicken River Modern Quilters decided a friendship quilt was in order.

Today I'm posting how it looks from afar.

And a Behind the Scenes look at Susan on the left and Linda on the right, holding the quilt up on a very windy afternoon. Check out the flying hairdos. Susan is our newest member and drove two hours from Trinidad, CO for the meeting. Our other new member is Jane Ann, who was taking photos.

Don't you love the setting? It's a traditional block, but modern quilting likes to take the traditional and add something new, like this off center design with white negative space.

The photo was taken in the alley behind Thread Bear, our local quilt shop in Las Vegas, NM. That rock wall is historic old, which is older than old is. This area dates to 1835 when the Spanish were in charge.

Next post: A closer look at this quilt and how the blocks are made.

A Quilt, But Not Mine

I thought it was time to share a quilt my friend Ann, proprietor of ThreadBear, our local quilt store, has made. She didn't use this particular design, which I may do on my own version of this quilt, but instead decided on a rows and furrows layout. Most of the fabric is called Story by Carrie Bloomston from Windham fabrics, along with Ann's assorted scraps.

It's from a book called Modern Designs for Classic Quilts, by Kelly Biscopink and Andrea Johnson. Ann's Rows and Furrows layout is the one depicted on the cover, and it looks gorgeous!

I am a fan of traditional designs made modern and this book has some great ideas. One design in the book is a flying geese quilt with lots of negative space. I think that's a perfect idea for this half square triangle panel I've been looking at for over a year.

I can see this panel surrounded by black, with a few more Amish-looking half square triangles here and there in the negative space. Okay. I've talked myself into something.

Bye!

Quilty Pleasures Saturday: Tula Pink, City Planner

Last year our local modern quilt group, The Chicken River Modern Quilt Guild, decided to make a quilt together that we would sell or raffle. The proceeds would pay a quilt teacher to come to Las Vegas, New Mexico, our headquarters.

So we decided to make blocks from Tula Pink's City Sampler: 100 Modern Quilt Blocks, and went to town on the project. Although there were hiccups with some of the blocks, we ended up with enough to make a double/queen-sized quilt . There were several layout options at the back of the book, and we decided on City Planner because its background would serve to unify the very scrappy blocks. The background and binding make the blocks look like they are floating. Very cool.

In a few days I will post another shot, a little closer and with details so you can see the quilting and binding, which are absolutely perfect choices.

It still needs a hanging sleeve and label and we will be good to go.

Many thanks to all the members of the Chicken River Modern Quilt Guild who sewed blocks, chose the background and binding, and assembled the whole shebang.

The Chicken River Modern Quilt Guild's Round Robin Quilts + Tula Pink Blocks

The Gallinas River meanders through Las Vegas, New Mexico, so it was an easy decision to name our quilting group The Chicken River Modern Quilt Guild, since gallinas is Spanish for hens. We meet every month on the first Monday, alternating between day and evening meetings so those with day jobs can join in the fun at least every other month. If you would like to join us, give me a shout out.

Anyway, we had the unveiling of our round robin/circular chicken quilts project the other night and we have some very artistic people in our group who produced some amazing quilts. We took turns adding to each quilt, although we didn't all work on every quilt due to a hitch in our rotation.

This one is mine, the photo thanks to Sophie, who drove up from Santa Fe for the meeting.

If you'd like to see the rest of the quilts, and also the Tula Pink's City Sampler modern blocks we are working on, here's a link to Sophie Junction. Sophie's blog is much more quilty than mine, so I feel like a total slacker when I read hers. But that's okay, because her posts inspire me to Get Going.

And really, that's what we all need to do is Get Going.

Modern Quilting Potholder Swap-Quilty Pleasures

Last week at the Chicken River Modern Quilt Guild meeting, we had a potholder swap and I seriously scored!

Lin is a member of the guild and also the quilting teacher at our local community college and she knows her stuff!

She found the pattern for this block on a Moda website somewhere and I haven't been able to find it.

If I do, I will let you know.

Look at the neato quilting. I like how she followed the lines for the plants in the vase and made some swirls around the flowers.

I had trouble with the binding on my potholder but Lin didn't. It looks like she sewed the binding to the top, turned it to the back and then used a big zigzag to hold the binding in place.

It's too cute to use, so I will hang it in the sewing room for inspiration.

Quilty Pleasures: Bee Potholder

The Chicken River Modern Quilt Guild had a potholder swap the other day and this was my offering.

Sis-in-law Pattie found this cute paper pieced bee pattern for FREE, compliments of Badskirt. Thanks, Badskirt, this little guy came together easily and quickly, which was good, since I waited until the last minute to get my potholder made.

Here is a closeup. I used fused applique to place the bee on the potholder. Whoops! He needs antennae.

And the back:

Both the back and wings fabric are from the Noteworthy line by Moda.  The lime green leaf stripe is from Simply Color by Moda.

I don't have a photo yet of the potholder I received, but it is cute and you will see it soon, really!

Quilty Pleasures Friday: Chicken River Modern Quilt Guild (Las Vegas, NM)

I wanted to share a link to our Chicken River Modern Quilt Guild's (CRMQG) new blog. Linda, our secretary and communications director, is doing a good job keeping us up to date and chronicling not only what we are all about but also what our guild members are creating.

This is my modern Jacquie Gering-stye quilt in the assembly stage. I am actually almost finished with it, but decided to post the pic to get my rear in gear.

The background fabric is Moda Grunge and I love it!


 Here's the link:

  http://chickenrivermodernquiltguild.blogspot.com/


If you live in the Las Vegas, NM area, come join us! We meet at Thread Bear the first Monday of the month around one-ish.

Quilty Pleasures: Modern Hexagon Quilt

At QuiltCon Jacquie Gering taught me how to machine piece hexagons, so our Modern Quilt Guild in Las Vegas, NM, asked me to share with them what I learned.

So I shared, in my kind of muddly way, and now we are working on some pieces using giant hexagons. I have been doing my usual procrastination thing and haven't made much headway but Betty brought her finished quilt to the last meeting and it is impressive, more so in person.

Note that the gray background isn't one piece of fabric, but hexagons, too, which adds depth to the quilt. The gray isn't your standard quilting cotton;  Betty thinks it might be auto upholstery fabric. It is tweedy and textured, a fun contrast to the center solids.

This quilt is going on a special trip to a long arm quilter where Betty will quilt it herself, her first time.

Betty is one of my quilting heroes: a fearless experimenter, always up for a challenge, ready for adventure.

If you live near Las Vegas, NM, come to our next MQG meeting. We meet the first Monday of the month at 1 pm at ThreadBear.

Quilty Pleasures-Quiltcon Part 2: Best in Show in Detail

The previous post had a pic of Victoria Findlay Wolfe's Best in Show Quilt, "Double Edged Love," but here it is again as a reference point.

I like how design and color play around with the Wedding Ring Quilt design. Sometimes the rings disappear and sometimes they are strongly linked. Sometimes there is darkness and other times the colors are bright and happy. Whether the artist was going for these ideas or not, that's what this viewer felt while I was looking at it.

Lisa Sipes was the long arm quilter and I would have been cross-eyed after working on this quilt! Her intricate attention to detail is amazing.

Straight line quilting, teensy pebbles and grids are the predominant designs Lisa used. The hand quilting adds even more interest. My handler would have said, "Step away from the quilt."

Distance between the squares might be around a quarter to a half inch or so. Look at that triple line of stitching. I would have been screaming insanely right around now if I were sewing.

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I've been following Victoria's blog, Bumble Beans, for several years now and admire her commitment to the idea that it's okay to play around while designing quilts.

I have just discovered Lisa Sipes and her blog That Crazy Quilty Girl. Her most recent post discusses the controversy surrounding the idea of modern quilting and how should we conduct ourselves when we see a piece we don't like. In addition, she shows some of the quilts she has made herself or has quilted for others. Her work is amazing and she's just a kid!

Quilty Pleasures: Quiltcon 2013

I just had a fun weekend in Austin, Texas at Quiltcon, sponsored by The Modern Quilt Guild.

The quilts on display were elegant, funny, thought-provoking and full of ingenuity and my class with Jacquie Gering was great because I learned a new technique I can bring home to share with others.

Today, though, I just wanted to share one quilt with you, the Best in Show quilt which I really need to wrap my head around a bit because the artist, Victoria Findlay Wolfe, did something really weird and interesting while making it.

 
In her blog post, she says she made an entire quilt top and then cut it up to make the pieces she needed.

I will show you some closeups of the quilting in this quilt in another post. The quilting is intricate, varied, and really drop dead amazing. The quilter was Lisa Sipes and I need to learn more about her.

Bye for now!

Quilty Pleasures: Almost Finished?

Four projects are close to being finished, so here they are in their unfinished states. Maybe posting them will be a reminder that they are patiently waiting.

This is my modern quilt, started last September at a workshop presented by modern quilter Jacquie Gering.

It's been pieced and pinned for a while now, waiting to be quilted.

Why isn't it done?

The Paralyzed Perfectionist speaks: "I am afraid that I won't quilt it perfectly!"

Jacquie Gering her ownself saved the day by appearing on The Quilt Show, showing me (only me) how to quilt it using the Bernina serpentine stitch.

OK. I can do that.

The next quilt in the wings is this one:

Sorry about the weird light thingies on the top right of these pics. The sun was coming through the window and there was no way I could go out in the wind to take photos.

So this one is a baby quilt I made alongside my very first beginning quilting student in November-December. Hers is done. Mine is not.
Layering, basting, quilting and then it's done.

But I am not worried because I know how to quilt this one.

I bought the batting last night, so it will be quilted soon.

Since a baby is imminent, there's a deadline and I'm sticking to it!


Below are two blocks from a project I started last year. It was a Block of the Month and last night was show and tell. I showed them my blocks and told my quilt buds it would be done soon.

 I have all but one of the blocks appliqued, but still need to add a skinny border and an appliqued scalloped border to each block.

Here is how it will look someday:

And, here is my other project, almost, very close, so close to being finished I can almost taste victory:

 I need to make six more of these setting triangles for Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street mystery quilt.

The rest of the blocks are done (whew) and next is to put it all together.

I can't wait to see this one completed. Lots of little pieces, many hours watching internet tv shows and listening to BBC podcasts will be my memories for this quilt.

There is more stuff started and lurking in boxes and bags, but these are the closest to being finished, so they are the ones to be completed in the next weeks.

Besides, if I dragged out all the Works in Progress I have, I might get discouraged.

And I don't want that!

Jacquie Gering Workshop Quilt

A couple months ago two of my quilty buddies and I drove to Hip Stitch in Albuquerque for a workshop by Jacquie Gering of Tallgrass Prairie Studio fame. I had followed her blog for several years and recently bought her book, Quilting Modern. Her designs were intriguing and new, something I would like to try someday.

That someday came and the workshop was a gigantic learning experience, especially watching quilters try something that took them out of their comfort zones. Let's face it: many of us started making quilts from patterns or from diagrams and to all of a sudden be told, "Just cut a rectangle. No, don't measure it," can be downright scary.

I had been lucky to have done some free piecing-Liberated-Collaborative quilting at several Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran workshops and the Beaver Island Quilt Retreat, so for me it was fun fun and a chance to dive into modern quilting once again.

I started this quilt at Jacquie's workshop and have been working on it little by little. I think I am close to final assembly

The other day at Thread Bear in Las Vegas, New Mexico, we pinned the background fabric, Moda Grunge, to the design wall and I started arranging the blocks. They are a type of log cabin, but not your grandma's log cabin, that's for sure.

This is what I have so far. I think it looks pretty balanced, but if any of you spacial relationships people want to weigh in by leaving a comment, I would appreciate any feedback you might have.