Two birds, One stone


For Design Camp [think outside the block] 2, Michelle, the wonderful organizer and a fellow PMQG member, started our group off with a dry run this month. For a few of us this is our first improv quilting bee, and I think it just worked out that January was still open after the schedule was put together, so Michelle gave us some scraps of fabric (left over from our guild's Jay McCarroll challenge quilts last fall/winter, seen here and here) and a suggestion for a first exercise.

At the same time I have been trying to come up with 2 more blocks to make to work into my quilt from the 1-month Nubees block swap I participated in several months ago. I realized that by taking out the warmer colors of scraps, and using a grey as the "sashing" this block would fit in perfectly with the others I received back in September or October.

Now, to play around with that last block - getting much inspiration from a couple of books I just received for the holidays... more on that another time.

I'm either crazy or stupid

About 2 weeks ago a good friend of mine contacted me to ask if I would be interested in donating a set of place mats to the Rose Festival Auction happening in October. The Rose Festival is one of Portland's major annual events, with a year of fundraising and organization, and about 2 months of various attractions, events and festivities culminating in a fair, festival, parades and a crowning princess.

I have a few sets of place mats already made, and I just figured that I would use one of those, but by the time I got the donation form a few days ago, I still hadn't decided on a set to use. That says to me I wasn't prepared to fall back on ANY of the ones I already have in stock. Dagnabit! Oh, and I have to have them done in less than a week!

Soooo, I sat up for over an hour in the middle of the night on Thursday with fabric combinations and selections swimming in my head, trying to figure out HOW I would get all of this done. I already had in my possession a good amount of a Valori Wells print from her new line, Wrenly

And my solution: pick up some of the green color way in the same print, find coordinates for both, and go to it! So, after over-sleeping (due to my 3-4:30am interlude) I grabbed some coffee on the go and headed down to visit Marie at good ol' Cool Cottons. And boy-howdy, she worked her magic, put my fears at ease and helped me get psyched for this unapproachable prospect.

I started by pulling together close to 8 prints for each side (color combo):


These selections eventually got edited down to 6 fabrics per side:

One of the things that Marie and I had discussed was bringing in a grey fabric with the greens, but it had to be just the right grey... and I got back to my studio, auditioned just about every grey-green, green-grey, green-aqua, grey-white (you get the picture) I found on the shelf, but then there was the hidden gem of what remains of my Jay McCarroll Woodland Wonderland squares. And it must have been meant to be, because once I cut what I needed for the project, I was left with this:

Friday afternoon was dedicated to the laundering of the new fabric, planning and cutting. I got far enough to lay out 1 set of six reversible mats, which will be sewn to the batting tomorrow.

Yes, it WILL get done. And binding on Monday is the plan.

Jay McCarroll Habitat Challenge

At the beginning of this summer, The Modern Quilt Guild presented a challenge in conjunction with Freespirit Fabric using Jay McCarroll's newest collection, Habitat. The challenge is relatively open-ended, allowing each guild chapter to define its own goals, but keeping to a few set guidelines. Each member who wishes to participate is given 6 fat eighths (approximately 9" x 22") of different prints from the Habitat collection. The individual does not need to use ALL of the fabric, but if he/she wants to supplement, it must be using only solids or other prints from the same collection. The Portland Modern Quilt Guild asked its participating members to each sew one (or more, if they like) 12" finished block, any design. At our September meeting the blocks will be collected, and ultimately be pieced into donation quilts. While working on another project entirely, I came up with a kind of improv-flying geese idea, and sketched something out.
And since I had such a limited amount of fabrics with which to work, I decided to do a test block (or two, as it turned out) using some of my own fabrics, but trying to keep with a similar feel and amount of activity - so of course I look to the Westminster guys! And this was the first one I came up with...
Though I am not unhappy with this, I wasn't sure if it shows enough contrast, so I tried one more using the same designers' fabrics, but selecting a couple more solids and contrasts to see what would happen. I was pretty happy with the outcome.
(who knows, this might become a quilt all its own!) This gave me courage to dive in and start cutting the Jay McCarroll fabrics and just see what would happen...
I still have plenty more of the complimentary fabrics, I just don't know about time, but I definitely think I'd like to make a couple more of these, and if I really get my act together, I'll take more process photos and put a tutorial up. I had taken photos while making my first of these blocks, but in subsequent tries, found better and more uniform ways of doing it, so I think I need to fine tune a bit. But I have to say, I do like me a challenge!