Showing posts with label quilts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quilts. Show all posts
On Saturday I spent a few hours with the girls in our South FL Modern Quilt Guild sewing and working on projects. 

I added binding to a quilt that is still not done (pics later).

Then worked on my Negative Space Challenge blocks.  This is a challenge that our guild put together to help the members try a new technique, negative space. I made a bunch of "fabric" last year using the 15 minutes of play method. And then I turned the fabric into half square triangles. I have over 100 HSTs now. If only I could pick a design. Here are a few layouts that I was playing around with.

  Secondary pattern with white rectangles  in the mix.

Simple chevron.

Stripes.

There are endless possibilities with HSTs. I'll have to pick one soon and start piecing. Our contest is in July and it will be here before I know it!

I've never been to a quilting workshop before, so this really set the bar high!

Tonya Ricucci of UnRuly Quilting led us through an improv round robin workshop today at the ultra cool General Provision. There were 14 of us (almost all members of the South Florida Modern Quilt Guild). We started by creating a block out of our own fabric, including a piece of our "signature fabric". I chose a deep green with gold crosses, which you will see hiding in the following pictures. We were given 20 minutes to cut, piece, and iron. Then, we swapped! This pattern continued 8 more times. Here are some of the blocks I made.

This block below was for Kate Yates (of Thread Everywhere) who started her block with strata. So I tried to continue with that theme. I think it turned out cool!

This was the only block that had black fabric in it and I really like that.

A block with mostly greens.

This is definitely a sherbet block. You can't really tell from the picture but this quilter's fabrics were all very saturated and bright colors. Very fresh and fun to work with.

My block made with Allison's fabric pieces. She gave me a piece of that groovy brown and cream fabric from Birch Fabrics Ipanema line! I immediately coveted it when I saw it in her basket. Thanks Allison! (Side note: her fabric pull was cohesive with Browns, oranges, cream, white, and blues. My signature fabric in green was the only fabric that stood out when her blocks were all together. That's the interesting part of a round robin- you're going to end up with other peoples' fabrics in your quilt. And you just have to go with it!)

My favorite block of the day! I wanted to keep it and not give it back to its owner. Oh well...

When the rotating was complete, this is what I received.

I'm going to have a fun time putting all the blocks together. I think I'll make a few more blocks and use scrap pieces to even out some of the sides. Overall, what an awesome experience! I would definitely do that again. 
So like a normal college student I picked up quilting during my first Fall Semester as a freshman at University of Florida. Hah! Not.

I didn't like the typical bar/party scene and neither did my hubby (boyfriend at the time). So we did a lot of outdoorsy stuff like walking the trails at Payne's Prairie, fishing, bike riding and checking out the small country towns around and outside of Gainesville. One day we drove out to Hawthorne to visit Joel's mom's friend Carol. What an unexpectedly great trip!

Carol is a quilter. A serious quilter. For like 30 years or something. And I've always sewn but I was never introduced to the quilting world before I stepped into her beautiful country house on Clear Water Lake. She had an entire room devoted to quilting! Quilts hanging on all of the walls and an enviable fabric stash.

We walked around her house as she talked about the different quilt designs, wall hangings and those she made for family members.  I saw the French Rose quilt hanging in her bedroom and knew that I wanted to try to make that as my first quilt.



Carol was so patient. She guided me through selecting shabby chic fabrics, showed me how to use a ruler and rotary cutter, and taught me the importance of matching seams. For the next few months, Joel and I would make trips out to Carol's house so that she could help me work on my quilt while Joel fished in their lake. I didn't realize it then, but now I look back and think how blessed I was to have someone show me the way into the quilting world. Quilting has been my outlet for creativity and my escape from stress in my life. When I spend time in my sewing room I can relax and be myself. I get to explore colors and textures while cutting and piecing together fabrics to make something new. It's always exciting and usually challenging.

As much as I loved starting the French Rose quilt, I hated finishing it. I. hate. binding.
There. I said it. So, it took me 8 years to finish hand-sewing the binding around the quilt. I just finished it last Saturday at our Modern Quilt Guild Meeting. Feels good to be done!

A big thank you to Carol! You are amazing! (she's also a poet! Check out her book on Amazon)