Seattle MQG QuiltCon 2023 Community Outreach Quilt

Back in 2019, Louise @imfeelincrafty and I ended three years of co-chairing the Seattle MQG Giving Committee. During that time, we coordinated two QuiltCon charity quilts - Fanny's Flashy Fans in 2018, and The Last Hurrah in 2019. So after a bit of a break, when our Seattle MQG Giving Committee chairs Ann @amarchand7221 and Marion @marion7486 were putting out a call for folks to head up the community outreach quilt for QuiltCon 2023, Louise said, "Let's do it!"

The theme was "Color Shift". Thankfully, Louise loves designing quilts and came up with a design that would work great for including a lot of guild members. Once that design was set, we consulted Kristina @fabricbubb to help us chose fabrics that fit with the warm MQG palette that we chose to use. 

Together, we settled on Kona Solids Regal, Velvet, Heliotrope, Morning Glory, Magenta, Geranium, Cerise, and Valentine for the blocks; Dragon Fruit and Candy Pink for background; Velvet for the backing; and Candy Pink for binding. (Just a portion shown below.)

Louise and I cut yards and yards of fabrics for the blocks, and distributed them to our members at our monthly meeting last July! Members who could took one or more, and got the blocks back super quick.

A LOT of guild members helped piece all the blocks, which was great. Then Kami @kamicombes, Terry @terrypeart, and Jackie @tinwoman48 each pieced a section, sending them back to Louise for final quilt top assembly. We had a pretty strick schedule planned, and folks stuck with it every step of the way!

Meanwhile, Louise was making the backing! She really has a knack for pieced backings, and we all loved what she came up with.

Then off the top and back went to Dionne @dinglebobbins, who did the quilting! Ann @amarchand7221 finished by doing the binding (and I think the hanging sleeve and label), and it was done!

The result is "Double Radiance." Thankfully, fellow Seattle MQG @seattlemqg member Chandra @bestcoasty was able to get photos of the guild's Community Outreach quilt hanging at QuiltCon 2023!

Special thanks to our Seattle MQG Giving Committee chairs Ann @amarchand7221 and Marion @marion7486 for their coordination throughout. They did great keeping everyone on the necessary schedule - yay! Double Radiance was a wonderfully collaborative project, and I was pleased to be a part of it.

QuiltCon 2019 :: The Charity Quilts

When arriving at QuiltCon, the first thing I wanted to see was Seattle MQG's charity quilt, The Last Hurrah. And excuse me, but it looked mighty good!

Unfortunately, my giving committee co-chair, Louise/@imfeelincrafty wasn't able to travel to QuiltCon this year, so we did the best we could to include her in a photo with the quilt.

We totally wish there was a book made with all the quilts from the charity quilt challenge, they're that good! I'm not even sure I saw them all, but here are some I especially liked.

  

See what I mean? Beautiful, and such a variety of interpretations on the theme.

Seattle MQG QuiltCon Charity Quilt: The Last Hurrah!

After the years of serving as Seattle MQG Giving Quilt Co-chair with Louise/@imfeelincrafty, it was pretty awesome to bring our tenure to a close with a quilt we are extremely proud of. Our QuiltCon Charity quilt, with the theme of 'small piecing', was first inspired by a vintage string-pieced star quilt from the collection of our guild president, Matt Macomber/

@odditease.

Once we had the string-pieced diamond shape settled, we needed a quilt design, and leave it to Louse to come up with an awesome one! Below is just a corner of the overall design!

We chose to use all seven colors in the challenge palette, cut 18 yards(!) of fabric into 1" x 6" strips, and while our guild-mates were busy piecing strip-pieced blocks, we ordered 5" x 8" custom diamond-shaped templates from MakeATX, owned by a woman we had a class with at last year's QuiltCon!

[ETA: fabrics consisted of Kona Snow, White, Bahama Blue, Honey Dew, Pansy, Amethyst, and Noble Purple.]

And then it was back to us, cutting all the diamonds - 309 of them - that were needed for our quilt. In addition to the 185 striped diamonds, we also needed 124 plain diamonds to complete the design.

Then the real fun began! Piecing sets of 12 diamonds into 18" hexagons took some time, while carefully following Louise's complex design block by block. We each pieced half of the top together, then Louise (bless her) connected the two halves.

Of course there was still much to be done! Louise chose a backing and pieced a guild label into it (label made by Dionne/@dinglebobbins!); Matt/@odditease did a mix of machine and hand-quilting. And then Kathleen/@quiltmunnster bound the quilt.

The quilt finished at 70" x 90", and yes, it'll be hanging at QuiltCon this year. This was the final quilt Louise and I planned for Seattle MQG.... our last hurrah. What a way to go!

Seattle MQG QuiltCon Charity Quilt: Progress

Since I showed you the beginning of our QuiltCon Charity quilt, I thought you might enjoy seeing where I ended up. Don't get me wrong, the quilt is far from done. But I've pieced the parts I was assigned and I'll be taking it all to my co-chair Louise/@imfeelincrafty at our meeting next week.

Our design has five columns, so I pieced two and a half of them, making hexagon 'blocks' out of the striped slabs our guild-mates made. Louise is piecing the others and will finish up the quilt top before handing it off for quilting.

So it'll be a while before I have more to share, but I have a very strong feeling it will be worth the wait!

Seattle MQG QuiltCon Charity Quilt: The Beginning

Things are a little myopic in the studio these days but for very good reason! Louise/@imfeelincrafty and I, as co-chairs of the Seattle MQG Giving Committee, are working at piecing the guild's QuiltCon Charity quilt.

Thankfully, many many guild members have already done alot of sewing for it. After Louise and I cut 18 yards(!) of fabric in all the colors of the given palette into 1" x 6" strips, we doled it out at one month's meeting, and at the next received back over 150 striped blocks

Louise and I split up the blocks, each setting to work cutting them into diamonds with 5" x 8" custom templates ordered from MakeATX.

Then.... it was on to piecing! Credit for our quilt design totally belongs to Louise. She's clever like that! 

So we're each working on piecing half of the large hexagon blocks. They measure 18" across from flat edge to flat edge. They make a statement don't they?

I've got six hexagons done so far, and about that many left to do. They're a little time consuming, sure, but I find them very captivating, y-seams and all!

So stay tuned. We're really excited how this one's coming together!