Minimal Day :: Quarter Opals

One of the perks of being a part of the Seattle MQG is the annual block-of-the-month. In 2015, we did medallion quilts [here's my Confectionery], last year was improv [mine is currently in the quilting phase], and this year.....it's all about needle-turn applique!

Jonna/@bespokeoutlaw is behind it all, and our project is inspired by two pieces of jewelry designed by her great uncle, Russell Day. Intriguing already, right?

photo by Jonna Erickson-Outlaw

In January, we gathered supplies, and now in February, we have the the instructions for our first blocks: Quarter Opals. With the option of making a wall-hanging or a lap-sized "Minimal Day Sampler," I'm choosing the smaller project. After rummaging in my stash, I chose a piece of Carolyn Friedlander's euclid as my background fabric, and a bundle of Anna Maria Horner voile scraps for the applique. [The prints are from her Little Folks line; the brown, I'm not sure.]

Having done plenty of applique back in my early quilting days, at least these gentle curves were quickly accomplished. Now I'm anxious for next month, though Jonna has already uttered that dreaded word.... templates!

If you want to follow along, a supply list and each month's blocks instructions can be found on the Seattle MQG website. We're tagging our Instagram posts with #seamqgbom2017 and #minimaldaysampler.

Spotlighting Highlight

There were several reasons I was anxious to finish up my #seamqgbom quilt early this month. One, obviously, was I'd been working on it for a year. Enough already. Then there was a show and tell planned for our January SMQG meeting, so that was good incentive. But more than anything, I knew something new was coming, and I wanted to be ready.

My bee-mate Matt is our new block of the month leader, and he has something pretty cool planned. We'll be using the hashtag #seaSLABbom, as we make slabs of improv blocks, exploring a different shape or technique each month. And Matt, amazing as he is, had a sample quilt top already! Irresistible, right?

photo courtesy of Matt Macomber

So our assignment for January is pretty simple: curate our fabrics. Using Highlight, the Kona Color of the Year was on my to-do list anyway, so I figured perfect timing. I'm thinking a mix of neutrals for the background, Highlight as my main color, along with the Pickle and Wasabi, and then Fog for some random pops of color.

To say I'm anxious to get started is an understatement!

Confectionery

After all that talk about taking your finished quilt out into the world for a snazzy photoshoot, I really struggled to make this one happen. Basically, due to the size of the quilt (80"x80"), it was too wide for either hubby or I to hold out straight, so we had a grand plan to use the new photographer's background stand that I'd gotten for Christmas. That was a good news/bad news plan that I'll tell you more about later, but let's just say things didn't go as we'd anticipated. Anyway, on with the story....

This quilt which I've dubbed "Confectionery" has been in the making for over 12 months! That's way longer than I usually spend on one quilt, but when it's a block-of-the-month, that's what you do! This BOM with SMQG was unique in a variety of ways":

• Rather than make a standard block quilt, we started last January by each making a 12.5" unfinished block of our own choosing. 
• Each of the following eight months, a quilt member would design and post a new border. 
• Then for the last three months of the year, as I've mentioned before, I posted finishing technique round ups for the group. 

Overall I really enjoyed making this quilt, though before long I started to seriously doubt my fabric choices. Not that I didn't like them all. I did, alot. But this riot of color on such a large scale overwhelmed me! I persevered, though, and I'm glad I did. I had pulled as much as I could from my stash of prints by Alison Glass, using a variety of low-volume prints as the backgrounds of each border. 

For the backing, I echoed two elements from the front - the churn dash center (etc. etc.), and the 'brick' border. I pretty much figured it out as I went, and have been asked to go into more detail about that, so I hope to also do that in a separate post soon.

Honestly, I wasn't in the mood at that point to do a complicated quilting pattern. My original thought was a diagonal grid, but after marking and sewing just a few lines, I realized I didn't want to go that route, specifically the marking part. Rather, I unpicked and restarted in the center, doing a square spiral using seam-lines as guides and sewing 1" to 1 1/2" apart, depending on each border. I can't say it's overly impressive, but it did the job, works with the quilt design, and I survived to tell about it.

For binding, I used the text print from Alison Glass' Sun Print and Carrie Bloomston's Collage newsprint stripe. My intent was to echo the pair of dark purple corner borders within the quilt, but neither my fabric choice nor the width of the binding contributed to pulling that off. Oh well, I know the little detail is there. 

So mission accomplished. Whew. And I did get to spend a nice afternoon at the beach.

This finish is on my Q1 FAL list! Oh joy.
Linking up with Fabric Tuesday.

Midway Medallions

You've seen my medallion quilt as I've worked on it through the year, and I thought you might enjoy seeing some other medallion works-in-progress. All the makers are members of the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild, and you can see this year's monthly border assignments on our blog. I know there are a few more where I either couldn't identify the maker, or connect for permission to share, so you might want to check out the Instagram hashtag #seamqgbom. But here's most of them, with links to their Instagram accounts if you'd like to see more.

Allison/allisonehs

Jonna/bespokeoutlaw

Bell/golfhead

Louise/imfeelincrafty

Jaci/j_bartol

 Kam/kammart

Rachel/liketosew

Matt/odditease

Matt/odditease (yes, Matt is making 2!)

Rachel/snippetsofsweetness

Jackie/tinwoman48

Debbie/aquilterstable

We've all got at least a couple of borders to go, and I'll be sharing round-up posts for the guild to get us through all the finishing. Here's the first on squaring a quilt, ideas for quilt backs, and basting. I'm excited to see all of these quilts progress!

Making Headway

Ok, you might want to put your sunglasses on...

It's been a while since I've shared progress on my SMQG block of the month medallion quilt. For my 12 1/2" center block, I chose HoosierToni's Skinny Churn Dash. From there I added borders designed by the BOM team. They're all on our guild's website, if you're interested.

Anyway, I'm caught up through July. August's border was just posted, so plenty of hsts are in my future. Then there's just one more border before we start finishing our quilts. Sooo here's my medallion so far!

I'm trying to tame some of the brightness with the low-volume prints, but it's still pretty wild. Stay tuned!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday.

Medallions

By some sort of oversight, I've failed to blog about this year's SMQG block of the month project - medallion quilts. In January, we all chose our own 12.5" center block. My choice was HoosierToni's Skinny Churn Dash.

One of the fun qualities of this BOM is that each month a different guild member will design the next border. For February, Yeechi/Glass Snail Crawling... shared her checkerboard-type border along with several variations. (Click through for a peek.)

Now for March, Louise/I'm Feelin' Crafty has given us a wonky triangle border. The corners involve inset seams that are a tad tricky, but not too painful.

I'm questioning my palette a bit - not my norm at all. But I'm trying to use favorite stash prints along with some text and other low-volume fabrics, so I'll just keep forging on for now. I'm finding this one border per month routine kinda fun.

July Bee Blocks and Such

Time for a block round up for July! Believe it or not, we had to twist PatchworknPlay's arm to let us make blocks for her in the Mid-Century Modern Bee this month! She gave in, asked for star blocks, and I chose an adaptation on Megan's Star by Maverick Quilts in Modern Blocks.

It was Christmas in July in That Stash Bee, where mihertz had us make either a 4-patch or a 9-patch AND a 16-patch or a 36-patch in Christmasy fabrics. I was reminded how much I like those chartreuse Metro Living Rings with Christmas fabrics as I put that block on the right together. I used up my last little bit, so I ordered more to put with my Christmas stash.

As I may have already mentioned, FAITH Circle is making Postcard blocks for me this month, with solid or tone-on-tone "fronts". Here's several that have shown up in the group so far.

And though not technically bee blocks, I did make 2 blocks for the giving committee of our Seattle Modern Quilt Guild. These are 2 of the suggested blocks of the month. First I made a hashtag block, using some crazy-piecing left over from last fall's Crazy Rainbow.

Next was a wonky star, using the tutorial by The Silly BooDilly, using our signature guild colors of aqua/light blue, citron green, greys and white/ivory/neutrals. Blocks are being collected for charity quilts in  4.5″, 6.5″ or 12.5″ (unfinished) - these 2 are both 12.5".

So that's it for miscellaneous blocks for this month! Enjoyable, but it's always a relief when they're done!

Plural

After making our guild's January BOM into a nice 20" pillow, I confess I kept it right by me in the studio so I could glance at it every time I was in there.

I guess the fact is: I like it alot. I warned you I might make another, and I did. I used some of the same gray/brown and low-volume prints, with green as the accent color this time and just a few bits of aqua. Again, a simple wavy stitch of quilting down each row using Aurifil #2021 (Natural White), a flap-closure back of Kaufman's Essex in Natural and binding with BasicGrey's Grunge White. 

One of these days, I'll put them away to bring out again at Christmas. They are, after all, Christmas Snowflake blocks, using the delightful tutorial by Rachel/Wooden Spoon. Soon they'll go safely in the Christmas box. But not today. 

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday and Finish it up Friday.

SMQG January BOM

In January at our last guild meeting, Katie and Sandie proposed a block-of-the-month (BOM) for the guild. First up, making the Christmas Snowflake block by Rachel/Wooden Spoon. Katie offered a slightly different construction technique for the hsts.

Though it's a bit of cutting to get going, I found it very fun, and a great use for some low-volume charms I had - they gave me a good variety of fabrics!

For quilting, I did a simple wavy stitch down each row, using Aurifil #2021 (Natural White), which seemed a good compromise color-wise with the low-volume prints. I did a flap-closure for the back, using Kaufman's Essex in Natural; binding is Moda Grunge by BasicGrey. This block makes one very nice 20" pillow.

As an alternate (read: less time-consuming) option, a simpler pattern for a 12" block was also provided.

photo by Katie Pedersen

A similar look, yes, but I really like the patchwork in the bigger piece. Plus I haven't made pillows for our home for ages, and this one will coordinate great with our Christmas quilt and tree-skirt. You know, in December. I may need to make another.