{riley blake} challenge

a {riley blake} modern quilt guild challenge. we were give a few fat eighths of cottage garden and able to include any riley blake solids. my inspiration came from an older fabric of jay mccarroll's center city. i loved the challenge of a simple rectangle set in different ways within each other and overlapping.

and my quilt

i am really pleased with how this turned out. {please excuse the terrible picture. my good camera is broken. boo} the process was so freeing. i used a method from daintytime's book, which encouraged quilters to lose the ruler and use the rotary cutter freehandedly.  it was so fun! 

{challenge} quilt

i really should know better than to rely on my memory to keep an accurate account of {well, anything, really} how inspiration moves. i know it started by looking at the spindl-y fabric, to circles-radius'-stars, to dissecting above items, to this randomly finished project.

the thing i love about this project is that i really had no idea where i was going with it. it morphed at each stage. it's not my favorite quilt at all, but i am glad to have finished it and to have tried something new and pretty outside my normal asthetic. the curves are free-handedly cut and sewn back together. 

i wanted to play with the negative space, but didn't feel like curvy-line-quilting would have done it justice. i went with 1/4" straight line quilting instead. i like it, but feel like maybe a different kind of quilting could have stepped it up a notch. not to mention learning that unless it's a small quilt, there may never be 1/4" quilting in my future again {takes for.e.ver.}.

i'm glad to be joining my fellow guild members in the michael miller fabric challenge open wide to the modern quilting guild.

quilt stats

size: 40"x42"

fabrics: michael miller fabric from STLMQG, solids

pieced & quilted by me

{challenge}

this is my stlmqg challenge quilt. we were given Riley Blake fabric to use. our guild's guidelines were that it had to be a finished quilt bigger than 24" on all sides. i've wanted to try out the feathers quilt block/pattern. i was also inspired by this target mug {my daily favorite mug}. i'm pleased with how it came out and am excited about the possibilities this block has in all sorts of different projects.

i opted for some straight line quilting in clumps. i like the opposing texture it gives the quilt.

 you can really see the texture the quilting gives on the back.

quilt stats

size: 40"x45"

fabric: Riley Blake Challenge fabric, scrap solids

pieced & quilted by me

to boston with {love}

i have finished a couple of small projects recently. here are a few drawstring bags using Jeni's tutorial. the boys have been asking for some bags for their cars and little men.

the {stlmqg} is doing our part to partake in {to boston with love} festivities. you can find out more info here.

{trip around the world}

this quilt has been sitting around my sewing room for a few months. i had wanted to donate this quilt and thought linking up with 100 quilts for kids was the best motivation to get this one out. i used this tutorial to try out the pattern. though a little time consuming, it was worth the effort. i used white, every other strip, to break up the colors.

the fabric is a bunch of leftover reproduction 30's fabric i had from a previous quilt i had made. this quilt also gave me practice on my machine binding.

i'm linking up to 100 quilts for kids.

quilt details:

size: 36"x48"

pattern: trip around the world

fabric: 30's reproduction

{colorblock}

before the baby arrived, nesting was in full swing. the weather had been over 100 degrees for weeks in a row, providing ample time to clean, launder and prepare for the baby. with a few weeks to spare, i found myself cloistered inside with no more baby preparations to do. 

i have been working on a quilt for my oldest son for his twin bed. it's ready to be quilted. i'm pretty sure i want to do a free motion quilting design, but realized i needed practice. with a bundle of free fabric i had won at a guild meeting and a bunch of fabric i was going to donate {as i have a hard time feeling inspired with purple and this orange fabric}, i made the {colorblock} quilt for charity, in hopes to practice my free motion quilting. 

this quilt top came together in literally 2 hours, between cutting and sewing. i set to work practicing my FMQ. one and a half hours later and 6 broken needles, i gave up and did my standard straight line quilting {it's a good thing i really love the look}.

i wasn't successful {yet} on FMQ, but i'm glad to have whipped this quilt up. between this quilt and a few others i finished up in the same 2 weeks, i also became quite confident in my machine binding skills. i'm looking forward to using that one quite often.
i'm linking up with 100 quilts for kids, where our guild is also planning on donating as many quilts as we can to project linus.

quilt details:

size: 40"x54"

pattern: colorblock by bijou lovely

fabrics used: children at play, kaffe fassett, pezzy print, AMH 'maybe' innocent crush

{pouches}

is there anything better than a little bag or pouch you can zip and keep random treasures in? i happen to be a life-long collector of such items. even better are those you can create yourself or are made by someone for you. yes! this is great.

we had a little pouch swap with the STLMQG. what a clever idea!

i made this pouch for my swap partner, kind of shooting in the dark on likes & dislikes, but i think it turned out cute. i used this super easy to follow and awesome tutorial from noodlehead, who has a TON of great tutorials and patterns.

{excuse the crappy iphone pic}

this is the pouch i received from Carol and i LOVE it! linen, amy butler, blue/green! she nailed me :)

 fabric: out-half moon modern zigzags , in-half moon modern small dots

i have had more pouches on my list and in my to-do piles for months. i finally decided to whip these up while i was working with small bags. oh.my.goodness. so cute. the pattern is keyka lou's pocket clutch pattern, totally worth the couple bucks. easy to follow directions, durable construction. i'm glad i finally got around to making these.

stlmqg happenings

the STLMQG has been busy.
we did the itty-bitty magnet swap in January. this is my little chevron magnet. it was hard to let it go.

we joined with the All People Quilt goal of making One million pillowcases donated to charity. our guild's goal was 150. we made 227. pretty awesome. i made 6 using this tutorial.