Mosaic Runner Blocks

 

At the Bay Area Modern Quilting Sew Day yesterday, I worked on making more mosaic blocks so I can put together this project and make a table runner. I was chatting and visiting and concentrating on my blocks so that I only took this picture at the end of the day as I was packing up. 

I haven't worked on this project since our last Sew Day, so I had to take a look at my notes to see what I was supposed to make. I found that I had to re-press the blocks that I made with some Best Press at home.

That's better. Well, flatter.

Here are the blocks I made (I think), I've kind of lost track, but I'm pretty sure these were it. I pushed myself to make those two that are quite a bit lighter.

Overall, I think it's going together pretty well. This is following the square quilt layout we got in our class notes. So I need to work on a layout for a rectangluar table runner size and shape.

At the end of the day, I sewed together a bunch of the smaller scraps and they'll probably end up in the remaining blocks I have yet to sew together.

Possibly Ocean Effect

 

The pin basting for the quilt in process that I'm working on had to happen before I did much more walking foot quilting. 

My trusty Parmesan cheese container of safety pins came out. This is such a tightly woven cotton, they had a little trouble getting through the fabric. Or maybe the safety pins need sharpening? Is that even a thing?

As promised I veered off from horizontal, using the corner of the green rectangle as my starting point.

I have postponed the decisions on the sheer fabric until tomorrow.

And then I went vertical for the section in the right hand upper side. So far so good.

I think the possible (maybe probable) name of this quilt is now: Ocean Effect.

Starting A New One

 

I started out on making a new quilt for the BAMQ display at the San Mateo County Fair by piecing together the backing out of some FQs that I know I'll never use and a few scraps. I also pieced the batting too. Approaching the quilt making endeavor by fooling around with the basically non-creative part of the process is sometimes how I actually manage to get myself going. The title of our display is From Modern Art to Modern Quilt. We are using the inspiration of modern art to inspire us to make a modern quilt. I don't think the quilt I'm making is strictly a "modern quilt", but hopefully that's okay.

I've decided to try and do a quilt that is inspired by the works of California painter, Richard Diebenkorn, specifically his Ocean Park series. I first did a sketch to work from, 

And now I've started choosing and cutting some of the fabrics that I'll be using.Mostly using my own hand-dyed cottons, along with several layers of sheers. Still casting about for a title.

More Mosaic

During Sew Day, I made some more blocks for my 1-2-3 Mosaic class project. I think it's heading towards being a table runner size project.

We got to have a little on-site field trip break to see inside the sanctuary at the church that we hold our Sew Days. The beautiful display of rainbow origami butterflies was being hung up.

And our guild member, Mary C. made this gorgeous banner that hangs in the entryway. 

Kawandi Finish

 

Since I got back from LA, I've been continuing to stitch the kawandii quilt. My goal was to finish in time for the BAMGQ UFO Challenge which is due on our Sew Day (which is today).

As I got closer and closer to the center I had to finalize it, added two last pieces into the mix, right before the stitching reached that area of the quilt.

I found the stitching got harder and harder to do as I got into the center. 

The pieces got smaller so there were a lot more edges to contend with and that meant more layers of silk to stitch through.

It has been a fun and challenging project and I’ve really enjoyed learning a new way to make a quilt. I started working on this project in a SBMQG class with Sujata Shah back in 2021

Here it is, all finished! 

I ended my last stitching line with an X just because, "x marks the spot" has always made sense to me.

The corners got a little ravel-y, but they're still looking nice. As Sujata said in class, "the Kawandi looks "naked" without a fula in each of the four corners."

And that's #2 on my BAMQ UFO Challenge list completed just in time to show at Sew Day.

Creative Play 2 Done

Back to work on the Creative Play piece I was working on. I left the next step all set up for myself on my worktable. This is the second one that I've gotten to work on, I think there's only two going, but maybe not.

So I got this finished up in time to pass it on to someone else at Sew Day on Saturday. Can't wait to see how it all turns out in the end.

More Creative Play

 

I received one of the two Creative Play pieces circulating through BAMQ  at the 1-2-3 Mosaic class. Now that I'm back from our trip, I'm working on my addition(s) to the piece as it stands.

I was thinking that the piece needs something lighter as it's quite intense and dark now. So I took one of the half-rectangles that haven't been incorporated yet as a starting point to add a lighter section at the top. But I haven't committed quite yet, more creative playing yet to go.

Improv Mosaic Class

 

On Saturday, Lorraine Woodruff-Long taught BAMQ a great class called Improv Mosaic 1,2,3. This was the example of what we were working towards making in the end. Amazingly, some of us actually got there!

She brought so many great examples of her work, both those finished and others that were in process.

I loved seeing all the details of the piecing and the great straight-line quilting.

This one was on a table on top of stuff so it looks rather lumpy (but it's really not!)

Her "here's-how-I-do-it-demonstration" was really excellent and clear. A great example of how showing the steps several times gets the whole process across to your students. I learned some great ideas for chain piecing which were very helpful.

As we all worked on our blocks, Lorraine put hers up that she was making up on the design wall so we could see the process of how to assemble them. Friend Jaye was putting hers up there on the right hand side.

Here's how my block looks on the wrong side.

Lorraine took reaction shots of many of us with our blocks up on the design wall. Here's Tim getting his moment of fame. She then edited them all together in a super fun reel on Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lorraine Woodruff-Long (@quiltinginthefog)

Hope it displays well for you above. It really highlights the fun we have as a group. And the diversity of how we all approached the work for this class. Always so interesting to see what we each come up with.

Here's how most of mine look all together up on the design wall. I made just a couple more of the small ones. It was a real challenge to use all these prints. The only solids I used were off of the free table, the dark teal on the big block on the bottom, the orange and blue checkerboard and orange center, as well as that one tiny square of neon yellow. I also grabbed two prints to add in with the ones I brought from home were the neon yellow grid in that block as well. And also the little blue fish in the center of the block above that one. I mostly stuck with using the FQs from the Advent Calendar.

This was a terrific class, I really enjoyed learning Lorraine's techniques for making this kind of quilt. She has a great teaching style, laid-back but very informative and clear. I liked that she was sewing her own blocks as we all were, and then showing us things as she went along. I'm really glad that our guild had her come in as a teacher!

Poppy Nametags

 

I'm making the name tags for our upcoming BAMQ retreat in April, so I dug out two prior name tags to get some ideas on construction. This one is 5"wide,  3.75" high. I liked the yellow ruler printed cotton ribbon, it's very soft and looks cute too. It's a fairly simply sewn frame around the printed name section and it feels like it has some lightweight batting inside. Looks like it was likely sewn around 3 and a half sides, leaving an opening to turn it right-side out, with the neck ribbon sewn into the seam.

This name tag was from another of the BAMQ retreats, you can see our logo was used around the name section. It looks like it was fused to a very stiff interfacing along with a piece of fabric on the back.This is the no-sew version. It held up well and looked nice, it was very lightweight.

I think I like the position of two spots for the ribbon to be attached as opposed to the one point with a clippy lanyard. I remember it catches on my shirt and getting tangled with my necklace. So I will plan on doing the two spot attachment.

I think I will do a similar frame sort of look like the first example, and use the poppy fabric on the back of the name tag. Definitely going to keep it simple as I'm making a maximum of 14 of these name tags.

Still unsure on which of the two ribbons to use, I think I'll poll the other folks working on the retreat to see if anyone cares one way or the other.

Edited to add: This is now a moot post as the retreat has unfortunately been canceled. 😞

Sawtooth Star Started

 

For this month's BAMQ BOM which is a Sawtooth Star, I was inspired to try to make a combination Snail's Trail/Sawtooh Star block. I saw a version of this block called a Woven Star, in friend Jaye's Star Sampler quilt, and there's a tutorial here that she had linked to.

Doing the first part first, before cutting out anything else.

Why did I make this so small to start with? Who knows, but it looks cool.

Am I wishing I'd followed the helpful tutorial now, instead of making up my own version? Maybe, we shall see.

I like how complicated and layered this is looking. 

Now on to the rest of the block.

Community Quilt Finish

 

At the most recent Bay Area Modern Quilting Sew Day (just last Saturday) we worked as a group to complete a quilt top. Let's just say...it took the entire day. I brought other things to work on, but I only took a short break to trim some of the pink Lupine Mystery flying geese blocks.

The design of the quilt was great (I believe friend Jaye was the one who suggested and supplied the pattern), and as usual our organizer, Peggy was super prepared with printouts and instructions and block making kits. It made the whole process easier. We were making a quilt made up of two blocks, the above is the more complicated one. The other was all white with two colored squares in opposite corners. I believe I sewed six (maybe eight) blocks total.

It makes for a wonderful quilt, doesn't it? As you sew. the blocks seem very disjointed and maybe a little ugly given the random fabric combinations (it's as scrappy as it gets), but then it all works out together to make such an interesting quilt. We buckled down and sewed together the blocks and joined the rest of the sections together. Some was chunked, some was not. I was sewing the last long seam to put the two halves of the quilt together at our usual departure time of 4pm. Everyone else was all done and packed up, and then my bobbin ran out. Of course! 

But I rallied and sewed on, and was able to hand it off to our wonderful member Laura McHugh, who does the long-arming for us, who was waiting. As I finished the last seam, I held up the final result and don't have a picture. Laura posted this one on her Facebook of the quilt on her long-arm setup, and it's already been beautifully quilted! Amazing what a committed group can do together.