Quilts on the Quad is tomorrow!

Come join us tomorrow in UMKC's Quad from 10-4.  We'll have a whole bunch of quilts hung on clotheslines.  It should be a really fun venue and the weather is supposed to be beautiful.

I'm planning to be there all day, so come and visit. 

KCMQG's Blog Post on Iron Quilter

Here's the link to the post about Iron Quilter on KCMQG's blog.



There's a great video included at the end.  You must check it out.  The intense music is PERFECT! 

Iron Quilter

I was kind of nervous to participate in the KCMQG's Iron Quilter Challenge.  I had no idea what to expect and wasn't sure I was cut out to make a quilt in a group in that short amount of time.  I sucked it up and put my hat in the ring and am so glad I did.
Iron Quilter worked like this:

• Pack up a gallon sized ziploc with scraps of fabric from your stash. 
• Bring your quilting tools and show up at the Bernina store at noon.
• Be assigned to a group upon arrival.
• Decide to share or not to share your group's scraps with the rest of the Iron Quilters.
• Be given a secret ingredient. 
• Make a completed quilt over the next 5 hours, minimum size of 18"x24".

I ended up on a team with Mary Anne & Toni and we had so much fun.  Our secret ingredient was from Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush fabric line.  The title of the fabric print is Bubble Burst and we ended up with it in the Sweet Cream Color way.
We used or stash fabrics to make the blocks of our quilts.  We used the secret ingredient fabric as the sashing and outer borders. 





The blocks we chose to make were basically strips of our scrap fabric sewn together.  We ended up with 9 multi-colored blocks on the front and 5 on the back. 


I cut strips of fabric for most of the day, but I did spend a few minutes in front of the machine.  I did the quilting on our little iron quilt.  I jumped onto the machine around 4:40.  Our deadline to finish the quilts was 5:00.  12 minutes (I think... no longer than 15) after starting the quilting, I had quilted the entire 26"x26" quilt.


We didn't quilt make the 5:00 deadline.  It was closer to 5:30 by the time it was all bound and completed. 


That photo above is me, Mary Anne, and Toni holding the quilt.  That photo is the backside of the quilt. 


Here's the top side of each of the quilts made during the challenge.


The backsides of each of the quilts.

This is all the iron quilters and the finished quilts.  I think we all had a blast trying to throw together finished quilts so quickly. 

Modern Log Cabin Quilting

I bought the book, Modern Log Cabin Quilting, a few months ago.  At this month's KCMQG meeting, I was lucky enough to hear Susan Beal speak about log cabin quilting.  She talked a bit about it's history and when it was popular.  Did you know that it was popular in the time of Abraham Lincoln?  I didn't, but for some reason, traditional log cabin quilts have always reminded me of him.  Funny how your brain connects things like that, eh?

I learned what the difference is between a log cabin and a courthouse step pattern is.  Basically, it's a very similar block.  The log cabin is formed by sewing fabric one side at a time in a circular pattern.  To make it, you sew one side, turn it 90 degrees and sew the next side, repeating that process until you have the block as big as you want it.  A courthouse step block is made by sewing opposite sides to the block.  You start with the center square and add "logs" to two opposing sides.  Then you turn the block 90 degrees and add "logs" to the two bare sides. 

I also learned the term, "snip & flip" which is when you cut one long strip of fabric, leave it long, sew multiple blocks to it, snip it apart, and then flip it open.  How fun is that term?  I had no idea... I do it all the time, but didn't know there was a name for it. 

So, I learned a lot about log cabin quilting that I didn't anticipate learning that night.  That's always fun.  I really like when we have a guest speaker like Susan come and share something.  I think it makes it more interesting to see how somebody else views the quilting world and how they go about using their views to create.

Quilts on the Quad

Are you ready?  KC Modern Quilt Guild is preparing to put on our very first quilt show. 

Want to come join us?  It should be a pretty good show.  We're planning to have over 200 quilts hung up in the quad on the UMKC campus. 

The show will be October 1st from 10am - 4pm at UMKC's Quad near 52nd & Rockhill Road.

Windy City Quilt

About a month ago, I made a quick block to be included in a quilt for our (now former) guild President, Jacquie who is deserting us to move to Chicago with her husband.  :(

A few people were hard at work over the last month, making it possible for us to present this beauty to Jacquie at last week's guild meeting. 

You can see the block I made in the above photo.  It's the one three from the top left corner.  It kind of looks like a cross over a white square with an orange square in the middle of it. 

I think Jacquie really liked it.  She started wearing it as a cape after it was presented to her.  :)

Thanks, Shea, for letting me steal some photos of it.  :)  Jacquie, we wish you all the best on this new adventure.

David Taylor

Way back in 2009 at my first International Quilt Festival in Chicago, I discovered David Taylor.  David Taylor is a fabulous quilter who uses hand applique to create photo-realistic art quilts.  Well, today, I attended the Blue Valley Quilter's Guild to hear Mr. Taylor speak.  Oh boy, was it better than I expected. 

He talked a little bit about the two quilts I had seen in Chicago and shared with you in this post. This one of the goat is titled Little S'Tinker.



 
The other quilt he talked about that I saw at the show in Chicago was Christmas Chickadee.  I REALLY like this one.  It was interesting to hear that this one was made from 3 separate photographs.  One of the bird, one of the light, and one of the branch.   Would you believe that there are 17 different red fabrics making up the christmas light?  And would you also believe that they are all hand appliqued?  And yep... all of those pine needles are hand appliqued, too.  Have I mentioned he uses hand appliqued and doesn't use what he calls the F word?  F word being fused. 



There's no way I'm converting to hand applique anytime soon.  I like the quickness and ease of fusing.  I was totally blown away when I learned that he doesn't fuse anything.  All his work is made using hand applique and fabric choices.  Yes, that's right... he doesn't dye or color or alter his fabrics either.  He spends weeks choosing the right fabrics to get shade and shadow.  Yikes!  I really love the finished product, but I don't think I could handle the process he uses.  It was really interesting to hear all about how he works, though.  Very inspiring. 

Now that I've shared a little with you, I must go and burn off some of this inspiration by going and working on some quilts.  :)