Louisiana Traveling Quilt … Coming Home

Our guild, NELA Modern Quilt Guild, has run a 10 month/ 10 member traveling quilt bee that is now coming to a close.  It has been such fun and more challenging than I expected.  Many of us were at a standstill as we tried to get started on blocks for the quilts of the other members.  We really had to get out of our comfort zone and try new things.

Some of us set themes, or color schemes, and some were ‘anything goes’.  Mine was a Louisiana theme and my quilt top made it home just this past weekend.

 

Starting at the top left corner, you can see St Louis Cemetery (New Orleans), piano keys (think jazz),  Who Dat Owl for LSU (because who doesn’t know LSU football?!), raindrops (and I love the rain!  :-D), there is a paper pieced crawfish and alligator, a turtle, farms and catfish ponds, Louisiana state block (flying pinwheels), an oil rig and in the center the very first block, a map of New Orleans!   And the quilt is so much prettier in person.  The colors are brighter.  There’s Essex Linen in some of the squares that look awesome.  It is such a fun quilt and I’m so proud to have it home.

Kelly started my quilt with the map of New Orleans and included these cards for everyone to write a note.  This was awesome!  They included notes or backstories on why certain blocks were created which just made them more special.  They also included my name and address.  That helped everyone remember whose quilt they were working on.  Very helpful!  I definitely want to include that idea for next quilt bee we do.

A huge thank you to everyone in this bee.  It has been so much fun to watch everyone’s quilt come together.  And it has definitely made me exercise my creative muscles.

If you would like to see the other quilts as they are completed, go to our Pinterest board.  I’m loving the quilts coming in!

 

 

BAM BOM Chevron Block

So, I volunteered (on behalf of NELA MQG) to put together a tutorial for the August block of the BAM BOM.  It was a simple chevron block.  Easy, right?  Maybe not.  Putting it together wasn’t so bad, but putting it on paper so others understand it was much harder than I expected it to be.

This tutorial is about the third draft, so forgive me it it’s still not clear.  I actually made my original version work by using a modified paper piecing version.  I used the paper template to piece the bottom chevron strips and help me place the middle and top chevron points.  That version gave some a lot of trouble though, so I’ve added some more room on all edges and reworded the template for straight piecing.  If you give it a try, let me know how it goes and what I could do (or say) better to make it clear.

There are two points I want to reinforce.

• The first is when cutting chevron strips from print fabrics, be sure that you cut them either right sides together or wrong sides together.  This ensures you will have two pieces that are mirror images of each other.
• Second, the bottom chevron point does not show on this block and the bottom triangle should be pieced to the bottom chevron from the outside points, NOT the center.  You will see in the tutorial, I have you square that center chevron to avoid that problem.

I want to thank Cheryl and Kimetha for trying my tutorial and for the great feedback.  Thanks so much.

If you’ve have good tips or seen a great post on creating good effective tutorials, please let me know!  Hope you enjoy this block and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Edited 8/3/13:  I have played with this block again and I’m still coming in a little narrow on this block!  Frustrating!!  I’ve added length to a few of the chevron strips hoping to fix this. 

If you paper piece, I strongly, STRONGLY recommend you use the paper piece template.  Start your block with the bottom triangle and chevron and work your way up that template.  By the time you get to the middle chevron, you are really using the paper template as a rough guide and the final block will extend off the end of the paper.  With paper piecing, you have a much better chance of getting this block right the first time!

Good luck!!

‘Business’ Cards for QuiltCon

I wanted a few cards with my blog and guild information for QuiltCon.  Of course, I’ve waited till the last minute to get them put together, but I’ve finally got a plan.

The cards are tent style with my blog info on one side and the Northeast Louisiana Modern Quilt Guild info on the other.

I created the graphics using PhotoShop and laid the cards out in Word to print on card stock.

And inside is felt to hold needles.  I love things that are actually useful.

I plan to use these during meet and greets for the modern quilt guilds and PileOFabric’s Skill Builder group.

QuiltCon’s getting close!  What are you doing to get ready?

“A Lovely Year of Finishes”

Hosted by

Shanna of Fiber of All Sorts

and

Melissa of Sew BitterSweet Designs

 

 

I just saw this challenge posted and decided to join in.  First because having a deadline makes me more accountable.  I can get very distracted and end up with too many projects at one time.  And second, because it fits with the goals I have in mind anyway.

My plan this week is to catalog the projects I’ve completed in 2012, the works still in progress, and any new projects I plan (at this point) to start.  One major goal will be stash busting.  My fabric bins are overflowing.  And my wallet will thank me.  Now to see if I have the discipline….I can tell you that is pretty shaky.  Especially with the beautiful fabrics that continually come out.  Salt Water 😦 and Luxe in Bloom 😦 to name a couple.

So back to the Lovely Year of Finishes challenge.  The goal is to identify what you will finish that month, post the goal and then post progress and success throughout the month.  My January was easy to document.  The quilt below on the left is a baby quilt for a good friend’s new grand baby.  It’s a semi-modified Turning Twenty pattern and measures 50 x 50.  I’m trying to choose fabrics for the back now and want it quilted by the end of this coming weekend.

Next is my Tula Pink’s ‘Love‘ quilt.  It’s basted and ready to go.  I just need to get the nerve to get started on it.  Wish me luck that I don’t mess up all that beautiful negative space.  Notice the pinning??  Those are the new (for me) Pinmoors I’ve seen advertised by a few shops.  A darling friend, Melissa, gifted these to me at our recent guild meeting just because she new I wanted to try them!  Melissa and Marty were instrumental in helping me get our modern quilt guild (NELA MQG) started this past October.  We are still small, but I hope we can build some excitement this coming year.  We have had a lot of fun so far and are really excited about it.

50″ x 50″ Turning Twenty Baby Quilt, and Tula Pink’s Love quilt

So that’s the goal for January….it’s really longer than that, but I do like keeping it manageable when possible.  What about you?  Do you need a deadline to keep you on track?  Check out the challenge above.  You can have (another) reason for finishing a project on time and have the chance at prizes as well.  Maybe I’ll get lucky enough to win a fabric certificate and add to those overflowing bins… Oh yeah!  DISCIPLINE.  (riiiiighhht)