Rocky Mountain Puzzle for Do Good

This is my last quilt finish for the do good stitches charity bee, at least for a while. It's a little sad to not be making fun plans for my next one right now, but I know I can always join the bee again down the road if the time is right. I just needed to simplify some things and make a little more time for my responsibilities as the Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild president. 

Anyway, I can honestly say that my 2 years with the Harmony circle was so enjoyable and I would recommend this bee to anyone wanting to learn new things and give back with their quilting. It's really a wonderful project, and you can find out more about joining right here. 

This quilt was completely inspired by Amy of Badskirt's version that I saw here on Flickr. I instantly had a quilt crush on it. It's all kinds of amazing. So I told my group of stitchers to make Rocky Mountain Puzzle blocks using this tutorial, but I changed the measurements to make 12" finished blocks instead of 8." To do that, make the center square and HST units 3.5" with a 2" border around that center square.  I said to use bright saturated rainbow colors, everything but purple. Not sure why I excluded poor purple, it's a color I love. But I'm glad it's left out in the end. You don't belong here purple! This quilt is so cliquey.  Plus they could use black fabrics, and had to use low volume prints for the background of the blocks. 

The most fun part of this bee is when you start to get the blocks trickling in in the mail and you can imagine how they will harmonize in the finished quilt. It's so cool to see a bunch of scrappy blocks come together like this and really work. These two above are a couple of the blocks that I made. Everyone did a really great job at picking something fun to put in that center square.

For quilting I did simple straight lines, following the diagonal direction created by the arrangement of HST's. It's fine enough, but I kind of wish I had done vertical straight lines, or maybe a crosshatch. If I'm being honest, I would do straight lines about 3/8" apart across every quilt I ever make if I had the time. That is one quilting decision I never regret. But in the end, this one just needed to be done quickly. This quilting does at least give is a really soft easy drape, which will be nice for this kid that gets it through Project Linus.

The back has three extra blocks and a nice aqua Art Gallery print from Sewn Studio. I like how the little triangles scattered in it give a nod to the triangle design on the front. For the binding I chose an orange on pink dot by Kaffe Fassett. I loooooove the way his dots feel. It took me forever to settle on the binding for some reason, and I'm a little surprised I landed here. I must be having a hot pink moment lately. 

The quilt is about 60" by 48" and I'm really happy to be done with it and giving it away! Thanks for all your help on this one Harmony Circle, I miss you guys already :)

do. Good Stitches Flying V Quilt

I finished this quilt a few weeks ago and finally took pictures today. This is definitely my favorite DGS quilt yet! Do Good Stitches is a charity bee I've been in for nearly two years. Every few months, I get to be the designer of the quilt my circle of the bee makes. 

This one was inspired by my friend Andie's minimalist flying geese quilt, featured in her awesome book. 

Of course, mine couldn't be quite as minimalist as hers, or else my group wouldn't have had much sewing to do! Instead of the standard 2 12" blocks, I instructed everyone to send me a strip of 12 flying geese units all joined together going the same direction and on a white background. They each finish at 6" x 3". 

I told them to block the colors together instead of mixing them all up, and to use this block for color inspiration:

They matched those colors pretty perfectly right? It's my most favorite block from my scrappy Japanese +&x quilt.  

So once I had everyone's strips in the mail and made my own, (second from the right side is mine) I added more white fabric on either side of the geese and joined them together, staggering one unit off with each one, and alternating directions. Originally, I imagined them all going one direction and all facing to the side of the quilt, rather than going vertically. But once I laid everything out, this way just looked much better. Flexibility is my middle name. (Actually, it's Elaine... I know you were wondering.)

I did straight line quilting, vertically just like the geese, about 1/2" apart. With all that white space, I knew I wanted to do heavy quilting. I think the simple straight lines are just perfect here. Always my favorite. 

The binding is the dictionary text print from Moda's Mama Said Sew, ordered a while back from Pink Castle. Except that one little spot where I ran out and had to use some Flea Market Fancy. (See? Jessica Flexibility McFlexyFace!)

The backing is all this pretty Vintage Modern print (Bonnie & Camille for Moda) from Sewn Studio on clearance. I just love the color.

I didn't wash this quilt before taking pictures, which is the opposite of my norm. I just wanted the smooth look for pictures, but I'll definitely be giving it a good wash-n-crinkle before dropping it at Project Linus this week. It's a good thing, because I've already got most of the blocks in for my next do good quilt!

Do Good Stitches Stripes Quilt

Last Monday I finished up my second quilt with my circle of the Do Good Stitches charity quilting bee.  Back in May, I asked everyone in the group to send me two 16.5" blocks that had orange, yellow, green, and gray fabrics in mostly solids, arranged into any stripey design they could come up with. The variety of blocks they sent me is just amazing!

These are really my favorite kind of bee quilts, the ones that look like they were made by many different people with different styles, yet somehow it all works together. I'll admit, when I first started getting these blocks in the mail, I loved them, but wasn't sure how they would look together. I thought I should have been more specific about using brighter citrusy colors and maybe given more direction with the design. But after playing with the arrangement and getting the top together, it really looked amazing! I love how the different depths of the colors draw your eye to different parts of the quilt. I love the mix of straightforward strip blocks and crazier improv blocks. I think it will be great for a little boys bed. 

The back is a Robert Kaufman basic I got on super clearance, and the binding is pre-made Moda Bella bias binding, which I love using. Both are from Sewn Studio. 

For the quilting I did wavy vertical lines across the quilt in varying widths. I love how this style looks and feels, especially against all the straight angles on the quilt top. I used gray Aurifil thread. I'm convinced I will never quilt with another type of thread now that I've tried Aurifil. Thread snob here. 

It's almost all set to go to our local chapter of Project Linus, just need to stitch the bee label on the back first. I'm excited to dream up my next design for November's quilt. This and my first were both very boyish, but I'm thinking about trying something a bit "prettier", if you know what I mean... at the same time though, I know Project Linus always needs boy blankets, so I might just have to get creative with another boy design. We'll see, you know I can never resist making for boys.

Thanks again to the amazing girls in my group who made these blocks!

do. Good Stitches Triangle Quilt- Finally Done

The charity-bee quilt guilt has lifted! I'm embarrassed to say that this quilt began in my circle of do Good Stitches back in November. November! There are lots of perfectly good and reasonable (psh) excuses for this, but I won't go into that. I will just rejoice that I finished this before all my blocks arrived for the next one. Then things would have really gotten out of hand.

For one thing, I did make things a little hard on myself because I was determined to turn this into a bed-sized quilt for an older boy. The original 12.5" blocks would not pull that off, so I sashed them all in a random log-cabiny way with various icy blue Bella solids. I really like the effect of this. Still not quite twin-sized though, so I had to add a border. 

It's about 90" x 75," making it cumbersome to quilt of course, but I kept it simple with my default diagonal lines. I usually like much denser lines, but these are 3 inches apart. The binding is a pixelated houndstooth by Michael Miller (I think.) And the back is a completely crazy-town bright lemon yellow.  Half the time I think it's really awesome, and the other half I think my eyes are melting off my face.

This is the block I asked the Harmony girls to make way back in 2011 (the shame!) It was not the simplest assignment, but they did great. I love the black and white prints on all that blue. It makes me think of the Backstreet Boys' fourth album... Shut up, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

I know this full shot is really sad, but it's the best I got after a bazillion attempts over 2 photo shoots. I'm convinced that it's impossible to accurately photograph the colors of this quilt. Also, I suck at it. 

Thank you so much Harmony girls for your blocks and your patience! It's all labeled and ready to go to Project Linus this week. I'm so happy to be able to do something like this with quilting because I really feel like I'm honoring the memory of my Nanny. She wouldn't have waited 7 months to do it, but I can improve my turnaround time on the next one :)

Doing Good Stitches Lately

Here's what I've been up to for the do. Good Stitches charity bee lately. I love getting to make these blocks every month. I get to try all kinds of things I normally wouldn't think to try, and the girls in my circle are awesome. 

 For example, Diane is so awesome that she designed a whole new quilt for us this past month, complete with mock-up graphics and tutorials for two different types of blocks. It's going to be the "Candyland Quilt." Could not be a more appropriate name.

And Leigh is so awesome that she assigned us these very fun and easy wonky stars in January. She knew we needed a break after frantic holiday sewing season. 

I, on the other hand, am so un-awesome that I still haven't put together my quilt from back in November. Everyone did such a great job on these blocks, but I really wanted to make this into a twin sized quilt for Project Linus. So I kind of log-cabined each block with different shades of aqua blues. It added a lot of size, plus kind of unified the different background colors. I like the look of it, but I think it needs another color. 

It still needs some size, so I was thinking a golden/ mustard yellow border? Would that be weird? I was this to have a boyish look overall, like something a teenager could use on their bed... should I just do a white border? I don't know, I think it needs some warmth. HELP me! Either way, I'm going to bind it in this great oversized black and white houndstooth we have at the shop. I need to at least finish this sucker before it's my turn to be quilter again in May!

For March I still need to make some heart blocks for Melissa. I've been working on some curves lately so maybe I'll tackle a curvy pieced heart. 

What about you? Have you been working on any new skills lately? Are you in a bee that encourages you to? Find out more info about do. Good stitches right here. 

What's Scrappenin.

Getting back to my scraps this week. It's really fun to be a part of the quilt-along and see everyone else's scrap progress. But I've realized that I don't want to finish my Japanese + & x  blocks by March. For one thing, I don't think I could even if I tried. I'd have to forego all other sewing, which you know I have too much ADD for.

But I also just want to enjoy it. I have a crap ton of scraps and I love making these blocks up out of fabric combos I've used in other projects. I envision having about 80 of them when I'm ready for it to be done. That probably won't be until fall or the end of the year... I think I have a total of 15 right now.

Anyway, here's the new batch. Like little scrap firecrackers.

Oh how they make me happy! I think I will have to try a separate pillow or mini for the scrap attack. These are for more of a slow-sipping kind of quilt. 

You might recognize the fabrics in that last picture from my bro quilt. That block on the right I cut up as I was making last month's do Good Stitches blocks, mod mosaics. Such a striking look, but yeesh do these things take forever:

And here's just a little peek at another quilt I'm working on this week. It's a little retro, a little traditional, a little out of my comfort zone, and VERY red. It's totally growing on me though- I can't wait to finish this one up:

Official Scrap Sorter/ Adorabilty Infuser:

Lastly, I forgot to mention before that I guest-posted on my lovely friend Rachael's blog last week. I mostly talked about whatever I wanted and the crafty things I'm into lately, including 4 sewing tools I can't live without. Check it out here!

Hey guess what, you're not that awesome...

...said Jessica to herself.





This is the block that reminded me of that fact. So this month, I'm the quilter for my circle of Do. Good  Stitches, which is a charity quilting bee. If you don't know how it works, there are ten of us that make a couple blocks each month and send them to the "quilter" who picked out the block and the colors of the design and will put all of the group's blocks together and finish the quilt. Well, for my first time in this responsibility, I went ahead and chose something that would make everyone hate me right off the bat. Seriously, I bet they were/ are all cursing my name while making these babies. I know I was.

I've only made this, the first of my two, because I was just too exhausted to move on to my second. The seam ripper did get put to use, and as you can see it still has plenty of issues. This is the tutorial for the block. When I first saw it back in September, I thought it was so cool and unique and would be great as an entire quilt of these triangles. I didn't really think about how tricky those angles would be in reality.

Here's the thing. While this one was a little frustrating, I really didn't mind because I knew I was learning thru my mistakes. Even if I'm cursing like Ralphie's dad at his furnace, deep down, I'm still really happy to be sewing and getting better at sewing. So I'm hoping everyone else in my group looks at things the same way. Isn't that one reason quilting bees are good? You wouldn't want to make a whole quilt of really difficult blocks, but you can handle a couple, and then they all still get made into something beautiful. So even if someone picks something you might never have made, you get to try it. Is that how everyone thinks of bees, or would you rather have relatively simple blocks you can crank out every month? I don't know, I'm asking. Either way, I had better make this quilt super awesome in the end so that it was worth it for everyone. Then my name will be praised once again, instead of cursed for the headaches I have sprung upon them :)

These are my Greek cross blocks from last month. Denise is an amazing quilter and has already made them into two baby girl quilts that you can see here and here. I'd love to make a whole quilt of this block some day, it's a really fun one.

I'll leave you with a picture of pretty folded fabrics. Who doesn't love those pictures? I'm in TN at my parents' for Thanksgiving, and yesterday I went to a local quilt shop with my mom. It was just called "Sewing and Vacuum Center" and the outside window was covered in weird paintings of Disney characters. I did not have high hopes. Well, wouldn't you know I found lots of things I couldn't resist. Never judge a quilt shop by it's cover. 

Quilty

So I told you about joining Rachel's do.Good Stitches quilting bee. August was our circle's first month and these are my first ever bee blocks.

The quilt is inspired by this one, except our background will be gray instead of blue. I actually finished these about a month ago. My edges are a bit wavy, but I was really happy with them at first. But as the month goes on I get less and less pleased with them. I think mine are a bit more wonky than everyone else's and my gray is also darker. I like it when bee quilts have really varied blocks on the same theme, but hopefully this month's designer Leigh does as well. Either way, I just need to get them in the mail!
Any bee veterans have tips for packing blocks? Do you just stick them in an envelope or what?

Here's a little sneak peek of another patchwork-y project I'm working on. I have way too many of those going on at once right now. I also have a full-sized quilt top about halfway done that I can't show you at all because it is a gift for someone special. I'm excited about it though :)

And then there's this...

Happy Monday!

On the Interwebs (with swaps, bees, and sew-alongs)

I had so much fun looking through the blog Advanced Style. I don't consider myself a very stylish person now, but maybe I'll learn by the time I'm 70-something...
"I don't want to look younger. I want to look great at any age."

 I don't really do much holiday decorating, even Christmas is pretty minimal around here, but I love this idea and really want to do it for Halloween. Heck, maybe I'll just do it for the premiere of The Walking Dead. Zombies!!






My iphone case busted so I bought a new one this week. Nick found this fantastic site full of independent artists' designs. We fought over who would get Steve Zissou, but in the end I got the faceted pattern. I really like the seahorse too though.

I joined a swap. Never done one before. I also joined a quilting bee. I may have gone a little quilting crazy... And it turns out the quilting community on Flickr is, um, flourishing. It's like I've joined a cult or something :)

The swap is called For the Love of Solids, so you know that's right up my alley. Here's my inspiration mosaic. Basically, your partner looks at this and a questionnaire you fill out so they can figure out what you like and what to make you.

The bee is do. Good Stitches. I'm really excited to get started on our august quilt. We are making blocks in the style of this quilt, but with gray backgrounds. I can't wait to get started and to see what we all put together. Interwebs community art project for good.







And in case you missed it, I am starting a Sew-Along through the Oliver & S Small Things to Sew! Find out more here and leave a comment if you think you might like to join in. I'll be back next week with  more details.


Have a happy hot weekend everyone. We are lying low from this suffocating midwest heat, and hopefully doing a lot of sewing.


OH! And my first quilt is all finished. I'm in love. Pictures Monday.