Thursday, April 26, 2012

My Precious - Hawaii

I'm using some of my very favorite fabrics - My Precious!

Hawaii

Almost two years ago we were in Hawaii and I brought back some very important souvenirs.

Fabric.

I'm finally going to use it and my bee friends are going to help.

QAL


Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Thread Prep

thread tall

I am so excited!

Over Mother's Day weekend I'm going to a retreat with Amanda Jean.

Perfect timing -
all thread is 50% off,
plus I had an additional 20% coupon at JoAnn's. 

Spools to match
all 40 fat quarters.

It was a blast as I pulled  favorite fabrics to create the front and back of my retreat project quilt.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Mod Mosaic Rainbow

Mod Mosaic

Brooke had the most awesome idea for her month in our bee.

As many of us have, she participated in some of Kati's awesome color wheel charm swaps. Here's the flickr group for the swaps - if you haven't seen it yet, there's lots of great rainbow inspiration.

The trick is figuring out what you want to do with all that 5" rainbow goodness!

Color flow

Brooke sent a bunch of her charms for making Mod Mosaic blocks, based on the tutorial by Elizabeth Hartman

The colors in each of the blocks should flow through a range of three - from upper left to lower right. Then she is going to set the blocks into a quilt that will flow through the whole rainbow. Check out her post, she has a mock-up of the plan.

Brooke wants 12.5" blocks, so we're sending 12.75" blocks so that she doesn't lose anything in the fraying that can happen when our creations make their way through the mail system.

First pass

Here was my first pass - I think I counted up a total of 12 charms that she sent.  I chopped and laid out a plan within a 13" square, just to make sure the block would be big enough.  I left a 1/2" gap, mimicking the white strips.

I should have done that step without any gap, because you're also loosing a 1/2" between each bit when you make those seams with the white.  So I had to improvise a little and change my plans to make sure the square would be large enough.

Mod Mosaic

Compare my finished block - photoshop cropped to what would be about a 12.75" square - with the layout above. 

You can see how I had to add sections to get the dimensions right.  I think it was looking like the finished block would be about 11.75-12" square if I had not added onto the plan.

And it used more white strips than I would have ever though possible!  When I opened Brooke's package, I thought she had sent so much extra, but I ended up with EXACTLY the right amount.

I tend to forget how much fabric is eaten up by all those seams.   As Brooke did, it's also good to do your own block sample before sending out fabric to bee-mates.  If it had been me, I would have underestimated the number of charms and lengths of white strips by a bunch.

Mod Mosaic


Monday, April 09, 2012

Be a Copy-Leftist

Composition Notebooks
random pretty picture

Have you seen r0ssie's tutorial post for her awesome Kelp Quilt?

Make sure you stop over and read the post she has along with the tutorial. The tutorial is on her site for free, but if you're so inclined you may hit her Donation button.

Color flow
another random photo


She explains several reasons for setting up the pattern in this manner and I loved them so much, I hit the donation button just out of happiness.

Besides our tendency to hoard fabric and drool over our friend's pretty inspiration photos, as a bunch, we quilters also obsess about copy-right debates. I love her view on being a copy-leftist.

QAL Details
One more Hot Button Quilter thing that caught my eye this weekend.  Have you seen Kelly's new quilt along?

We're all holding hands and USING - My Precious, MY PRECIOUS - fabrics.

She actually stitched up her one piece of Heather Ross beach scene.   
I know!

Go join up the support group.

.

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Branches for my Friend

I trimmed up the crab apple in front a bit.

I'm hoping that these bloom inside!

Crabapple buds