November Block of the Month

The November Block of the Month is a nice take on Flying Geese designed by Sharon McConnell of Color Girl Quilts, which she titled “Make a Mini Quilt”. This block will also make a great large quilt, maybe something like this:

You will find Sharon’s tutorial by clicking on this link. Sharon also has great patterns, ideas and lots of tutorials, so be sure to look around her website while you are there.

For a modern look, let’s do this in gray and white backgrounds with six assorted bright prints of one color. The cutting is easy! To make a 12½” block you will need to cut:

·       From gray background, six rectangles 7” x 2½”

·       From white background, six rectangles 7” x 2½”

·       From each of six assorted prints of one color, one 2½” x 4½” rectangle

Position a white strip and a print strip, right sides together, draw a diagonal stitching line, and sew.

Trim the seam allowance to ¼”. Press seam allowances toward the white.

Now add the gray strip. Draw your stitching line, sew, trim and press seam allowances toward the gray.

Your sewn unit should look like this.

Now make five more, so you have a total of six units.

Now all you need to do is sew the six units together. When you sew, be sure that you are sewing with the “goose” triangle point on top as shown here.

This makes it easier to see what you are sewing, and sew to a nice sharp point.

Block will trim to 12 ½” x 12 ½”, but let’s leave the trimming to the winner of the blocks.

Have fun with this block. Someone is going to have a great quilt! 

- Mary Sorensen

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November Block of the Month

November's choice for block lotto is this cute little raspberry kiss block.  The blocks measure 4.25" (unfinished) and are quite addicting once you get to making them.

Rachel at Wooden Spoon Quilts has a wonderful tutorial for making these blocks.  She even has instructions for making other sizes, but for our block lotto follow the 4.25" size directions.

Bright modern fabrics make up the crosses; use white, cream, neutral, low volume for the background areas.

For fun, here are some links to projects made using these adorable blocks.

• Guild member Tanyia made a rainbow mini for her swap partner.
• Here's a Cotton+Steel version.
• Rachel made a quilt for the 2015 Pantone Challenge.
• Love this pillow!

Have fun!

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October Block of the Month!

Hello everyone! It's Kate!

I am so excited to be choosing the October block of the month since autumn and Halloween are my favorite!
I chose a Spiderweb quilt block and the tutorial can be found here via Sew Mama Sew. These spiderweb blocks use a piece of fabric as your foundation (a new technique to try!) and give you a great use for your scraps (who doesn't love a good scrap buster?).

As a kid my favorite spooky stories were the Goosebumps "Choose Your Own Adventure" books so I thought why not do that for the color ways for these block to add some interest? You can also choose if you want to get super scrappy and have the spider web strips be different sizes (like the black and white webs) or more uniform (like the colorful webs)  So many ways to change up this block!

Color way 1:

Choose a black white or gray solid fabric for your foundation and add all your fun Halloween colors to the outside.

Color Way 2:

Choose a Halloween color solid for the center and keep your spiderwebs grayscale.

I understand not everyone will have the overgrown Halloween stash I have so feel free to use any prints or solids that fit the color scheme for your webs. Just have fun with it!

And as for these "Halloween Colors" I keep referring to, some examples would be: ghoulish greens, putrid purples, otherwordly oranges and even a little zombie skin blue.

Can't wait to see the blocks in October!

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Paper Piecing

When you hear a pattern calls for paper piecing, do you do a little happy dance or do you break out in a cold sweat?  It's been the latter for me until recently.  I wouldn't say I go about dancing at the idea of paper piecing, but at least I don't now panic at the thought.

MQG Webinar

As members of The Modern Quilt Guild, we have access to an amazing array of talented teachers.  The latest example is a free Paper Piecing webinar with Elizabeth Dackson.  You should have received an email from The Modern Quilt Guild with a link to register for the April 28th webinar.  Regardless of your paper piecing skills,  I am sure you will learn something useful from Elizabeth.

Recently, a bee mate of mine provided links to paper piecing tutorials and a list of tips that I thought you may find useful:

          You Tube Tutorials:

• Connecting Threads(uses vellum and add- a-quarter ruler)
  
• Sew Easy (uses regular ruler)
  
• The Crafty Gemini (uses regular ruler) 

0. Tips:
   

• If you don’t have an Add-a-Quarter ruler, you might want to get one. You can do paper piecing with your regular ruler, but I find it really helpful to have the Add-a-Quarter ruler. 
• Use the cheapest, flimsiest paper you can find for your paper templates. Really cheap printer paper works great. Some people like using vellum. Some like special paper like Carol Doak’s paper, which is more like newsprint. The flimsier the paper, the easier it will tear off when you are done. 
• I like to keep a piece of cardstock (like a postcard or a book mark) handy. When I’m folding my paper back on the line, I line up the cardstock with the line and fold against it. This makes it easier to get a good, clean fold. It also gives a little more of a ridge to nudge your Add-a-Quarter ruler against, if you are using one. 
• Lower your stitch length to 1.5 or so. That makes it easier to tear the paper off when done, and it provides stronger stitches when you are pulling against them to tear the paper off. 
• Make sure when you trim the block section after you’ve pieced it you leave the seam allowance on! Sometimes the cutting line is solid, and sometimes it is dashed. Just look at it and make sure there is seam allowance. 
• Some people find it helpful to use a little glue stick (fabric or just regular school glue stick) to glue the first piece onto the paper-piecing pattern instead of using a pin. Place a little glue on the wrong side of the fabric andstick it to the back side of the paper piecing pattern, behind the marking for Piece 1. Some people like to stick down each fabric as the open up each seam, just so they don't flop around. I don’t do that, but some people find it helpful.
• I like to hold the stitches down with my fingers as I tear the paper off, just to avoid pulling on the stitches too hard. 

So, here's the question:  Where do you stand with paper piecing?  Love it; hate it: somewhere in between: a little of both?  Leave a comment by Tuesday, May 5th and the Random Number Generator will pick a winner.  Commenters are eligible for the latest goody bag ;-)

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May BOM Pattern

The May BOM is brought to you by Debra!

The block measures 12.5 inches and can be made as wonky as you'd like. Colors should be black, white and a  bright color.

Directions for making a log cabin can be found here.

Bring your completed block to the May monthly meeting for your chance to win them all.

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February's Block

We are implementing a new and fun Block of the Month program.  Each month will feature a different block.  The block chosen will be fun to make, require materials that can easily be found in your stash, fit our modern theme, and when put together results in a fabulous quilt.  At the next month's meeting, a drawing will be held from members who make blocks, and one lucky person takes home all the blocks!

February's block is a cross block. Block size is 6" unfinished, 5 1/2" finished. Tutorials can be found in various places including here and here.  Your cross can be wonky or not, made with solids or prints.
To ensure everyone's blocks play well together, use a white (or neutral light) fabric for the background....and think modern ;-)
Here is how I made mine:

You will need two outer strips (mine are white) approximately 3 inches wide and 6 inches long.  You will sew a contrasting strip in between.  My strip is 2 inches wide.  Yours can be narrower or wider.  It is up to you.

This is how it should look at this point.

Use your ruler to cut the block in "half".  Have fun here...you can cut in exactly in half or not...straight across or at angle.

I cut mine at an angle and not quite at the midway point.

Sew a strip in between these two sections.  Again, I used a solid purple 2 inches wide.

You will have a block that looks something like this.

Square up your block to 6 inches, and pat yourself on the back!

See how differently the block looks if the cut is not quite so wonky?  

Have fun trying out different fabric combinations, widths of the cross strips and angle of your cuts!

How this will work:  Each month bring your block to the meeting and add it to the design wall; for each block you make, enter your name for the drawing; the winner of the drawing will receive all the blocks.
This BOM is entirely optional... make one block, two blocks, three blocks, etc. or no blocks at all.  Sound like fun?

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