WIP Wednesday: LQF Challenge Quilt

Over the past few weeks, I've been slowly working on my challenge quilt for the Lowell Quilt Festival (LQF) coming up in a few weeks.

I started with this bundle based on the color scheme for this year's challenge.

After a lot of debate on what to do, I just cut a whole bunch of strips in different sizes and decided to play.

I came up with something fun (at least I think so) and am in the process of quilting it. I can't wait to share the finished project with everyone soon.

What I've Been Working On

I've been pretty busy lately with work, having just taken on a new role. I have managed to steal a few hours here and there to work on a couple of things. Just not as much time as I would like.

I finished making all nine blocks, now I'm playing with layouts. The version above is what I'm leaning towards, but I'm still not positive. (Please look past the crappy photos, these blocks are HUGE, measuring about 26" square, so they won't all fit up on my design wall. I have been laying them out on my living room floor, making it hard to photograph the full quilt. I'm standing on my couch to take these pictures, and I can't even get the whole quilt in.)

This was the first layout I tried. I wasn't crazy about it because although you get the rainbow gradation, the balance of color value wasn't working for me. I'm all about balance.

I might take these blocks outside this weekend when I have some time to play around with the layout a bit more. Hopefully I'll settle on a layout soon.

Sew-In on the Common

This past weekend a bunch of us from the Boston MQG got together in Boston to have a sew-in on the Boston Common.

It was extremely HOT on Sunday, but with our ice cold beverage, we positioned many of the Quilts for Boston quilts off our laps and to our side, attaching labels and binding.

We finished the day with about a dozen finished quilts, ready to be donated.

The heat might have gotten to us, because we took over the Make Way For Ducklings statue at one point.

As you can see, we had a great time. I posted even more pictures on my Facebook page, so hop on over there if you want to see more. 

Criss Cross Quilt

Last weekend I was rushing to finish this quilt so I could enter it in Quilter's Way's color challenge for the month of June.  

The pattern layout was a bit different than how I finished this quilt. I decide to pair the fabrics from the challenge bundle and create six blocks. The original pattern was much more random, but I wanted to make it a bit more structured. 

The pattern was pretty easy to construct. Just a bunch of squares and triangles. 

I machine quilted this on the longarm using an all over square and straight line meander. 

You can really see the texture in this shot, which I love. 

I decided to bind this quilt in Kona Lipstick. I wanted a different color for the binding and thought a nice, bright red would be the perfect compliment to the rest of the colors. 

I used Robert Kaufman Quilter's Linen in Steel for the backing, which blends nicely with the So Fine! gray thread that I used for the quilting. 

This quilt finishes at 48" x 72"and was made using a solid fat quarter bundle pulled by Quilter's Way and an RJR solid for the background.

Drunk Fun

I've been working on a new quilt for the past few weeks here and there. I decided use my drunkard's path die for my AccuQuilt to make a more modern curved quilt. In addition, I thought that curves would make a good class topic for my next class at Quilter's Way.

I started by making a bunch of drunkard's path blocks and tried a bunch of different layouts. I finally settled on the one you see here by adding some squares to the pattern.

Here you can see the teal block before it's sewn together and trimmed down. I added 2" borders to the edge of the squares to match the white background width from the drunkard's path block. Before sewing the "petals" together, I trimmed them down to 1" and 1.5" inches. I left the spacing larger on the outside to leave a little more space between the blocks.

These blocks are HUGE and take up most of my design wall right now. Each block finishes around 26" square! Yikes. I'm planning on making nine blocks in a rainbow of colors. Above you can see the first five blocks. I have the yellow, orange, red-orange and red blocks left to make. Once I have all of them made, I'll probably lay all of these out on a floor or the grass outside to try a few different layouts.

Here you can see some of the other colors waiting to be pieced into these petal/flower blocks. All of these fabrics except the Lizzy House Pearl Bracelet white on white came from my stash! All the more justification to buy fabric for my stash. This is proof I actually use it!

Here's wishing everyone here in the states a happy 4th of July!

To Boston With Love - MFA Visit

This past weekend I was finally able to get to the MFA and view the To Boston With Love exhibit.

We got to the MFA a bit later than we had hoped, so we only had about an hour and a half before the museum closed. We still had enough time to enjoy all of the flags and see a few exhibits including a Michelangelo exhibit and Samurai exhibit.

I started by trying to find the flag that I made. I had every intention of making more than one, but time just got away from me. The month this effort was going on was my busiest month for work and involved a decent amount of travel for me.

Being the HUGE New England sports fan, I had to make a flag with Patriot Pat on it.

It's exciting to say that I have artwork hanging in the MFA, in the same room as a Chihuly sculpture.

After I found my flag, I spent some time looking around. I talked to a bunch of folks who really enjoyed the exhibit. Several people thought they should keep these flags up year round.

I also had to hunt down my aunt Karen's flag while there.

My parents, who joined me on my visit to the MFA, enjoyed seeing all of the flags, each having their favorite. It was fun to see what flags caught their attention and were their favorites. The people I spoke with seemed to like the flags that represented the city of Boston well including the Citgo sign, the Zakim Bunker Bridge, our Boston sports teams, and more.

Overall, I was really glad I was able to see the exhibit. It won't be up for much longer, so if you want to check it out, I recommend doing so very soon. 

Simply Solids Bee Block

Last week I finished my Simply Solids Bee Block for them month of June. This was a fun block to make that went together pretty easily.

After what seemed like forever, I finally sat down in front of my sewing machine and did some sewing. This was the first think that I tackled. I'll share more of what I'm working on throughout the week!

Needless to say, it feels good to be doing some sewing.