Zippered Pouch Swap

We decided to conduct a zippered pouch swap within the Boston Modern Quilt Guild, which we conducted at our November meeting. I love making zippered pouches and thought this would be a fun, easy swap that didn't require a ton of time for our members. While I've made a ton of zippered pouches, I never made a boxed pouch. I decided this was the perfect opportunity to make one.

I used the Boxy Bag pattern by Kelby Sews. This really came together quick and easily. The most difficult part was when I went ahead and trimmed my plastic zipper and then unzipped the pouch to iron it. Well, I forgot to tack the end of the now-trimmed zipper and the zipper came right off the teeth and into my hand. It took me a good 15 minutes to get it back on. Once I did, it was smooth sailing from there. You can bet I won't be doing that one again.

This fabric is an Art Gallery fabric that I got in a fat quarter bundle a year or two ago with the coordinating yellow print. The zipper is from Zip It. I used three layers of 101 Pellon interfacing for this. Two pieces on the outer fabric and one on the liner. The pouch is stiff enough to stand on its own but flexible enough to allow the new owner to manipulate it as she wishes. 

Getting Ready to Retreat!

Our annual BMQG retreat is upon us and I've been very busy getting ready for it. With my longarm out for service for 14 LONG weeks and my domestic in for regular maintenance and to repair the broken handle and thread holder for the past four weeks, I've been spending most of my time cutting. Throw in the craziness of working full time and going to grad school full time, and I'm going through some serious sewing withdrawal. Four days of sewing sounds like pure bliss right now.

One of my big projects will be to make a quilt using this bundle of fabrics. I'm using a dozen different Liberty of London prints with a coordinating Textured Solids fabric from Andover and a neutral chambray from Robert Kauffman for the background. Let's just say this quilt will be full of different textures. If all goes according to plan, I hope to enter this quilt at QuiltCon and possibly a few other shows with modern quilting categories.

I'm also hoping to work on a bunch of WIPs including my Meadow quilt, which I started at the Philly SewDown. I have four of the 20 blocks complete. Below are the first three blocks. I finished cutting the remaining 16 blocks last week, so I might be able to finish this one, depending on how much time I spend sewing vs. talking.

I'll bring a few other WIP's with me to work on, but I don't know if I'll get to them or not. Maybe I'll get to my quilted tote, also a WIP from SewDown.

And if that's not enough, I brought a few smaller projects to make some zippered pouches and such for some upcoming birthdays and baby showers. Let's just say I'm going to be busy. But that means I'll actually have something to show since I've been so quiet lately.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. 

Trunk Show by Victoria Findlay Wolfe

This past Friday, the Boston and Seacoast Modern Quilt Guilds enjoyed a trunk show by the lovely Victoria Findlay Wolfe.

Victoria gave a great presentation, talking about her life growing up on the farm and watching her grandmother quilt.

I love hearing about where quilters and artists get their inspiration from. It's amazing to hear how we all find inspiration from so many different places.

You might recognize this quilt from the cover of Victoria's book, 15 Minutes of Play.

I loved how Victoria talked about grandmother flower garden quilts. Who doesn't have a bunch of unfinished hexi's lying around, waiting to be made into a top.

I loved Victoria's attempt to use solids. I don't use a lot of orange in my quilts, but there's something about that orange in the center medallion that speaks to me.

And here I am with Victoria after the show, getting my book signed. 

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. 

BMQG Quilt Retreat

Last weekend was the annual BMQG quilt retreat. Like last year, this year was a total blast and I managed to get quite a bit done.

To start, I finished my Mod Hex 2 quilt top.

Next, I finished my Sew-vivor project, which I'll reveal later this week.

After finishing two big projects,  I decided to tackle something a bit smaller, a bag. This will be a gift for a friend.

It was a super easy pattern and I see myself making more of these in the future.

I also managed to get a sample bee block for the Simply Solids bee since next month is my month.  I'll do a separate post about that tomorrow.

I worked here and there on a few other projects, but not enough to really show any of it.  All in all, I'd say it was a very productive long weekend and an even better time hanging out with some really awesome people.  A big thank you to Aimee and Alice for helping to organize everything!

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P.I.N. Pillow

The Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild is hosting a pin cushion swap with a bunch of other modern quilt guilds, including the Boston guild.  Me being me, i had to come up with a paper pieced pattern for my pincushion.  After some thinking, I created this very literal pin cushion design that I have dubbed P.I.N. Pillow.

I first made the pin cushion in some scraps for the swap, but then decided to make one for myself out of the new Denyse Schmidt Chicopee line.

This pincushion will be the one I'm including in the swap.  I usually stuff my pincushions with crushed walnut shells, but because this was for a swap, I just stuffed it with some bamboo stuffing.  My Chicopee cushion is stuffed with the walnut shells.

Here's the block before I sewed it together with the backing and stuffed it.  You could easily use this block in a quilt or other project, other than a pincushion.  You could also easily scale it up (or down) if you feel the pattern is too small for you.

You can purchase this pattern in my Craftsy shop here for instant download. 

Angela Walters Visit

This weekend I had the pleasure of spending time with the oh-so-talented Angela Walters as she visited one of my favorite local quilt shops, Quilter's Way, and spent some time with the Boston Modern Quilt Guild.

For the trunk show with the BMQG, Angela talked about how she got started in quilting and how she evolved as a quilter. As we progressed during the show, she talked a lot about how she goes about quilting a modern quilt.  She shared some secrets with us - like some new collaborations she has coming up that I'll let her tell you about soon enough.  

She shared some of her awesome quilts and talked about how she goes about quilting them.

I'm sure you recognize some of these quilts from her book and her blog.  Let's just say that they were all awesome to see in person.

I loved this quilt.  Probably because the quilting was awesome and I love Art Gallery fabrics. 

We were the first group that got to see quilts from her upcoming book, In the Studio with Angela Walters.

I loved this quilt.  Probably because I've always loved things celestial, and the quilting in the sky, moon and ocean were awesome in this quilt.

I loved the swirl quilting she did on this quilt.  I was happy that I got to learn how to do it during a class I took with her right after.  Now to find something to practice on.

I wanted to steal this quilt to hang in my basement.  Hey, I did just redo it in a grey and yellow color scheme.  It would go perfect.

Anyone who knows me would assume I would like this quilt just for the abundance of teal in it.

Looking at this quilt up close, it took me a little bit to realize that the quilt spelled out "Inspire." The quilting on this one is great too, but what else would you expect from Angela?

I do love me some good citrus colors in a quilt, and this one is no exception. 

Angela was amazing.  She's an incredibly talented quilter who genuinely loves to share her craft with others.  I was lucky that I spent some time with her Friday night during an opening reception and basically all day Saturday.  She is such a genuine person and I truly enjoyed spending time getting to know her and pick her brain.  

Lowell Quilt Festival - BMQG Exhibit

Well, the Lowell Quilt Festival is officially over, and that means our first ever special exhibit is in the books! Aimee, Alexis and the rest of the planning committee deserve huge props for putting together such an amazing show. I love the way the quilts look hung without the drape.  There's so much more light and space to see the quilts.  It really lends to the modern feel too. 

Our exhibit was held in an old restored Mill.  For those of you not from the Massachusetts area, Lowell has a very strong history in textiles and is called the cradle of the American Industrial Revolution.  I was born in Lowell and I have strong family roots there, despite moving to NH 20 years ago.  Seeing these old mills restored and renovated means a lot to not only myself and my family, but so many people from the area.  It's so much a part of my past and those from the area.  I had grandparents work in many of the mills.  Suffice it to say, seeing my quilts hung in a restored mill was touching and something that I'll remember for a very long time.

I showed you all of the mini quilts on Saturday.  I can't say enough how impressed I was with the talent displayed in this challenge. 

Onto some of the awesome quilts.  First up is Amy's New York Beauty quilt.  I love Amy's version - it's probably one of my all time favorite NYB quilts.  Maybe I'll finally finish my NYB quilt and can show it in our next show sometime. 

Alexis had some great quilts in the show including this one.  I love the colors she used in this quilt.

Karen (AKA KK) made this quilt.  She finished the binding and hanging sleeve the day before she left on a business trip that brought her back the day after the festival started, so she cut it close on this one!  She used Ricky Tims' technique on making a Kaleidoscope quilt.

Lia made this awesome quilt.  She finished it during our July sew-in at Fabric Place Basement and then gave birth to her daughter the very next day.  I'm sensing a theme of finishing things at the very last second here.  Hmm.

Speaking of finishing things at the very last second, I finished my Dreaming in Color quilt on Tuesday, August 7th.  On Wednesday, August 8th, I drove up to Lowell and hung this quilt just in time for the show to open on Thursday morning.

Aimee made this awesome double hourglass quilt.  I love the fabrics and choice of colors she used.  You should see the awesome piping that she made for this quilt too!  Ask her about it sometime ::wink wink::

Alice had several quilts in the show.  I LOVE the quilting on this one.  It caused a lot of headache for Alice, but I think it was totally worth it!

This is Rebecca's quilt, and probably one of the ones I most wanted to take home with me.  Watch out Rebecca - I might steal this quilt from you someday. 

On the left here you have two great art quilts and one of the quilts from the Habitat challenge we did a little while back.  On the right are two of the Around the World bee quilts all finished.  I contributed a round to each of these quilts.  Didn't the come out great?

We also had a great display of mini quilts at the show.  Mine is the house on the bottom left.  Seriously, such awesome talent!

These two quilts were bee quilts on display.  Both of them included blocks from both our bee and other bees to complete these.  I have to say, these are probably two of my favorite bee quilts I've seen. 

Mel's quilt is on the Left and includes pictures of her kids. She made this quilt for her husband for father's day.  Laurie's quilt is on the right.  I love the citrus colors of this quilt.  I might have to make a quilt in these colors some day.

Jane made this awesome Echo tumbler quilt.  Seeing Jane's version makes me want to make another one.

Linda made this great quilt.  The quilting on this one was awesome and definitely my favorite part!

Here's Aimee's quilt again on the left.  On the right is Andrea's quilt.  This is one of thirteen dowry quilts that she made for her wedding. How cool is that?

We had two great Dresden quilts in the show.  On the left is Laurie's quilt.  This was one of my Dad's favorite quilts.  He said it had a 3D effect.  On the right is Rebecca's quilt.  Both of them were just awesome.  I have all of the stuff to make a Dresden quilt, I just need to get my act together and make one.  Both of these were great inspiration.

On the left is another one of Andrea's dowry quilts on Emily's awesome quilt is on the right.  I love her use of color and placement in this quilt.  It looks so different when you stand close to it versus when you stand far back.  I just love it!

This is Jane's sampler quilt.  I've never made a sampler quilt, but after seeing this one, I might just have to try one some day.  I love the black and white with splashes of color.

This is Stephanie's paintbox quilt.  I just love all of the color!  I'm a big fan of color if you can't tell.

This is Alice's Ghastlies quilt.  I heard so many people comment on this quilt and studying the fabric.  She quilted an awesome spiderweb pattern on it, which really got people talking.

Aimee and Alice made coordinating zig zag quilts!  Hmm, more inspiration?

In the background you can see Alexis' Gees Bend inspired quilt.  On the right is Linda's t-shirt quilt.  Don't you just love how she used the dot fabric to go from big to little?

And here's another one of my quilts, my Moonlit Sky quilt, with me and my family.  With so much of my family being from Lowell, quite a few of them dropped by.  I'm very lucky to have such an amazing, supportive family.  Thank you to everyone who attended!  I really appreciate your love and support!

There are several other quilts that were in the show, but the pictures I have of those quilts didn't turn out so great.  All in all it was a fantastic show and one that every single person in the guild should be proud of!