Lynn's Bento Box

Here are a few pictures of Lynn's Bento Box quilt that she started during our gathering on Saturday.  I think it came out great.  I just love the colors.

This was layout 1.   It looks good, but not as nice as layout 2.  

And here's layout 2, the layout she ended up going with.  I love this layout.  I like how it has the traditional Bento Box feel with the alternating dark and light values next to each other in each quilt square.

Quilting Gathering

Yesterday was our quilting gathering.  We got together around 10am and went until about 4:30pm with a small break for lunch.  We debated for a little while on what we wanted to do. All do the same pattern? Mystery Quilt? A quilt based on a color or theme?  Hmm...  After a little debating, we decided to all do a Bento Box quilt.  

Prior to getting together, I did some pre-work and cut a bunch of strips so that I could spend more time sewing and less time cutting.

Here's a picture of my first block and KK's first block. We both decided to use just two fabrics for an interesting, dynamic quilt.

Lynn was doing a scrappy look with some blues, greens, and yellows paired with black and white fabrics.  Things were coming along nicely, but when she started to arrange the blocks together, things just didn't pop.  We realized that she needed more contrast, so we went and explored her stash.  We picked out some darker blues and brighter yellows that really helped.  

THEN... I pulled out a few orange fabrics and WHAM, that's what the quilt needed.  Here we are auditioning different oranges with the blues, greens, and yellows.  You can see one of the quarter squares in the bottom right of this picture that just didn't go.  Ok, it went, but it just didn't make things pop.  Look at how those colors work together now!

Here's a close up of us auditioning all the fabrics.  I can't wait to see how it all comes together.  
And finally, here's a picture of the four blocks I was able to finish.  I finished another 3 last night when I got home.  I have a lot of pieces sewn together, so while it doesn't look like I got a lot done, I really did.  I'm loving how just the two fabrics work together.  

Fabric Choices for New Quilt

This coming Saturday, KK, Lynn (a co-worker), and I are getting together for a quilting gathering.  We all decided to do the same pattern, a Bento Box.  I've been wanting to make one of these for a while and I thought this would be an easy quilt to make and wouldn't require a lot of concentration since we'll probably be gabbing the whole time.  

Here are my fabric choices.  What do you think?  I'm SOOOO excited about them.  It will be made with the navy batik and the bottom lime green batik with the top lime green as the border.  This will help meet one of my 2009 goals, to make a quilt using batiks.  I've always loved batiks, but have never really used them to make a big quilt.  I've only made a few small wall hanging with batiks.  

I'm thinking of doing some cutting prior to our gathering so that I can spend more time sewing.  I think KK was planning on doing the same thing.  Now I need to figure out what kind of baked good I want to make and bring since I promised I'd bring something.  It can't be chocolate, even though I'm a chocolate addict, because KK doesn't like chocolate (gasp).   

I've been working on my autumn quilt.  I just have two more sides of the border to add and I'll be done with the top.  Here's a little peek.  I hope to have the top done by the end of the week. 

March Scenic BOM

I finished the March Scenic BOM tonight.  This one took the least amount of time to make.  For some reason, the fabric choices came easy for this one.  I bought an extra fat quarter of Mark Lipinski's fabric at his event a few weeks ago knowing that I would use it for the setting triangles for this block because they have a St. Patrick's day feel to them, so that's probably why the fabric choices were easy.  Plus, I knew I wanted green grass, so it really didn't take a lot of color decisions.

I like this block.  I'm really glad that it was more scenic and not another house block.  I have a bunch of Easter fabric for the next BOM.  I'm excited to see what it looks like.

Venetian Mask

This Venetian Mask came home with me on my trip to Italy two years ago and sits in my quilting room.  It's covered in fabric unlike the traditional masks that are often painted or covered in colorful paper.  

We saw them making some other masks out of fabric.  They had a huge stash of fabric scraps that they used to make these masks.  They're mainly made out of upholstery fabric, but it looked like there were some silks and other types of fabric in their stash.