Randomness

The Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild had a 5 year birthday celebration last week. Shea's sewing machine cookies were a huge hit. Some people couldn't bear to eat theirs because they were so cute. But I did!

 And on the subject of baking...The gals in the Mid-Century Modern Bee are turning out some awesome cakes for me as I'm the queen bee this month. Three arrived this week...I'm so excited!

After several months of gathering dust, my quilting frame has been seeing quite a bit of action. I think this UFO is going to be so happy to finally become a real quilt!

 I also have made a decision to topstitch down the seams on the back of the Spider Web quilt to use it as a tablecloth. I'm hoping to finish it up at the KCMQG retreat this weekend...aptly named Quilt-Non since it's taking place the same weekend that many are enjoying Quilt-Con in Austin. We have some fun stuff planned! Stay tuned for more on that.

 One plan is to make some blocks as a group to be used in a charity quilt. We'll be using the Quilt-Con colors in a simple design. The fun will come in setting them together creatively.

And speaking of creative....look at the great stage make-up Haven wore last week in her 3rd grade play called "It's a Jungle Out There". 

Isn't she the cutest cheetah ever!

Modernistas!

Thursday night the Kansas City modernista quilters met for another fun and inspirational meeting of the Modern Quilt Guild. How I love to get together with these talented and excited quilters! We kicked off the Habitat Fabric challenge with lots of cute little bundles of Jay McCarrol's modern prints. The challenge is to create a quilt of any size using only the 6 fat eighths included in the packet plus any other Habitat fabric and/or solids  to make your "modern" quilt. The finished quilts are due back at our November meeting. Jaquie Gering is donating one of her awesome quilt racks as a Viewer's Choice prize!

 Show and Tell is a highlight of this active and quilt prolific guild. I was so excited and surprised by this fabulous quilt by Mary who used my Liberated Cross Block tutorial. Aren't the colors stunning! I might have to copy it.....

or steal it!

KCMQG Chef Swap

We were given a challenge in the Modern Quilt Guild to use the scraps provided by another member to create something for their kitchen.  Here are some of the pretty fabrics included in the packet that I randomly chose. 

Vicki wanted red and a little bit of aqua.

 Spying a nice set of white bar towels at Target, I decided they would make a great jumping off point for my swap project. I found a tutorial on Sew 4 Home and tweaked it to work with the fabrics I was given.

 Included in the packet were several selvages. Adding some Sherbet Pip squares that I had on hand from another project, I soon created a little pot holder to match the towels.

 Oh, it is so hard to part with this set of new kitchen linens!

 I do love aqua and red together so much! 

 Vicki,have fun using your pretty towels as you cook up something delish this summer!

Mary chose my baggie of scraps. I'd also included red and aqua with some lime green thrown in too. Look what she made for me! There was even a cup to match in my gift bag!

 The cute mug rug is reversible so I can have a new look every time I use it. 

Thanks, Mary!

I treated myself to some Starbucks this morning, as you can see. I must have sounded really excited to be there in the drive thru, because when I picked up my drink at the window, the name on it was "for our happiest customer!"

It also may have had something to do with the fact that i had two beautiful redheaded little girls in the backseat, singing "The wheels on the bus...."

Have a super day!

The No Prints Allowed Challenge

The second Thursday of every month is a special one......it means it's time again for the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild meeting! I drive about 40 minutes one way to get there...that's how much I enjoy attending. I know there are members who travel even farther, including our president. It's pretty inspiring to be there every month. A record breaking 91 quilters attended last night!

 This month our meeting was especially exciting as we unveiled our projects for the No Prints Allowed Challenge. A few months ago we were each given a charm pack of Kona solids, generously donated by Robert Kauffman, and our challenge was to make a quilt using a piece from every charm in the pack plus any other solid fabric we wanted to add. Here is the quilt top that I created using a pastel color way charm pack plus Kona charcoal and white.

The block is called the Exquisite Block from Gwen Marston's Liberated Quiltmaking II. As you can see, it is just the top only as I didn't give myself enough time to get it quilted before the meeting. I thought it appropriate to photograph my unfinished quilt on my husband's unfinished garden shed that he has been working on since Thanksgiving for awhile now! (To be fair it has been snowing a lot...good excuse for the barn, but not the quilt!)

The pastels got a little washed out in the crazy sunshine, but hopefully you can get the idea. I first became infatuated with making a quilt like this exactly one year ago when I saw this one that Ashley was making at FilmintheFridge. I may not be very original, but I know what I like!

I used a folded one inch wide strip of white to add the accent flange and some dimension to the quilt.  I'll do a How-To post on that soon, in case you would like to try it. Wait. Can you even SEE the white strip in these photos? Trust me, each triangle has one!


I thought that you might like to see some of the other quilts that were made for the challenge, so go pour yourself a Pepsi and maybe even pop some corn.....there are not a few pics to follow ...just so you know!  Enjoy the show.................... 

Can you even believe all the talent in this group? And this is only part of what was shown! Now you can see why I never want to miss a meeting!

Follow Through

I might ramble a bit today. I'm having some thoughts about " follow through". You know...finishing what you start....commitment. Now, I have my share of UFO's, that's for sure....more than my share, truth be told. Here's one that I handed off to a fabulous machine quilter at KCMQG last night, Angela Walters. (I wanted to have her quilt something for me before she got SO famous that I'd have to wait years just to get on the list!)

No, I'm not talking about letting ourselves down by not following through, but rather letting others down when we sign up to do something....and then don't. That's a horse of a different color, I think. It's something rarely talked about among friendly Blogland. But it happens.

You sign up for a Bee or exchange on Flickr and are sooooo excited. You make your block, or whatever, send it off only to wait....and wait....and wait.... and then maybe never have the joy of recieving something in return. Fortunately, it doesn't happen often because most quilters are as good as their word, I've found. But.....it only has to happen once...or twice to make you consider NOT joining in another round of a  Quilting Bee again.


 Sometimes, there are good excuses, like illness or tragedy, that make life crazy and things have to be put on hold. But other times, over commitment is the real culprit............ overcommitment to joining too many sewing Bees that damages the reputation of a quilter and the whole fun Bee Exchange in general. Quilters need to step back and really decide if they have the time to "follow through" before joining every Bee that looks tempting!!
Okay, I'm done fuming! Thanks for listening!


On the positive side, I have been a part of a great flickr group called the 3x6 Bee for a year.  I worked with 24 different quilters during that time. Only during the last quarter of 2010 did just one quilter not follow through. One was 2 months late without explanation, but she finally sent her blocks. Here are the last 5 blocks that have been sent my way....the 6th one is still pending. The top left block was made by me as a sample.

Thank you Marlyn from UT, Jenifer from CO, Melinda from WI, Solidia from IN, and Julie from CA for "following through"! You keep me wanting to trust that quilters really can be depended on! I  do love the whole Block Party concept.


Speaking of Block Party............Our speaker for the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild last night was none other than Allissa, one of the founders of the whole MQG movement and author of a book called Block Party, due out in April. Her blog, Handmade by Alissa,  is very inspirational and her quilts were even better in person than in pictures (of course!).

 Alissa brought some of her first quilts and some new ones that couldn't be photographed because they are "top secret" until her latest book exploring minimalism is published.

 Solid fabrics and lovely color are some of Alissa's favorite themes at this point in her quilt journey.

Here's the cover quilt for the Block Party book!

 We had lots of fun hearing about her life in LA and her quilting experience. But, then, we always have a lot of fun at the Modern Quilt Guild in Kansas City!

New Challenge

                                                         Oh, my!  What's all this?!

 Yep!  You guessed it right.........charm packs of Kona solids!  100 of them to be exact.....One for each member of the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild (plus a few extras).

 Our challenge, should we accept it, is to create a quilt using all the charms in the color story that we chose. Some of the squares can be used on the back, if we want, but each one must be represented in the quilt somewhere.  We can add as much fabric as we want to make the quilt, as long as it is solid.  No prince  prints allowed!! Oh sure, we cut up the squares into any shape, and do not have to use the entire square, but at least a small piece of every color must be pieced into the quilt.

 Of course, I couldn't resist!  It was soooo hard to decide which pack to choose. I started out with the brights (the most popular with the quilters last night, I'd say), then changed to the dusty packet before finally ending up with the pastel charms in my bag. The quilts are due at the March MQG meeting...a celebration, of sorts, of our one year anniversary! Thank you, Robert Kaufman, for such a nice gift to our guild.  We love us some solid colors!!!


We also love us some prints!  Look at this beauty, made by Paula and shown off by the maker and our President, Jacquie.

Paula did a presentation of the Six Minute Circle (which she can make in four minutes!) She used the method to create the circles on this wonderful quilt.  I am definitely going to try it!
I love me some modern quilt guild!!

Cookies Anyone?

Or maybe a donut?  I love 'em both and now I can have my fill whenever I want without worrying about those pesky ole calories!!


I need new pot holders....badly.  What you are looking at are the pads I won in last night's Pot Holder Swap at the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild.  Aren't they a great matched set?  Cute as can be. Guess what. They were made by two different quilters! Who'da thunk it that I would draw the numbers for both!  It was just meant to be, I think.

Here's a view from the back. Cute as the front and just as calorie free.  I can just put on the tea pot and plunk my cup down on a different donut every morning to get my sugary fix, don't you think?
The pot holders were made by Barbara and Mary, both friends of mine.  They were sitting together at the meeting and had each made pads from similar fabric without knowing it. It is so much fun when things like that work out so great.  My mother-in-law always loved coincidences (she called them God-incidents) and always had one to tell me about. If she were still living, I'd enjoy sharing this one with her. And this one..................................

These are the hot pads that I made and brought to swap. I had a wonderful time picking through my selvage collection to make them. I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but I pleated a strip of selvage in the center of the hot pad on the right....kinda fun!
Guess who won one of them?
Barbara!  The maker of the cute "flip flop" pot holder. We just exchanged our miniature quilts.  
Another God- incident.  I don't know if God really cares who get what quilted hot pad, but I bet He got a kick out of it too!

Here's the back side of my pads.    I've had the spoon and fork fabric for awhile and was saving it for just the right project. Bingo!
The  pear and apple fabric is by Alexander Henry and has been around for awhile but I still just love it. 
I enjoyed making this pads so much that I decided to make an extra set as a gift to my new friend, Sarah, who graciously quilted two of the Rwanda quilts.  I hope she likes them.

I'm suddenly craving chocolate chip cookies....or maybe a trip to Dunkin' Donuts! Gotta go!
Happy quilting,
Carla

Plume

The Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild began in January. I've attended two fun meetings charged with energy for modern quilting. One of the members designs fabrics under the name of Tula Pink. Her latest collection, Plume, will be featured at the April meeting with a "Project Runway" type program.

In February, we were given a free charm pack of 5 inch squares and challenged to make a quilt using only these Plume fabrics plus 1/2 yard fabric of our choice. I've been busy creating my project and wanted to show you a hint of what I'm doing. In April I'll be strutting the runway with my finished quilt. I'll show you the finished results! In the meantime, why not check out this new guild at http://kcmodernquiltguild.ning.com/. Maybe you would like to join us!