June Bee Sewcial block

I made these two blocks for Debbie for June's Bee Sewcial bee blocks. She requested mid-century modern and provided some great ideas on her Pinterest board. I know I had a bit of Alexander Calder on my mind when I made these, even though I think that is sort of a subtle influence. I chose to keep the color palette restrained for each block, but with some carryover of color from one to the other. I think they'll play nicely with some of the other blocks I've seen too.

Speaking of the other blocks, I am amazed by what my bee mates come up with every month. You can see all their brilliant work on the Flickr group. I'm lucky to be a part of this!

May Bee Sewcial block

I really enjoyed seeing this on my design wall!

May was Marci's month for Bee Sewcial and I really enjoyed her assignment. It involved listening to music for inspiration which was a first for me. I thought the tune kind of bopped along so I wanted my block to mimic that feeling. She also had a lot of Sherri Lynn Wood's work on her inspiration board and wanted it to feel--even if abstractly--like scenery and houses. It also needed to be improv. (Plus there was more but this is the summary of what she was asking for.) This is what I came up with. I see houses, meadows, mountains and sky but it is up to your imagination to make them out.

April Bee Sewcial blocks

These two are both for Di. I had a lot of fun with these blocks, and a bit of struggle in a good way. I'm getting more and more comfortable with improv. For me, it is something that I feel is improving with practice. I think a lot of that has to do with building up more confidence and learning to let go a bit more.

Busy, bubbly block with lots of texture. The bubbles were inset using the 6 min circle method.

I love how the blue curve on the right happened
to nearly line up with the form to the left.

Two quilt finishes: Kaleidoscope and Jacquie Gering improv class

You know the thing with blogging, life gets busy and bloggin gets pushed aside--even reading my favorite blogs. Also, so does extra time for quilting. Anyway, I did manage to finish up the Kaleidoscope quilt from the Don't Call Me Betsy Kaleidoscope QAL (which only started in May 2011, ha!), and a little improv wall hanging from the improv piecing class given by none other than the lovely, talented Jacquie Gering. If you ever get a chance to take a class from her or even just to meet her, take advantage of it. She's an amazing artist and has a great personality to boot.

The kaleidoscope details...

Pattern: Don't Call Me Betsy Kaleidoscope QAL, throw size

Quilting: by me

Notes: Finished as part of the Front Range Modern Quilt Guild's UFOctober. I needed a little push to complete this. It has bugged me that my points don't match up well in almost every block where the convex angle is so that kind of sapped my motivation to finish it.

Who it is for: The quilt was always intended for my son and I'll put it on his big bed when he is old enough for one. Right now, it is draped over the rocker in his room. I hope he'll like it when he get's a bit older. It wasn't made with perfection, but it was made with love.

Fabric: most of it is Make Life by Sweetwater for Moda, but there are lots of others thrown in. I think most of it ended up being Moda. There is some Sherbet Pips, Peas and Carrots, American Primer and Sunkissed for sure.

The improv details...

Pattern: from Jacquie Gering's improv piecing class. Instructions for it can be found in her Quilting Modern book, the quilt is Urban Garden.

Quilting: by me

Size: about 24''x24'' (I didn't measure it exactly, but it is pretty small)

Notes: The class with Jacquie was inspiring and this pushed me artistically. I don't feel that's ever happened in a quilt class before and I loved it. This was a really intuitive quilt for me and I don't feel like I really nailed the design but I do enjoy it. It has a lot of energy, for sure. I am a little uncomfortable with how crazy it is. Also, the way I basted and quilted it distorted some of the shapes pretty badly but it sort of works with the design. I am declaring that a happy accident.

Who it is for: this quilt was made for my husband for his upcoming birthday. Many of the prints have extra meaning in them.

Fabric: the background is a blue/black shot cotton from Studio E. The rest are primarily text prints I have collected over the years with a few other solids and prints mixed in. 

Finally, A Productive Week

Last week I got so much done. After a crazy March and an April to recoup, it felt really good to get some things checked off the list. In case you want to know, in the past two months I have had to say goodbye to a much loved and missed cat who was pooping and throwing up on the floors daily (poor little guy had a tumor), two bad head colds, painful dental issues resulting in a root canal and crown, kids with colds including my now 6 month old, hubby out of town for work, a trip to see my family for a week, a big presentation to the FRMQG on color theory and did I mention I have an almost 6 month old? The time has flown by.

Anyway, enough of my rambling... here are the projects.

The first is a pillow for my daughter with hand appliqued hearts and wonky improv piecing. It was a lot of fun. She saw me come home with those hearts a few months back and loved them, asking if they were for her. (Of course they were, sweetie!) We had a guest speaker explain a few techniques on hand applique using this heart shape. I'm not sure I'll be doing more of that anytime soon, but it is very useful to know how. I didn't want the pillow to feel too formal or stuffy, so I got improv-y with the rest of the piecing to give it some personality. It was my first time trying that.

Best of all--she loves it! In fact, she loves it so much that she cried because she didn't know which pillow she loved more: her mushroom pillow (which I made her a couple years ago) or the new one. Seriously melts my heart. I love a girl who appreciates handmade things!

the much loved mushroom pillow (left)
 and the new heart pillow

The second set of projects completed are a gift to some friends of ours. Jenny loves batik fabrics so I went out of my comfort zone and used them for this pillow set and table runner. (They are a charm pack of Sunrise Sunset batiks from Moda.) They go perfectly in their earthy/modern house. The table runner is a funny story because I was again being improv-y and didn't like the initial results. I then used a glue stick and randomly stuck on 3/4" strips of fabric on top of what I had pieced. Then I stippled it, leaving the edges raw to fray and weather. I really like the look. It adds a lot of texture. I think both of them really liked it too. It was fun to see how it picked up on so many of the colors that they have in their house.

lots of fun texture with the raw edges