Friendship Block

We gathered together and exchanged friendship blocks in September.  We had all of the blocks available for exchanging but one.  There are 20 blocks total for this quilt.

I put the blocks up on the design wall that evening because I collected blocks for my friend Melissa.  I wanted to take a picture so she could see what her quilt was going to look like when it is done.

These are my blocks on the design wall the evening I received them from the group.

These are Melissa's blocks on the design wall.  Very similar but there are a few differences.

Classic Rolling Stone block created by Betty S.

Simplex Star created by Jan S.

Created by Lynn C.

Created by Christine A.

Potager created by Marlene H.

Best Friend created by Nancy S.

Created by Rita O.

Stargazing created by Sue W.

Simple Star block created by Sue C.

Churn Dash by Sue H.

Created by Karen B.

Created by Kora C.

Created by Brenda W.

Checkered Fields created by Melissa L.

Rectangle Window created by me.

Road to Heaven created by Lee F.

Mondrian created by Kris L.

Created by Morganne K.

Created by Kim L.

Criss Cross Triangle created by Nancy S.

We are supposed to have the quilts completed in February.  At the February get together, we are going to reveal our quilts.  We also receive the new fabric which I get to select for this go around.  I am excited and my first thought was solid orange.  But now that I have been thinking about it, I am going to do a bit of research and find out what the 2015 quilting color of the year.  And I may change my mind again.

Checkers

JoAnne B. ended up requesting Checkers designed by Monika Wintermantel from the Modern Blocks book compiled by Susanne Woods for the modern block exchange group through Four Winds Quilting.  What JoAnne has told me since receiving her blocks back is that she had another block selected but since she was not available to present that day, she sent a quick email to Nancy.  Nancy Sasse forgot exactly what JoAnne requested and presented what she thought JoAnne requested.  JoAnne likes the new blocks even better than the original idea she had selected.  It all works our great in the end!

From Nancy's presentation, we were supposed to put something that meant something to us with the tree or in the center of the block.  I used Pony from the 120 Original Embroidery Designs book by Yoko Saito.

Overall block:

Close up of the pony:

 Close up of the center of the block:

I really like the pony.  If I come up with the need for a pony again, I know where to reference.

Modern Blocks Requested

I presented the block On the Fence designed by Weeks Ringle & Bill Kerr from the Modern Blocks book compiled by Susanne Woods.  Following are the blocks I used as my samples for the modern block exchange group through Four Winds Quilting in Billings, MT.

I have already received many of the On the Fence blocks back.  I have not yet put the blocks on the design wall even to take a picture because I was told that I was going to receive more blocks back from people who have not yet turned in their blocks.

In September, I presented my block request to the other modern block exchange group.  I requested Envy designed by Angela Pingel in the Modern Blocks book compiled by Susanne Woods.

I am to receive the Envy blocks back from the exchange group the third Saturday in October.

Some of the ladies asked me where I had purchased the striped fabric I used in my blocks.  I did have to tell them that I purchased it at Barb Olson's garage sale so I had no vendor information for them.

Round Robin

Karol H.'s round robin treasure was a Quilt Ladies embroidery in redwork that Karol had done.  Then we were to add a round of borders.

I created a few Center Stage 3 3/4" unfinished blocks.  I miscalculated initially and ended up with more blocks than I really needed.  I guess that is better than miscalculating and ending up with too few blocks.  The Center Stage block is from the New Classic Patchwork book by Yoko Saito.

The little blocks can get a lot of bulk built up in the back because they are so small and there is no where for the seam to lie and be out of the way.  I did end up pressing some of the seams open so that the presser foot on my sewing machine did not get pushed around.

Crumb Quilt - #29 September

I have had this crumb quilt quilted for a while.  I just needed to put the binding on to have it completed and off of the to do list.

I used a solid for the most visible part of the binding and a flannel for the piped part of the binding.  I thought the flannel would slip and slide too much to be the most visible part of the binding.  It seemed to work out fine to use flannel for the piping.

Although it was a long time ago, I do remember that I did not trim after each seam when I was created the four and a half unfinished crumb squares.  That made bulky seams in the blocks.  The quilting machine would bounce around the bulk because the hopping foot is only set so high.  Since learning that, I have been trimming more of the excess out from behind the crumb blocks.  Although I haven't gotten anything with this small of crumbs to the quilting machine lately, hopefully it will work better.

I took this quilt for show n tell at the Quilt By Association guild last night.  Although I like the crumb quilts, I do not think they are show stoppers.  But guild members were very kind and said nice things about my crumb quilt.  Maybe they were just impressed that I brought a show n tell item!

Blogger Exchange

The blocks for the upcoming Blogger exchange on Saturday are:
StarFlower for Linda G. in Arizona.  Starflower was designed by Angela Nash.  The pattern is found in the Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe book distributed by That Patchwork Place.

Party Hats for Carol in Arizona.  Party Hats is from McCall's Quilting.  On the paperwork it states block reference at mccallsquilting.com.

Dog Bed

Another 2 dog beds for the pound.

I think previously I may have been filling the dog beds too full.  One of the ladies at day guild said that they are using these dog beds for the animals that have been neutered.  I am trying to hold back on how much stuff I am now putting in the beds.

QBA Row By Row

JoAnne B. from night guild requested your interpretation of your town for her row by row.  Most of the participants created houses.  Although that does make sense, I created trucks.

 I thought that during the warm days in Montana, road construction takes place.  I used the Buggy Barn pattern from the Those Crazy Kids book.

JoAnne provided the fabric.  When I finished the trucks, I thought this fabric would be really easy and fun to quilt with big spirals that feed back onto themselves and the next spiral takes off from the current spiral.

I have loved these trucks from Buggy Barn for a long time and I kept thinking I would create some trucks for my kids.  I never got around to creating anything truck related for my kids yet.  I was happy to get to make trucks for something.  And they are as easy as I anticipated.

We have one more row to complete before the big reveal at the December meeting.  I will then get to see what other people have created for me from the beach embroidery designs I sent them.