Blocks For Exchange

In the day quilt guild, Yellowstone Valley Quilt Guild, the block exchange is not a committment that is written in blood.  Instead, if you want to do the block that a member presents that month, you take home the information, you do the block, and return the block at the next meeting.  In this way, as the presenter, you do not know how many blocks you will get back in return.  If the pattern you present is difficult, you may not get any blocks back.  If the block is easy, you may get a bunch of blocks back.  After you have completed 12 blocks for other people, you become the presenter.  For some reason, I decided to start doing blocks.  And, when I get to 12 blocks completed, I have no idea what I will present.  But I keep doing blocks.
This month, I did a star block:

I also did the black and white strip set someone requested.  The directions on this were just to do a strip set and the person would make up the pattern as they went along.

At the April night guild meeting, Quilt By Association, the activity was to create a snowball block.  Then, a name was drawn out of the people that brought a block.  The winner received a $25 gift card and all of the snowball blocks.  A person at my table won the blocks but it was not me.  I created this block for the activity:

Just keeping active in the guilds . . .

Macaroni

Big Sky Quilt Retreat is taking place this weekend at the Shrine in Billings, Montana.  I hung out at the show and just had fun on Thursday.  Today, Friday, I got to take a class!  I selected Susan Cleveland's class:  Piping Hot Curves - Macaroni.
Susan Cleveland is full of energy and she is a great teacher.  I had a lot of fun in the class.  It took the whole day, but this is the fun block that I ended up creating.

I was just thinking about quilting within the macaroni's and creating a wave type thing across the center of the quilt.  It was working out great in my head.  But then Susan Cleveland had a wrap up session and talked about quilting and finishing our set of macaroni blocks.  One thing Susan Cleveland mentioned was that we could not densely quilt by the piping because the piping does not shrink the same as the cotton fabric.  If we did quilt a lot on the quilt, we would end up with the piping waving like the Rocky Mountains.  Since this is not the goal I am hoping to achieve, I do not plan on creating any additional macaroni at this time.
Although I am sad that I am not going to create a macaroni quilt, I am really glad that Susan Cleveland mentioned the Rocky Mountains.  I would have been more sad if I had created 8 more macaroni, did a bunch of quilting only in the center of the quilt, and had Rocky Mountains.  Susan Cleveland kept saying, "You have more fabric than time" so you can waste a little bit of fabric.  Along those same lines, I do not have enough time to make all of the quilting mistakes in the world.  I get to make plenty already!

Modern Block

I have been curious about the modern quilting movement but I haven't done anything about it but gather opinions and information - until recently.  I went into Nancy Sasse's Four Winds Quilting Shop in Billings in February to pick up fabric for the Hawaiian fabric challenge.  I allowed myself to get talked into joining the Modern Quilt Block Exchange group that Nancy has going on in her shop.  I do have to admit that it was not a difficult sell.
This is the first block I have created for one of the other members of the group.

Since I joined the group even after it was already started, I present my block at the very end of the program.  It is lucky that I request a block last because I do not yet have any idea of where I am going to go with this modern quilting fun.

I do like to try new things.  I was thinking the other day though that I need to slow down on how many new quilting things I am trying and get a style of my own.  But then again, I my not be ready for that kind of groove!

Spicy Spiral Table Runner - #9 January 2013

I do realize that I already used the Spicy Spiral Table Runner as one of my other month's completed item.  But, the last 2 were not completed until the very last day of January.  And, these two table runners were the only items I actually finished in the month of January.  The first two Spicy Spiral table runners were given away as gifts in December.

I think what I learned with this project was that I don't need to make a whole bunch of one item.  Luckily, these were small and I actually finished them.  But I don't know that I need to make four of the exact same thing again any time soon.

Hawaiian Challenge

I like the idea of quilt challenges.  I haven't yet successfully completed a challenge but I like to think about what I would create within the challenge guidelines.
Four Winds Quilting was having a Hawaiian Challenge to brighten up the Montana winter days.  We had the choice of purchasing a fat quarter or 1/2 yard cut of fabric.  Other than that, the main rule was to have fun.
Since I have not yet learned that small items will possibly be completed in my lifetime, I opted for the 1/2 yard cut of fabric.

I picked up the fabric on Saturday, February 2.  I have been working on the challenge quilt but I am not as far along as I had hoped I would be.  The challenge items are due back at Nancy's store by 10AM on Saturday, February 23, 2013.  Hopefully, I am not still putting binding on that morning.
There will be 2 judges to review our Hawaiian Challenge entries.  The winner will receive a gift certificate to the Four Winds Quilting shop.

Common Bride

The last weekend of January, I got to go to a Common Bride retreat at Trackside Quilting in Laurel.  The Common Bride pattern is by Edyta Sitar.
The smallest pieces in the quilt are 1 1/4" squares.  Super small!
I picked up the pattern the Thursday about a week before the retreat so I could start cutting from my fabric stash.  I did have the light fabric cut by the time I went to the retreat but there is still a lot of cutting left to do.
The Common Bride pattern also has a lot of Y seams in the 25 star blocks.  Learning and getting proficient at Y seams is the main reason I wanted to work on this quilt.  I want to get better at Y seams.

By the end of the 3 day retreat, needless to say, I did not have too much completed.  Just the center star.

So far, I have not purchased any fabric for this quilt.  The pattern calls for 14 yards of fabric.  I have been going through my stash fabric and I have not been wanting for fabric for this project yet.
There is applique in this quilt too.  It will look really cool when it is complete but it is going to take me a long time.

Exchange Blocks

At both the day and night quilt guilds, they do a block exchange.  At the night guild, you have to sign up and commit for a year.  I have participated in the night guild block exchange before and I really did enjoy it.
At day guild, you make whatever block you would like from the two blocks presented for that month.  You could opt to do both blocks or no blocks that month.  When you have completed any 12 blocks, you will be allowed to present a block for other people to creat for you.
I must have been behind because in January I picked up 4 blocks to do for other people.  Since they are not a whole quilt, I just took a picture of all 4 blocks together.  Nothing too impressive but it will be fun when I get to present and receive blocks back.  I will just have to decide what I would like to do.

In the lower right hand corner, it appears that the "block" is just paper.  It is really green and cream half square triangles using a paper to sew along to get perfect straight lines.  The final result is supposed to be 2" unfinished half square triangles.