Quiltivate

To Bee or Not to Bee?

We had a fun discussion at the Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild meeting the other night about the pros and cons of quilting bees, and what makes a bee great or not-so-good. It sounded like most people had had both positive and negative bee experiences. Generally, the blocks they got to create with a good amount of direction that allowed for the participants to be creative and inject their own style into the project made for more positive experiences. But when the person in charge sent detailed instructions and didn't allow for variations, they felt more like enlisted slaves than participants in a creative project. Ha! My co-attendees suggested finding a bee via Flickr, and it looks like there are a bunch of groups out there.

I'm thinking I could use a challenge to get me to try new things I wouldn't normally try. Would you suggest I do a bee? Or do you have another idea to help motivate me to experiment? I'd love to hear your ideas!

I'm Less Scared of Flying Geese Now

 

I've never really been too worried about the migrating kind of flying geese, but the quilt block version always looks really daunting to me. I'll admit I'm easily intimidated when it comes to quilting projects. In fact, I basically to this point have picked which block I wanted to use based on how easy it looks to assemble. Which explains why I've pretty much done Fundamental Nine-Patch blocks except for my crazy foray into half-square triangles with my little boy's robot quilt using the Flock Block a couple of years ago. 

But, thanks to the first issue of Fat Quarterly, I see now that Flying Geese blocks aren't really as hard as they look! 

 

Fat Quarterly has great tutorials for three different methods to create these feathered blocks ... and all three look really easy! One uses two half-square triangles to make the effect of flying geese; another uses one rectangle piece for the goose and two square pieces for the flying part; the final version is one big square and four little squares and you end up with two Flying Geese blocks. No mitering or voodoo necessary for any of the three methods!

To get the actual tutorials, head on over to Fat Quarterly and pick up the first issue. I'm not even halfway through yet and I'm completely inspired and excited to go try some stuff. it's totally worth the $8. Time to pull out the sewing machine to start my next project!

Finished at Last!

After a feverish few days of almost relentless hand-quilting, I have at last completed a quilt I've had in the works long before I'd heard of Denyse Schmidt or modern quilting. This is the second quilt top I ever made ... over six years ago! I'll give the full run-down on this puppy and her history in a few days, but here's the quick iPhone-camera preview:

 

Fat Quarterly

 

The interwebs are abuzz with the upcoming launch of Fat Quarterly! For $8 per quarterly issue or $28 per year, this new eZine promises to be chock-full of sewing patterns, designer interviews, fabric previews, giveaways and much more. They say:

Do you love modern quilts and other craft projects? Do you salivate over all the new exciting fabric lines? Are you always looking for new ideas and inspiration? If so, you've come to the right place.

Welcome to Fat Quarterly!

Fat Quarterly is a new e-magazine written by modern sewists for modern sewists.

The six contributors include some amazing creators and bloggers: Tacha at Hanies, Katy at I'm a Ginger Monkey, John at Quilt Dad, Kate at One Flew Over..., Brioni at FlossyBlossy, and Aneela at Comfort Stitching. Seriously - I'm really excited about this great line-up!

Subscribe to Fat Quarterly today - $8/issue or $28/year. Or you can enter to win over at Film in the Fridge. While you're waiting for your first issue to arrive next week, you should also sign up for the mailing list and check out their Flickr gallery. 

Be sure to look at the Fat Quarterly tutorials, too - these are really good, simple definitions and instructions for some basic quilting methods and techniques. They cover basting, quilting (grid and free-motion) with links to good tutorials for hand-quilting, binding and hexagons.

The countdown to Issue One begins! Are you going to subscribe to Fat Quarterly?

Don't Quit - QUILT!

Internationally-renowned author and business guru Seth Godin has a post on his blog today encouraging people to quilt instead of quitting! Of course he means it figuratively - here's what he says: 

When you've had enough, can't tolerate your job any longer and are ready to quit, perhaps you could try one last thing.

Quilt instead.

You've got nothing to lose, right? I mean, you're going to quit anyway, so what's the worst that could happen to you?

So quilt. Spend hours every day integrating the people you work with into a cohesive group. Weave in your customers as well. Take every scrap, even the people you don't like, and sew them together.

This analogy of quilting and relationships sinks in with me because I appreciate the intricate work required to put together a quilt. Our relationships are just like the quilts we make - we have some new friends and some old friends; some seemingly-small and insignificant relationships and some all-consuming relationships, but all of these connections are an integral part of our lives and we should treat them with care and diligence. We, as quilters, do this literally with fabric over and over again, so this is a great reminder to me that taking such care in my relationships - whether they're coworkers, friends, family members, or seemingly-random encounters with strangers. It may come down to scrapping it all (be it an actual quilt or even some relationships) in the future, but what do you have to lose by giving it a go? As Seth says at the end of his article, "Careful ... it might change everything."

Get literal and figurative at the same time - plan your next quilt now! Make something like this ...

... with the Flock block!

 

Why We Make Quilts

Thanks to @burgers79 for the tweet link to this article from The Guardian - they posted five short stories from women who made quilts for their loved ones for various occasions. Grab a box of tissues, but be sure to read through these neat stories. I bet if we were to all give our own mini-accounts, we'd hear similar things. 

I do like hand-quilting for the exact reason Alison Finch mentions: "It takes about three months to hand-stitch my quilts, and all the time I'm stitching I'm consciously stitching love into them. When you make a quilt for someone, they are wrapped in your love - like a magic protection." 

What does quilting mean to you?

Stadium Full of Charity Quilts

Look at this cool photo of all these quilts in this huge stadium - can you imagine the man-hours that have gone into making all of these quilts?

 

This is a picture from an organization called A Quilt for Every Bed. With support from Delta Airlines, they provide about 3,000 quilts to children at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. 

Once again, I'm excited to hear about how many quilters are using their skills to make gorgeous quilts for those in need. Think of how warm and cozy these quilts feel for these kiddos who are in the hospital - so much nicer than the typical scratchy hospital blankets. Find out more about A Quilt for Every Bed on their new blog. 

Thanks to Michelle for the original link!
 

New Quilt Blocks! April 2010, Week 2

Tuck that Kitty in the Corner and color Joseph's Coat how you like it, then make them into quilts! Play around with this week's five new blocks in the Quiltivate Quilt Builder, then get fabric calculations and make those plans into actual quilts. Check 'em out:

Irish Chain




Jack Knife




Joseph's Coat




Kitty in the Corner




London Roads Variation

Getting Started with Quilting Supplies

Care from Obsessively Stitching has a new series to help her friend and very talented sewer from Darling Petunia to go for it and make her "1st Quilt EVER." To get her started, Care did a really good post suggesting some basic supplies she'd need. She answers some great questions, like, "Do acrylic rulers wear out?" and "Why do you suggest a 24" x 36" rotary cutting mat vs. a smaller one?" See Care's responses to these great questions on this supplemental post.   

Keep an eye on both Care's blog and Susan's blog as they walk through this project together. In fact, why not join them in making your own quilt? Looks like a fun project! 

100 Quilt Tops Per Year?

 

Guys, this amazing lady is on track to make 100 twin-sized quilt tops this year! Evelyn Schweitzer from Marion, Ohio turns 85 this weekend and has conquered cancer twice but she still whips off 100 quilt tops per year and has done so for the past eight years running. All these quilts are donated to the Lutheran World Relief program and distributed all over the world. Here's how Evelyn does it:

"She works on the quilts about five at a time, sometimes spending one day cutting out the pieces then another stitching them together. It takes about three hours to make a 60-by-80 inch quilt top of alternating squares, but longer, eight or nine hours, if Schweitzer decides to take on a more intricate pattern, like her favorite, Lover's Knot."

Can you imagine having the goal of 100 quilt tops and taking the time to make some of them with this fancy Lover's Knot block? 

 

So many people's lives have been touched by her quilts - what a way to make a difference and do something fun. Yay, Evelyn!