Project Modern

Have you seen the contest going on over at the Modern Quilt Guild website?  They are calling it Project Modern (button in my sidebar) and there will be four contests over the next year.  It was announced on September 1, so I am a little slow at blogging about it!

My first thought was "Great!  I'm in!"  Then they announced that the first contest is to design a quilt from an inspiration photo.  Hmmm, I don't usually work this way.....  I do take inspiration photos, but I rarely use them to directly inspire a quilt.  They are more like visual background information.

So, I started looking through my photo files and came across a series from several years ago.  The photos reminded me that I had, in fact, sketched out a quilt design inspired by this series of photos.  The drawing in my sketchbook is dated 8/24/08!  I was thrilled to see this design again.  I had loved the idea when I drew it.  It was just one of those projects I never got around to and had semi-forgotten.  Now, I am excited to have a chance to bring it to life!

I am a little unsure of whether it will make a good quilt for this contest.  My original idea was for a fairly small quilt.  Project Modern quilts must be at least 45" x 45".  I'm not sure it will work this big, but I think I will go ahead and make the quilt.  Then, I'll decide if it works-first, as a quilt, and then, for the contest.  If not, at least I will have explored an idea that has been floating around in my head for a couple of years.

The quilt pictured with this post is called "Seaside" (approx 36" x 45") and has absolutely nothing to do with Project Modern but I don't like to post without a picture so I dug this one up.  I don't think I have posted about it before.  I started this quilt about two years ago in a workshop on luminosity with Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr of FunQuilts.  I LOVE their work and they have a new book coming out this fall called "Quilts Made Modern."  It will definitely be on my Christmas list!

Have you ever made a quilt for a contest?

No more funk!

Thanks so much for your encouragement about my sewing funk.  I am feeling so much better this week!  Projects are zipping through my mind all the time.  If my body worked half as fast as my mind, I'd get so much more done!  Of course, I spend a lot of time thinking about quilting when I'm doing all kinds of other things like cooking dinner, driving, laundry, etc.  I'm sure you all know how that is:  "I'm sorry, what were you saying, honey?  My mind was somewhere else."  They know where it was!  Lucky for me, my family is forgiving of my lapses in attention.

I have been playing with Fall fabrics this week.  The colors of fall always call to me. 

Are you still out there?

Sorry for the long blog silence!  September has been busy getting back to our routine.  There are extracurricular activities to be signed up for and organizational meetings to attend.  There are special events at school - last week we had Curriculum Night and this week we have Forum Day.

I have also been in a bit of a sewing funk.  Sometimes I get this way after I have finished a bunch of projects like I did for the quilt show.  I get enthusiastic about NEW projects, but not about the half a dozen ones that were abandoned at various stages so I could focus on the quilt show.  Since I won't allow myself to start another new project until some of the others get finished, I just don't do anything!  My poor sewing machine has been patiently waiting.  (The needle plate of my sewing machine isn't really blue.  I have no idea why the photo came out this way).

So after two weeks of this (you may remember that I mostly took August off to focus on our house), I finally had a little talk with myself yesterday that amounted to "Just Do It"!  I fired up the IPod with its many neglected podcasts and got some sewing done.  I should have something to show you in the next day or two.  I feel better already!

Do you get into sewing funks?  How do you get out of them?

Isn't it September 1?

It is the first day of school here in Michigan.  It seems strange that it is already Sept 7!

These are my two daughters, Heather (l) and Michelle (r) with Heather's friend Thea in the middle.  They are each starting 10th, 11th and 12th grades (left to right).  I can hardly believe Michelle is really a senior!  There will be so many firsts and lasts this year.  Heather is joining her sister and friend at a new school this year.  The school they attend is an alternative public high school.  You must apply to get in and then be chosen by lottery to attend.  Heather didn't make it last year, but progressed up the waiting list so she was able to get in this year.  She is a little nervous about starting a new school (she's the worrying kind), but I know it will work out wonderfully for her!

For those of you whose children have been in school for weeks, Michigan has a law that school cannot start until after Labor Day.  I like it this way as it seems to fit well with the seasons and rhythm of things.  All the pools close on Labor Day, summer is officially over and it is time to go back to school!

For me, it is time to get back to sewing!  As usual, I have several projects in the works.  My Bees Knees VQB quilt is still waiting patiently to be quilted!  A holiday version of my house table runner is in the works and I am hoping to enter a quilt in the Project Modern quilt challenge.  What is on your Fall quilting to-do list?