QuiltCon WIP

QuiltCon was such a fantastic experience!  Today, I'm linking up with Lee's WIP Wednesday to tell you a little about the class I took with Jacquie Gering.  The class was called Building Bridges based on the techniques Jacquie used to create her awesome Bridges quilt.




We were asked to bring inspiration photos to class and I chose this one.  I took this photo in June of 2010 when my older daughter and I went on our East Coast College Tour :)  This building is at Columbia University in New York City.  I love the mix of diagonal and horizontal shapes and lines all set within a grid.

Here is the work I did during the workshop:

It, uh, needs some work...  It seemed too symmetrical, so I added the strips of cream solid to break it up a bit. However, that broke up one of the diagonals that I really like from the inspiration picture.  I'm probably being too literal in my interpretation of the photo.  I should follow Jacquie's lead and cut it in pieces and put it back together again and see how that turns out.

It was such fun to spend a day learning the techniques Jacquie uses and seeing all the wonderful work of the others in the class.  I'm such a huge fan of the work she creates.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank Jacquie, Alissa, Heather (@moderndayquilts) and the rest of the MQG group for the amazing quality and quantity of work they did to make QuiltCon happen!  It was a huge undertaking and they all worked harder and longer than I could have.  The results were totally worth it!  QuiltCon was a huge success according to everyone I talked with and we all can't wait for the next one.

The Modern Quilt Guild has some cool things planned in the future and a new website, so sign up for their newsletter and check the website to keep up to date on what is going on.  I'll be back soon to tell you a little about the classes I taught at QuiltCon.

Now, go check out what everyone else is working on!

Janome and me

Hey everyone!  Hop on over to the Janome website for a little feature on me and my machine! What fun :)

QuiltCon is nearly here!

I've been sewing and organizing and sewing and organizing and...  You get the idea!  I've never traveled so far to teach three classes at once, so I'm making my lists and checking them... ten times :)

If you're going, I look forward to seeing you there!  If you're not going, I'll try to remember to take some pictures to share.  Also, the Modern Quilt Guild and Craftsy have teamed up to make the QuiltCon lectures available on Craftsy.  I haven't looked into the details yet, but I'm sure there will be more info on the MQG website and on Craftsy too.

There are a lot of really great people doing presentations:  Denyse Schmidt, Yoshiko Jinzenji, Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr, Anna Maria Horner, Amy and David Butler, Heather Ross, Jacquie Gering, Heather Grant, Thomas Knauer, Heather Jones and more!

I have to say I've been impressed with how the MQG has put this all together.  It is quite an undertaking to organize classes, lectures, vendors, and a quilt show for more than 1500 people.  (I know that AQS and Quilts, Inc have been doing this for years, but it is still a big job!)

Revisiting Tutorials

In case any of you are trying to do some last minute Valentines Day sewing this weekend, I thought I'd remind you of the Hug and Kiss pillow tutorials I did last year.  These are 12" blocks made into 16" pillow covers.






What great scrappy projects!  I couldn't resist mocking up some full quilts using these blocks.





The blue version is meant to be scrappy using lots of lights and darks.  You would need a variety of 2 1/2" and 3" squares.  Both versions have 1 1/2" sashing and borders and finish at 58 1/2" square.





Kisses and hugs can't help but bring to mind baby quilts, so I also made one up in some lighter colors too.  Nine blocks would be a great size too.  Happy sewing!

Scrap Wrangling

My scrap management plan is posted on the Pink Castle Fabrics blog today!

While you are there, check out all the amazing fabric Brenda has in her shop.  Not only does she have a fantastic selection of the latest and greatest fabrics, but she has tons of solids by lots of different companies and an outstanding stash building selection (check out her Stash Stack Club).

After you finish organizing your scraps and buying fabric, maybe you are ready for a  Camp Stitchalot retreat!  The next one, in early May, features Katy Jones of imagingermonkey, Melody Miller, Rashida Coleman-Hale of I Heart Linen and Rae Hoekstra of Made by Rae.  Wow!

Odds and Ends

Members of the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt guild are making a quilt featuring Spoonflower fabrics.  My understanding is that it will be on the Spoonflower blog toward the end of this month.  Brenda (@justabitfrayed) and Jen (@bravelilchicken) had lots of fun choosing a bunch of fat quarters for us to work with.  Then we each took the fabric we needed to create a row 60" wide.  I had no idea what I would do for my row, but selected 9 amazing fabrics and turned them (along with some Kona Snow) into this row:

Sorry for the terrible picture - lots of clouds and snow around here!

Rossie is putting the quilt together for us, so if you follow her on Instagram (r0ssie_fmq), you might get a peek or two.

My friends at Modern Quilt Relish are featuring me on their blog today!  They will be vending at QuiltCon and will be selling some of my patterns in their booth.  I'm so excited about this opportunity for my patterns to be available for everyone at QuiltCon.  I'll have some for those people who signed up for my classes, but, since I'm teaching three full days, it would have been impossible for others to see my designs and now they can!  Hop on over to the MQR blog and look around - Jill and Marny have a great style.  Shea of Empty Bobbin Sewing Studio is also featured today and Carolyn Friedlander will be featured next Tuesday.  What great company I'm in!

Next on my agenda today is to get my quilt ready to ship for the QuiltCon show.  The MQG has requested that quilts be sent in a fabric bag.  I haven't decided if I'm going to make a new one or alter a pillowcase (idea courtesy of Andie).

Finally, I haven't really been much of a scrap quilter the past few years, but I've been inspired by Bonnie Hunter and the Pink Castle Fabrics Organization series so I'm coming up with a plan to deal with the overwhelming amount of fabric that is hanging around my sewing room.  Stop back tomorrow and see what I have in mind.