September, where did you go?

Somehow September flew by and I am just now sitting down to post what's been happening. I was very busy and having lots of fun. This post will be mostly a photo diary, if you will, of everything since last month.

Festival of Tress

Earlier this year, our guild was asked to create a quilt that would be donated to a charity auction in Orlando. I was on the FoT committee and after lots of searching, I decided to make a pattern myself on EQ7 and propose it to the group. My design won and we set off to make this idea I had a reality.
All members were asked to make a 6.5 inch block that would be made into my Modern Sampler Tree. We used the 25th and Pine collection, various blenders, and a white on white houndstooth print for the background.

Finished top!
So in love with the way it all came together.

Started arranging the design and cutting out HST
to make the side line up just right.

I didn't love the idea of a straight line across the bottom
but didn't have enough for a full row.

I sewed more HST and a few leftover blocks
I was saving for the storage bag that was being made.Then I added
some brown strips and made a little trunk for this cute tree.

After all of my math, I ran out of white for the background!
I called and they still had the fabric so I made a quick run at 8:00.
(They closed at 8:30 and I just made it.)
Fun times!

The fun part was sewing each row together and seeing it take shape.
It was faster than you might think.

I asked the guild founder to make the star that goes on top.
I think it is such a lovely compliment!

Finished quilt measures 86" by 88".
Quilting and binding completed by OMQG members.
It's one of my favorites designs to date.

                       

 Stash Bee Blocks

Plus Cross block for August
(I was running a little behind.)

Mini modern plus sign with large color background for September. 
(I can't wait to see her finished Wombat-style quilt.)

Modern Quilting Salon

At our last board meeting, I proposed the idea of hosting a modern quilting salon in the evenings for those interested in the modern movement and cannot attend our morning Orlando MQG meetings. I think we had a nice turn out and I shared a little about the guild and what modern quilting means to me. I was so nervous but everyone asked questions and stayed until the end. (I think it's great when they don't run out kicking and screaming before the last slide on your presentation.)

Maker Faire Orlando

Part of the craziness this month was spent participating in Maker Faire Orlando. If you are not familiar with the maker movement you can learn more here.

Read last month's post on how we started things, here.

I made the banner for our table one night.
I made hexagon bunting instead of
traditional triangles because I'm geeky like that.

It was hard to get a great shot in my tiny, dark sewing room.

We spent some time meeting together before the faire to decide on demos to share, completed projects and supplies to bring. Kathryn kept us organized and we came up with ways to break up the weekend. It was a wonderful event and I had so much fun. I met a lot of creative folks and I'm already excited about doing this event next year.

Love this little robot in this logo.
(The shirt is super soft, too.)

Lots of prep work to complete before the event!

I was showing a few pixelated quilt designs and
my Accuquilt cutter got lots of mileage last month.
It's worth it's weight in gold!

I pulled out my English Paper Piecing project to share, too.

Mid-week shopping therapy at
Indie Craft Exchange.

Coffee is my go go juice when I needed to stay awake
 and keep cutting/organizing for the event.
(Wonder Woman always makes me smile!)

I spent a lot of time counting before cutting so I could stay organized.
I have an Excel spread sheet of all the pieced needed for each project.
This way I can maximize my cutting time with the Accuquilt cutter.

A cassette tape is a part of my retro pixel collection
I'm working to complete by 2015.

The Weekend at Maker Faire Orlando

We were on the 4th floor of the Orlando Science Center.
The Dino Digs room was pretty awesome!
It's where all the cool kids were hanging out.

Setting up the Friday night before Maker Faire Orlando.
(We were in the dark for a while until they dropped in our lights later.)

Geeky Chic of Florida
We won a Maker of Merit Award that weekend!
(The triceratops behind us was so cool.)

I love how diverse the four of us were.
We had lots of people stop by and ask questions
and advice on their sewing/art projects.

Tried to get a better picture of that ribbon
but the perfect shot eluded me.

Other Stuff!

A gift from my dear friend Kim.
(I made her a Tetris quilt for her 10-year wedding anniversary in March.)
It's my new favorite board game.

The last Friday of my vacation with a great sunrise on Lake Monroe.
I had ten glorious days off from work and enjoyed every second of it!

You've made it to the end, you brave reader! Thanks for taking the time to go through this month-long journey.
Let me know what you were up to last month while I was gone from the blogosphere.
I love reading your comments.

What to do?

So am off on a Monday for the first time in forever and I just don't know where to start. The list of UFOs loom and other non-quilt related projects seem to be everywhere. I wish I had a cloning machine so that I could make more things happen. (I don't want a Gremlin situation with too many multiples to handle though.)

I do want to share a few things since I last posted.

I delivered the Tetris quilt to my dear friends for their anniversary and they immediately put it on the bed:

It fit so perfectly in the room. They really loved it.



I joined another Bee with my Orlando Modern Quilt Guild and am in the paper piecing hive.

Here's the block I am asking the group to make for me:

Paper-pieced paper planes
(Say that 5 times fast!)
They can use print or plain white fabric.

I even asked for various sizes so I can make a quilt with perspective instead of worrying that they were all able to print them to scale. I found this pattern on Craftsy a while back and always loved the idea of making a giant quilt with them. (It reminds me of the last day of school when I let students make planes with their portfolio work to see whose plane can fly the farthest.)


I've finished my next Stash Bee BOM which I need to drop in the mail today.

Scrappy Mountains

I really love that she had a simple tutorial and she did not want us to sew the four blocks together. I was able to whip these up in less than an hour. (I think I spent more time going through fabric than actual sewing.)
Here's another block I made for her because I read the wrong blog posting about her being Queen Bee for the month. (It didn't occur to me that some people are members of more than one hive online and since I subscribe to her blog, I just followed the email and didn't bother to check the details. Oh well! It was a challenge to make but will be fun to see it when she puts them together.)

Scrappy Sochi-inspired design
(I love this word search fabric and made it the center block.)

The Orlando Modern Quilt Guild and I have also been helping a sweet group of 5th graders make a modern quilt for their school as their graduation present. I taught them a little about the history of quilt making and the modern movement. They were really interested in the geometric designs I showed them. Using graph paper, they came up with a really cool idea to make an ancestry tree which shows their families backgrounds. It tied into their history project so it was pretty perfect. They found several quilts online they like and I wanted them to really make this quilt unique. (Plus, I reminded them about plagiarism and that those designs are property of the original artist.)

Here's a sneak peek:

Bare tree

They designed this shape and the final look of this project. I did offer suggestions for the colors and fabric to purchase. It was so great to see this creativity and the excitement of the next generation of potential quilters.

We were invited to attend graduation this Thursday evening where they will present the quilt to the school and share the finished piece. I can't wait to see it and share it with you.

What are you up to this week?