Nerding Out

So, I've been a busy bee working on many tasks all at the same time and I am not stopping. It seems that a lot of things are falling into place now that I've decided what I want. I love when the universe provides a path once you've decided on a journey.

Maker Faire Orlando

I am so excited about being a part of Maker Faire Orlando with some fabulously creative women. From a simple conversation at lunch one day about making nerdy yet fun items, my friend Kathryn decided to write a proposal to see if we'd get accepted. I came up with the name, Geeky Chic, and it's snowballed from there. There are four of us this year who will be showing items we've made and sharing demos for projects that are in the works. We will display our love of fiber arts/fabric and hope to inspire others to make something. If you're in the area, you have to stop by September 13&14, 2014 at the Orlando Science Center. We'll be on the fourth floor having fun in the Dinosaur Room.

[Follow us on Instagram: GeekyChicFlorida or Facebook/Twitter: Geeky Chic]

Modern Quilting Salon

As the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild president, I am in charge of reading the random emails that arrive for our guild. I felt bad each time someone asked if we offered anything in the evening since our monthly meetings are held Wednesday mornings. I proposed an idea at the last board meeting about hosting a salon to discuss the modern quilting movement. They approved it and I set out to find a place that would have us in the evening. I was in my local quilt shop and thought to ask the owner if she was interested in hosting and she enthusiastically said, "Yes!"

Starting in September, we will have a monthly evening meeting at the Bernina Sewing Centre to share ideas and examples of modern quilting. I really want to grow our modern movement and see what happens from there. I am excited about hosting the first meeting and know we are going to have a great time. (I feel like I have to make lesson plans for quilting instead of English class!)

I will let you know how it goes!

Shopping (I know I shouldn't but...)

I broke my rule of not buying any more fabric this year until I finished some projects. I can't say no to a good sale. I bought a groovy pattern and some solids because I can never have too much gray, black or white in my stash! It came with a cool gift:

Can't wait to attach this patch to something fun!

Botanics by C. Friedlander
Yes, please and thank you!

The package said, "Hello" and it wanted me to add more Carolyn Friedlander fabrics to my collection. I can't get enough of this fabric line!

I also purchased some patterns that I've wanted to try making. The Groove Quilt, I've long admired and can't wait to change up the colors to make it my own. The English Paper Piecing patterns will be a surprise for later. (I'm bringing them to work on at Maker Faire Orlando, so you'll see them soon.)

Projects

I haven't had much time to sew but I will be sewing up a storm next month on my vacation.

Made a banner for our Geeky Chic table!
Instead of traditional triangle bunting, I made hexagons.
Super nerdy!

I also started a smallish pillow to match my "Simply Love" Quilt. I wanted to put those scraps to good use!

 Using the same idea of a drunkard's path to form letters, I made a smaller (3" instead of 8.5") scale "Love" that will eventually be a pillow cover for our bed.

I am thinking of making a bolster pillow
but haven't made up my mind yet.

I will finish it when I have a larger guild project completed first.




Hope you are having a great weekend. Let me know what you've been working on this week!

Dreaming Big

Yesterday, we found out our dear neighbor and friend passed away. He and his wife were together since college and had no children. Please keep her in your thoughts as she tries to deal with living without her soulmate after almost 50 years together. I cannot even begin to imagine her pain. He will be missed by many.

In the years we've lived next door to this amazing couple, he often talked about making the best of every day. He had great advice about planning for retirement early because he worked a few years longer than he should have. He helped us remodel our 1950's tiny house because we wanted to do the repairs ourselves. He helped with projects that needed many hands to make light work. He also reminded us to take time to rest so that you don't exhaust yourself.

So I intend to take his advice and years of wisdom moving forward. I want to spend each day being happy instead of wishing for the weekend or thinking I'll have more time later. We may not have that luxury.

Enjoy the company you have and cherish your loved ones every day. Our time together is ever so fleeting.

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Since my last post, I've been working on a few projects that will be moving me in the right direction towards being a maker. I've been sketching more, drafting more and worrying a lot less about perfection. That's a pretty tall order for this Capricorn!

I finally finished this Hexadaisy pattern I purchased last year. I colored it a while back and never decided on the fabric I wanted to use. After cleaning my sewing room recently, I pulled some of my shot cottons together and knew I already had the perfect colors to use.

Pulling from these two stacks I found the exact the shades I wanted.

Twelve colors were needed and I thought
about using this print text as my background.

Coloring each paper piece was the only way to keep this pattern organized.
There are a lot of small parts to this one.

The hardest part is done!

Once they were sewn together, I did a little happy dance!
This pattern stretched the brain a bit but the results are worth it.

I kept the quilting simple because the design speaks volumes.
I used Aurifil gray and 6 rainbow colors to stitch in the ditch.

The back reminds me of a snowflake. The star in the middle was a cool surprise.
It was hard to get a picture yesterday since it was raining so much!

A thin dark gray binding was added and I love the finished piece.

This was a labor of paper piecing love because it took a lot of planning to get the pattern to fit together just so. I plan to keep this gem for my collection. I haven't decided if it will be a wall hanging or a table centerpiece.

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The Stash Bee is also going well. I was the hive queen for July and here's my post:

 July Hive Pattern

Most of my blocks have already arrived and I'll soon be able to create a Rainbow Squared quilt I've always wanted to make for my own bed. Here's what I have so far:

I have some ideas for this layout but want all blocks to arrive
before I decide on a final plan.

Fun treats from England! It's hot chocolate I am saving
for a day when it's not 90 degrees in Florida.
I love the Royal Mail stamp with
the Queen's profile. So classy!

This fat quarter and washi tape is so cute. 

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I do plan to channel my current sadness into my craft of making things. I will continue to surround myself with people that are also interested in making their big dreams happen. Even if you don't know what your dream is, experimenting and learning new skills is the only way to discover what your bliss will be.

What makes you happy? What do you dream of doing?

Friday's Photo Finish

I am so excited that it's Friday. I FINALLY finished my Michael Miller Fabric Challenge quilt for the Modern Quilt Guild.

It took a while to get here but I am so glad I finished it in time to enter the competition.

Here's a quick summary of how it's made:

I cut the fabric into squares that I made into 9-patch blocks.

(Trying to make random patches was harder than I expected.)

I used muslin on the corner of 13 of them since they were going to be cut off anyway.

I then used EQ7 to create a custom template for my Drunkard's path pattern that would create my letters. I needed the curves to end with 1/4 exactly that would make smooth curves for each letter.

Each template took two pages that were taped together and
cut out on freezer paper for the blocks.

I practiced a few times on muslin to be sure it would work first.

After sewing all of the 9-patches together, I tried to keep similar colors from touching. It wasn't perfect but it started to become fun.

I slowly made my way through all 13 blocks that needed to be cut and added gray to form curves to create the letters. (Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of this part since I was doing this at night after grading papers. Le sigh!)

To ensure the letters weren't touching too much, I added 2 in strips of gray in between each letter to give them a little space to show off. The shorter letters needed an extra gray block to make them as long as the "L" then I added gray on the top and bottom to make the finished piece.

This is my first quilt made entirely with Aurifil thread and I think I am hooked for life now. White and steel gray were used for all of the piecing and for quilting the many, many, many lines it took to make this dream a reality.

This beast is 68 in by 68 in and was bound using my favorite fabric from this collection called "Pegs a Plenty". (It's the only purchased yardage from this collection used to make this quilt.)

I love this quilt and am thrilled that it's finally finished.

It's been a while!

Hello out there!

Hope you had a fun-filled Fourth of July! We live off of Lake Monroe in Sanford and we can see one of the largest fireworks displays in Central Florida right from our front yard. (I don't know if our daughter-dog, Evie, would agree with that statement. She was actually ok last night and didn't bark or panic which is always our concern.)

I've been working crazy hours as usual but am making time to quilt at night. (My photos look terrible but that's the time I can sneak in some fun.) I'm making some progress on my UFO list for the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild challenge. I think many of the projects will just be on my list indefinitely. I am ok with that now.

I finished making the Paper Pieced Bee Hive Blocks for each of my guildies and love the ones I received in return. It was a blast to see the blocks everyone made in their group last Wednesday. I may opt out of the next round but I look forward to doing these hives again.

The Lone Starburst is one that I might do again because it turned out beautifully in rainbow colors. (You know I love a good rainbow!) I also really loved the pattern from A Squared W called Graph-ic. Math lovers would really appreciate her inspiration. The possibilities with this design are endless and I can't wait to try my hand at designing my own quilt from it.

The Scrappy Diamonds was also fun to make except I couldn't get my printer to scale it right. Thankfully, Leslie printed out copies for me and I was able to whip it together in less than an hour.

I liked making the tulips and butterfly but don't see myself making them again for a quilt unless someone asked for this specific design...and they were paying me. :) (Ok, I didn't really like making them but was happy with how well they turned out for the people who requested them.)

I can't wait to see everyone's quilts when done, including my own. I didn't get a good photo of all the fun paper planes my guildies made for me so I'll just wait to show the final quilt when it's all done.

My sample planes that my guildies were asked to make for me.

July was also my turn to be the hive queen in my online Stash Bee. I am getting help with my rainbow log cabin-ish idea I drew a few years ago but never made. I've asked them to make concentric squares using rainbow colors and I can't wait to see what they each will send me. I had a blast with the interview questions that you can read all about here if you wish.

"I Can Sing A Rainbow" is possibly what this quilt will be called.

I've been working on the Michael Miller fabric challenge for the MQG and am getting excited with how well it's turning out.

Sewing lots of blocks! (This photo does no justice to the great colors in this collection.)

I find it funny that I fall in love with my quilts as I am making them and they each become my new favorite quilt. Does that happen to you, too? This one I especially love because I designed it on paper and then recreated it in EQ7 so I can get the right size and make my block templates. I love that I can calculate fabrics needed and knew precisely how to cut my fat eights with no waste. I'm glad when I can cut all pieces given with nothing left over because my scrap bins are piling up and I have yet to really make an entirely scrappy project.

I will have a lot more to share at the end of this month when I've finished up this MM challenge quilt. (Plus, my work load will be a little less after August.)

I hope you've been able to quilt to your heart's content. Tell me all about it in the comments section when you get a chance.

Summer's Here!

I hope you are well and having a great start to your summer.

I have been kept busy and I am so grateful for any chance to sneak in some sewing. There are a few projects waiting, taunting me to work on them. I have put a tiny dent in my UFO list and have a long way to go.

Here's a quick look at a few things I've been up to since my last post.

Guild Holiday Quilt

We are making a quilt for the Festival of Trees fundraiser here in Orlando. We set out to design a quilt that all members of the guild can help complete and I thought of making a tree shape out of random blocks. This way, each member can make their own favorite block for the final quilt that will be donated. I made a crude and quick design on EQ7 and put it with the other chosen designs from the committee. The group selected my design and I am excited to see it come to life. (I might have to bid on it at the auction.)

B is the winner!

 SEA Quilt Complete

I was so excited to see the final quilt made by the 5th graders this year. I can't believe how fast the year flew by with them and the wonderful result of our hard work. In my previous post, I shared the final background after it was sewn.

They used a giant t-square to mark the space needed for the binding and set to adding all of the leaves they've embroidered.

 I left after I taught a parent how to attach the binding but didn't see the completed quilt until their graduation at the end of May. I was really moved when I saw the finished piece.
Here is their Ancestry Tree which includes their names and the country where their families are from. Many of them included the year which their family came to America under the country's name and outline.

(Wishing I had a real camera so you
could see all of the great colors and
details on this quilt.)

It took 20 minutes for the crowd to clear so
I could take the picture above.
They were all so sweet!

This is one of my favorite quilts now and I am so glad they asked our guild to be a part of their project next year. We are starting earlier in the year so it can be quilted on their field trip. 

(I arranged a field trip with Wandering Stitches, a fantastic quilt shop in Orlando, where the students learned about sewing machines and long-arm quilting with Lisa. They were even allowed to practice on a machine that was set up for them to play. I am so grateful she let them come to her shop and have lunch in her lesson space.)

So worth the wait

Remember the Halloween blocks I won last October? I finally finished my godson's Christmas present in May. I was getting ready to ship it to North Carolina when I his mom called to say they would be in town in June. I did my happy dance, put it aside and counted the days until they would be here.

He started squealing in delight as he
noticed something new in a block.

After he was buckled in, he really
examined each square. Marge's Day of the Dead
fabric was his FAVORITE!

He giggled and played in the back seat with his
 "favorite quilt" for the rest of the day.
(It was over 90 degrees in FL and he didn't care.)

Front of Quilt

He really loved that the spider web quilting design was completed with glow-in-the-dark thread. My thanks to Marge again for trading BOM wins with me to make this fun quilt. I even have a few blocks left over for some October birthday pillowcases.

Back of Quilt

I'm so glad I waited to ship this quilt because I would not have had the pleasure of seeing his priceless reaction in person. This is my first official completed UFO on my long list, too!

BOM/Works in Progress

I am making my way through the rest of my Bee blocks. I'm with the paper piecing group and have had some fun making them. Here's a look:

I really liked this one for Alejandrina.
I see a lot of possibilities with this simple design.

Love asked us to make our favorite block in blacks, whites,
and a solid color so I chose to make this design again.

Marge's Tulips

I made one for Leslie but really disliked the scrappy fabrics used. So, I have two more to go and then I'll be ready to swap. The OMQG blocks are due in July and I need to get busy.

My second favorite part of making these block is the tearing of the paper from the back. It's a great stress reliever. 

To the compost bin!

I'm almost done with this baby quilt for our OMQG charity project. I made it with lots of colors so it can be gender neutral. (I'm almost done with my vintage gingham, too. I think I'll donate the rest of the unused fabric because this is my 3rd and most likely final gingham quilt.)

Thanks for reading my post. Let me know your summer quilting plans in the comments below.

Happy Quilting.

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?