Guild challenge: small floral-themed quilt

My quilt guild---the Quilter's Guild of Brooklyn---has announced a summer challenge project for its members: We've been asked to create a 20 x 20-inch quilt, using any method and fabric we choose, designed around a floral theme. The quilt needs to be completed by the Guild's October meeting. We were encouraged to interpret the assignment any way we'd like, as long as there's a floral component in there somewhere. We're also supposed to submit a 4 x 6 inch photo of our inspiration for the design along with the quilt. I like a challenge that takes me away from the projects I've already got going, so I got right to work.

My first inspiration was to design my own little quilt depicting a row of flower pots on a shelf in front of a window. I still really love this idea, but it's turning out to be more difficult than I originally guessed. I paper-pieced the first flower (this is just a test) and realized it's really hard to construct a flower using this method that can look like it's sitting in front of a window. And it would be just too dull to have a row of flowers against a plain background. I guess I'll have to applique if I want to create something that has any depth. I'm still thinking about this one.
The floral challenge also brought to mind the fact that I have a couple of floral-themed UFOs lurking around in my sewing room. One of them, pictured above, consists of a series of unfinished appliqued circles of floral fabric on white backgrounds. Hand-sewing these circles has been a kind of therapy for me for a couple of years. I work on them while I'm a passenger in a car, or when I'm watching TV.....it helps me to sit still. I've really never had any vision for what I'll do with them, and I think there are a lot more of these little blocks in a draw somewhere, because I really have been making them for a long time.

I wonder if I could pluck out a couple of the most interesting ones and make them into a small quilt for the floral challenge?

I also have a couple of very floral, machine-appliqued quilt blocks in my sewing room that have been waiting patiently for me to find a useful purpose for them. I made these during a class I took at City Quilter about a year ago. I really enjoyed the class, but after the class was over I wasn't inspired to make any more of these blocks, so of course, no quilt came out of it. I did turn one of them into a pillow that I gave away as a gift last Christmas.

It would be pretty simple to finish one of these, add borders, and to turn it into a 20 x 20 inch quilt. I think this is a real possibility.

June blocks for block lotto

Here are the 8 blocks I made for the June block lotto drawing. It's hard to distinguish them from each other in this photo, but each is a simple 3-patch rectangle that contains one blue, one green and one purple rectangle. I decided to donate my chances this month, as I've got too many projects in the works already.

The Future's So Bright: Done!

I just finished this queen-sized quilt for my niece Anna, who is getting married at the end of the month. I hand-stitched the binding on, a process that often takes me a long, long time to finish. I think the trick to finishing it in 10 days, rather than 10 weeks, was downloading a good audio book to listen to on my iPod while I sewed.

I borrowed this free pattern for this wedding quilt from a blog called Crazy Mom Quilts by Amanda Jean for two reasons. First, I loved the simplicity and beauty of the design. Second, and maybe more importantly, I felt that the name of the pattern (The Future's So Bright) was absolutely perfect a wedding quilt. I pieced the quilt by machine, and had it machine-quilted by Merrie Handfinger (really!) of Sew Materialistic in Brooklyn.

My niece is a fan of red, orange and yellow, so those are the colors I chose to work with. I love the material I found for the back of the quilt, which is pictured below on the left. I also loved the orange-and-red polka-dotted fabric I found for the binding, which is also picture below on the right.

Pineapple Blossom blocks for May Block Lotto

Here's a photo of the 7 "pineapple blossom" blocks I've completed to enter into Block Lotto for May. I've got enough strips cut to make 2 more blocks for the contest (9 entries are usually allowed for each participant each month) and I'll probably get around to sewing them together in the next few days. I won the lotto 3 times in the first year or two I'd started contributing, but haven't won in quite a while now (you can see the quilts I made with my winning blocks if you look back to the first entries I made to this blog). But even when I don't win, I don't find it discouraging: I enjoy making the blocks, and I've learned some new techniques from a few of the patterns that have been chosen by Sophie, the amazing block lotto organizer. Also, I've used a lot of scraps from my considerable stash, which is always a great feeling.

Just a note: Block Lotto is an extremely well-organized quilting lottery, and I highly recommend participating in it if you are looking for a high-quality on-line group to join. I've never met Sophie in person, but I have a lot of respect for her administrative and organizational skills and am grateful that she's taken this on!

Spotted at a Brooklyn Museum Exhibit about Tepees of the Plains

The gorgeous contemporary quilt was made by Claire Anne Packard (Yankton Dakota--Sicangu Lakota) and won top honors at the 1994 Northern Plains Tribal Arts Show. The quilt is really striking---I'm afraid my snapshot doesn't do the colors justice.

I'm always happy when I find a great quilt in an unexpected place. Today I'd expected to see only tepees and other Native American artifacts and I was lucky enough to see this wonderful quilt!

Elephants on my design wall

I'm trying to figure out how to put my elephant quilt together. I started making the small ones intending to use them as a border around the 9 larger elephants, but I realized pretty quickly that all those extra small elephants were going to make the quilt larger than I wanted it to be. I guess that's the danger of working with elephants! I am making this quilt to hang on a wall at the top of a staircase, and I don't want it to get too large for that space.

This morning I was just struck by the idea of lining up the small elephants I'd already completed and using them within the main body of the quilt. I actually really like this plan, because it makes the quilt a bit more interesting. I always like to include something a little unexpected. It's funny to me that the small elephants are going in one direction, and the large elephants are going the other way. That's a bit how life works sometimes! To be honest, this happened because when I shrank the pattern down to the small size and in order to paper-piece the small elephants, the design, of course, was flipped. It was the happiest of "mistakes" and I decided it was actually coming out just the way I wanted.

Next I will need to experiment with sashing, borders and quilting. I am thinking of throwing in a couple of horizontal strips above and below the band of small elephants. I will give it a try and see how it looks before I make any decisions. I've found with sashing and borders especially that I really need to see what I'm thinking about before I make up my mind. It's amazing how many times I've planned to use one fabric, and then realized at the last minute that a different fabric would be much better.

"Modern" clover blocks for April Block Lotto

Just finished these 10 blocks for the monthly block lotto drawing. I have been getting lazy lately, and have only been making 3 or 4 blocks for the lotto each month, rather than the 9 usually permitted, but I decided to go for the maximum number this time around. These little blocks are so sweet I'm thinking about making a few more and creating a small quilt for my dear sister-in-law who is having some health problems. We'll see.