As you may have guessed, I’m not the only one who made a mosaic.
I love Mary’s inspiration so much that it intimidates me a bit. It’s one thing to figure out what someone likes and just go for it, but my tastes are similar to Mary’s. So the pressure is on to make something really fabulous.
Wish me luck!
Thankfully, not administered by me, as I tend to forget to blog for a week or three!
Check out Quilting Bee Blocks for all the blocky goodness you could ever want!
Check out this really cool idea I saw in Quiltlady50’s photostream:
This is the first row of a round-robin type quilt swap. The idea is, you make one row, send background fabrics to another person, and they use their stash to make a different row.
Fun, right?
I’m a huge fan of row quilts. (Is that even a term?) One of my favorite quilts I’ve made to date it this one, a baby quilt for my friend’s son:
The mathematical possibilities offered by quilts like this kind of fascinate me, for some reason. This is 36″ wide, and made up of blocks that are 3″, 4″, 9″, and 12″ wide. I could have also included some 6-inchers in there. If it had been 60″, I could have included almost all of the above, plus 10″- and 15-blocks. Which is crazy, but it works, and it gives great visual variety.
As far as construction goes, row quilts offer a nice happy medium. I like to assembly-line block production, so I love that row quilts include a few of the same block, for ease and speed of piecing. BUT! You get to stop after making a smallish number of one kind of block, and start on something else. So it’s easy to keep interest.
I don’t really have time just at the moment to organize a row round-robin, but one may be in the cards for later this year. Please leave a comment if you might be interested in participating at some point. It would definitely be a long-ish term project, but I think it would be so (sew!) worth it.
Don’t hate me for saying this, but, after being in a few quilting bees, I’ve got to say, I wonder if the month of sending fabric isn’t the least exciting.
I mean, the payoff is huge, eventually. But at the beginning, there’s a LOT of mail to send, which can be a drag, and then there’s no fun fabric surprise that arrives and just waits to be turned into an awesome block or two for your fellow bee-ers. (That almost looks like “beers.”)
Thankfully, I’m at the point in the Rockin’ Bobbin bee where I can, if nothing else, obsessively monitor flickr to see if anyone made me a block today. And my concept – each participant makes a pair of blocks, one of which has a strong border – has me thinking a lot about a look I really like.
I don’t know how to describe it, exactly, but it involves sashing/a border that’s really part of the block. This side-by-side comparison of blocks made (for me!) by megan.mary will hopefully illustrate my point:
See? Blocks like the 12″ chevron will be alternated with blocks like the one on the right – an 8″ block with a 2″ border added to make it the same size as the block on the left.
Does this type of sashing/bordering have a name? I’d hate to have to call it “sordering”….
I finished a quilt top last night! It’s composed of blocks made by the lovely ladies of the Threads Together Quilting Bee, as well as some other helpful folks, and even a few by little ol’ me!
I may be totally insane and alone here, but does finishing a quilt top ever feel anticlimactic to anyone else? There’s something about assembling all those small, fiddly pieces that just feels right. It seems as though the whole thing will never come together. But then, with a single, final seam, it’s done. And I’m sitting at my machine thinking, “Really? That’s it?”
Make no mistake – the anticlimax is hardly a disappointment. Maybe it isn’t an anticlimax at all, since, let’s face it, finishing a top does not equal finishing a quilt. Sewing on a binding represents the real finish line.
Still, it seems to warrant some (small) celebration. How do you mark a quilting milestone?
I’m sort of breaking the whole quilt a day rule by posting this tutorial, but it’s hardly the first time. Plus, you must admit, this block by Hanies has a little bit of everything. If you’re in search of a great starting place for a mini-quilt, may I suggest:
See what I mean? A little bento, a little bear’s paw, a whole pinwheel in the middle. And tons of possibility. She even has a wonky version on her tutorial page!
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