Nov
18

Quilt Guild Challenge

Posted Sunday, November 18th, 2018 in Quilting | Read More

In 2017 I joined the Common Threads quilt guild. The first year I watched from the sidelines , only joining the Secret Pal swap. I missed a few meetings and was just not feeling connected. This year I decided to participate in some of the swaps, again joined the Secret Pal swap, and signed up for the challenge. I have been taking quilts for Show and Tell and have made a couple quilts for the charity, Moms2Be.

The challenge was to use at least ten “orphan” blocks to make a quilt or “whatever your heart desires”. We were encouraged to bring in any unwanted orphan blocks to share with other members. Going through my box, I found several blocks to share. For my quilt, I chose blocks that were red, blue or both. Some of the blocks were left over from previous quilts and some were test blocks to try out a new die or template. I also challenged myself to make the quilt using only fabrics that I had in my stash. I found a large piece for my background that was backing left from another quilt. I framed some of the blocks with fabric from my scrap bag. The backing fabric was a large piece that I bought at a garage sale years ago. I was saving it for backing and it was just the right color for this quilt.

The November meeting was a chili cook-off and the Challenge Quilt Reveal. After the meal, the quilts were paraded around the room to allow everyone to get a good look at them. They then were placed on tables and the floor for everyone to get up close and choose their favorite quilt. I didn’t win but thoroughly enjoyed the process. I can’t wait to see what the challenge will be for 2019.

This is a picture of my quilt that was taken as it was being shown at the meeting.


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Aug
5

Bonnie Hunter’s Tropical Twist Workshop

Posted Saturday, August 5th, 2017 in My Projects, Quilt Guilds, Quilting | Read More

This has been a busy summer here in Columbus. We have been watching the granddaughters quite often (and enjoying every minute!). I did get to attend a workshop with Bonnie Hunter in June. We were working on the Tropical Twist quilt from her book, “Addicted to Scraps“. Bonnie is the queen of scraps, therefore, I tried to make the entire quilt from my scrap bin. I pulled the green, purple and blue scraps for the darker strips and a variety of light scraps for the background. On a few of the background strips, I used the back of the fabric as the right side to get a lighter shade. This was a tip that I had heard before but Bonnie reminded us of it at the workshop.

Another tip for this quilt was to use the leftover triangles (that are cut off in making the larger block) in the border. Bonnie has designed a nifty little ruler , the Bonus Buddy, that is made for this purpose. It was included with her triangle ruler that I purchased last year.  At the lecture the night before the workshop, she mentioned that we would be using the Bonus Buddy. I went home and packed it for the next day. It works great! She said it will be available as a single item soon.

Tropical Twist

All of the blocks were made from my scraps. I do have to confess that I bought fabric for the aqua and yellow inner borders. I didn’t have enough of either of those colors to make an entire border.


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