IMQG Quilt Show

Over six years ago two of my newest friends and I set off on an adventure in building community.  Community around this thing called Modern Quilting.  We made plans and hosted meetings and sometimes just the three of us showed up but we were not deterred we decided if it was just us then so be it.  little by little new friends came and joined our little community.  We learned a lot, we laughed a lot.  We enjoyed sharing our hobby.  We added a few other helpers to our more established board and I got two more new best friends (one who would later have her baby on the same day as me). And our little guild grew.  We had our first show in 2012 on the cultural trail which was very ad-hoc and trial and error and we loved it.  The following year we established ourselves as an actual Guild, formalized things and joined the parent guild.  Slowly and surely the guild has transformed into something more awesome and more special. 

This year our little guild (which is much bigger and funner now), hosted our second show.  It was AMAZING!  Modern quilts hung outside at a park.  So pretty so fun so interesting.  I love that I know each quilts owner without seeing the tag.  I love that I know the stories and trials of making these masterpieces.  I love that most of these quilts are loved in our homes.  I so enjoyed hanging out at the show talking to people about modern quilts and with our guild.  It was so good.  I was so happy to see both friends and family come, but also new faces and passerbyers and Pokemon Goers.  I am so happy for our guild.  And so proud to call these women my friends, my people. The show was a good reminder for me of why we kept on meeting even when sometimes just 3 or 4 people showed up.  It's about our creativity and community.  About how together we can inspire, encourage, challenge, and care for each other.  With that I will say "thank you Indy Modern Quilt Guild.  I love you!"  

quilt for Louise - half square triangles

I actually finished this in August!  About a week after our friends daughter Louise was born.  I kept forgetting to give it to her and to take pictures of the quilt!  But I did get some pictures by my friend Amy Garro aka http://13spools.com and http://indyfamilyphoto.com/index.php/about/ at the September IMQG meeting.  

This quilt was really simple the blue fabrics my brother sent me from a leftover project he did.  I paired them with this Kona pink and then did two different designs with hst on each side originally the quilt was to be much larger but the baby was due, so I improvised.  I actually still have about 8-10 more triangles so maybe they will appear in another project. 

I love the back best on this one and the puckering from the quilting.  There is something so lovely about the random triangles I think.

#9 Log Cabin Quilt

I wasn't intended to make a big log cabin quilt but I did.  This is my Riley Blake MQG Challenge quilt. I wasn't totally in love with Thai fabric and then when I ordered additional Riley Blake fabric to add I found the green didn't match - ugh.  But I made it work I actually love the green I think it ended up working out.  Part of the challenge was to try something new so I actually hand quilted and machine quilted this too, not that you can tell from the photo.  Big stitch style.  Not my best work but I like how it turned out. 

Thanks to my sister for holding this for me and to my baby for strutting his stuff around it.  

WIP Wednesday - MQG Challenge Quilt

Only sharing one work in progress today.  Because I have not made any progress on anything else aside from laundry, dishes and binge watching Girls with Kathleen (it's so bad it's good).  Anyhow I started quilting the MQG Riley Blake Challenge. Not entirely sure if I am liking this or not we will see.  I hope to finish it this weekend. 

Almost cabins Quilt

This was my other finish of the weekend.  It's a baby quilt initially I was making log cabins but then I stopped because I want to keep the log cabin quilt and this is a gift.  So it's "almost cabins".  Everything is scrap or stash fabrics and its quilted all freehand.  I was going to make it larger but then used three blocks on the back and I love that.  It might be my favorite side. 

Ignore the snow.  It wanted to get on my quilt. Someplace in the quilting it's signed, now I can't find it.  

IMQG Quilt Bee - The Stacked Book Quilt

This quilt was started back in 2010.  The members of the Indianapolis Modern Quilt Guild made me stacked book blocks in our Bee Swap, (aunt Thea also helped).  Anyhow I pieced the top like two years ago. 

This weekend I took it to the IMQG retreat with hopes to at least baste it.  I actually didn't just baste it, but I quilted and bound it too.  I love the bright primary colors they just work well together with the black and white prints.

The back is pieced from leftovers and scraps.  The quilting is not entirely straight line but looks like it occasionally there's a zig zag in there, but you have to look closely.  

Zombie/Michael Miller Challenge Quilt

So I finally finished my Michael Miller Quilt only a little bit late (Michael Miller Fabrics sponsored a challenge with the Modern Quilt Guild - which Indy Modern Quilt Guild is a part of).  The rules of the challenge were to use the fabrics they supplied + only solids or other MM prints which I was on the right track with previously.  But I went ahead and broke the rules since I can't win the prize now and I added in a print that is not by Michael Miller but rather by Riley Blake.

Dustin has been wanting me to make him a quilt he seems to think I'm making everyone else a quilt but him, he specifically requested bacon and or zombies.  I pretty much denied booth of these options, but then when I needed backing for this and didn't have something coordinating in my stash that wasn't solid I remembered about Riley Blake's Zombie fabrics and ordered the gray one.   I think it works perfectly with the colors on the front.  I added a block from the front to the back and then quilted this with straight lines up and down and then a 35 degree angle rather than a perpendicular angle to hide any imperfections.  It's quilting with a thread that is probably not really a good option as it kept breaking but I pressed on - I think it's an embroidery thread but it was in my stash of threads.  

From a distance the triangles on the front look great (ps I'm not a fan of paper piecing triangles it's so wasteful of fabric). 

I guess they don't look so bad up close either. My original idea did not include the green or the blocks of prints but when I was running out of blue and the store was out.  I just went ahead and picked a green close to the green in the prints.  To make it less like a frame I added in the strips in the middle of the design.  I like how that turned out. 

A close up of the quilting.  The pucker on this is my favorite part of the quilting it's just enough. 

And the back which is almost entirely zombies.  

But there's that one lone triangle - which by the way for some reason even though I paper pieced these was like 1 inch smaller than the other blocks?  The struggle is real.

And the binding,  it machine stitched (which I prefer) and pieced from two grays in my stash and a small bit of a Michael Miller dot I think.  

Anyhow Dust pretty much loves it he's already using it for watching Netflix on the sofa and then still bringing to bed at night.  Clearly this guy really did want a quilt. 

Round Robin Last One

This is our last round of round robin.  I had Chris's.  Hers like mine started black and white only hers had a touch of red.  I was entirely unsure what to do for hers (as usual). I have been wanting to make some wonky stars and so I started out doing that.  Well lets just say I ended up making wonky 1/2 stars so I joined them into what looked like a wonky "pow" from a cartoon.  It was not what I intended but its due tomorrow.  She also wanted us to  add a sash between the strips so I had to piece one as the black was gone and I didn't have any in my stash.  

Next time I make wonky stars I think I will try much larger ones these were too small for me. This is our last round of round robin and I am kind of glad because I want to work on the eight other projects I have going.

Quilt with Vintage Sheets and Modern Prints

I started this quilt over a year ago for a fall baby regardless to say it its a bit small for an almost 1 year old baby.  So I might save it for the next baby girl sadly everyone is having boys now.  Ugh.  It uses vintage sheets from the IMQG swap from two summers ago, plus a few prints I got at Crimson Tate and some scrap solids I had on hand.  I realized in doing this quilt that I really struggle with wanting to use prints with many colors, it was like I was forcing myself.  But I do like the blend of old and new.

Sorry for all the wrinkles it was in moms car and then in a box and then I took it out to snap these photos.