Guilds, Bees, and Swaps

As promised, here is my post from 52 Quilters about guilds, bees, and swaps. How many of you are in quilt guilds, participate in bees, or in swaps?

Two years ago I attended my first Philadelphia Modern Quilt Guild meeting and I am so glad that I did. I found my group, my support, and my teachers. The Philly MQG shaped who I am as a quilter. I was (and still am) constantly inspired by the diversity and creativity that is shown at the monthly meetings. In Maryland, I have found similar support with the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild and the Southern Comforters of Bowie. All three guilds encourage me to reach out of my comfort zone and to keep making on a regular basis. I love being inspired at the meetings, learning at retreats, and making life-long friends who don’t roll their eyes when I talk about quilting and fabric.

I joined my first bee, the Modern Insta Bee, in 2014 as a way to meet other quilters and to have a reason to sew every month. What I did not know at the time is how much it would push me and that it would make me a better quilter. I put colors together that I would have never have dreamed of putting together, paid attention to my scant quarter inch seams, became best friends with my seam ripper, and made blocks that I would have been afraid to make if I wasn’t obligated to make them.  I am now participating and leading two swarms for The Bee Hive quilt bee and participating in the Philly MQG bee.

I was hesitant to put yellow, orange, purple, and gray together with black and white fabrics, but it is now one of my favorite blocks that I completed for the Modern Insta Bee.

String Circles – the block that I dreaded making, but it is the block that taught me the most.

I have participated in a few swaps over the last year, both online and in person, and I really enjoy the process of making for others. It is another way that I stretch my comfort zone and play with fabrics and colors that I may not have considered before. My favorite mini was for my secret sewist at Mid-Atlantic MOD though:

I designed the pattern myself since my partner was a huge Alice and Wonderland fan.

You can see most of my bee blocks (I am still catching up on posting some of this years) and minis on my bee blocks and swaps page if you are interested in seeing the range of them.

How about you, what do you get out of guilds, bees, swaps, and/or the online quilting community?

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February Bee Blocks

February was a big month for blocks! I have two blocks for the Philly MQG bee for Cathy and I signed up for The Bee Hive and am participating in and leading two swarms. I am hoping that by having an official leader, deadlines, and schedules that they will run much smoother than my Modern Insta Bee. Sadly, I am still missing five blocks from the Insta Bee. I have not had good luck with swaps (I have an angel for my Schnitzel & Boo Mini swap since my partner is MIA) and bees so far. Oh and I made a few Hazels as well.

A quick aside, if you are in the Baltimore/Washington DC area and would like to check out a quilt show, Southern Comforters of Bowie is hosting their annual The Best Little Quilt Show in Maryland on March 21st and 22nd in Bowie. I will have three quilts in the show and will be doing and Infinity Scarf demo on Saturday at 1pm. I hope that you will stop by and say hello!

After last month’s scary feathers, we had a lovely block for the Philly MQG. Cathy chose a Japanese X Block pattern from Making Rebecca Lynne.

Both of my February Queens for The Bee Hive Swarms selected the Tic Tac Toe Block. Patty divided up the swarm into warm and cool color X’s with random low volume background and corner pieces.

Taslim selected a color palette of aqua X’s, low volume corners, and white backgrounds.

My final blocks for February were for the winners of my NYE giveaway. Michele, Tabitha, and Gill all selected Hazel the Hedgehog blocks. They were popped in the mail earlier this week.

How did your February treat you? I am so ready for Spring! I am happily pulling mainly from my stash and only buying fabric when I “absolutely have to”. (Whatever that means!)

 

MMXV + a Thank YOU giveaway

Happy New Year! 2014 is almost behind us and I am looking forward to see what 2015 has in store. Personally, I am hoping for a calmer 2015, 2014 was quite crazy. Thank YOU for hanging out with me this past year, I have a giveaway to thank you at the end of this post – it’s a long one!

I thought that 2013 was big year for me quilting and sewing wise; but 2014 kicked 2013’s butt in that aspect. While I never did get our bed quilt made I did get a few minis done, I learned to paper piece (and love it!), and completed a bunch more projects – 25 if my count is correct! I also pieced a bunch of blocks for the Modern Instabee, have started blocks for the Philly MQG Bee, released two tutorials (a quilt and a scarf), was featured an article about swaps & bees and a Craftsy post, and have enjoyed learning and growing with each project that I complete.

A few of my favorite finishes from 2014 (my final three are below!):

You can see all of my 2014 finishes here and blocks & swap pieces here. I started 2014 with an ambitious quilty to-do list and my tastes changed and life continued so not much got done. I am starting this year with a much smaller list: a Charley Harper quilt for my aunt (two years overdue), a Christmas colored Hazel quilt for us, two swap minis, and monthly bee blocks for the Philly MQG crew. That’s it! The rest of the projects will happen as I discover them.

Blog wise, in 2015 I will continue to share my projects with you and I am hoping to have a few more tutorials to share. If there is anything specific you would like to see, please let me know!

Without further ado, here are my final three 2014 finishes: Plus No. 2 which some of you may remember from MidAtlantic MOD in April was finally completed and gifted to my high school mentor, long time Army man, and police officer Merle Bragg. I made another 241 tote for my mother featuring Splash in Midnight from Jessica Levitt’s new Cascade fabric line with Essex linen in gray. My final 2014 finish is Spools, a wall hanging for my Aunt Becky, featuring Charley Harper fabrics. I used SPOOLS from SPOOL/Bad Ass Quilter’s Society’s 2014 Row by Row pattern without the last block of four small spools. Since this is a mini I took the plunge and completed my first real attempt at free motion quilting (FMQ) with a simple meander. It is far from perfect and I still need a lot of practice, but I am happy with it and will continue to practice on quilt sandwiches in 2015.

Thank YOU for stopping by on a regular basis to cheer me on and to see what I have been working on. Knowing that I have you expecting a weekly post drives me to keep creating. I hope that you have a wonderful New Year’s and I cannot wait to share my continued journey with you.

To thank you for hanging with me, I will make three lucky winners their choice of quilt block (pick from Hazel, an outhouse, or a shirt) in their preferred color palette! I have really enjoyed the process of making blocks for others and I want to pay it forward to three of you. To enter, use the Rafflecopter below and leave me a comment below telling me what you are looking forward to in 2015. The giveaway is now closed and the lucky winners are:

             

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I will close the giveaway at Noon EST on Sunday, 1/4 and it is open to all of my readers. I will contact the winners via email to go over their block details on Sunday afternoon and will have the blocks in the mail no later than February 27, 2015. Good luck & thanks again!

Elizabeth Hartman and Carolyn Friedlander, the block designers, have no affiliation with this giveaway.

Quilt Details

Pattern: My own Plus design.
Front: Platinum Quilter’s Linen and miscellaneous red, white, and blue fabrics from my stash and from
Beth at Stash Fabrics
Back: Widescreen in blue by Carolyn Friedlander Binding: Blue and white check print from my stash
Quilting: Aurifil 40WT #2600 (a pale gray) Finished size: approx. 45×54″

Pattern: SPOOLS from Spool/Bad Ass Quilter’s Society
Front: Charley Harper fabrics and misc. Kona solids for the spools
Back: Tan solid Binding: Red and cream feed sack reproduction fabric from my stash (I have an
original feed sack in the same print as well!)
Quilting: Aurifil 50WT #2310 (cream) Finished size: approx. 9×27″