IMQG March Challenge

Snippets & Threads Catcher

Here are the rules for the IMQG March Challenge: 

1.Use ONLY two Fat Quarters, of which one should be solid, and one print.
2.Repeat - The ENTIRE project should be made from JUST these two fat quarters. And threads, of course!

 I found this adorable project on http://robinquiltsetc.com/files/Snippets_and_Threads_Tutorial_1_.pdf.

Snippets and Threads (A Foldable/Portable Catcher)

Following Robin's instructions, I made myself a plastic template of an equilateral triangle.  In order to get more than one catcher out of the two fat quarters, I reduced the size of the triangle from 12 inches to 10 inches on all three sides.

Plastic Template of a 10-inch equilateral triangle

I then picked out my two fat quarters, one solid and the other a print.  I pinned them together and traced the template three times.  Twice with the base of the triangle along the bottom edge, and once in between the two with the base on the top edge.  The markings are barely visible, but they're there.

Two fat quarters RSF (right sides facing)

All four sides were pinned and transferred to the sewing machine.

All four sides are pinned

The three triangles were sewn, leaving a gap at the base of each triangle.

The three triangles are sewn

The triangles were segmented and the corners were snipped away.

Segmented with corners snipped

Each triangle was turned inside out and the corners brought to a point with the aid of a 'gizmo'.  It was pressed along each seam and sewn all the way around with a 1/8 seam allowance. 

Turned inside out

This was the most challenging part of the project - turning the corners down .  My first attempt was to fold the triangle in half, turn the corner down and measure 2-1/2 inches from point to fold.  Oops, I did that on the wrong side.

Measuring a turned-down corner of 2-1/2"

 So I tried it on the folded side.  I then pressed the fold, opened it up and folded it down, but it wasn't the right measurement.  It just didn't look right :(

Second attempt at turning down a corner

 If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!  The third time worked like a charm.  I measured down on both sides of each corner and inserted a pin.

The third attempt worked its magic :)

 The triangle was turned over with the inside facing up.

Triangle was turned over

  Each side was folded in half and sewn from the fold to the pin.

Left fold is sewn to the pin

The other two sides were sewn down in the same way.

Other two sides were sewn

 The corners were turned down and attached.

Placed a catcher on my ironing table

Placed one on my cutting table

And the third on my sewing table

They lend a personal touch to my sewing room

And they're useful too!

Thank you, Robin C. Gallagher of Seal Beach, California!

Cheers, everyone!

Craftsy's Blocks of the Month for February

Balkan Puzzle and Chevron Bocks

It took me a day to complete the two blocks for February's Block of the Month taught by Amy Gibson on the Craftsy website.  The first block is the Balkan Puzzle.

I selected the fabrics out of my existing stash.  The most challenging part of constructing this block was making sure the placement of the units was correct.  Otherwise, it was a breeze to put together.

The theme this month was half-square triangles.  I'm quite proud that most of the points matched.

The second block is the Chunky Chevron.

The fabrics for this block also came from my existing stash.  Again, getting the placement right was pretty challenging.

Now looking forward to what's in store for March!

Cheers, everyone!

The IMQG February Quilt Challenge

Foundation Pieced Miniature

February has been an eventful month because Son #2, Pran and Robyn, were married on Febrary 11th, at Harvard Chapel in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  It was a small wedding that was planned and flawlessly executed by Robyn.  This was probably the best weekend we've spent away from home in a long time because everyone was so happy for Pran and Robyn :) 

It was an exceptionally heavenly weekend for me because we stayed at The Charles Hotel in Harvard Square.  Art at The Charles consists of regional art in America with an emphasis on New England culture, namely quilts which were on display on every floor (10 in all) of the hotel.  I was in quilters' heaven and spent any spare time I could examining them!  My only regret was that we didn't have our camera with us, so no pictures to show for it.  Each and every room had patchwork quilts on the beds.  Take a look at

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Quilts_in_the_Charles_Hotel for a very small sample of the quilts at The Charles Hotel.

On to the main event - The IMQG February Quilt Challenge!

Rules:

Make a mini quilt, no smaller than 6" x 6" and no larger than 24" x 24".
Use only scraps. No new fabric should be used.

Theme:
The quilt should say something about the most memorable holiday that you ever took whether it was 2 or even 25 years ago!

Deadline :
28th Feb 2012.

Here's my story.

My husband and I had taken a road trip of Alaska in the autumn of 2006.  We flew to Anchorage, rented a car and drove to Denali Park and other beautiful places.  The view of Mt. McKinley from Denali Park was pretty awesome!

To memorialise this vacation, I decided to use a foundation-piecing pattern I had squirreled away for over a decade.  Unfortunately, a picture of the pattern cannot be provided because of copyright restrictions.

Scraps left over from the January IMQG challenge were staring me in the face, so I decided to use some of them to create an autumn landscape of Mount McKinley in Akaska.  The blue fabric is the only one not used in January's quilt.  I wish I had a lighter blue fabric for the sky, but since we had to use left- over scraps of material, I settled for this one from my stash.  Besides, the autumn skies at Denali Park were an incredible blue!

My miniature quilt measures 8-1/2 by 8-1/2 inches.  It is my first art quilt and I've become very attached to it over the last couple of days.  It is very simply quilted 'in-the-ditch' because I haven't the nerve to try free-motion quilting.  I've signed up for an online workshop with Craftsy to learn the craft and after a lot of practice, may try it on this quilt sometime in the future.

Once the fabrics were all sorted out and decisions made as to their placement, it took me exactly four hours to foundation-piece the top.  Take into account all the reverse sewing (if you get my drift) and fabric pieces that were chopped away by mistake, I'm surprised it didn't take longer!

Another couple of hours spent layering, quilting and binding  this little quilt and it was ready to hang and be admired!

Let me again give thanks to The India Modern Quilt Guild for inspiring me to try my hand at art quilting.  I love belonging to The IMQG and look forward to the next challenge!

Cheers, everyone!

The Day After

Looking back on the Cathedral Windows quilt I just finished, what did I learn from the experience?

First of all, joining The Indian Modern Quilt Guild on Facebook (thanks to my sister, Sahana) was probably the best thing that's happened to me in a long time.  The members of this guild are creative, motivated, and so encouraging.  What amazes me is that practically all of them are self-taught and so willing to share their ideas and talents with the rest of us.  The January challenge which motivated me to give Cathedral Windows a try, kept me on track and produced a finished product within the month!  So glad this didn't end up among my numerous UFOs!

Secondly, it's true that one's own spit removes blood spots!  An ice cube works too.  I had pins sticking out all over the quilt and ended up with pin pricks and scratches all over my hands.  The next time, I'll be sure to use safety pins.

Towards the end, I was tempted to call it a day and admit defeat.  There was no way the quilt could be finished on time.  DH was irritated as heck, but what else is new!  He just couldn't understand what I meant by 'this has to get done by tomorrow'!  But I worked at it doggedly and pretended to be deaf to shut out his grumbling.  Little does he know there's another deadline next month with many more to follow :)  It was a wonderful experience to do this just for myself!

With these challenges, I plan to work on techniques I've longed to try.  This guild has provided the focus I need to accomplish my goals.

Thank you, IMQG!

IMQG January 2012 Challenge

Cathedral Windows Quilt

IMQG stands for India Modern Quilt Guild on Facebook.

January's Quilt Challenge rules were as follows:

Shruti's post on IndiaMQG:
Here's your January Challenge :
Make something using ONLY warm colored solids! The item could be anything you want...
Rule # 1 : WARM COLOR SOLIDS ONLY
Rule #2 : Item should be ready on 26th January 2012
Rule # 3 : Photos of the item should be posted here before the deadline.  You can include more than 1 photo and link up to your blog if you have written a post about it.
I'll try to rope in a judge for every month from the other modern quilt guilds...
good luck girls!
Cheers!!!

I can't believe this was done on time!  Here it is, 2 projects for January integrated into one quilt.  The center medallion (Asterisk) is my Craftsy Block of the Month for January which I made out of warm colors to satisfy the IMQG January Challenge which requires only warm, solid colors be used in a quilt.

This provides a close-up of the warm colors I used in the quilt.

The very dark (almost black) colors are a deep brown and burgundy.

I've wanted to make a cathedral windows quilt for some time now.  Making the foundation blocks was a pretty tedious process, but once I started applying the windows, it was like popcorn!  I couldn't stop at just one.  I became totally obsessed with the construction until it was all done.  And yes, I will make a bed-size quilt using more cheerful colors in the windows.

This was very satisfying to construct because the sewing and quilting are accomplished in the same step!  And there's no need to bind the quilt.

Thank heavens for the internet because I found the instructions for cathedral windows at

http://ajpadilla.com/tutorials/cathedral-windows

 

I followed the instructions for A Modern Approach on this website.

Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) Course

My third quilting New Year resolution is to master simple (and possibly complex) free motion quilting.  To achieve this goal, I have signed up for Craftsy's Machine Quilting: Free-Motion and More.  This course is currently offered at a discount of 50%.  It's going to be quite different from the straight lines and 'stitch in the ditch' quilting I have undertaken thus far!  A course description can be found at:
http://www.craftsy.com/class/Machine-Quilting-Free-Motion-More/37

There is also a free FMQ workshop that is available online.
 http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/p/start-here.html

Craftsy Block of the Month

Asterisk & Slashed Blocks

I've just completed Craftsy's BOM for January. 

Two of my quilting New Year resolutions were to ferret out fabrics for new projects from my stash and to try making non-traditional quilts for a change.  Both of these have now been satisfied, by joining the Craftsy' BOM course.

I had fun working on the two blocks for January. 

January's Block 1 is the Asterisk block.

This one looks too much like the Swiss flag.

I like this one better.

January's Block 2 is the Slashed block.

Give it a try!  It's free!

http://www.craftsy.com/lecture/Introduction/542.html

Craftsy - My Online Video Resource For A Number of Crafts

Happy New Year, everyone!

I love Craftsy online video courses.  Their online courses cover a wide range of topics related to my favorite hobbies and the courses are taught by amazing instructors. 


This course is free, but you need to register to become a member of Craftsy.
http://www.craftsy.com/class/The-Craftsy-Block-of-the-Month/50

I've Been Busy!

I've added more stuff to the Quilts page.  It would have been easier had I saved all my pictures in one place, but hunting and tracking them down has been fun! 

You'll get to see grandson #2 when he was an infant.   We have three grandsons and I call them the GrandBoys!

The Miniatures and Crafts pages have also been updated, so have fun browsing and let me know what you think!

   

Welcome!

Welcome to my brand-new blog!  I'm very new at this and believe firmly in OJT (on the job training), so please don't hesitate to correct my mistakes and pardon me for the same. 

I'm very excited about this blog because it's my first attempt at documenting each of my quilts and other hobbies.  It's something I should have done a long time ago, but oh well, I had to start somewhere!

I hope you'll take the time to leave suggestions and/or comments, both of which are most welcome!

Take a look at the Quilts page.  I've added pictures and documented my very first quilts!