Sunday, October 21, 2018

Michael Miller fabric challenge

The modern quilt guild issued another fabric challenge and I jumped on board! First of all, free fabric, duh! and second, I really enjoy challenges. We received three colors of the hash dots fabric and peach solid cotton couture, a fat eighth of each. Since it is ok to add other Michael Miller solids, I ordered some of the Marine Cotton Couture, which matched one of the hash dots we received. And, like always, it sat on my cutting table for weeks waiting for me to be inspired.

Finally, I decided to do a variation on my Funky Dresden pattern which I designed and shared here on the blog almost 2 years ago (gasp! where does the time go?).

We were told to use at least 2 of the three hash dots provided and the peach solid. The funny thing is, once I got to designing and sewing, the hash dot I left out is the Marine that matched the solid I had bought! I inserted a narrow piece of the peach into the other hash dot dresden wedges and only used the one background fabric, not two like I had in my previous Funky Dresdens.
My finished mini quilt ended up 13" square. I quilted it on my domestic Janome 6600 and left the wedges and center unquilted so they pop. 
It's fun to see what others have come up with! Check out the #mqgfabricchallenge on instagram to see more!

Monday, October 1, 2018

bee blocks for Tracy

It's October! New month means a new challenge for the Solid Seven bee. This month, Tracy requested 80s themed, neon solid bee blocks. So much possibility here.  I was traveling when she announced the theme and by the time I got home, many of the obvious choices had been taken. You really need to check out our hashtag, #thesolidseven, to see what everyone came up with. Here are mine, soon to be popped in the mail....

This one was a doozy! I plotted it out on graph paper then pieced it and appliquéd the TV on top. Those center angled pieces were a challenge but I think it came out right. It's huge, almost 24" square, but I left to borders big so Tracy can cut it down as needed.

I decided to do something easy after I finished the MTV block. Tetris anyone?

She said she'd like words too.... I debated quite a few phrases and finally landed on Where's the beef? Who else remembers that cute little old lady in the Wendy's commercials? She cracked me up. Oh, I did embroider an apostrophe in "where's" but I forgot to snap a photo of that before I got my blocks ready to mail. You'll just have to believe me!

Pretty fun! I'm up next month. I've chosen a theme and a color scheme and can't wait to share it.