Saturday, November 17, 2018

Improv round robin

Yesterday was a fabulous day! Our improv small group (the comedy club quilters) had a sew day. We had been planning for quite a while to have a lightening round robin, like Sherri Lynn Wood describes in her book. We finally had the opportunity to do it yesterday. Six of us gathered at a retreat center and set to work.

Before we even arrived, each of us had prepared our center block....
Each person passed their block along to the next person, along with a basket full of curated fabrics (my fabrics were all black and white). Also, each person had a "signature fabric" which they added to each quilt that came their way (my signature fabric is the aqua print in the "center" of the black & white block). We allowed ourselves 30 minutes to work on each quilt (Sherri recommends 20 minutes but that didn't sound like enough for us). The only stressful part for me was that the girls bullied me into running the time clock! ok, bullied might be a strong word, haha, but they did twist my arm.

Gosh this was fun! I took before & after pics of each quilt I worked on (so prepare for photo overload!)

Here is Trae's beginning block:
I picked up on the red in the rooster & added my signature aqua:
Chris D's quilt came to me next:
and I added a strip carrying the orange print across:

Next up was Susan's very large quilt!

I sliced and diced a strip set to make a narrow border:
Chris's quilt had a spot that needed a set in, y seam block. I chose to ignore that and leave it for Bonnie to solve. Nice of me, huh?
she had a lot of gray in her box and no one had really dipped into it. There was also and orphan block which I added to my hashtag row:
Last up was Bonnie's quilt:
I thought it needed another big punch of that school bus yellow!
The afternoon went by so fast! I expected it to be stressful but it was so much fun. Here are our finished quilt tops....

I can't wait to see how everyone finishes them off.


Wednesday, November 7, 2018

what to wear Wednesday, McCalls 7751

One of my goals for 2018 was to sew more garments. I've kind of gone in spurts with this throughout the year. Most recently garment sewing has stalled. Until last week! I had bought these Cotton & Steel lovelies when I was in NYC last month and wasn't sure what I planned to do with them.
I had three yards of the large print, clearly thinking it would be a great garment. Only one yard of the small print. It had not dawned on me when I purchased them that I might use the two together. Then I saw this pattern...
and I loved it. I didn't have quite enough of the large print to do the whole blouse, but that was fine with me. I used the small print for the collar, collar band and the side insets and I must say I am quite pleased with the results.
I love the asymmetry of the hem especially. The only alteration I made was to leave off the sleeve "cuffs". It seemed like a fussy detail that was unnecessary to me.
Look! It even has a faux button placket up the back. So cute.
you might be seeing me in this top a lot in the near future. maybe. Also, I think perhaps I'll make a couple more!

Thursday, November 1, 2018

fun with Sherri Lynn Wood

Last week the Dallas Modern Quilt Guild invited Sherri Lynn Wood to speak and teach for their guild members. Lucky for me, visitors were also welcome! Thursday night, a friend & I visited their guild meeting to hear Sherri speak.
If you don't know Sherri, she literally wrote the book on improv quilting. Her thought process is fascinating and her speaking style is engaging! If you ever get the chance to hear her speak, I recommend it (hint: she's the keynote speaker for Quiltcon 2019 in Nashville. Will I see you there?)

On Friday, my friends Bonnie, Anne & I attended her workshop on strip piecing and color theory.
It was a fun and interesting day. We did several "rounds" of strip piecing, each one based on different color parameters. 

Look how different all of our sets came out, even though we all used the same "rules". 

Here are my four strip sets:
I haven't figured out what I'll do with them yet! I do have a few ideas. 

Thanks Dallas Modern Quilt Guild for inviting us to play along with you!