UFO Spotted

I belong to the Ithaca Modern Quilt Guild, and one of the challenges for members this year is to finish as many of our UFOs as we can. I have several of them, so I finally got around to working on one this week. It's going to be a pillow using two-inch-cut squares from my batik scraps. I've fused the squares onto a fusible interfacing with a printed grid, and am now sewing the seams. It shouldn't take long. But then I'll need to find a pillow form to fit.

You've Got Mail!

I'm a member of the Ithaca Modern Quilt Guild, and the guild's latest project is a Halloween postcard exchange with the Rochester Modern Quilt Guild. I finally finished mine and will be putting this in the mail this week. The thread colors are much more intense in person and the black fabric is much blacker. It's getting to be time to get a new camera....

More Fabric?

Fabric keeps finding its way into my stash...

This isn't a lot of fabric, only six fat eighths, but it's now part of my stash. At least I didn't have to spend any money on it.

Since I'm a member of the Ithaca Modern Quilt Guild, I was given these thanks to the Modern Quilt Guild for its latest Michael Miller fabric challenge.

Now all I have to do is figure out what to make....but until then, I think I'll just fondle it.

Mini-Quilt Challenge -- IMQG

A few weeks ago I blogged about cutting 625 1-inch squares for a challenge in the Ithaca Modern Quilt Guild.

What you see in the photo is the final result -- my own QR code in fabric! (click here to learn what a QR code is)

The whole quilt is 12 1/2 inches square -- the individual squares are 1/2-inch finished...well, they're mostly square.

I took pictures as I went along and plan to blog about the process of making this quilt when I have more time.

Even though the pieces aren't all perfectly square, I've tested this out by scanning it using the Google Goggles app on my tablet and it worked! Cool!

Mini-Quilt Challenge Progress -- Sneak Peek

The 625 1-inch squares that I showed in Monday's post have now been sewn together -- half-inch finished squares! Well, approximately half-inch and approximately squares. Now I have to figure out how to quilt this.

Nope, it's not a crossword puzzle. You'll have to wait until after the July meeting of the Ithaca Modern Quilt Guild to see the whole thing.

Starry-Eyed

I'm a member of the Ithaca Modern Quilt Guild and several months ago we were given a challenge to create a group version of Van Gogh's A Starry Night as a quilt. Those who wanted to participate were given a square from a poster of the painting and then asked to recreate that square in fabric/fiber. This past Sunday, we all met and showed off our squares. What you see above is how they look on the design wall (the 24th will be finished soon), before being trimmed and sewn together.

We were all amazed at how good all of our pieces looked together, even with all sorts of techniques being used -- fabric painting, thread painting, fusing, patchwork, yarn couching, etc.

 Here's what the poster looked like...

Here are closeup shots of some of the individual blocks...(click on the photos to see larger views)...

Now the blocks will be sewn together and quilted with stitching in the ditch. We hope to display the final project sometime later this year at a First Friday Gallery Night in Ithaca in Quilters Corner (the great shop where we hold our meetings).

Great fun!

No Wonder He Cut Off His Ear!

The Ithaca Modern Quilt Guild that I'm a member of is having a group project in which guild members create a block to be a part of a group quilt inspired by Van Gogh's The Starry Night painting. At a meeting a couple of months ago, a poster of the painting was cut up into 24 squares and we were asked to take a square and then make a larger (9-inch finished) quilt fabric square depicting that part of the painting that we took.

After Plan A and Plan B and Plan C didn't work for me (maybe even Plan D), I finally created what you see on the left in the top photo. It's hard to really tell what I did, so I'll just explain the process.

First, I scanned the small square into my computer and then printed it on some photo fabric sheets (I had to use two sheets and sew the pieces together since the finished block is larger than a regular-sized sheet). Then I arranged rayon thread (in various shades of blue and yellow) and gold metallic thread on top of the printed fabric. Then I fused some white tulle on top of the thread, and then did a little bit of thread painting using blue and gold thread on top of the tulle.

I tried to take some closeup shots, but my camera had difficulty focusing (probably because of the tulle) ...

Looks like a real mess, doesn't it? It's really nicer in person, and although it's not a masterpiece, I'm OK with it.

I hope to show photos of the rest of the blocks after the April meeting of the Ithaca Modern Quilt Guild. I'm sure the whole quilt will look wonderful!