Spring Swaptacular - And a plea for clemency

This Spring, I have enjoyed participating in two terrific swaps: The STLMQG pouch swap, and the For the Love of Solids 2 (FTLOS2) swap via Flickr.  

STLMQG Pouch Swap - Received

The STLMQG had our secret partner pouch swap last month.  Cuteness everywhere.  

My friend Juli Ann picked my name and crafted this fantastic patchwork zipper pouch for me. Snippets of Garden Party, Innocent Crush and Kei Dots mean there were as many treats on the outside as there were within, where Juli Ann generously hid a few surprises: a fun stack of fabric for my stash and a few sweet treats to boot. To this point, I had never tasted Nutella. Can you imagine? It's all I can do now to keep from putting the stuff in a casserole!      

Yummy (literally) pouch swap package from Juli Ann.

The back of the pouch is every bit as charming as the front.  I'm not sure how she did it (some serious Pinterest stalking, I suspect?), but she managed to combine three of my favorite things: navy blue, handwork, and Reunion by Sweetwater. I LOVE the way the navy and grey pair with the subdued reds, greens and golds of this line, and the bunting print is one of my favorites. Thank you so much, Juli Ann. From the beaded zipper pull to the last savory bit of chocolate, I love every bit of it. The special little details, and the fact that it came from a true friend, make it all the sweeter. You are the best.

Juli Ann's pouch (back)

  

  

STLMQG Pouch Swap - Given

I was very excited to draw as my secret swap partner Miss Nancy, who blogs over at Tea and Quilts. Miss Nancy is an active and treasured member of the St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild. She is soft-spoken and kind, and always willing to share her considerable experience with newbies like me. The profile pic she has chosen for her blog is an example of her excellent handiwork: a darling little redwork embroidery of a young girl sitting in a rocking chair stitching her own redwork. Having subscribed to Nancy's blog for some time, I already knew of her love of redwork, the St. Louis Cardinals (Redbirds), and several red accent walls in her home, so my color choice for the pouch swap was an easy one.    

Miss Nancy's blog icon

After pulling a selection of reds from my stash and completing a practice pouch, I got to work on the real deal.

I started with an embroidery pattern by Michelle Clement, which I completed on a small piece of white cotton canvas. I then pieced 144 one-and-a-half inch squares into a small patchwork and used this in combination with Dale Fleming's Six-Minute Circle to frame out the redwork. The dense, layered seams of the finished patchwork stretched the six-minute circle into a much longer ordeal, but in the end, I was relatively happy with the (somewhat elliptical) results. This finished piece would serve as the front of the pouch.

Pouch for Miss Nancy (front)

Flea market find - good stuff inside!

For the back of the pouch, I used a Dresden Plate template I pulled from a flea market find earlier that week. The pouch itself was a modified version of Elizabeth Hartman's Perfect Zip Bags pattern, the first pattern I've ever purchased, and definitely worth every penny. With the exception of a wonky gusset on one side of the bag, it turned out largely as I had hoped. Unlike my practice pouch (which tried to eat itself whenever zipped), the lining for Miss Nancy's pouch stayed put, and the zipper worked like a charm.  :)  I tucked a few chocolate bars inside, along with a box of Nancy's favorite tea for good measure.  I'm so glad she liked it!  

Pouch for Miss Nancy (back)

This was the first swap we've held in the guild since we established our new Swap Committee, and it was a HUGE success! The pouches were all so modern and fun. The ladies did a great job. In May, we'll hold our "Polka Dot Swap" for fat quarters of fabric. I'm definitely looking forward to it!

FTLOS 2 Swap - Received

Since I first found it on Flickr, I've been dying to join in on the "For the Love of Solids" swap. The craftsmanship of the gifts has been incredible from the start, and the theme lends itself well to my overwhelmingly-solid fabric stash. So, I was really excited to learn that I'd been accepted to participate in Round 2 this spring.

Jeannette Day (Flickr name:  Sacridote) drew my name for this swap. I'd spotted her project in the Flickr pool a few weeks before, and had my fingers crossed that it might be for me. I'd requested a knitting needle roll as my first choice, in linen and greens, and boy, did she deliver!

Awesome swap package from Jeannette Day (Sacridote) in the FTLOS 2 Swap.  Knitting needles not included.  :)

The linen case is beautifully made, and already chock full of needles. Along with the roll came a fabulous zipper pouch with loads of hand stitching and a crisply-pieced center block from Faith's (Fresh Lemons) Solstice Stars series. Inside I found a parcel of fabric, a pair of chocolate and caramel lollipops, and (yikes!) an Aurifil sampler pack! SO generous! I've been dying to try Aurifil for the longest time, but I get so distracted by "pretties" in the fabric store, I rarely make it over to the notions.  Thank you, Jeannette, for a stunning swap package.  I consider myself very lucky, indeed!

FTLOS 2 Swap - Sent

I don't know if it's my training as a scientist or the plethora of Agatha Christie novels read in my youth, but I love stalking swap partners. Not to creep you out too badly, but there's something about the thrill of the chase (for the perfect aesthetic) that just makes me tick. So, the minute I learned that Ruth of Cherry Coloured Twist was my secret swap partner, I whipped out the houndstooth cape and set to work. Ruth lives in the UK, and is moving soon to Sweden.  Her taste is hip and very modern, sophisticated in the eclectic, worldly sort of way that I always admire and can rarely emulate, having grown up within a relatively sheltered three-hour midwestern radius.

The combination of her inspiration mosaic and a few Pinterest finds here and here got me to thinking about this bag from Target I've been saving for years...

Isn't it just asking to be a quilt?  I really love the original color scheme, but Ruth wanted something with a bit more of a rainbow flare, hence "Linen and Leaves" was born:

Unfortunately, assembling this puppy took a tad longer than I'd expected. (And by "tad," I mean a month). *Sigh* I could give you lots of excuses about stomach flu and spring break and teaching loads and malfunctioning dishwashers, but the fact remains that I have always underestimated how long it takes to do things. My research advisor used to tell me to take whatever estimate I had in mind, double the magnitude and increase the unit. So, I should expect a project I estimate at one week to take two months. Two months, four years. Four years, eight decades. You get the idea.     

True to form, I sent this parcel out just about one month after the original post date. It was so late, in fact, that the Swap Mamas posted my name in the "Have Yet to Send" list on the Flickr site. I watched the list tick down from nine names to six, to five, to four... There sat Miss Stash Would, stuck with three partners in crime on the virtual post office wall.  :( The package was destined for the UK, so once the initial deadline passed, I figured I might as well try to salvage the situation by sweetening the deal.  Hence the tote bag, notebook cover and other assorted goodies:

Ruth messaged last week to say that she'd received her package, and she seemed (thankfully!) genuinely pleased. I certainly appreciate her patience, and I'm so tickled that she's happy, but I can't help wondering now, if I'm banned for life. Will the powers-that-be decide from on-high that I'm unfit to participate in this swap in the future? Or other Flickr swaps, for that matter? Does the modern quilting community, comprised of all sorts of people, have room for "late-swappers?" Even those of us who (hopefully) make up for our tardiness with beefed-up packages? Doesn't everyone still win?

Sorry to seem temperamental, but this really touched a nerve for me.  I fully admit to signing up for this swap against my better judgment.  Like many of you, I suspect, I work an inordinate number of hours outside the home each week, and as a result, have very little time for anything other than work and family.  What little bit of free time I do find I have to create, generally between the hours of midnight and three in the morning. Just to say that I've salvaged one, tiny fragment of my day to do something I completely and genuinely enjoy. So, I joined this swap purposefully, in an effort to feel included in something outside my workaday life that makes me feel rejuvenated and happy, like I've made a connection with someone who "gets me."

Maybe this rant is my preemptive attempt to sway the tide in my favor. Maybe when FTLOS 3 rolls around, they won't think twice about my tardiness. Then again, maybe I'm already blacklisted and all of this is moot.  Regardless of my status at the moment, I know a few things for certain.  Becoming a part of the modern quilting community has changed my life.  Creating beautiful things for people who share my love of textiles makes me feel included like I never have before. So, whether it's an established swap, or one I'm forced to create on my own for reluctant-type-A-workaholics like myself, I think it's fair to say that I will always try to find a way to stay connected to swappers around the world.  I can't imagine anything that feels better than knowing you've made something you love for someone who appreciates it.  Despite the hurt feelings and blacklists and deadlines and exorbitant fees for international express deliveries, it's a great thing to make good friends from all around the world.

And, it's still cheaper than therapy.    

Hammertime (aka The Quilt Formerly Known as 'Sheen')

In January of this year, our St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild kicked off its Robert Kaufman Solids Only Challenge.  Using a Kona Charm Pack in the Classics palette and only one or two additional solid fabrics, we were to design and complete a quilt with an outer perimeter between 120 and 180 inches to present in time for our June 11th meeting.  Having only joined the guild this past April, I got off to a late start, and (will gladly use that as the reason I ) was still hand-sewing my binding on at 5:15 Saturday morning.  Needless to say, one accidental nap later, and I was sprinting out the door, thirty-minutes late.  A rather inauspicious start for the girl who gets turned around the minute she crosses the Mississippi River on her way to our meetings each month to begin with.

Stupid TomTom...

At any rate, the ladies definitely came through, with 44 of our members presenting their quilts to a captive audience.  A few of the photos are up on our STLMQG Flickr page, and I hope we see many more to come.

The inspiration for this quilt was originally the sheen that you see on the back of a compact disk. Each 2.5-inch block was my less-precise version of the Endless Chain pattern available on the Quilter's Cache website, but down-sized to fit our challenge requirements.  Of course, down-sizing meant that the "spoke" corner of each block had nine layers of fabric stacked up at one point.  Once you join FOUR of those points together, that's 9...  18...  27...  A veritable BUTTload of fabric coming together at one seam.  

Photo courtesy of http://www.123rf.com/.

Thankfully for me, May brought a welcome 12-hour quilting retreat sponsored by my local quilt shop, the Quilted Garden, at St. John's United Methodist Church in Edwardsville.  As I fussed and repositioned my 144 tiny squares on the design wall, each of the lovely, God-fearing ladies around me would stop by my table, encourage my efforts, and wish me the best.  Which was all fine and good until I started sewing those mega seams together, and the under-my-breath bleeps started flying.  I was literally standing on my tip-toes, leaning with all of my might on the center of each block, willing the iron (which was steaming up a three-foot radius around me at this point) to smoosh those corners into place when a soft-spoken woman with fluffy white hair tapped me lightly on the shoulder and said, "Here, Honey.  Try this."    

Apparently, when God closes a door, he opens a tool box.

Between this divine intervention, and the spiraling, meteoric downfall of this guy, it was decided a name change was in order.  So, at last, I present to you, Sheen "Hammertime."

More information on the process behind making this quilt can be found on the WIPs tab of this blog.

Thanks for visiting!

WIP: Robert Kaufman Solids Only Challenge - "Sheen"

Photo courtesy of www.123rf.com

The idea for this quilt started with the sheen you see on the backside of a compact disk, and the Endless Chain block I spotted on the Quilter's Cache website.  The charm pack seemed to heavily favor the blue-teal-aqua-turquoise family to me, so the picture above seemed a good initial fit.

The original design called for a 6-inch, paper-pieced block, which I tinkered with until I'd worked out a 2.5-inch prototype using a few Moda prints and some old muslin (read:  thin fabric) I had laying around.  The prototype below shows four of the 2.5-inch blocks joined together, and my overall "plan" for the quilt as mapped out in PowerPoint (poor man's version of EQ).

The Challenge Rules stated that we had to use at least 21 of the 41 blocks provided in the charm pack.  From each of the 39 charm squares I chose to include in the quilt top, I cut seven 1x3-inch strips, which comes to 21 out of 25 square inches possible per charm, or 84% of 39 blocks for a total of 32.76 blocks used.  (Yes, I know...  Geeks 'R Us).

At this point, it was time to start cutting paper:  One hundred and forty-four (144) 2.5-inch squares, to be exact.  I used regular copy paper (spoiler:  BAD idea), and kept them organized in groups of twelve, because...  Frankly...  It just felt less oppressive that way.

Next came the 2.5-inch fabric squares.  Again, 144.  Each of the fabric squares was then individually cut into a kite shape, and temporarily attached to a paper square using fabric glue.

Once all of the kites had been adhered to the squares, I began sewing the colored strips onto the right-hand side of each kite (288 total:  273 from the charm pack, plus another 15 grey I added as one of my two additional colors) .  I had divided the colored strips into two piles, darks and brights.  I sewed and pressed the darks to the right, then sewed and pressed the brights to the left in an attempt to create the illusion of a less-disordered pattern overall.

Once the colored strips had been added, I sewed and pressed fabric strips (1.5x2.5-inches each, 288 total) to the outside edges of each of the colored strips to make these:

I turned each block face-down on the cutting mat and trimmed it to 2.5-inches square, to make this nifty stash of blocks...

From which I STILL needed to remove the paper.

And, there was evening...

And there was morning...

The seventh day.

After a few days' rest, I took my pile of happy little squares (aren't they pretty?) to a 12-hour quilt retreat sponsored by my local quilt shop where I sewed, steamed, and literally hammered my blocks into shape.

At this point, I was wanting to sandwich it, quilt it and bind it in a happy little rainbow print, but my outer dimensions were too small (24x24...  Fourteen years of college, right down the drain...), so I opted to put it on a stark field of white instead.

I had hoped to center a CD on each block and trace around it for quilting purposes, but at this point, the deadline loomed less than 12 hours away, so I opted to skip my first attempts at quilting circles and went with a straight-line diagonal pattern instead, with a few double-lines thrown in for good "homage-to-Film-in-the-Fridge" measure.  I marked my quilting lines with "disappearing" ink and a four-foot aluminum straight-edge my father-in-law bought me for Christmas (because I was always borrowing his).

I put the last (poorly-executed) hand stitch into the back of the binding at 5:15 AM, and promptly fell asleep.  Got up at 7:00, took a quick shower, and headed over the river (late) to the STLMQG's big reveal.  I was originally pretty upset with the quilt.  The center was a crumpled mess from all of the lumpy seams jutting out everywhere, and the stark contrast of the smooth, unwashed, all-white border only served to emphasize this (along with the scatter of pockmarks remaining from the barrage of safety pins left in the fabric up until just a few hours before).  But, once I got it home and washed it, it wasn't so bad.

All in all, it was a fun challenge.  I still need to break my procrastination curse.  And learn how to turn a proper binding.  (Seriously...  Will SOMEONE show me this stitch in person?!?)  And, the next time I make one of these (and, yes, there WILL be a next time), I'll scale the block back up, extend the pattern all the way to the edge of the quilt, and definitely bring "the hammer."  But, for now at least, I can say for certain, that it's definitely going to be a while.