Bad Blogger!

I've been AWOL around here, and I apologize for that.  Lots of things have contributed to that, but I won't bore you with that list.

I actually meant to post this back in October and for some reason never got around to it.  So, here goes!  Better late than never!

My hairdresser was going to have a baby, so of course I had to make her a quilt.  When she requested grey with brights, well, I knew that was right up my alley!

And I dithered about trying to decide on the BEST pattern to do for far too long.  I finally came to a decision.  I had so much fun doing my Mod 9-Patch that I thought a variation of that would be fun.   I was inspired by Kristy Daum's Parallel quilt pattern as well.  (Kristy's Modernized D9P is the tute  I used to make my Mod 9-Patch)

Here is my start.  Not too exciting yet, is it?

I realized that I'd used the red and the hot pink for all the corners, so then I made some more 9-patches with the background in the corners to break that up a little.  Just sewing by the seat of my pants, as usual.

Eventually I got it all done and even quilted it all myself.  It's not much fun to wrestle a quilt around under the presser foot in the summer heat, but I persevered and finished.  I quilted straight-ish lines vertically, which I like a lot.  Some of my spacing is a little goofy and it's not perfect, but that's OK.  I was more concerned with DONE.

Here it is, with DH being my quilt holder.  I think it came out OK!  

detail shot 1

detail shot 2

And here's a shot including the cute flannel I put on the back.  I love that zebra that you can almost see, so I thought the black&white binding echoed that, and it goes with the front well also.  

I put a label on it and gifted it to my hairdresser.  She loved it!

My local guild had our quilt show at the end of September, and I've had my annual post-quilt-show-loss-of-motivation.  It happens every year.  I started doing some random sewing, but I can't seem to concentrate on any of the projects I should be working on.  

I had to interrupt my sewing to do Thanksgiving host duties, and now I've gotten an icky cold with a terrible cough.  I don't even feel like going into the quilt studio, so I'm taking good care of myself this week, in hopes that the cold goes away soon.  I've got more to share with you of what I've done lately, and I hope to post more soon.  I'm just hanging out in the office with my computer and my vaporizer!  *cough* 

By the way, I saw on IG that Cheryl Arkison, co-author of Sunday Morning Quilts, is on The Quilt Show this week, and you can see it for FREE!  She demos both making slabs, and improv quarter circles (think Drunkard's Path).  Here's the link if you want to watch it.  I loved it!

Mod 9-Patch - Blogger's Quilt Festival

Welcome to my blog, if you've come over here from the Blogger's Quilt Festival!  And welcome back to my regular readers.  I'm so happy you're here!

First of all, I'd like to send a huge THANKS! to Amy for all her hard work in getting this on-line Quilt Festival underway, with great sponsors and awesome prizes too.  The Festival is my favorite on-line event of the year.  Where else can you see hundreds of quilts all while in your jammies with your fave beverage?  It's available any time you want to visit, all without miles of walking and no crowded parking lots - just lots of quilts!  And I get to meet new-to-me quilters and make new friends.  I love it!

Here is my first entry in the BQF this time:

Mod 9-Patch: Comma Musings

65 x 77 inches

Entered in the Modern category

This was my first real foray into making a Modern quilt.  I found the Comma by Zen Chic line of charm squares and fell in love with them.  I adore fabrics that have text on them!  It took me awhile to decide what the best pattern would be to use these particular charms.  And then I remembered seeing the Modernized Disappearing Nine Patch tutorial over on Kristy Daum's St. Louis Folk Victorian blog. Her tute was so easy to understand and follow.  I'm just thrilled at how great this came out!

I had fun playing with the blocks for the Modernized Disappearing Nine-Patch.  I was looking for a way to stretch the two packs of charm squares to get a bigger quilt, and this design fit the bill.  There's lots of open space in the blocks.  I used a kind-of-silvery grey solid for background - I didn't want to overwhelm the prints.  I'm really happy with the grey.  Most of the 9-patches use only 4 squares of the print fabric, which worked out great with the packs of charm squares.  I actually had enough charms to do 2 or 3 blocks that used 5 of the charms, just for a little extra variety.  That's one of the fun parts of the MD9P pattern - there's room for some improvisation of your own in the individual block design.

My long-armer Shari and I worked out the best quilting design for this quilt.  I actually found this pattern on Pinterest, and sent Shari the link to the photo.  Shari then free-hand quilted the pattern.  My usual choice is a curvy quilting pattern over a geometric pieced pattern, but I think this design fits this quilt well.  I think the quilting and the fabric work really well together to give a "modern" vibe to the quilt.

I put that ubiquitous IKEA "number" fabric on the back.  Again, text on fabric!  It makes my heart happy.

I did a piped binding (edited to add: technically a flange, as it has no filling) on this quilt, because I thought it needed that little pop of color out on the edge.  This is the first quilt I've ever tried this on and was a little worried about how easy the technique would be.  It was so easy!  I even got all 4 corners perfect, which never happens for me.  I'm ready to do this type of binding again, because it was so quick and easy.

You may have noticed what appears to be a ribbon on the quilt in the top photo. Here is a close-up of that Participation Ribbon from the quilt show.  Every quilt entered received a ribbon, all of them made by Judy, our featured quilter.  Isn't it sweet?  Even though I didn't win any awards, this quilt is a winner in my book.  It came out exactly like I wanted it to!

Please visit my other entry in the Small Quilt category in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.