Virtual Quilting Bees
June 2, 2010
I am now in 4 virtual quilting bees! One is wrapping up in the next couple of months and I will probably not rejoin so I can spend more time on the other 3 bees and the many projects I need to get started/work on. I also started a virtual quilting bee with my modern quilt guild. I’ve had the chance to make some fun blocks recently using some different techniques so it’s been fun working on all of them. I still need to finish one bee’s May blocks, I am hoping to get them done today so I can get them in the mail because I am late again! I think I will be late less when I am not in so many bees.
In April’s Block Swap bee, Paloma wanted tiny random scraps on a white background. I added a lot of my own fabric scraps, and pieced the blocks improvisationally – one log cabin style, the other just strips. I like the log cabin one better.

The Block Swap April Block 1

The Block Swap April Block 2
The blocks by themselves don’t really look like much, but you can see how the quilt is coming together here.
For the Bee Pieceful bee, I got to make some old fashioned quilt blocks, one is called shoofly and the other is called churn dash. It was interesting to use these classic patterns. I think that they could look very modern depending on the fabric choices.

Bee Pieceful April Block 1

Bee Pieceful April Block 2
For Bee Pieceful May, Andrea wanted wonky stars, which I love to do!

May Bee Pieceful Block 1

May Bee Pieceful Block 2
That’s all I’ve been working on sewing-wise lately. Next post I will show you the blocks I have received from two of my virtual bees. They are gorgeous. I am lucky to be in groups with such talented and creative sewists!
Virtual Quilting Bees
March 29, 2010
I’ve been mostly working on blocks for my assorted virtual quilting bees lately…I just signed up for another! I’m first in the new bee, so I need to figure out what I’m going to send and what kind of blocks I want so I can get the fabric in the mail by April 15th. It’s fun to get the mail when I’m doing bees. I do have a top-secret project in the works, but it will be a long time before anyone gets to see it. But for now here are some of the blocks I have made for others with their fabric in the bees that I am in.

The Block Swap March Block 1

The Block Swap March Block 2

The Block Swap February

Bee Pieceful February Block 1

Bee Pieceful February Block 2
March was my month to get blocks in my Bee Pieceful group. They are amazing! Check them out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/antijamsect/galleries/72157623728515632/
I haven’t gotten blocks back from everyone yet, but the ones that I have received are beautiful. I love what they did with the fabrics I sent.
Indianapolis Modern Quilt Guild
March 23, 2010
We just had our second meeting on Saturday…1 person came. It was pretty disappointing. We had 7 ladies at the first meeting who all seemed very enthusiastic about getting together to sew – and quilt a few new people sign up on the website, so I’m not really sure what happened. I’ve never organized a group before so I am unsure what I am really doing wrong or if this is to be expected. I don’t know what I need to do to keep people interested and active in the group. I am not an entertainer. I cannot sustain interest in this group on my own. When I started this thing, I figured having the forum would be enough to maintain some sort of connection between the group members and a running dialog going with an active message board…I mean, from what I’ve seen in other cities’ guilds that is what is happening. It’s been frustrating.
I found an awesome space in downtown Indianapolis to hold our meetings at the Harrison Center for the Arts – the Harrison Center was very exciting about having us as a group. They are interested in displaying our work in one of their galleries for a First Friday. I was super pumped about this! But at this point I don’t know if we can keep meeting there. It’s 25/hr to rent the space and I can’t keep paying out of pocket hoping people will show up. I didn’t force dues on anyone since it was a new group – I agreed on a pay as you go type of membership so if you come to the meeting, you pay 5 dollars, and your first meeting is free. So our second meeting – one person showed up besides me! We had a good time talking and sewing together, but its a waste to reserve that space every month when no one shows up.
So for April, I am not sure what I am going to do for the next meeting. I’m not doing the Harrison Center. Anyone who runs a group or knows how to get this project back on track please share your ideas with me. I want this group to succeed!
The modern quilt guild
January 20, 2010
Alissa has been working on growing her LA modern quilt guild into a national movement of modern quilt guilds nationwide. She has started a new site to help others start branches in their own city at The Modern Quilt Guild.
I decided I wanted to start an Indianapolis branch – personally, I’d love the opportunity to meet other modern quilters in the area and meet once or twice a month. You can find more information at http://indymqg.ning.com/. I will be posting information on our first meeting soon, and would love to have anyone interested in the Indianapolis area join us. Beginners are welcome!
What is modern quilting? According to The Modern Quilt Guild:
The concept of modern quilting is not meant to divide or segregate. It is meant to welcome new quilters, of all ages, to the world of quilting in a style that they can relate to. In many ways, modern quilting takes us back to the basics of the early quilters, when women of the day used the colors and styles of their time to express themselves creatively.
There are branches starting all over the country, so even if you are not in Indianapolis, check out the member guild links and find one in your area!
All caught up now
January 13, 2010
I feel so relieved. I am finally all caught up with my virtual quilting bees. I joined a second bee that started this month, so now there is two! I am really happy to be all caught up with my original bee, Bee Pieceful.
Here are December’s blocks:

rail fence

looking through a window
January’s – maverick (wonky) star – she sent some fabrics she got in Australia – I was so nervous about making a mistake. I’m so glad I didn’t. I think it looks kind of aboriginal.
My new bee is called The Block Swap and this month’s bee wanted wonky stars as well. I like making them so it was a fun month.

pink

blue
She just sent the center square and the background fabric, so I had to fill in with my own scraps to make the points. The blue one is my favorite.
My month for Bee Pieceful is March, so I need to decide what fabrics I want to send out. I am thinking some 30s-40s reproductions, because these ladies are so talented and I know they would make some really beautiful blocks with that fabric.
Also, if you do not read Handmade by Alissa, she is helping to organize Modern Quilt Guilds in cities all over the country. I volunteered to start one up in Indianapolis, so if you live around here and are interested, please email me at janmadethis at gmail dot com.
Craft Talk
January 11, 2010
I don’t know if you are familiar with Leslie Hall and her magical gem sweaters, but she’s awesome. This song definitely helps crafter’s block! Enjoy!
The advent calendar
November 18, 2009

The finished calendar
I decided to start doing this while I was packing up my things to move, because you know the best time to start a new project using techniques you’ve never tried before is while you are preparing for a major life event. I probably started it just to give myself a reason to not pack…I justified it by telling myself “well, you are doing something productive instead of packing so it’s OK!” I actually finished it the Sunday before I moved.
I finished this during one of the most stressful weekends of my life. I was trying to get as much packing done as possible. Saturday I needed a break from packing. Foxy has been at my parents house since before Halloween to make it easier to show my apartment and get ready to move. I decided I would go to the local city animal care and control and pet some kitties to relieve a little stress. What ended up happening was that I brought home this sad little dog.
The poor thing had kennel cough, fleas, and messed up teeth. I don’t know what I was thinking, it was just an impulsive decision. Immediately after taking him out of ACC, I took him to the vet. He has all his shots now, is flea free, and got antibiotics for his cough. I brought him home. That night I was a mess. I felt like I had made a horrible mistake. My dog Foxy really does not get along with other dogs. I just couldn’t bring him back to that horrible shelter. I didn’t know what to do. I had just compounded my stress level by 1000.
What I ended up doing is working with an adoption group called Alliance for Responsible Pet Ownership to try and find him a new home. They placed an ad on Petfinder.org for me. I have had at least a dozen people contact me who were interested in Pumpkin, but none of them followed through. It has been terrible. And the worst part is, the longer he’s with me, the more I’m getting attached to him, and I don’t think I will be able to adopt him out. I’m really conflicted and don’t know what to do. I’ve been so stressed out for the past month – my hair is falling out. I feel terrible and tired all the time. I cannot wait for Thanksgiving so I can have the time to just do nothing for a few days and hopefully relax.

close up of the applique and quilting
Anyway, back to this advent calendar. I used the tutorial that was on the Sew Mama Sew website. I pretty much used the same fabric too, Michael Miller Funky Christmas. I just really loved the prints in that collection. It was the first time doing any real applique, and that was probably what took the longest and was the most challenging. First I had to trace the numbers backwards on the double sided fusible webbing, and cut them all out. Then I had to iron on the numbers to the fabric I was using for the numbers and cut them all out. Then I realized that I had ironed on all the numbers that were on printed fabrics to the wrong side, so I had to redo half of them! Once I got that all straightened out, I ironed the numbers to the background fabric and began to satin stitch around the outer edge of the numbers on the sewing machine. It really took a long time to finish all of that. Once I had that done, and sewed the pockets together, the rest of it came together really quickly.
I forgot to add, they are all little pockets to put treats in!
I messed up the binding though. I was so tired on Sunday night, but I really wanted to finish. I didn’t realize until I was sewing the binding to the back (which I do by machine) that there was batting showing in the upper left hand corner…I hadn’t sewed the binding onto the top of the quilt there, I missed the edge. But instead of ripping the seams out and fixing it, I just sewed the binding so it covered the batting up, folded it over and finished the back. That’s why it looks crooked there. I just didn’t care at the time, but now it drives me crazy. There’s a couple of crooked pockets that bother me too, but I think overall it still looks ok.
I need to dig my sewing machine out from the pile of unpacked boxes and at least put some things away so I have enough room in my “craft loft” to set it up so I can finish the blocks for the quilting bee before the end of the month. There’s about 4 projects I wanted to make before Christmas as well. Some will be really quick, like these bookmarks, and some not so much – I wanted to do a quilt as a gift for someone for Christmas…I hope I can get everything done in time! I have about 6 weeks, I think if I do a little every day, I’ll be able to finish all the stuff I had planned. Hopefully!
the poky puppy quilt
October 29, 2009

the front
I finished this last week and gave it to my mom on Sunday. She doesn’t like it. I don’t really know what to think about that. It’s not my most favorite thing I’ve made either, but I didn’t really use a pattern, and just tried to do what I thought would work with the print and the subject of the fabric she bought. She picked out the poky puppy and golden books fabric, I just added in some other things to fill it out. I asked her what she wanted me to do or how she wanted it to look, and she said to do whatever I wanted to, so that’s what I did. She said she thought I’d be using smaller pieces…what? I used a fabric panel in the poky puppy line and cut the 9 blocks from it, I thought the whole point of her wanting to use this fabric was the puppies…the puppies on the green fabric were large too.
I know the the fabric I used for the triangles doesn’t really look right with the other stuff once it was sewn together, even though it looked cute when the uncut fabrics were just laying together. I know I could have done a better job on the quilting too. So it’s not like I am in denial about this quilt having problems.
After I got over my initial indignation and hurt feeling, I thought about what she said about the smaller pieces and I think she wanted something along the lines of what I made for my goddaughter’s 1st birthday. But a coin quilt with this fabric, and on a lap sized quilt just wouldn’t have worked, in my opinion. The golden book fabric would have been fine, but all the puppy-related stuff – you’d never see a puppy in there.
The other idea I had before going with this more traditional juvenile looking thing I came up with was to use those panels ask the center of some wonky log cabins and then use the other stuff she picked out as the strips and used the go-to white sashing. In hindsight, I probably should have just done that and gone with my instincts, but I second guessed myself that she wouldn’t like it because when I showed her the first wonky log cabin block I made – which I loved how it turned out – she didn’t seem all that impressed.
She did like the back of the quilt. I used the book cover that was printed on the panel as the label and put her name on it. I also cut out some puppies from the panel and did my first applique. It ended up being not as hard as I had thought it was going to be. I was just intimidated by the satin stitch.
Oh, well; you can’t win ’em all. Have you ever made something for someone who ended up not liking it? I’d love to hear your stories.

I do think its looks cuter in the staged photo, the colors in the full view shot make it look worse
The colors in this photo and the one of the back are more accurate, and I think it actually looks cute here.