Around we go, almost!

For this installment of BAM-a-lot Blocks, I have a fun, stripe-n-square block that was last bordered only on two sides. My choice of fabrics included colors I thought would meld (orange and plum) as well as a bright teal and lime, plus an orange mandala print that’s similar to the multicolored small print already in the piece.

My first thought is to bookend half a mandala on 2013BAMaLot2each side, however, that seems a little too expected. Since it shines like a sunset sinking into a brilliant azure sea on the dusty purple horizon, I place it on the ‘top’ border centering it on the vertical and ponder the left half of the equation. Continuing the stacked blocks might work, but I decide to echo the stripes instead and save the blocks for the right side. I’m running out of that plum for the bottom. There’s just enough, with an orange squeaked in there to finish one last strip.

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Mod Robin: My Start

Recently, I visited a local Modern Quilt Guild with a couple friends.

CandyFabricOne of the projects that drew me in was a small group round robin block. All the fresh fabrics were jumbled like Halloween candy on the table. As we were late to this group, my friend & I split the strip-pieced swatch in the foreground. I thought I might slice it up and reconstruct the block like my red striped pillow from last year, but I changed direction and put on a MQGJuly2013skewed border instead. I’d like to work more on the corners, but I like the wonky feel for my first BAM-a-Lot Block.

(NOTE: this is MY starting block for others to add sections or borders around.)

Labor of Love

Another Autumn Retreat in Marin brings the saga of my ‘Labor of Love’ Heart quilt closer AND (sigh) further from completion.

Heart Quilt BackingLet me start by saying that I almost finished the backing Saturday. Seems I only had a 24” x 95” piece of the burgundy left, so I split it for the two outside borders and pieced the middle with all the leftover 3-6” strips. It looks so nifty and could be a quilt on its own. Other quilters would say I was crazy to be putting so much work into a backing, so I decided this would be reversible! It’s a traditionally pieced design on one side and the modern stripes on the other. Yeah, I’m crazy.

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Lucky 13

Thirteen years ago, I embarked on a ‘Labor of Love’ as it were.

As the story goes, in 1998, I wanted to make a nifty Holiday quilt, but I wanted some practice first. So I planned a quilt-a-month project for 1999 to get warmed up. My Heart Quilt was only the second quilt on the list. [Insert heavy sigh here] It was a great start, sewing and piecing the hearts together that February. Unfortunately, the corner blocks stumped me and nothing I tried looked right. I shelved the project momentarily, but between travel, distractions and moving to another house, the better part of the decade zipped by with little more than a passing glance in 2003 & 2005 as I still had no better idea about how to finish those corners.

Then, I started going to March & September quilting retreats in 2009 and soaking up the knowledge and inspiration of my quilting collective. After my ‘Tie-land hiatus,’ I worked out the corner quandary and was emboldened in the home stretch to declare a brilliant decision to use Prairie Points around the border.

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Picking up where I left off: Marin Quilt Retreat 3/13/09

There’s nothing like having three full days to focus on Kreativity!

Earlier this spring, I got the call asking if I could fill in for an attendee who was unable to make the March quilting retreat. Would I be able to swing it last minute? Would I ever!

I have been percolating several projects for the past 2-9 years without scheduling time to complete them. How fabulous to have this offered now!

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