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Postcard designed by Kim Andersson, Guild Member

See all posts about Leo’s Wonky Baby Quilt.

Patience required.

Tape, fold, stitch.  Twist, repeat.

Don’t lose your focus.  Tape, fold, stitch with intention.

Repeat.

Mantra: This besties quilt will be finished by Valentine’s Day.

It’s coming! The East Bay Modern Quilt Guild is proud to announce their first quilt show, Stitch Modern!

The Stitch Modern Show will be open to the public from February 1- 12, 2012, on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays from 12 noon – 3pm with a special opening reception on Saturday, February 4, from 3-5pm, at the Piedmont Center for the Arts, located in Piedmont, CA. For a sneak preview see the Stitch Modern Quilt Show on Flickr.

• Feb 4: 3p-5p Saturday Opening Reception

• Feb 8: 6pm -What is Modern Quilting? Public Conversation

Sample quilts from the show…
Press Release

I pinned Linda’s 12×12 quilt on my xoxo – graphic quilts board.

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My baby quilt is going to be a nine-patch, using these fun fabrics I’ve been collecting over the past year.

I had to use paper to start getting the layout ideas from Linda’s quilt to my sewing table.

I haven’t sewn curved (“wonky”) lines before, so I had to take a learning  break and watch Alicia Merret’s videos on curved piecing.  Once I realized she was going to take more than 30 seconds to impart her wisdom, I grabbed a snack and settled in to watch her 3 helpful tutorials.

Then I just started cutting, sewing, and piecing.

My first benchmark will be finishing nine 15-inch blocks.  I’m following Alicia’s advice and resisting the urge to trim up the edges until I’m sure exactly how I’m going to connect these squares together.

Setting the 15-inch square ruler over the top to see that all my wonky seaming still keeps within the square – mostly…!

Knowing this would be a sober night for me, I kept thinking that comfort would be paramount.  Thus, the genesis of “Superkickinit” — the superhero who can snuggle up and relax anywhere!  This costume would require a super-cozy cape!

I found a simple circle cape pattern on bucknell.edu and went to work.

Using the string method, I quickly pinned off a half-circle in my fabrics and set about cutting along the arc.

A little bit of stitching, attaching a hood, and sewing on ties…

…and voila! I was superkickin it!

My girl Devo can superkick it too!

I had so much fun making and wearing this cape, I’m inclined to do more!  I’ve been saving cloaks and capes I like on my Pinterest board for sewing ideas.

Do you Pinterest?  Put your link in the comments below, please!

I decided that with such a wild front, it could use a calming, structured pattern for the back!

Can’t wait to show you the bias binding!

So I thought it would be fun, while working on my besties quilt, to take a few photos around my studio and share with my fellow quilting voyeurs!  Do you find yourself wondering…

What’s their studio space like? 

What tools do they use?

How is sewing integrated into their lives?

How do they make it all fit? or do they???

Fabrics?  Well, I asked for cotton or silk, and that’s what I got!  I forgot that to a non-quilter, cotton would include delicate, thin cottons; thick, stretchy t-shirt knits; and coarse denim, too!  Or that the silks would be so airy and skin-skimming as garments and almost as light as spiderwebs to sew with!

I considered my options and decided to take the variety of materials as a challenge.

I mean, the fun of quilting is figuring out how to make it work as you go, right?  So my fabric dilemma was mostly resolved by using a Pellon backing on all of the garments. A little time-consuming, but I think worth it in the long run.

Of course, denim was the biggest challenge of the pack, because — as those of us who have followed sewing by machine washing know — heavy fabrics like to beat the tar out of delicate fabrics!

I decided that denim would have to be the fabric that binds, and saved it to be the sashing between the blocks where it would only touch the quilting-grade cottons.  I actually like the effect… and it represents the denim donor so well.  She loves to bounce around between her friends, and she’s def’ly not one to get all squared in and behave herself!

Want to see a picture with the denim? Stay tuned for my next posting…!

I needed something to create a marriage between the very symmetrical hexagon flowers that I love and the improv freezer paper designs that I also love.

Oh yeah, and it needed some Thangles, too!

This became the test block for the besties quilt I’m currently working on.