In which Madi's Mom Makes....The Attraction Block (Day 6)

I promise, once I iron it, it'll look so much nicer...

So, this one threw me for a loop. I just couldn't concentrate today, so I kept sewing pieces together in the wrong order,cutting them the wrong size...

However, I still love the block.

I think it's very chic and pretty, and I could see doing a whole rainbow of these (It's also great for using up some of those bottom of the barrel scrap pieces!)



In which Madi's Mom Makes....An Announcement of Days 6--10 of quilting!

Day 6, Sunday November 6th:

'The Attraction Block'

Go to http://www.quilterscache.com/T/TheAttractionBlock.html for this pattern.

 

 

 

Day 7, Monday November 7th:

Mr. Roboto Pretend you're a mad scientist and create an applique of your dream robot.

 

 

 

Day 8, Tuesday November 8th:

RAAAAAWWWWWRRRRR!!

Applique the monster or monsters under your bed, scary or silly, on an 8 1/2" x 11" square of fabric.

 

(I promise we didn't put those two next to eachother on purpose!!!)

 

 

Day 9, Wednesday November 9th:

Modified 'Log Cabin'

http://www.quilterscache.com/L/LogCabinBlock.html
This is the original Log Cabin block. Take the basic pattern and make your own variation on it. Use sides that are no more than one inch thick, and no fewer than 9 different colors

 

(One of my very faves)

 

 

 

Day 10, Thursday November 10th:

Wheelin' and Dealin'

Go to ColorMastery.com/Workshops. Check out the section for quilters, and recreate a similar applique with what you have in your scrap box!

 

 

On a related note:

 

My sewing machine broke

:(

 

The only thing I'd ever even made on that thing was a kilt.

Oh, how I hate kilts.

 

But, I got a new sewing machine for Christmas!

I <3 Brothers sewing machines so much.

(Incidentally, I may quilt too much....I was watching Howl's Moving Castle the other day and idly remarked to my friend, "Oh, look. Howl's bedspread is a traditional cathedral window comforter design....)

Happy nerding out over quilt blocks!

 

In which Madi's Mom Makes....A Memory Lane Block

Directions:

Use pieces from your own clothes, old articles from adulthood, baby clothes, your middle school uniform, anything. Try to choose clothing that has meaning to you, or commemorates a special day. Be sure to include the story when you send us the picture of your block

 

This one is actually another piece honoring my mom.

 

This summer, when I was super-pregnant and uncomfortable and a few weeks away from giving birth, my mom and I decided yo clean out the garage...in Arizona...in 115 degree weather.

Our goal was to reach a stack of boxes she had kept for over twenty years, packed with clothes that she wore while pregnant, that I wore as a baby, and even into my school days.

 

(This included the matching sweaters that my cousin and I wore when we sang to Santa...oh, the horror).

 

In the pieces was a blue and white flowered dress that she had claimed was one of her favorite things to wear. Now old and worn out, I couldn't in good conscience wear it anywhere...

Buuuuut...

 

Combined with my favorite maternity shirt from Old Navy, it made one heck of a memory block.

 

 

In which Madi's Mom Makes....A Penny Rug Block (Day 4)

It's my lovely mother's birthday today (happy birthday, mom!), so in order to fullfill the directive:
                       Make a block whose pattern contains your name, or the name of another person who is
                       meaningful to you
I searched and searched in vain for a block containing my mother's name.

The best I could come up with was a Penny Rug.


According to wikipedia,
A penny rug is a decoration made of stitched together coin shaped fabric scraps.

See?
Penny rug.
Made of wool.
Rather nifty.

I tried it in cotton.

I tried backing the pieces.

I tired quilting individual circles and then attaching them.

I tried jumpping up and down in frustration.

This is what I ended up with....

Not my proudest hour, but it works.

In which Madi's Mom Makes....A Square Square Block (Day 3)

Is it Thursday already!?

As our dear buddy Arthur Dent said: "It must be a Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays..."

I must just say now, bless Jeselyn for updating this blog for me while my laptop sulked in the corner, mad that its owner does things to computers.

Honestly, I don't mean to.

                                      But I apparently do things to computers that people who know computers assure me are not possible to do to computers. I have reformatted a thumb drive moving it from one computer to another computer 3 feet away. I have magnatized credit cards and floppy disks. My most recent accomplishment was making every program, every file, and every application on my compter open as windows media player.

Oh yeah.

Anyway, I spent the day, like my computer, sulking.

And quilting.

The challenge today was:

Use four colors. All pieces of this square must be square. No piece may share any part of an edge with a piece of the same color.

Why did I do this to myself???

I was never very spacial.

But, after a lot of tinkering, this is what I came up with:

It's a little blah, but I love the vintage flower fabric and wanted to show it off!

Something else I wanted to show off this week: Madi's 1st ever Halloween costume! Ok, so she waaaas going to be Spock, but it was a little too cool for her starfleet uniform (and besides, I have to save something for the mommy-daughter Star Trek conventions), so we went with the nerd parade costume instead, Aang from Avatar the last Airbender.

Her daddy went as Sokka, I was Katara, and a buddy of ours was a fire nation fighter (Ty Lee).

In the cartoon, our characters looked like this:





Trick or treating, we looked more like this:

(Dear Nickelodeon....our Avatar wins).

In which Madi's Mom Makes....A Country's Flag into a Quilt Block

Ah, Hungary.

I know very little about Hungary, but when the Our Great Expatriot Challenge came up (Take any country's flag EXCEPT THE USA'S and create a quilt block based on it) I knew what country I had to do.

My grandmama, who I was named for, came from Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, and I grew up greatly admiring the woman I never was able to meet. So, in honor of the day of the dead, this quilt block is for Annie.

Hungary's flag, in case you don't know, looks like this:

But I think it's a little boring to represent straight, as is, so I decided to take my inspiration from the colors instead. Looking through my stash, I realized I had very little white fabric, but that I did have a neat whitish-tan flower patterned fabric that I enjoy a lot. So, with that, I decided to add the appliqued flowers to the corners of this block.
The flowers are based off a Hungarian apron I loved growing up, and turned out this way:

I'm happy to say this whole block has been cat-approved...

 





In Which Madi's Mom Makes...Modified Flyfoot!

http://www.quilterscache.com/F/FlyfootBlock.html

For this block, use a different color or pattern for each individual triangle. That's 32 different fabrics! Try to make all the fabrics compliment each other to create a cohesive pattern, even though the square is so busy.

Yesterday was day 1 of the 30 Day Challenge, and unfortunately Anna was experiencing some technical difficulties and has been unable to post. But fear not, this is Jeselyn and I'm helpful. When she gets access to a computer again Anna will edit this post and tell you all about it, but in the meantime here's a picture of her interpretation of the first day's challenge.

In which Madi's Mom Makes....A Super Cool Announcement of the 1st 5 Days Of Quilting!

YAAAAAWN...
Is it midnight already? I guess it is! So, happy 1st of Novemember, happy All Saints Day, happy Dia Day Los Muertos, happy international world vegan day, and happy....
1st Day of Quilting!!!

I'm not as fancy as Jeselyn (who has a video of the official pulling of events from the hat: http://imakequilts.blogspot.com/2011/11/30-day-quilting-challenge-first-5-days_01.html) but I can give you plain ol' text. And so, this 5 day spread of happy quilting is:

 

Tuesday November 1st:Modified 'Flyfoot'http://www.quilterscashe.com/F/FlyfootBlock.html
For this block, use a different color or pattern for each individual triangle. That's 32 different fabrics! Try to make all the fabrics compliment each other to create a cohesive pattern, even though the square is so busy.

Wednesday November 2nd:
Our Great Ex-Patriot
Take any country's flag EXCEPT THE USA'S and create a quilt block based on it. If you're out of out country, use a flag other than your own (in which case the good ol' red, white and blue would be fair game, I suppose).

Thursday November 3rd:Puzzler
Use four colors. All pieces of this square must be square. No piece may share any part of an edge with a piece of the same color. Go!

Friday November 4th:Names
Make a block whose pattern contains your name, or the name of another person who is meaningful to you, i.e. 'Annie's Choice,' for Anna.

Saturday November 5th:Memory Lane
Use pieces from your own clothes, old articles from adulthood, baby clothes, your middle school uniform, anything. Try to choose clothing that has meaning to you, or commemorates a special day. Be sure to include the story when you send us the picture of your block.



As you finish up your pieces, feel free to send them to either of us if you want them posted to the blog so others can be inspired, or by all means, join and/or post to the Facebook event (http://www.facebook.com/events/#!/event.php?eid=234949706566401), if that's your thing!

Happy quilting!