Little Progress

My sewing room hasn't seen much of me this week as I've been out-and-about attending various quilting activities. 

Last Tuesday, our Central Florida MQG presented a quilt to North Lake Presbyterian Church, to thank them for letting us use a room at the church, at no charge, for our monthly meetings. That was a neat presentation, as we were touched to learn how much the quilt means to them. It will be used as a raffle item at an upcoming Art Festival, to raise funds for the church's various charities. Yep, that's me on the far right.

Chevron-style string-pieced quilt: 87" X 97"

On Friday, this lovely young lady, Kelly came to my house. We "met" through Instagram - she's @sewkellysews - and was my consultant for my Jamberry Nails party. It was fun to show my friends what Jams are all about. Everyone left with at least one Jamberry fingernail, and a few even used nail polish! For me, it was fun to meet a quilter friend (she could also be my daughter) who is also the amazing mom of four little ones. Her youngest daughter is the same age, by two days, as our little Luke in Austin. 

It will be great to meet-up with Kelly again at QuiltCon. 

While I'm away from home I want hand work to take along, so I pulled out my travel roll-up. I found this inside. It's a Joseph's Coat block I started hand-appliquéing in January 2010! Obviously, I'd forgotten there was a block inside because I gave away this UFO before we left Iowa. The travel roll-up hasn't been touched for 2-1/2 years!

Well, it's being used now for a new EPP project.

On the at-home sewing front, I finished a Modern Hexagons pillow using a great tutorial by Nicole at Modern Handcrafts. This was easy, and fun!

In fact, it was so fun that I'll be sharing how to make it on Wednesday, July 1, at an all-day workshop with Quilting Guild of The Villages. The pillow finishes at 13-1/2" X 13-1/2" with a 14" X 14" pillow form inside.

Last week I also pulled fabrics to start a Metro Waves quilt. 

Thinking to make every wave a different print, I cut lots and lots of curves with my Quick Curve Ruler.

When I put the prints on my design wall, I quickly realized this wasn't working. Yuck. You can see the color pattern diagram in my left hand. Every arch is meant to be repeated horizontally across the quilt, but these prints weren't working together.

So, I've played, cut more prints and Kona white, and rearranged. 

I'm pretty sure this is what I'll sew together. However, let me offer some advice if you make this pattern. 

• The supply list calls for 2/3 yard of eight different solids. Solids are a couple inches wider than prints!
• From each fabric width, six 7" cuts are needed.
• That equals 42", and most prints don't have that much usable fabric.
• So, if you plan to use prints as I did, you'll need to either: 1) include some of the selvage in your cuts, or 2) buy extra fabric.

Isn't there's always something new to figure out? In my case, I learned a little more about color and how it applies to making quilts. How timely that the MQG will have a January 27 webinar by Elizabeth Hartman on "Choosing Fabrics for a Quilt."

This Monday is a full day! Line dancing this morning, followed by five hours spent in the classroom teaching quiltmaking, followed by this evening's Central Florida MQG meeting. At least I have pretty nails! Linda