Category Archives: Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild

KC Scrappy Bee 3×6 round two, month three

For the third block of the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild Scrappy Bee 3×6 round two, I decided upon the “Boxed In” block by Faith Jones from the book “Modern Blocks.” It turned out an inch larger all the way around than the required size, but it can be easily trimmed down. Scroll down to read how a 3×6 bee is organized. There are seven blocks for month three. Click here to see the month two blocks.

Toni requested blocks using orange and cream fabrics.

Mary requested blocks using a purple batik focus fabric
she provided, along with other purple, blue and green fabrics.

Lesley requested blocks using low volume fabrics.

Elizabeth requested all wonky star blocks using
Kona Snow she provided as the background fabric.

Nikki requested blocks using only solid fabrics in any color. Photo pending

Nikki is making a Quilt of Valor quilt and requested
blocks using only green and gray fabrics. Photo pending

I’m making a quilt using an Aboriginal fabric as a focus fabric.
The bee blocks will be solid black, blue, gray and white,
to be set on point along with the Aboriginal fabric. Photo pending

How a 3×6 bee is organized
Each member of the six-person bee lets the group know her color preference. She may, or may not, provide a focus fabric for her blocks. Each month, each person makes a total of six blocks of her choice: one for each person in the bee, including herself, using her beemates’ color preferences or fabric provided. At the end of three months, each person will have made a total of 18 blocks, and have 18 blocks of her own (15 provided by her beemates). Most likely it will yield a sampler quilt, because each person gets to decide upon the block pattern she makes for everyone else. Clear as mud? In the coming months I’ll continue to post pictures of the blocks I make, as well as those I receive, which should help clarify any confusion.

In the Kansas City bee, we build in an extra month, so the bee lasts four months instead of three to allow for life to get in the way of sewing. Also, some of us choose to make an extra block each month for a Quilt of Valor. I really dig this this type of bee because it’s a short-term commitment with a sizable and creative yield.

KC Scrappy Bee and Lovely Linen Bee blocks for Nikki

I’m so happy to be helping Nikki with a spiderweb quilt for her son. Nikki requested this block for two bees we are in together: KC Scrappy Bee and the Lovely Linen Bee. She provided us with the linen foundation, and asked that we used warm colors from our scraps. Best of all, she provided us with a great tutorial (linked below).

Strips sewn on one side of each foundation.

Strips sewn and foundations trimmed.

Nikki made this quilt in cool colors previously, and you can make your own following this excellent and detailed tutorial.

http://lovelylinenbee.blogspot.com/2011/02/grandma-nells-spider-web-quilt-tutorial.html

Modern Quilt Guild Riley Blake fabric challenge

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I love a challenge, and I especially love the Modern Quilt Guild challenges. Be it national, or local, the MQG challenges always get me motivated to make something nifty. Personally I use it as a great excuse to make something for myself. For this challenge, Riley Blake Designs provided fat eighths from their Basics category. The guidelines were simple: make something quilted. It was not a requirement to use all the fabric provided, and there was an option add in any solids or Riley Blake printed fabric.

Finished MQG Fabric Challenge #3: Riley Blake
(click on the photo to enlarge)

I purchased some “Happy Hexi” fabric from Riley Blake, which matched nicely five of the six fabrics we were provided. I also added solid gray and aqua. Drawn to “Happy Hexi,” I decided I wanted to include hexagons in some way.

After letting the fabrics simmer in my mind, I started sketching some designs.

Using an AccuQuilt GO! Baby, I cut out the hexies from the provided fabric and sewed them onto the gray background. I drew out a grid for the wonky star, with the “Happy Hexi” fabric in the center. I knew I wanted to echo the star in the negative space and drew in the points with chalk.

Then I quilted the points, mimicking the printed fabric in the completed wonky star: chevrons, polka-dots, stripes. As the wonky star has printed hexies in the center, I created a hexie flower in the center of the echoed wonky star.

My favorite fabric is the orange dots. I like the contrast of the orange on the white, and the varied sizes of the dots. I used more of that fabric than any of the other Basics. To provide some visual interest, I shifted one of the hexagons down, and then used quilting to echo the fabric in the top spot of the hexie flower. I liked how the solid aqua grounded the movement in the surrounding hexagons.

When designing the quilt I wanted to include negative space to really frame the Basics fabric with quilting, and provide substaintial movement. I wrapped feathers around the squared-off wonky star, and varied the size of the swirls used throughout the quilt.

I had a great time with this challenge, and it was a fun quilt to make. In Kansas City we had our challenge reveal in December, and as always, our members had creative, beautiful and inspiring projects for show and tell. I can’t wait to see all the projects from other guilds. A big thank you to Riley Blake Designs for sponsoring this challenge.

KC Scrappy Bee 3×6 round two, month two

For the second block of the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild Scrappy Bee 3×6 round two, I decided upon a small wonky quasar. I call it a quasar because it’s not quite a star. Scroll down for the sizes of the pieces needed to make a 12.5″ unfinished (12″ finished) block, and to read how a 3×6 bee is organized. There are seven blocks for month two. Click here to see the month one blocks.

Nikki requested blocks using only solid fabrics in any color.

Mary requested blocks using a purple batik focus fabric
she provided, along with other purple, blue and green fabrics.

Lesley requested blocks using low volume fabrics.

Nikki is making a Quilt of Valor quilt and requested
blocks using only green and gray fabrics.

I’m making a quilt using an Aboriginal fabric as a focus fabric.
The bee blocks will be solid black, blue, gray and white,
to be set on point along with the Aboriginal fabric.

Toni requested blocks using orange and cream fabrics.
Somewhere between making a cup of tea and answering
the door I jumbled up Toni’s blocks. I rather dig how it
turned out, so Toni gets to decide if she wants to keep it
as is or if she wants me to make it a quasar. Either way
I’m going to keep this particular design in my back pocket.

Elizabeth requested all wonky star blocks using
Kona Snow she provided as the background fabric.

How to make the wonky quasar blocks
I created this diagram as the basis for the blocks I made. To learn how to make the points, refer to the Silly BooDilly wonky star tutorial.

KC Scrappy Bee block for Lauren

I’ve never had bee blocks go together as quickly as these fun scrappy string blocks for Lauren. She used a post from the blog Film in the Fridge as her inspiration. The diamond shape in the rectangle is visually dynamic, and it makes me want to attack my scraps and do my own version of the quilt.

KC Scrappy Bee 3×6 round two, month one

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For the first block of the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild Scrappy Bee 3×6 round two, I decided upon a large wonky star. Scroll down for the sizes of the pieces needed to make a 13″ unfinished (12.5″ finished) block, and to read how a 3×6 bee is organized. There are seven blocks for month one.

Elizabeth requested all wonky star blocks using
Kona Snow she provided as the background fabric.

Mary requested blocks using a purple batik focus fabric
she provided, along with other purple, blue and green fabrics.

Lesley requested blocks using low volume fabrics.

Toni requested blocks using orange and cream fabrics.

Nikki requested blocks using only solid fabrics in any color.

Nikki is making a Quilt of Valor quilt and requested
blocks using only green and gray fabrics.

I’m making a quilt using an Aboriginal fabric as a focus fabric.
The bee blocks will be solid black, blue, gray and white,
to be set on point along with the Aboriginal fabric.

How to make the wonky star blocks
I created this diagram as the basis for the blocks I made. To learn how to make the star points, refer to the Silly BooDilly wonky star tutorial.

KC Scrappy Bee block for Lesley

Lesley from the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild Scrappy Bee is making a bookshelf based on a tutorial from Don’t Call Me Betsy. Deciding what to make to sit on the shelf was a challenge for me. In her sample, Lesley had a paper-pieced teacup on her books. I love tea, and a teacup would have been one of my first choices. As that was off the table, so to speak, I took a look at my own bookshelf to check out my knick-knacks.

I noticed a couple of things: one, I prefer for my books to be arranged tallest to shortest within a genre; two, my husband does not share that compulsion. I decided I wanted to do a Rubik’s cube, but wasn’t looking forward to the plethora of Y-seams on a 3-D cube. Flat face it would have to be. I’m nerdy enough that I arranged a cube to use as a guide, based on solid colors I had in my scraps.

Cube

I wanted to keep the cube to scale visually, so I had to cut 1″ blocks, for 1/2″ finished blocks. Never would I have imagined that I would be piecing such itty-bitty blocks, nor that I would do them well. My friend Nikki suggested I hand stitch black around the cube, and I think that really makes it pop.

There is more white space in the finished block than I realized when laying it out, but it’s an opportunity for interesting quilting in the negative. From the group’s postings on FB, Lesley’s bookshelf will also have flower vases, glasses and a lamp. I’m happy I was up for a challenge on this block, and I believe I will feel the need to make more Rubik’s cubes in the future.

Lesley’s bookshelf block, with Rubik’s cube to show scale.

KC Scrappy Bee blocks for Toni

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While I was at Nikki’s house earlier this week we (by we, I mean she) cut out the pieces for Toni’s Japanese X blocks for the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild Scrappy Bee. Toni provided the fabric, and we swapped some between the two of us and added a bit of purple from Nikki’s stash.

Toni slightly changed the finished size of a tutorial from Badskirt, and I really dig how they turned out. I’m going to save this pattern for future projects, and I’m anxious to see how Toni’s quilt comes together.

KC Scrappy Bee block for Marilyn

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For her month in the KC Scrappy Bee, Marilyn chose to have us make snowball blocks. I really like the fabric, Comma, designed by Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic. Happy, happy block.

KC Scrappy Bee blocks for Tammie

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Up first for the new round of the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild Scrappy Bee is Tammie, who requested Polaroid blocks. Tammie asked for two blocks, but they are so quick and easy, four seemed in order. I had a grand time digging through scraps, searching for the perfect little pieces to fussy cut. It was a walk down memory lane, finding just the right pieces. The turtle fabric was from the very first quilt I ever made for a friend who loves sea turtles. The monkey was from a zoo print I used in a memory quilt for my nephew after he spent part of a summer vacation in the Midwest. The rabbit is from a work in progress for my Mom. The cat, which is my favorite, is from a quilt my mom and I made for my dear Aunt Emma, who passed earlier this year. It warms my heart to know these little scraps will carry the love from making the four original quilts into the quilt Tammie is making.