Modern Quilt Block - Harley Museum

My Milwaukee Modern Quilt Club has decided to enter a quilt in QuiltCon this year. As a group we decided to take some of our famous Milwaukee landmarks and make them into modern quilt blocks. Each person who wanted to participate chose a landmark to transform into a block. Some of the blocks in the quilt include the Allen-Bradley clock tower, the gas light on top of the WE Energies building, Hank the Milwaukee Brewer's mascot dog, the Hoan Bridge, the Calatrava wings...I could go on an on. I chose the Harley-Davidson museum.

Using a professional photographer's image of the museum campus from the view of the canal, I cut out paper pieces until I got the parts of the buildings scaled just right. There are these orange water towers that stand on each end of the campus and I felt it was important to make sure they were in the block. To give the block a totally modern feel, I chose to take out the trees. I wanted as little applique in the block as possible for a more crisp and fresh look. 

We had a specific color palette to use so the entire quilt with have a consistent look and feel so that is why the color of the grass is an unusual shade of green. Besides the color palette our rules were few, just make it modern and make it in increments of 4-inches. My block is 24 x 8. I can't wait to see this quilt come together over the next month.

International Quilt Festival - Chicago

Today a group of us from the Quilts for Kids Milwaukee chapter attended the International Quilt Festival in Chicago. It was really fun to go with a group of women who love quilting as much as I do.

We perused the display quilts and took photos of our favorites. I made a collage of the ones that I liked the most. I do love the Dear Jane quilts although I'm not so sure I would make one myself. Obviously if I did, it would have to be from fresh modern fabrics.

The quilts were all beautiful and I was amazed at the number of them on display. There were so many they took up half of the Rosemont's main hall.

Half the fun of the quilt show is the shopping. There were quilt shops from all over the country and this was a great place to pick up a few things from those far away shops. I also saw a demo of a fabric marker that was easy to use; the marks went away with a swipe of a hot iron. I could not resist that purchase. I picked up a few fat quarters that were on special and added to my black/white (low volume) collection. I also found a cute pattern I've never seen before. I was happy to find that happy medium between not spending too much money and coming home with some cool finds.

It was great to attend with a group of women. I usually take my husband along for the company but this time he was off the hook. Funny thing when I got home was that I couldn't tell if he was disappointed that I had a good time without dragging him along or disappointed. I'm sure he will get another opportunity to tag along with me to a quilt show, until then, I'd like to thank the QfK ladies for making this a fun day!

100 Quilts Donated!

This morning we dropped off 100 quilts over at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.  One of our Quilts for Kids chapter members lives near Rhinelander and doesn't get down here to the Milwaukee area often and since she was coming to town, it only made sense to schedule this drop off during a time where she could participate. So we went out for a nice breakfast then headed over to the hospital with a truck full of quilts. 

The staff at the hospital are always very happy to see us and we unloaded all of our quilts, chatted for a while then headed out for an afternoon of prepping more fabric to make more quilts. This is definitely a labor of love for all of our volunteers and I am happy to be a part of such a fun organization.

Before Pinterest

I love my bulletin board. It's so old I've repainted it at least 4 times. It's become a place to put those little things I'm not ready to throw away and every once in a while I actually have to refer to the board for things like repeat customer discounts on business cards and my zipper color chart. I've pinned up quilt ideas torn from catalogs and magazines, cute pins and buttons and whatever can be stuck with a tack.  It occurred to me that this was Pinterest before Pinterest! Sometimes it's nice to go back in time.

Zipper Purse

I have a little purse I purchased at Macy's a few years back and I just love it. It's compact with a nice zipper closure to ensure all the contents don't fall out.  I use it when I take my granddaughters to places like the children's museum and the zoo. It is just the right size for a cell phone, sunglasses, keys and some cash.

I decided to 'copy' the bag and created this little cutie based on the measurements of the store-bought one.  The only difference is that I put extra pockets on the outside of my homemade version. That way I can keep things I want to get at quickly in the pockets without having to take the time to zip/unzip the bag.

I really love how it turned out so I made a bunch for my craft fair tomorrow. Hopefully I can sell a few or at least get some feedback on them from my customers.

Quilted Easter Baskets

I found this nice tutorial for an Easter basket and I just had to try it out. After making two baskets, I decided to shrink the size down. I took 2 inches off pretty much all the way around and really liked the results. The originals are very nice, but I really wanted them smaller just because I had smaller pieces of Easter fabric to use up. In fact, I ended up sewing two pieces of fabric together to make a wide enough piece for one of the baskets.

I like the way my smaller ones turned out however, I think I will make a bunch in both sizes. I'm certain my granddaughters will want one for themselves as well as my daughter and sister! The original tutorial can be found here.

What's on the design board?

Over the last few weeks I have been voraciously sewing quilt tops for Quilts for Kids. I've made 3 tops that are ready for quilting and this one makes 4. The fabrics are from a sample collection so I did my best to use the almost fat quarter sized pieces of fabrics to make something cohesive.  It's not very large but I do love the butterflies, bees, apples and flowers found in the little prints. It needs to be a bit bigger but I only have small chunks of the fabrics left so I will have to get creative to figure out how to add some substantial borders to it.

I also have my completed paper pieced block up on the board as a reminder to do something with it. I'm not sure what, but hopefully it will inspire me to make something out of it. It is too cute to go unnoticed.