rainbow spools

The end of the school year is quickly approaching, and the deluge of associated activities is swamping our household. But after a couple more hectic weeks we'll be in the midst of relaxing summer bliss.

But until then, it seems there are a million things to get finished. Including my SewMod row quilt. I've managed to devote some hours to it this week, and now all my lovely rows are sewn together! I added a small strip of the Kaffe Roman Glass in Red between each row to unify everything.

I'm going to add a row of appliqued vines and flowers to each side of this quilt before adding final sashing and borders. It's all planned out in my head, and hopefully I can make the reality as exciting as what's in my mind :)

A quilt like this with so many contributors needs an out-of-the-ordinary label, so I've made a spool block for each person to sign! And of course, I used the color spectrum (if somewhat loosely) to assign a color to each spool.

The row of spools on the quilt back will be book-ended by the two red spools. I took the liberty of writing out one of the red labels already... another visual reminder of my deadline :)

Here are a couple of close-up shots of all the spools. All the colored fabrics came from my scrap bins (notice all the Kaffe bits), and the others are Kona White and Kaufman Quilter's Linen. I adapted Edyta Sitar's spool pattern from her book Friendship Strips and Scraps to make a larger sized spool to accommodate the center signature area - these measure 6" x 8" finished.

I've definitely never spent this much time and effort on quilt labels, but I think they turned out so ding-dong cute! I can't wait for my friends to sign these next week and get this quilt one step closer to being completed... ON TIME :)

the big reveal, part 1

Last night was our swap meeting for the Row Quilt Exchange in my SewMod group - the culmination of a challenge that started last June.

Here's a shot of all the rows I made for the other members...

Each member made one unique row for every other member. I made flying geese for Pattie, flowers for Vicki, log cabins for Kelly, pinwheels for Paige, flying geese (again) for Jennie, Dresdens for Lorrie, and baskets for Andrea.

And these are the rows I received last night! They are up on the design wall, and I just can't get over how wonderful they are all together!

We each provided the other members with a "focus" fabric fat quarter to aid in selecting colors for the rows we were assigned to make. This is my focus... Kaffe (of course) Roman Glass in Red.

Some close-ups of what I brought home:

Log cabins made by Kelly...

Dresdens from Lorrie...

Flying geese made by Pattie...

Paige provided these pinwheels...

A row of flowers (and a bird!) from Vicki...

And baskets from Andrea...

I going to think long and hard about how I'll finish this quilt. Maybe a tiny border of turquoise around each row to separate them? The row I'm supposed to make for myself is stars, so maybe I'll do an all-around border of wonky stars? I really want the showcase to be the superior workmanship and creativity of my friends, but hey - it's Kaffe's fabric - so I don't think anything sedate will do. It's a fine line, and I'm going to need to study these beauties for a while longer before making a plan.

Right now I'm content to just sit in my chair and enjoy the view :)

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all my SewMod friends! I couldn't be happier!

Glam Garden Baskets

I love it when I finish a project on a Monday! It makes me think the rest of the week is going to be so productive :) Last week I started on these basket blocks for my SewMod group Row Quilt Challenge.


The row is for Andrea, and her focus fabric was Glam Garden in Summer from Josephine Kimberling for Robert Kaufman. I love all the bright pinks, orange, turquoise and yellow in this print!

My row assignment for Andrea is blocks. Now I've never sewn a basket block that wasn't appliqued, but I found this cute block pattern here and it was FREE! I modified the instructions a bit (mostly the way the half-square triangles were constructed) to make it easier, and I think it turned out quite pretty. Not perfect... but fresh, modern, and pretty.


The block name is "Basket of Chips", and while Andrea is hands-down the healthiest eater I know, I also happen to know that she indulges in potato chips with dip during certain football games. So I figured the block was appropriate :) Hope you like your row, Andrea!

P.S. I also finished all my Kaleidoscope hexagons last week, so now I am ready for part 2 of the class taking place at the end of the month. So this is what it feels like to be ahead of schedule... I could get used to this :)

Sneak peek

It might be that I am breaking some rules here, but I just had to show you a bit of these projects. My real-life sewing group, SewMod, has organized a row-quilt challenge. Each member makes a 40" row of a different specific block for every other member. We're supposed to be doing one row per month (in order to evenly space the work between the months of June 2010 and February 2011) but since procrastination is one of my dominant personality traits, I'm a little behind... but only a little.

We each provided all the members with an "inspiration" fat quarter of fabric in order to help with color selection. I decided to jump in with the pinwheels row first since I love, love, love that block. The inspiration fabric for this row is the green and white print on the far right. Can you believe that I had the blocks all together before I located this sashing in my stash? In the words of the multi-tentacled Davey Jones (Pirates of the Caribbean), "How fortuitous!!"


Moving on to the Dresden Plate row (another favorite block)... but wait, I have to make Dresdens with Halloween fabric? Huh? The inspiration fabric here is the center circle of black, purple, and neon-green eyeballs. Well, they turned out pretty darn cute, I must say...


I couldn't just keep these to myself until February, now could I?