mama urchin

When Amanda Jean said she wanted a red and white quilt — only red and white — I thought, no problem. I have a ton of red fabric in my stash. Well, it turns out I didn’t have any of the right red and all the right reds had a little something else in them too — green, pink, tan. So I finally got myself to a fabric store last week and picked up a few red and white prints. I decided to make a star since Amanda Jean helped me begin to conquer my fear of triangles. I had to rip out the last seam about four times before I was satisfied with it. It is still not perfect but the points in the middle match so I’ll live with it.

Courtney sent three solids and asked us to create a square that was bordered in the muslin color. Courtney said: feel free to tea dye, distress fabrics, or to pair them with things that appear just a little “off.” And if it’s a fabric that looks like it was your grandpa’s work shirt, or your grandma’s house dress even better. So I wanted my square to look like it was pieced together with little leftover or re-used scraps. I think I did it. Well, I hope I did.

It’s hard to achieve. This is my block for Kathy’s quilt — the March quilt of the Virtual Quilting Bee.

Kathy asked for the blocks to be log cabin in spirit and offered some Gee’s Bend quilt images and the quilts of Nancy Crow as inspiration. I knew I would have to use some solids and after seeing Anina’s block I knew I wanted to do wonky seams — coincidentally the tutorial for wonky seams is by Kathy. I really liked how the variation on strip sizes looked on this pillow top I made so I wanted to go with that design. My idea was for the seams to get wonkier as I progressed through the log cabin. The block ended up way too big so I had to cut it down. It’s hard to pre-cut for the wonkiness too. You can see more of how Kathy’s quilt is shaping up over in the flickr pool.

I’ve been feeling like I’ve been trudging along crafting away and don’t have much to show for it. I decided to stack it all up and see if it made it seem like more. Not really…

The only really completed thing is those pillows and they’ve been almost done for a long time. I just needed the zippers — an afterthought, I’m amazed they turned out — and I picked them up this week. The yo-yo flowers are a label for my Virtual Quilting Bee quilt. The mitten is actually looking like a mitten now but still, there’s only one, and the big seamless hybrid has a long way until it lives up to it’s name.

So, how was your week, did you get anything done?

Your sewing machine engines that is. Today I cut twelve fat quarters and packed them up to send. That can only mean one thing… the Virtual Quilting Bee is about to begin. My quilt is going to be first so I can be the guinea pig and work out any kinks in the system — as well as work out some participant nerves. So let’s talk about the quilt I’m hoping to have come March 1.

First off, the quilt is going to be for our playroom. This is where we spend a lot of time but the room is in our basement and it can be chilly down there in all seasons. My crafty area is in this room too so happily I’ll be able to keep a close eye on the finished quilt. As you can see the colors are bright — really bright — and the mood is fun. I love the idea of all of you making a quilt to wrap around my kids.

As for the actual quilt, I’m up for pretty much anything as long as it will tolerate the washing machine. I love patchwork and appliqué; I think freezer paper stenciling is gorgeous; I don’t mind crazy patterns and textures. As for what I’m sending the group: the fat quarters are a busy, busy print from IKEA and I also included a 10″x10″ square of squash colored chenille. I’m planning to use the same chenille for the back. So, be inspired friends, I cannot wait to see what you come up with.

When I was about eight or nine years old my mom joined a quilting bee and learned to quilt. Each month was assigned to one person and during that month everyone worked on that person’s quilt. It was the early eighties and appliqué was en vogue so they each made an appliqué square with fabric and pattern provided by the eventual owner of the quilt. I think they all hand-quilted the squares individually and at the next meeting someone got all the pieces to assemble their quilt. After that my mom made a number of other appliqué quilts and I have two of them. In the last ten years she started doing patchwork — which I had been begging her to do for years — and I’ve been the lucky recipient of a bunch of those too. There is nothing quite like a hug from Mom even when it’s in the form of a snuggly quilt and you’re 33 years old.

I got to thinking about that quilting bee recently and was thinking about how fun it must have been. Something I love about hand made things is feeling the hand of the maker through their creation. How special it must be to have a quilt made by the hands of friends. I would love to participate in something like that but I only have a few real-life friends who are interested in any type of crafting and only one of them can sew. Then one day it came to me — I sure do have a lot of virtual friends who make all kinds of quilts and quilt-like creations. I wonder if they would want to start a virtual quilting bee?

Nervously, I emailed a small group and guess what? they loved the idea! I cannot overstate how happy that makes me. Starting in February we’re going to create one quilt a month. You can watch our progress here or on flickr. I am super lucky to count all eleven of these ladies as my friends and I cannot wait to see this project unfold.