Epic Fail

This is a story about a gal who thought it would be nice to make a new quilt for she and her husband using the oh-so-adorable fabric line: Oh Deer by MoMo for Moda.

She started out with a layer cake, some Kona solids, the Alter Ego Quilt Tutorial by the Missouri Star Quilt Company, and a dream of making a great new bed quilt.

After the layer cake and solids were stitched up, the quilt was not big enough, so she added a border around the entire quilt by making some strip blocks with an Oh Deer Jelly Roll. "That will make it right," she thought.

When the quilt top was finished, she admired her work and immediately set to basting, quilting, and adding the binding. After the binding was applied, she bounded the stairs, arms full of her new quilt, and laid it out on the bed to surprise her husband.

…except…it barely came over the sides of the bed. There was no way they would both stay covered at night with this too-narrow quilt (especially since she tends to do what her husband refers to as "the burrito" in her sleep).

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The new quilt shall be called "Cute Creatures" and will be henceforth and forever more too big for the couch and too small for the bed.

Perhaps it should be used as a picnic blanket - except the gal doesn't take many picnics since she doesn't like bugs and bees.

Maybe it would best serve as a beach blanket for sun-bathing - except the gal lives in the Midwest where beaches are scarce. After growing up on the coast of Maine as well as spending six years on the coast of Maryland and Virginia, lake shores do not classify as "beaches" as far as this gal is concerned.

Since it's mid-February in Wisconsin where this gal resides, and since she is determined to find a use for her new quilt, she decides to take advantage of the lack of bugs and use her new quilt to become "one with the snow".

Making the best of it.

Oh Deer by MoMo

Cute Creatures

The moral of this story is: double check the size of your glorious new quilt before basting, quilting, and binding. It will save you from an Epic Fail like the one experienced by the gal in this story.

Rainbow Runner - Project Quilting Challenge #1

It's been too long friends! I feel like the holiday season hit like a hurricane, and now I'm left dazed and confused, spun dizzy, drenched, and picking the leaves out of my hair.

But alas! It's a whole new year!

At the first 2014 meeting of the MadModQuiltGuild this week, a fellow member introduced us all to an ongoing phenomenon known as "Project Quilting". Apparently this is a wonderful challenge set forth by Kim at Persimon Dreams. The 5th season of said challenge kicked off this week, and I'm just barely squeaking in my entry at almost the last second. Click here to go to the Project Quilting Challenge page.

This challenge revolves around strings. To enter, a string quilt must be produced (start to finish) within this week of the challenge and submitted by noon today. Eek! I better get typing.

So here she is, henceforth and forever more called: Rainbow Runner.

Finished size: 59" x 11.5"

All of the colors in this project came from my scrap bin, and all are strings measuring 2.5" wide or less. I foundation pieced them onto 8.5" muslin squares. I had just purchased some Robert Kaufman Essex Linen this week, so I thought that would be great to use since I love the stuff. The sashing/border is all from 2" (1.5" finished) strings. The binding is a straight-grain 2.5" double-fold, and hand-stitched to the back. The backing is also made with the Essex Linen.

I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that this was the first time I've free-motion-quilted with my Juki 2010Q. The process just reinforced how much I LOVE HER! Not a single thread break.
Best. Machine. Ever.

Made and Photographed (in the snow) here in lovely Sun Prairie, Wisconsin

I'm already excited about the next challenge! I hope some of you will join in on the fun. Have a great week my friends. :)

Block Lotto Quilt

In July I was the lucky winner of the MadModQuiltGuild's monthly Block Lotto!  This completely contradicts what I said in my last post: that I never win anything.  Ok, I usually don't win anything.

How it works is that each month members have the choice to make as many blocks as they desire to enter into our monthly block lotto.  Our events coordinator selects the block pattern and color palette in advance.  The number of blocks each members brings equals the number of entries she gets for the lotto.  A name is drawn and that winner walks away with all of the blocks - free and clear to do with them as she wishes.  The only rule is that the winner can not win any subsequent lottos until she returns to a meeting with her finished project.

I am still a baby in the quilting world.  That is my excuse for not knowing what the heck to do with my blocks!  After much deliberation, I decided to go with the ol' standby: appliqué.  Using the color palette for the blocks, I made a big background of solid Kona strips (twin-size for my naked spare-bed).  Then I cut the blocks into circles and applied my beloved Steam-A-Seam2Lite fusible web.

Then this happened:

I pinned those suckers in place and zig-zagged around them like nobody's business.  

The backing I stumbled across at Jo-Ann made my day.  Navy.  Scissors.  Awesome!  And just for good measure, I added an embroidered quilt label.  Observe:

Notice anything out of place?  THAT'S RIGHT!  In true Trina-is-a-Spaz fashion, I stitched the wrong year on there.  Uh...DUH!  It wasn't until I was about to throw the thing in the washer that I realized my error, so I said "eff it."  A couple months off - no big deal.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the outcome.  I definitely got the "modern" part down on this one.

What I like best is that there is a story...something with which to bore my house guests when they make the mistake of asking about the quilt on the spare bed. 

Thanks to the gals at the MadModQuiltGuild who made blocks (er...circles) for this quilt!

Keef Peterson

And just because she's nosy...Keef says, "What're y'doin?"