May Signature Blocks

I finished May in June, and with that, for a short period of time, I am caught up with the No Girls Allowed Quilt Bee swap. Of course it’s now the first week in July, and I’ll need to get started on those blocks soon. (June ended up being my month, so I have some leeway on getting the blocks done for me.)

May belongs to Mr. Paul Hallinger. His request seemed simple, create four blocks that represent your signature block, and have them feature either black or white as the primary background color. My problem? I haven’t had enough experience with quilt blocks to really say that I have a “signature” block. In pouring over different blocks, I ran across the Broken Herringbone block by Play-Crafts. I had seen this block once before, by the glitterific Molli Sparkles, and fell head-over-heels in love. It like a french braid quilt, but with it’s own style.

Inspired by Kona’s solid, Cypress, I set off to make this block, with one minor change. Instead of being a double herringbone design, I’d tackle it as a single herringbone.

I’m really happy with how this block turned out. I used the pieces and parts of the piecing to  round out the additional blocks that were required. Keeping them off-center, and different sizes and shapes I think adds to the already modern feel from this fabric pairing.

 

Paul has been quilting since 1992, and has some amazing quilts under his belt. His ability to churn out tops makes me absolutely jealous. If you’re interested in seeing some of his amazing work, you can follow him on Instagram.

April Feathers

April’s No Girls Allowed Quilt Bee blocks were terribly late, but they’re done now, and shipped off to their new home.  This month’s blocks were for John Q. Adams (yes, that John Adams). His request was to make the Anna Marie Horner Feather Bed blocks. Honestly, I think that we were all intimidated by these blocks, but as I worked my way through them, I really fell in love with the design. Some of us used the paper-piecing method, some of us used the strip piece method. I put mine together using strip-piecing. After I got used to the cuts (and the waste of fabric), it went together really easily.

These blocks, at a glance, look small, but they’re actually 18 inches tall finished. It takes about 60 feathers to make a king size quilt. I love this design so much, this has made it’s way on a short list for a future project with me. I love the look, and I love  the flexibility of the pattern through your own fabric choices.

If you’ve not been introduced to John Adams, a.k.a. QuiltDad, here’s a great introduction, in his own words:

I am a father of three, originally from Brooklyn NYC but now living in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina. I live with my 9 year-old twin girls, my 8 year-old son, and a crazy German Shorthaired Pointer named Bristol. Though I often wish it could be, quilting and pattern-writing is not my full-time job; by day, I lead branding and brand marketing efforts for a global software company. I am a completely self-taught quilter (thanks, blogs and internet!) and have been sewing for about 7 years now. I earned my undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University of North Carolina and, when I’m not sewing, enjoy cheering for the UNC Tar Heels.

I was originally inspired by the blossoming worlds both of craft blogging and modern fabrics back in 2004. I was living in Charlotte NC at the time and began mixing and matching fabrics and buying fat quarters in my local quilt shop even before I knew how to sew a stitch. I was really drawn to the creative process of mixing and matching colors and prints. That was when Amy Butler’s Lotus line had just come out, and the options for bright modern fabrics was growing like crazy. Before long, I decided I was going to make a quilt and read free tutorials online until I felt comfortable with the basics.

I started my blog, QuiltDad.com, in 2008 on a whim, mainly to be eligible to join a swap at the time but ultimately to share my love of patchwork with others.

Since then, I’ve remained very active in online quilting communities through swaps, virtual quilting bees, and guilds. Today, I try to apply my own quilting aesthetic to designing original quilt patterns for both fabric designers and companies and frequently contribute to creative blogs, books, and other collaborative endeavors. I’ve contributed to several collaborative quilt books, have two book titles of my own (Pretty in Patchwork: Holidays and the soon to be released Beyond Neutral: Quilts Inspired by Nature’s Elements) and was a co-founder of the popular e-magazine and book series for modern quilters, Fat Quarterly.

Having said all that, the NGAQB is one of the most unique, exciting projects I’ve been a part of and I can’t wait to see the beautiful things that emerge from it.

 

March came and went…

And I obviously blinked for two long, because two months passed without me really realizing it. Sure, there’s been a lot going on, but I really dislike being late, behind, or non-productive.

The NGAQB blocks for March are finally done, and I’m really in love with them.  Andrew Youngman, or Mr. March as he’s known to the group, gave us a photo of his favorite vacation spot with his  husband, Key West Florida, as inspiration for the color palate for the blocks. He wanted the Inverted Star pattern, available on Craftsy.com, from each of us, with the outer border in navy blue.

A View from Key West Florida, Photo Courtesy Andrew Youngman.

 

Two things caught me about this photo when I first viewed it, the amazing movement of the water, and the naval ship in the background. I wanted both of my blocks to show inspiration from this, while trying to stay close to the neutral-dark color palate in the photo.

 

These will get posted out to Mr. Youngman this weekend, hopefully he’ll enjoy them muchly. I can’t wait to see the full quilt put together from everyone’s blocks. It’s going to be beautiful, I just know it!

And now, on to April and May!

February was delayed, right?

I’d love to say I’m one of those people that does a great job of staying focused on deadlines, but I’d just be lying through my teeth. Three months in to the No Girls Allowed Quilt Bee and I’m behind. I’d love to blame it on the weather, my intimidation with a new machine, busy workload…anything, but the truth is, I was just not feeling the crafty bug.

I finally have some of my craft room in order, and before Andrew Joslyn sent some ninjas to take me out, I kicked myself in the rear, and got to work. The February blocks needed to be 14.5″ unfinished, and were to include flying geese and negative space in white or grey. The first thing that I thought of  was to do something original with flying geese that I’d never seen before, a goose within a goose, or, as I like to call it, a Mother Goose.

As I worked through the designs, it was a lot more fun than I had originally anticipated. Putting the geese together in different combinations was interesting. And though there are some cute geese in these blocks, there are geese that didn’t make the cut all over the cutting area now; for every designed I liked, there were probably three that were just bad.

 

And with that, I’ll leave you with a bit about Andrew:

I’m Andrew Joslyn, also known as Mr. February of the #NGAQB.  I grew up with an older sister and my parents and my family went back-and-forth between the Philadelphia, PA area and Tokyo, Japan.  Although more of my time was spent in the US, I always felt like Japan was a second home (maybe my “real” home?) to me.  I spent 4 years of high school at the American School in Japan and they were some of the best years of my life.  I am still extremely inspired by Japanese culture and art.

I owe my life of quilting to my wonderful partner, Chad.  He has an addictive personality, so he’ll get stuck on something and will put all his energy into that one activity for a relatively short amount of time in an obsessive way.  He usually drops that activity and moves on to a new hobby pretty quickly.  But a number of years ago, Chad began knitting.  He found a great group of other knitters to hang out with and he became hooked!  It’s the first time I’ve seen him stick with something for so long!  He was making such beautiful knitwear and I became quite jealous.  I tried my hand at knitting, but I absolutely HATED it.  I mean, it made me so frustrated I just completely gave up.  This didn’t really surprise me because I’ve never considered myself much of an artist or “maker.”

I didn’t want to give up on the making, though, so I started wondering whether there was something else that was more my speed.  I began with sewing, just making little things like zippered pouches, coffee cup sleeves, knitting needle “roll-ups” etc.  Although I enjoyed it a bit, I didn’t like the finicky work associated with this type of sewing.  I somehow got it in my head that I should try making a quilt.  When I found out that my sister was pregnant in early 2010, I thought that perhaps a baby quilt for my soon-to-be niece was a good place to start.  I taught myself using Alex Anderson’s “Start Quilting” and I got a lot of great help from my co-worker, who had already been quilting for a few years.

That first project was a challenge for me and I made some incredible mistakes and got extremely discouraged at numerous points in the process.  Normally this means that I’ll never do that activity again, but for some reason, I was so happy with the final result, that I kind of forgot all the pain and decided to push forward with more quilting.  My co-worker quickly convinced me to join a relatively new group called the “Philadelphia Modern Quilt Guild.”  I met some amazing quilters and made many new friends through Philly MQG and within about 1 year, I became the president of the group!  I have been president now for a couple years and it is still a ton of fun.  I’m presently spending quite a bit of my time organizing a modern quilting retreat in Lancaster, PA called “Mid-Atlantic MOD” with a couple other awesome quilters from the Central NJ MQG and the DC MQG.

For my month of February, I asked the boys to make me blocks of their own design that incorporate flying geese of any size and color placed in negative space composed of solid neutrals, such as creams and grays.  A number of the blocks have already arrived and they are looking fabulous!  I absolutely love flying geese …

You can find me at the following places on the web (I post most frequently at Instagram).  You might notice on my blog that I do a bunch of other making too, like jams/jellies, pickles, and now I’m brewing my own kombucha and hard cider!

Momotaro Makes Blog

http://momotaromakes.blogspot.com

Instagram:  andrewjoslyn

Twitter:  andrewjoslyn

Flickr:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewjoslyn

NGAQB – Meet Sandy G.

Along with posting about each of the blocks for the No Girls Allowed Quilt Bee, we’ll be posting short bios on each of the participating quilters during their selected moths. Sandy G. is the January block recipient for the No Girls Allowed Quilt Bee, and he picked the awesome Lone Starburst block.

Sandy, can you tell a little about yourself and how you started quilting?

I’m Sandy Greenberg. I was born in 1969, while men were walking on the moon, in the suburbs of Chicago. Being an only child I was given lots of attention and, since both my parents were teachers, my creativity was encouraged. I studied art in high school, at Illinois State University and finally got my degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I didn’t do much with it, other than get a job screen printing t-shirts. The creative bug was pretty much burned out of me.

Fast forward a decade or two and after a pretty serious work accident (I sliced open my wrist cutting 9 of 22 tendons, 1 of three nerves and one of the arteries) I met a lovely Yorkshire lass online. Days and sparks flew and I moved to Leeds, UK and got married in 2002. We have a lovely 4 year old boy who has been with us for 2 ½ years now. We also have three cats called Jimmy (13 ½), Maggie (5) and Norman Price (14 weeks).

I like reading and watching Science Fiction, watching motor sports, travelling, and having fun with my boy.

I am married to the super talented Brioni Greenberg, aka Flossyblossy. She’s been a quilter for about 6 years. She is one of the founders of Fat Quarterly ezine and is co-author of FQ’s first book (the second is on its’ way). She also had her first solo book come out this summer, 25 Ways to Sew Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes and Charm Packs. Having this influence in the house, and being constantly surrounded by fabric and projects it was pretty hard not to take an interest.

What type of quilter do you see yourself being, and how do you approach your quilting projects?

I approach quilting as a technical challenge. I am less bothered by the outcome and am more interested in the process. I LOVE paper foundation piecing! I have no interest or love of fabric however. I pay no attention to lines or designers, just pretty colours and patterns. I’m a fearless skilled amateur. My second ever project was a pattern of curved flying geese of my own design and everyone thought I was brave and crazy. I just did it because no one told me that I couldn’t.

I’m probably a modern quilter, I don’t really know. I tend to like uber complicated patterns with small pieces and bright rainbow palettes.

 Why did you choose the Lone Starburst block?

I chose the Lone Starburst block because I love it but didn’t fancy making enough for a whole quilt. You can find it here and here.

Where can people find you if they want to know more?

You can find me in these places:

• Blog: Curly Boy Blog
• Instagram: Curly_Boy1
• Twitter: @Curly_boy1
• Flickr: Curly_boy

Thanks, Sandy, for picking an awesome block. We’ll continue to talk to more members of the NGAQB as the months progress. 

January Block for NGAQB

The first block of the year for the No Girls Allowed Quilt Bee is going to Sandy G. His request, a paper pieced Lone Starburst block. Thankfully the pattern for the block came with a full tutorial on The Peony Teacup.

Paper piecing, yes I said it, the dreaded paper piecing. It’s usually the bane technique of the traditional quilter. And I am certainly no exception. Before this month, I had one experience  with paper piecing and it wasn’t pretty. Backwards, upside down, wasting material. It’s just a concept that didn’t work for me. It, of course, had nothing to do with having little to no quilting experience at the time (Yeah, right!).

Lone Starburst Block, Light Variation

With great trepidation I downloaded the file and printed out some of the pattern. I read through the tutorial a couple of times and finally mustered the courage to give paper piecing another attempt. This time, the experience was completely different. If anything lead to the revelation that paper piecing can be fun and have awesome results, it was the preparation that was suggested in the tutorial.

Pre-cut, stack and assembly-line the blocks, it’s really the key to remaining calm and happy. I do it when I’m doing traditional piecing, I don’t know why I didn’t think to do the same with paper piecing. Overall it’s made the whole experience more enjoyable, and I don’t dread this technique at all anymore. I can personally say that I’ve had so much fun making these blocks I can’t seem to stop. I’ve decided that for each of the blocks I make to send away this year, I’m going to make some to keep here, and then I’ll get a total of 2 quilts out of all the work.

Lone Starburst Block, Dark Variation

Sandy requested that we make one block in light fabrics, and another in dark. It’s a neat concept, and I can’t wait to see how he treats the blocks after he has them from everyone.

If you’re interested in trying out this block, the PDF pattern is available for download here, and was made by The Quilting Climber, who also has a tutorial, and helpful information for printing the pattern for use.

No Girls Allowed Quilt Bee (NGAQB)

NGAQB

We’re all starting to post and link to our projects for the year 2014!

If you want to learn more about this year’s No Girls Allowed Quilt Bee, our members, or our projects, please visit the links in my sidebar to all of the members. Also, keep an eye out on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for the NGAQB hashtag (#NGAQB).

Men and Quilting

2014 is going to be a pretty exciting venture for me in the world of quilting. Ryan Walsh (of Ryan Walsh Quilts) invited me to be a part of a block swap spanning the entire year. Each month the entire group will be doing two blocks each for one member of the group. I’m excited about the number of new designs that I’ll be subjected to, as well as getting to meet such a great group of individuals and learn from them.

Starting now in January, the No Girls Allowed Quilt Bee (NGAQB) will be active on the internet. Posting pictures, sharing stories, doing everything we can to cause a kerfuffle, but most of all we’re raising awareness that “We’re men, and yes, we quilt“.  Be on the lookout for the #NGAQB hashtag on social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. I’ve also created a set of links on the side of the page that will direct you to each NGAQB member blog in case you’re interested in checking out what they are designing for the swap, or what they’re up to in general. Make sure you take a peek at the blogs. Each of these guys have some amazing pieces that they’ve made, and I’m super excited to learn from all of them.