NYC Metro Mod Guild, June meeting

My Saturday Stitches program at the Rockville Center Library is on hiatus til the fall (check the events tab for October dates and a possible book signing in September), so I got to go to the NYC Metro Modern Guild meeting in Manhattan yesterday.

Wow, oh, wow.  I missed those quilters.  So much inspiration and laughter, and two full tables overflowing with free fabric (whoever thought of the swap table, omg, thankyou.  I made out with probably forty 1.5" snippits and crumbs.  Where I will use them, who knows, but they made me enormously happy).  Gotham Quilts also had a whole wall with fabric and patterns for sale and seeing as I don't live near any modern quilt shops, it was the first time that I've seen much of the newest fabrics all over Instagram in person.  I snapped up some Lizzy House Natural History prints.  I'd like for the tiny green dinosaurs to make it into Jack's big boy quilt, but I don't have much time to work on it now, so I hope by recording that note here, I'll remember when the time comes.

Here's a bit of show and tell, there will be more more (and more details) over on the guild's blog:

 Here's Bernadette and Lisa holding up the guild's group EPP project.  They started this in February 2014 (during my EPP workshop) and they've been cursing me ever since.  Hey guys, I told you it was an addiction...

Here's Karen and her big star quilt (long armed by Rachael Dorr) that I nearly spilled coffee on before show and tell.. thankfully it was protected in plastic.  Sorry again, Karen.

This absolutely awesome R2D2 quilt was made by Jackie.  The patter was in a magazine, but I didn't catch which one.  I'm sure the info will be on the guild blog.

 I brought my big taupe spiderweb as my show and tell and Jackie took this pic of me.  I tried to keep it quick because there were so many people on the show and tell list, but I could talk about this quilt for days.  In fact, I probably will.  It needs it's own blog post, that's for sure.

It was really cool to get into the city and get to enjoy a meeting.  I hadn't been to one since the fall.  I forgot how inspiring it is to actually be in the same room with quilters and their quilts.  Instagram is great, but now I see it's missing something.  I spent the last year focused on my own projects, first the book and then book-recovery sewing (finishing the spiderweb was a huge part of that for me).  I think I'm ready to re-enter quilting society.  I've missed my tribe.

And on that note, I have decided to revive the Monday Morning EPP linky party starting tomorrow.  If you've got some EPP you're working on, quick, take a picture and link up with us!  (flickr and instagram links are welcome.  Full blog posts are always nice too..)

The problem with UFOs

is that when you pick them up again (the lucky ones), you can't always find all the pieces..
I wanted this spiderweb to be a big project, so I went out and bought plain newsprint at Office Max, big sheets, 18" x 24".  I cut them into 11" triangles, and made a nice template for the kites out of hard plastic.  I started the project, and then it got pushed aside.
For the longest time I kept one triangle pinned to my design wall so I wouldn't forget about it completely, and I stopped myself from using the 4 yards of taupe fabric in anything else, but when I started back in last week, I couldn't find the kite template for the life of me.
I rearranged the sewing room since then, pulled everything out of the closets in August when the roof got a leak, and did a huge sort and pitch overhaul to get rid of some clutter.  I had almost given up hope of finding it, but lo and behold, there it was, slid right between my other rulers.

and now I know when I started this quilt, March 22, 2011.  What were you doing then?
Do you do this too?  I have the habit of putting the date on anything and everything, to record my life through material possessions.  Any templates I make, any sketchbook entries.  I even wrote on the underside of the Ikea furniture I built for George.  I think there's something about seeing the passage of time in my own handwriting..

Maybe that's why I write on my quilts too.

*ETA:    it's just an archival safe black ZIG marker.  for labels I stablize with freezer paper, but on the diamond stars I just write really slowly..

(blogger isn't letting me comment on my own blog!)

October

isn't it fitting to make a spiderweb quilt in October?

I don't remember when I cut and pieced the first triangles for this one, with it's soothing taupe background, but I have been focused on it for the past week, and I hope to continue through the fall.  There really isn't a deadline, I want it to be big, big enough for our tall queen sized bed (at least 100" x 100"), and I don't really have the money to have it quilted yet, so I'm not rushing. 
I've wanted to make this one since I finished George's and daydreamed about it countless times as I pet the one that covers his bed.

New bedroom, new bed.  The quilt finally fits!

I love this pattern.  I love string quilts, but the spiderweb is very balanced, yet there's still so much to look at.  I'm happy that I've worked on a bunch of projects since I finished the first one, so my strip scrap stash is new, different, and overflowing. 

In this first set of blocks I've pieced, I'm subconciously drawn to coral-reds and yellows.  I was amazed at the lack of blue strips.. I don't like to give it much thought as I string piece-- choosing more based on size and contrast than color, but when I notice an unintentional theme emerging, I try to mix things up again. 

It's funny that even after just 16 triangles, or 4 blocks, I'm already bored of the strips in the scrap bin I've been pulling from.  I allowed myself to rifle through the misc-sized scrap bin and pull some strings, but I don't want to just take out all the pretty ones.  The uglies will never get used up if I keep passing them over, and who knows, when pieced in next to another block, the uglies might get cute again.
Have you seen AmandaJean's whole-cloth quilt?  that backing fabric, I totally understand what she mean when she said that she didn't know if it was horrible or beautiful, but there, in the quilt it ended up in, the fabric was perfect.  See, you never know..

september 28

No, I don't really have much to say right now.  The blog has been quiet as I try to adjust to my new life, schedule, and routine.  So many things have changed, in ways I couldn't have even imagined when I wrote my last post.  The most profound and puzzling is my relationship with the internet..
I no longer feel the need to get online first thing in the morning, or check my blog stats and favorite blogs every day.  Now even sitting down to check my email isn't about responding to blog comments or browsing new flickr photos, but instead answering emails from my students and recording grades for their homework submitted online. 
I got a new laptop but haven't downloaded photos off my camera since the Chicago trip 4 weeks ago, and I spend more time making worksheets and lesson plans than I do thinking of or daydreaming up good blogposts.  It's not that I don't want to be part of the quiltblog community right now, I do!  I even hung out at Talkin Tuesday last night on twitter, but life is very full and the stuff on my plate is keeping me more than busy, so I guess I just lost the need to look elsewhere for mental stimulation..

Before you go off and start worrying about me, let me say that I love my new job.  Love it!  I think I may have been born to teach ESL.. and I feel a sense of balance has been restored to my life, something that had been lacking since I left my old job in '08 to stay home with George.  I feel important, needed.  My knowledge matters.  I assume everything I'm feeling is just a normal part of the transition from SAHM to "working mother,"  so I'm really not too worried about any of it.  Just thought I'd pop in and let you all know that I'm fine, happy, and surprisingly, still quilting.  I've been string piecing this week, finally putting together some big big spiderweb blocks to hopefully make a dent in my strip scrap stash.

I'll leave you with these photos of George, my new favorites, taken this morning at the LI Children's Museum.  Somehow they reflect how I'm feeling these days, but in a good way..



I so wish this weren't blurry!