The Best of 2021

Cheryl Brickey at Meadow Mist Designs once again is inviting bloggers to join the best of 2021 link-up and share their 5 best blog posts of the year.

 

The Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival:

The biggest thrill was to see my quilt 'Coming Together' win 2nd place in the Mid Century Modern category.  It's the first ribbon for me.

 

QuiltCon Together:

The news that my 2 quilts got accepted into the show brought me much delight.   Read about them in this blog.   Here they are 'Journey' and 'Autumn 21'.  You can read about 'Journey' here.

 

Magazine Publishing:

The next good news was my block 'Intersection' was chosen to be featured in the MQG Journal issue #3/ July, August, September 2021.  It was very exciting to see my work in the Journal.

 

I also had 3 patterns published in the Simply Moderne magazine.  The first one is 'My Way' in the Fall issue 26.  The other two are 'Coming Together' and 'Candy Box 2' in the Winter issue 27.

 

 

What a year this has been for me.  Even though I didn't make many original designed projects and finished very few UFO and WIP quilts, it has been a productive year for me.  My favorite projects are those I made for charities; for my Valley MQG, IQM, H2H to name a few, and those I made for family and friends.

 

Thanks to Cheryl for hosting this 'Best of.....' link-up party.

 

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Margo

December OMG finished

This month I set a goal to make a baby gift for a friend. It’s all finished and gifted yesterday. Here are the pictures of the front and part of the back.

This quilt was a joy to make.  Faux Rag quilting is fast and produces  great result.  I love it!!

Update on my quilted Christmas ornaments.  When I first planned for this project, I thought it would be fast and I would make tons of them in no time because they were only 4 inches small.  The reality hit when it took me over a week just to make 4 pieces.  Anyway, I managed to make 15 ornaments last month.  These are for my own tree and giving away to family.  Here they are.

 

 

Confession, I made only five ornaments with FPP technique, see if you can guess which ones.  For the rest, I used improv and made them up as I went.  It was more fun for me to make improv blocks.  It would be better if I had used the paper designed especially for FPP blocks, I think.  With regular printer paper, I found, it's hard to tear the paper without splitting the seams at the end even though I used very, very small stitch length.

I'm a little sad that the year is coming to an end but I'm hopeful for the new year to come.  These are the last projects of this year.  Now it's time to think about and plan for next year’s projects.  I was disappointed that my 2 entries to QuiltCon didn't make it.  I didn't join in the QuiltCon Rejects event on Instagram, I feel it's a bit pessimistic to call them Rejects.   

 

This is the time that some of us celebrate the birth of Christ.  I'm so grateful that I'm a Christian.

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year everyone.

 

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

A Gift for a Friend’s Baby Girl and Dec. OMG

I just received great news from a friend that they just welcomed a new baby girl. Here are flannel fabrics that I pulled out so far. 

 

I'll make it with the Faux Rag Quilting technique.  I love making Faux Rag quilts for babies because they’re soft and warm.  Faux Rag quilting is perfect for a short notice and quick gift.  

Last summer I made this Faux Rag quilt for a friend.

I really like how it turned out and I want to use this pattern again but with different fabric this time.

This is my OMG for December. It’s hard to believe that we’re at the last OMG of the year.  I want to publicly thank Patty, again, for hosting the OMG.  I started joining in the fun in January 2020 and have been linked up every month since.  OMG has helped me to stay focused and on course no matter what the pandemic threw in our way.  In the past two years, with my husband working from home, through the lock-down and the mandates, I was able to put my mind at ease and concentrate on my tasks.  For that I’m very thankful.  

Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful day.   

Margo

Simply Moderne #27

I finally can share my two quilts published in the Simply Moderne issue 27 which will be coming out soon.

 

The first one is 'Coming Together'

 

Picture courtesy from Simply Moderne Magazine

I love the way they composed the shot.  Although I never thought of this quilt as a Christmas quilt, the shot looks great.

 

The second quilt is 'Candy Box 2'.  This quilt is new and I've never shown it until now.  Here is a picture from the magazine.

 

Picture courtesy from Simply Moderne Magazine

 

Back in January of this year, this quilt was just an idea on a piece of paper when it was chosen to be in Simply Moderne.  The design of this quilt is based on a box of half eaten candy that my husband gave me.  My family know I love chocolate dipped candy.  My son often gave me a box of fruity truffle covered in chocolate which I enjoy to the last bite!  When I open these boxes, I see love and joy.

Today is Thanksgiving day.  I have so much to be thankful for.   I would like to say thank you to all my readers, friends and family.  You are the force behind this blog.  Thanks for following, commenting and sharing with me.  I appreciate you all!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Works in Progress

The fun with FPP continues.  I continue working on Christmas ornaments with scraps as I first posted about them here.  I'm making some progress in the past two weeks.

 

 

I set a goal to make at least 15 ornaments this month.  I enjoy working on FPP so far.  I'm still a little clumsy with it but I hope I will get better in time.

 

Fall Plantings:

About two weeks ago I found a 3-year old pea seed packet that I bought from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company.  It was unopened so I decided to plant them.  They didn't take long to sprout and today I transplanted them into a garden bed as shown in the pictures below.  They seem happy beside all the garlic seedlings too.  I'm sad to see the tomatoes season end.  I pulled them out except one.  We have a pretty mild cold season here so far, I might let it be.

 

 

I have to cover them to protect them from rabbits and skunks.  Last month we discovered that these little creatures like to visit our vegetable garden at night.  There are quite a few rabbits running loose around our neighborhood.  We saw them when we walk our dog in the evening.  They are so cute and must have just discovered our garden because we didn't have this problem before.  Skunks like to dig in the beds looking for grub worms and alike for food.  Luckily our beds were empty then.  But now that I have some seedlings in there I have to do something to protect them.  Fortunately, Youtube is full with wisdom that I can learn from. Isn't that great?  I found that skunks don't like citrus peels.  I sprinkled some mandarin orange peels in all 4 beds and sure enough the skunks just walked pass by and left the beds alone.  I'm very happy that I found a good solution for skunks.  Now if only I could help the squirrels remember where they buried their nuts!!

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great week.  Margo

Projects For A Rainy Day

It has been raining all night and all day today.  It's not a heavy rain but comes down lightly and steadily.  It's so dreamy to look at.  I'm so glad that we finally got some rain.  We've been in a drought for a number of years now.  The rain came just the right time, after I started cold season planting in the garden, starting with some peas and garlic.  The seeds sprouted and started to grow.  Nothing gives me more thrill than seeing sprouted seedlings.  It's a joy to see them poking through the soil and start growing.  I'll show some pictures when they grow a little bigger. 

Last summer, I made some quilted postcards which you can see in this post.  That was my first Foundation Paper Piecing (FPP) experience which I learned from Leila Gardunia here.   Leila also has a free download of scrappy triangle foundation at this site.  I enjoyed making the postcards so I decided to adapt these scrappy triangle foundations into Christmas ornaments.  And here they are...

 

 

These ornaments finished at about 4 inches.  I will make several different sizes; from 4-6 inches.  I decided not to use traditional colors of Christmas on all of them but there will be some red and green for sure.  It will be  a modern Christmas tree with modern ornaments this year.  😊

I'm so glad to finally have projects like these for my scraps which are multiplying fast. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Margo

A New Quilt Finished

 Hi Everyone,

Today I have pictures of a new project to share.  This is my QuiltCon 2022 fabric challenge quilt.  This quilt is called ‘Candy Box 3’.

 

 

I finished it just in time for submission.  This also is my October OMG which I'm very happy with the end result.

 

Quilt Stats

Finish size:         46" x 46"

Fabric:                Artisan Cotton by Windham Fabrics

                            Wine/Pink, Coral/Aqua, Aqua/Blue, Blue/Orchid, Navy/White and Camel/Cream

Piecing thread:  Aurifil 50

Quilting thread: Background: Aurifil 2600 and Amann 0761      

                              Candy pieces: Tutti by WonderFil Thread

Batting:                Toasty Cotton (100% natural cotton) by Fairfield

Now on to the next challenge.  I received an email about the International Quilt Museum challenge which you can see it here.  I think it is very interesting and I might participate if I can come up with something interesting by the end of the year.   Have I told you I love doing these challenges?  They keep me on my toes.   😃

Thank you for stopping by and Have a great weekends.

Margo

October OMG

 It's time again to set the goal for October.  Time sure is flying by fast and we are reaching the last quarter of the year.  I've been working on the quilt called 'Candy Box 3'.  The design idea of this quilt is based loosely on my 'Intersection Block'.  This block is so versatile and easy to make.  If you're a member of the MQG, you can check it out in the MQG Journal on the MQG website.  Here is a picture of the work in progress.

 

The goal for this month is to finish quilting and binding it.  I sure hope it will look good enough to submit to QuiltCon.  🙏

You can check out all the goal link up at the Elm Street Quilts. 

Thank you for stopping by and have a great day!

Simply Moderne Issue No. 26

 I have exciting news to share.  

In January 2021, my pattern 'My Way' was chosen by Carol Veillon of Quilt Mania Inc. and now it is in the Simply Moderne Issue #26.  

 

And here it is.

 

 

I made this quilt in May 2020 during the pandemic lock down in LA, you can read about it here.  The idea for this quilt was based on the traditional disappearing nine-patch quilt but with a twist.  

Simply Moderne Issue #26 is out now and available in print or as a digital download with a subscription.  It's filled with great quilts with patterns and interesting articles.  The Simply Moderne magazine is beautifully done and I hope you will have a chance to pick up a copy to see for yourself.   

 

Thank you for stopping by and have a great day!!

A New Project and September OMG finished

 Hi Everyone,

We just came back from a road trip.  We drove over 2,000 miles to Idaho Falls, Salt Lake City and St. George to visit friends and family.  We had a wonderful time catching up with friends whom we haven't seen in a long time.  It's refreshing to be in a place that we didn't have to wear a mask all the time.  I had a first time experience of going to a State Fair in Idaho Falls.  Walking around at the Fair without a mask made life seem normal once again.  We also visited a place called Palisades, Idaho.  It's so beautiful, I took this picture.

Now back home, I got right back to work on the QuiltCon 2022 Fabric Challenge.  I set a goal to finish the top and basting in September.  Now both goals are done. 

Candy Box 3 - Front

Candy Box 3 - Back

Candy Box 3 - Basted

Next will be quilting it and here is the initial plan.  It looks messy because I hand drew it on my iPad with the Apple pencil.   It may change but you get the idea.

 

It's so good to be back.  No matter how much fun we had, it's always good to be back home.  

Don't forget to go to the OMG Finish Link-up to see all projects.

 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!

Sneak Peek of the New Project and Sept. OMG

I'm participating in the 2022 MQG fabric challenge.  These are the fabrics from Windham Fabric that I'm using for this quilt.

 

 

Here is a sneak peek of a test block.

 

 

I'm taking a 2-week vacation to Idaho Falls, Salt Lake City and St. George Utah to visit friends and family.  My goal for September is to finish the top and baste this quilt for quilting.   

 

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a wonderful day!

Finished August OMG and a New Project

I remade the postcard.  I like the satin finish better on this one.  Like they say, practice makes perfect better result.

I sent it out to my postcard swap partner in Minnesota this morning.  I hope it get there without any damages.  🙏😄

In my goal setting post, I set this as my August OMG.  Mission accomplished!! 👍

 

The yardage that I ordered for the 2022 MQG Fabric Challenges came today. 😌  Here they are in their beautiful colors.  I'm really looking forward to make something with this fabric.

 

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you all have a nice week.

 

Keeping Commitments

 In the past few months, I've been busy with behind the scene projects, and I'm so happy to say that they are done and delivered.  Now I have time to tend to other commitments.  It's kind of strange that for months I've worked intensely on projects and now my hands feel empty. 

In April I posted about the Project Potholder, you can see it here and here.  I chose to put it on hold because it has no deadline.  They are done and I might make some more as time permits.

 

 

They are 6 1/2" and finished with serger all around.  The edges in the real projects are straight even though they don't look straight in the picture above.

Today I also finished the Postcard Swap project that I talked about here.  I like small projects like these to keep my mind engaged.  It's the first time for me to make a fabric postcard.  I checked out a few tutorials to learn how to make one.  These are places I visited NW Quilted Cat, and Sarah Ruiz Quilts.

 

For the back, I printed the word Postcard on a piece of card stock and hand drew the lines with Sharpie.  I like the front and back but I'm not real happy with the finished edges.  My original thought was to use the serger but changed it to use the satin stitch instead.  I don't like the way it looks.  I still  have some time before I have to mail it off.  Tomorrow, I know what I want to work on.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week.

August OMG

At my local VMQG guild, we are doing something fun.  We are having a POSTCARD swap with the Minneapolis Modern Quilt Guild (MMQG).  Members of the MMQG and the VMQG will be creating and mailing fabric postcards to their respective 'partners' by August 23rd.

I'm very excited about this and signed up.   This also will be my August OMG with the Elm Street Quilts.  I don't have a picture to show with this blog because I've never made a fabric postcard before, but I'll be using these colors below.  One thing I know about my postcard partner is that she likes bright colors

 

I'm also participating in the 2022 MQG Fabric challenge.  I registered and got these beautiful samples.  I already have ideas in mind and am anxious to get started.  I ordered some more yardage and it's on its way.  :-)

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a wonderful day.

July OMG is done

It's time to reveal the finished quilt of July OMG.  This is a gift for a dear friend who just had a new baby girl.  It will be delivered this coming Sunday.

 

Now go to the Elm Street Quilts to see all the July finish linkups.  There are a lot of cool finished projects.

 

I am planing to participate in the 2021 Make-A-Difference challenge from the MQG.  The theme is Trees, and the entry fee of $12 will be donated to Trees for the Future.  Here is my entry.

 

19" x 19"

When I was making it, I wasn't so sure I liked it.  I was trying to capture the morning sunrise with trees in the horizon to send a message of a new dawn, new trees, and new lives.  There is hope for the mother earth.  I almost stopped and canceled everything, but I didn't.  I'm glad I didn't and now I kind of like it.  It's whimsical and fun to look at.

I am still working on a project behind the scenes, which is a quilt for the Simply Moderne magazine.  I'm using Bella Solid from Moda's contributions and fun threads sent from the WonderFil company.   Here's the samples.

This quilt will be in Winter Issue.  I'll be able to talk about it then.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week.

Good news about the Intersection Blocks

Now I can talk about one of my behind the scene projects.  It's the block study for the MQG Journal, the online quarterly publication from the MQG for its members.  If you're not a member of the MQG and if you are interested in the modern quilt movement, I strongly recommend you join and become a member.  There are so many benefits for becoming a member; QuiltCon show participation,  wonderful webinars and talks, free patterns download, great opportunities to join in making a different in the community, just to name a few.

I answered the call for a block study submission and submitted this block over a year ago.  Last February I got an email from them saying that they wanted to feature my Intersection block for the third quarter of this year.  Due to copyright law protection, I can't show the whole picture of the blocks.  Here is a sneak peek from the article.

 

It's a lot of fun seeing the block that is so simple but has so many possibilities.  There are many great quilt layout suggestions in the article as well.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

July OMG

 Hi Everyone,

It's time to set a goal for July.  I put a baby quilt top together last month and plan to quilt it this month.  Here's the picture of the quilt.

 

It's been very hot and humid that I'm not motivated to do much outside.  Everyday, I get up real early and check on my garden and for the rest of the day, I'm happy to be inside.  I'm still working on projects behind the scene.  Hopefully I can share them really soon.

You can check on other OMG projects here.

 
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

It will be some changes from this blog

Hi Everyone,

I have a quick announcement for those of you who get my blog posts in your email.  As you may have heard, Feedburner, the service that previously allowed you to subscribe and receive posts in your inbox, is closing down soon.   I finally found one service that allows me to roll all my followers over, hopefully, with minimal interruptions.

The new service is called follow.it and you don't have to do anything.   There might be a few glitches here and there which I hope to avoid.  You might get a few duplicate emails, I hope you will hang in there with me.  

If you have not previously subscribed by email and you think that sounds like a good idea, there is a new widget on the right side bar to enter you email address and begin receiving blog posts!

Blogging has become a way for me to document my work and to get out from under a rock and reach out to the world.  Along the way I have met many wonderful people and treasure your friendships.  I appreciate all my readers and thank you for reaching out to me in return. 

Have a fantastic day!!!

 

 

 

 

 

June OMG Finished

This past week, I played around with Latifah Saafir's Molehills pattern.  In the package, there is a template for a full fan pattern along with strip templates.  Since I'm using flannel for this baby quilt, I've opted for a full fan pattern.

I proceeded to print out the template sheets and followed the instructions to put them together.  The template came out so big but I pushed along and cut out the required pieces (12) for a baby quilt.  I tentatively put them together to see how they would look on a quilt.  I felt that the fans are too big for the size that I'm making which is 36"x42".  I went back to the templates, printed them out at 75% and put them together.  This time the size of the fan are more manageable.  I cut out 13 fan pieces and put them on design wall.  I really like it better this time around.

12 fans line up nicely

Quilt layout

 

I'm glad I made more progress than I was planing for.  That means there's only one thing left to do; quilting it.

Summer came early in Southern Cal this year.  We were in high 90's in the past couple weeks.  I feel so sorry for my vegetable garden.  This year I have more energy so I planted quite a few kinds.  There are corns, kale, spinach, swiss chard besides the old favorites of tomatoes, beans and cucumbers.   I'm doing a no-dig vegetable garden.  We'll see how it grows.  Cross my fingers!!

I am also experimenting with a propagation of Mulberry from a stem cutting from our neighbor's tree.  It is a Pakistani mulberry which has much bigger fruits and they taste amazing.  I used only a handful to make a mulberry syrup and had it with pancakes.  They are heavenly!!  I hope the propagation is a success.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week.

June OMG

 Hi Everyone,

It's the beginning of June and it's time to set a new goal.  Yesterday I attended our monthly guild meeting through Zoom.  I saw a Molehills quilt that one of our member made and it inspired me to look into the Molehills pattern that I bought sometimes ago.  One of our friends just had a baby girl and I want to make something for her.  Here's the pieces that I printed out.

 

I'm terrible in following a pattern.  My goal for June is to look at the Molehills pattern and make templates for cutting.  At least I will cut out all the fabric pieces for a baby quilt top.  Let's see how far along I'll get on this project.

Go to Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal June Link-up  to see other fun goals for June.

 

Thanks for visiting and have a great day! 

A New Project

I've been busy sewing.  This week I'm making a back piece for a quilt called 'Candy Box 2'.  Once again, I'm having a lot of fun working on it.  It's totally an improv piece.  Come to think of it, most of my work lately has been done with improv technique.  Can we call improv a technique?  Anyone care to jump into a discussion?  Anyway, I think we can call it a technique.

Here is the picture.

Candy Box 2 - back (65"x80")

I love the idea of a quilt back that has a relationship with the front.  All the colors of the front is also on the back.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Playing Around

This week, while, I was doing some experimenting with some shapes in quilting.  It occurred to me that I was playing and wasting time.  Instead of feeling guilty, I wanted to know what other people say about playing so I searched 'playing quotation' and came upon this quotation.

 

Somehow this quotation made me feel better about playing around with some fabric.   I got some triangle shapes left over from other projects so I decided to play with Half Rectangle Triangle (HRT).  I don't have any design in mind right now but this is what I made.

 

Block size 12" x 18"

 

This is my first time making HRT blocks.  We'll see where this leads to.  It's all in a day of working, playing, researching.  :-))

 

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a great time creating.

May OMG is Done

I continue to make progress on the quilt called Candy Box.  This month for OMG I said I would make the back piece and baste the quilt to get it ready for quilting.  I've done both.  Here are some pictures.

 

Candy Box front

 

Candy Box back

I leave it on the design wall to look at and contemplate how to quilt it.

Now I can get back to other projects that I've been working on.  

 

Thanks for stopping by.  

Have a great week!!