Scrap Squad goes LIVE!

Some of you may have noticed this logo on my left sidebar:

In mid-November, Quiltmaker Magazine had a little blurb about an application process for being part of their new Scrap Squad. Not thinking I'd get selected, I sent in my application letter and pictures of three sample scrappy quilts. Time passed, and I almost forgot about it in the busy-ness of the holidays. Wow, was I surprised when I got an email back saying I was in! After completing the paperwork, they sent me my first pattern to make.

Our intrepid group consists of eight talented quilters, who are ready to deplete some stash. The first assignment is a pattern called Rhapsody in Bloom, which is a pattern designed by a teenage guy. Since I was still surrounded by the scraps of flannel left over from completing those two flannel rag quilts you saw earlier in this blog, I decided the bits needed to be used up. To add a little contrast, I also put 4 flannel fat quarters in the mix. Here's the completed top, so you can see the whole design:

I decided to make 4 of the twelve inch blocks in the pattern, then made several more units to extend the pattern flow out to the sides. Since the units were 4½ inches unfinished, I was also able to cut some 4½ inch squares to give the center design blocks almost a medallion or Around the World feel. Here it is all arranged prettily in a library staff room chair:

While doing this project, what have I decided? I don't like doing little triangular pieces in flannel with quarter-inch seams. The flannel is a looser weave than the quilter's cottons or batiks I normally use, and I'm afraid some of my seams are awfully narrow. If I ever do another flannel quilt, I'll change the pattern pieces to have wider seams. Anybody else have any tricks for working with flannel?

One More Day!

One more day until the great Scrap Squad reveal!

Here's a couple more teaser pictures to get you excited. First the label I made for the back of the quilt:

I like to sew the tag to the backing, then layer and quilt it. That means the tag is there to STAY. :) For this one I used pigma pens to write on a scrap of white flannel. That gave it a sort of fuzzy looking appearance, but at least it matches the rest of the quilt!

And here's a picture of the quilt arranged on the library table, with a bunch of winter and snow books on top:

Don't forget, come back to this space tomorrow night for the great Scrap Squad pattern reveal!

Scrap Squad, Snow, and BOM

As I mentioned at the end of the last post, I've been selected as one of Quiltmaker Magazine's Scrap Squad. It's nice to make a little money with my quilting and not have to sell the quilt! We can't reveal the quilt designs we're given to make until after the issue of the magazine comes out, but we CAN give you a sneak preview teaser. Here's Toby to present it:

Toby agrees with keeping things quiet. Or maybe he just wants ME to be quiet so he can sleep on the nice, freshly ironed block segments. I'm doing this first quilt for Scrap Squad with leftover flannel bits from my Christmas flannel rag quilts, with the addition of some blue FQ's I won at a retreat auction.

And we had SNOW! In Memphis, that's amazing. Can you see the glowing red stop sign? It was pretty falling, but I'm glad it's all melted now:

The 3 inches we got were more than I wanted to drive to work through the next morning. But did the library close? No. It made for some slick and slushy travelling.

And speaking of travelling, my quilt-guild friend is touring Turkey this winter with her husband, and they're posting some fantastic pictures and a little Turkish history on the blog. Such vibrant blue skies! Such intricate tile work on the ceilings, floors, walls. For some real quilt inspiration, check this out:

Jeanie Goes Cold Turkey

I also finally got the new block of the month up for my quilt guild. We're doing twelve 16 inch blocks, and they'll all be tied together with a diagonal line of ... well, go see. Here's the address for the 2011 Sweet Sixteen Intro.

It's not just for my guild members, so feel free to join us if you want. :) Really, don't you have enough fabric where you could join something like this and not have to buy a thing? I sure do.

The work part for me was not drawing the quilt in EQ, or designing twelve blocks, but in taking last year's block of the month selection off of the website index page, making teeny thumbnails of the pix, and re-linking all the pages from within the BOM archives section. So I'll leave you with a couple of nail clippings from last year: