Medallion QAL First Border Linky

We are off and running with our medallion quilts!  Are you enjoying the process of making a quilt border by border?  Does it look as you imagined it or has your quilt already taken on a life of its own?

As a group, we have a stunning start to our medallion center pieces.  I have seen them pop up in blogs here and there, but I am REALLY looking forward to this linky party to pull them all together and see what you have created.  Between the last QAL post and this one, you should have created your 15 inch center block and then added one border to it.  If you are following Track 1, your quilt top should now measure about (ahem!) 24.5 inches unfinished.

Over the next two weeks we will piece and add our second border.  This border is 4 inches (finished) on all sides (in Track 1), bringing our top to 32 inches (finished).  Do take a bit of time to read the Catbird Quilts post discussing this border as Melanie gives a lovely overview of color, design, proportion, etc that you may find very helpful when choosing your next step.  Join me again on 5 March to link up your photos for your second border, to encourage one another and to draw inspiration from the others in the linky party.

An InLinkz Link-up

Bee Blessed February Blocks

Are your January Bee Blessed blocks packed up and sent off?  They were so straight forward and easy to make AND came together beautifully!  I look forward to seeing the finished quilt.  

This month Sarah and Judith are asking for little heart blocks using this tutorial.  Isn't that a cute block?  It won't take you a minute to make, but together they will make a huge difference in someone's life.  Do take a bit of time and get stitching.

Medallion QAL Linky Party

I am delighted you have decided to join in our Modern Irish Medallion QAL!  Have you been busy daydreaming about what your medallion quilt will look like?

I hope by now you have taken the time to read through Melanie's first post, giving us our guidelines for getting started.  Do you think you're going to follow the clearly described Track One, or are you more a Track Two free spirit?

Over the last two weeks we were to each create an inspirational mosaic and dig through our stash to pull fabrics setting the tone for our quilt.  Maybe you're an over achiever and have already started stitching your first central block for your quilt.  Each and every one of us would love to gain inspiration from your mosaic or drool over your fabric pull!  Please leave a link to your blog post below and we'll all hop over there for a peek and a giggle.  Be sure to visit the other links you see below and offer advice and encouragement.

Over the next two weeks, here is your challenge:  Re-read the QAL first post and create your central block for your medallion quilt.  Seeing as this is only one 15 inch block and we have two weeks to sew, go on and read the QAL second post and make your first border.  This will give you a 24 inch square quilt top.  Come back here on 19 Feb and link up to show everyone your medallion quilt center.  Happy stitching!

Modern Irish (Scrappy) Bee: February Blocks

Happy February, Modern Irish Bee buddies!  I hope you had fun making Ruth's blocks.  They were really fantastic scrap busters, weren't they?  I can not wait to see what her finished quilt top looks like. It is going to be a stunner!

It's Cindy here, queen bee for the this (very short) month.  If you follow my blog, you know I have been slightly obsessed with spool quilts for nearly a month now.  I have finally found an online tutorial for spools that I adore, so I hope you will join me in making a few blocks over the coming weeks.

I ask you to use Kona White for the background and then somewhat monochromatic fabrics for the spools.  You can see I took "monochromatic" quite liberally in my test blocks above, but you get the idea.  I ask for bright, cheery modern-type fabrics preferably with only medium or small spools in brown (there's a place for brown...I know...). No batiks or civil war-type fabrics.  They're not my thing.

There will be four colors of Aurifil spools in the final quilt: Kona Tangerine (orange), Kona Red (well, for red), Kona Medium Grey (you get the idea) and Kona Kiwi for green.  A parcel including including a F8th of one spool color is on its way to you right now.  A F8th should be more than enough for you to make your blocks, so send back any scraps you have greater than 2.5 inches square.  I can use that to finish the quilt off.  Please let me know if you need more spool fabric.  Cutting mistakes happen :)  

The tutorial is more of a set of cutting instructions than piecing instruction.  The blocks are quite straight forward and direct to piece, but if anyone has problems getting from their cut fabric to the finished block let me know and I will happily go through it with you. 

Now, how many of these weirdo shaped blocks will I ask you to make?  I did a bit of figuring based on the surface area of two 12.5 inch square blocks.  Here are two possible options that are equivalent size-wise to traditional blocks:

Option 1: 

1 large spool

3 medium spools

5 small spools

OR

Option 2:

0 large spools

5 medium spools

6 small spools

Depending on your stash, one option might suit you better than the other.  I do not mind which you choose.  Hive buddies, I hope you have fun making these blocks.  I am very excited to see what you create.  Thank you for taking part in making my next quilt :)

Modern Irish Medallion Quilt Along

You asked for it, you have it: announcing the Modern Quilters of Ireland quilt along!  2013 seemed to be the year of the medallion quilt, which really got my creative juices flowing.  Although there were several gorgeous patterns circulating, like the Marcelle Medallion or Made to Measure, they were not well suited to my quilting interests.  I really do not like using templates and flying geese make my heart clench.  I had to find another way to create one myself.

I started to do a bit of online research to find example medallion quilts that I loved, looking both at the design of the borders as well as the fabrics used.  I created a little inspirational mosaic...that I ogled time and time again when daydreaming of my own medallion quilt.  

1. Red Pepper Quilts, 2. Not available, 3. Red Pepper Quilts, 4. Not available, 5. Not available, 6. Not available, 7. Medallion Quilt detail, 8. Baisakhi Medallion Quilt, 9. 1930s Medallion Quilt

I've been looking long enough.  It's time to stitch!  What if we, as a guild, could create medallion quilts together?  Are you interested in stitching along with me?  I found a wonderful series of tutorials by Catbird Quilts that we can use together.  These tutorials are set up so that we can each create our own individual medallion quilt (depending on our skill level) using Catbird Quilts tutorials on the design-as-you-go process.  Melanie (the brains behind Catbird Quilts) gives two paths to follow in each tutorial.  One path (for beginners) will give block/border measurements for the center square and then for each border.  Alternatively, you can take path two (more advanced) and design your own quilt using Melanie's suggestions on size ratios, etc.  Melanie explains it much better here, so please do click over and read her first post. 

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Here's how this will go:  

First, read this post to get the basic idea of this QAL.  I know this is something that each and every (interested) member of our guild can do to their own skill level AND we can have a great time stitching together, drawing inspiration from one another and learning as a collective group.

Second, search through your fabric stash (or go shopping...what ever makes you happy) and find a palate for this quilt that makes your heart flutter.  Scrappy is most likely best as we don't exactly know how much fabric we will each need.

Third, if you have not already done so, join our Flickr group so that we can all keep updated on each other's makes.

Finally, come back here in two week's time for a linky party.  By 5 February you should have A) a gorgeous fabric pull to share with everyone and B) an inspirational mosaic for your first central block of your quilt.  If you've started stitching, that's even better.  Show us what you've made in your own blog post and leave us a link to check it out!

We will then take each additional border as it comes with shorter intervals between linkies for the first, smaller borders and then giving ourselves more time for the larger outer borders.

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If you're into books, I picked up a few inspirational books including border patterns that could be adjusted depending on the project.  Liberated Medallion Quilts  by Gwen Marston is quite inspirational with a WIDE variety of eye candy quilts to keep me interested each step along the way. 

And then Gwen's co-authored book with Freddy Moran, Collaborative Quilting, hit the mark with lots and lots of border ideas that can be scaled depending on the project.  Super!  You can read my Collaborative Quilting book review here if you'd like.

Now let's get stitching!

Bee Blessed - January

If you have not already found Bee Blessed, let me introduce you to the brain child of Sarah and Judith.  Bee blessed is a monthly quilting bee based in N. Ireland with the purpose of creating quilts for local needy people/families/groups.  

Many of you, our guild members, have been asking to create donation quilts as part of our 2014 activities.  With such a wonderful organization as Bee Blessed at our doorstep, it only makes sense that we combine efforts.  After a quick chat with Judith, we decided to bring Bee Blessed to the MQG as our guild's mechanism for making donation quilts.  

This month, Sarah has requested Greek Cross blocks from this tutorial.  There are no restrictions in color (beyond being generally monochromatic in focus fabrics and white as your background) so this is a great block to create right from your stash.  Your time and effort will be greatly appreciated when the quilt is donated to someone in need.

Please contact Judith directly if you are interested in sending blocks onto her.  To learn more about Bee Blessed, hop over here and/or join in their flickr group.

Modern Irish (Scrappy) Bee: January Block

Happy New Year!  Hope all  have had wonderful celebrations.  My name is Ruth and as it's the first of January I get to kick off the 2014 Modern Irish Bee!  Welcome to all the hive members and to all who are following along.   Every month we will have a new set of tutorial links and examples to make blocks up to 12.5".  We will be using our stash of scraps and have the choice of scrappy background fabrics or solids from the the following : Kona White, Kona Ash, Kona Snow or Kona Black.

So to start us off I've used this photo for inspiration at Oh Fransson!  Elizabeth has kindly allowed me to link to her picture of her beautiful Scrappy Rectangle that she made for the back of her quilt.  I would happily have it on the front!  So with that in mind here's a tutorial for 12.5" blocks inspired by Elizabeth's Color Block Happy Hour Quilt Back!

The block is made up of a scrappy pieced square or rectangle using 1.5" squares and 1" white sashing.   I used a patterned background for my test blocks but for the purposes of the Bee I would like Kona Ash please.

Here is a link to a PDF to download showing colour options and 3 versions of the block: a 3x3 scrappy square, a 4x4 scrappy square and a 4x5 scrappy rectangle.

To make the 2 blocks above I used almost 1 fat quarter of background fabric.  I would like 1 square (either 3x3 or 4x4) and 1 rectangular block for the Bee.  I hope to lay them out something like this: 

Playing with colour choices and going with a two toned background like Elizabeth's quilt back would give these possibilities as well:

I'm liking the multi-coloured one a lot.

To make up the blocks above start with 1.5" squares from any colours you like from scraps

For the 3x3 square you will need 9 squares, for the 4x4 you will need 16.

I chain pieced them using a 1/4" seam into rows.

Pressing can be open or to the side.  I pressed to the side with each row in a different direction to nest the seams.

Sew each row together and trim.  The 3x3 square should be trimmed to 3.5" and the 4x4 square to 4.5" square.

The sashing is Kona snow in 1" wide strips and for the squares add it to both sides and then to the top only. 

Using the cutting instructions cut strips from the background fabric.  For the 3" block above you will need 1 strip of 5.5", 4" and 3.5".

Take both the 5.5" and 3.5" width strips and trim down to 12.5" long.

Take the 4" strip and cut a piece 7" long and a piece 2" long.  Cut a strip from the Kona Snow 1" x 12.5" long.

Layout as above and sew the 4" pieces to the side of the pieced square with a scant 1/4" seam.

Sew all 4 rows together with a scant 1/4" seam and square up to 12.5"

And there you have it. One 3x3 block done!  The 4x4 is made in the same way cutting 3.5", 4.5",and 5" strips from your background fabric and sub-cutting as per the PDF. 

The 4 x 5 rectangle is pretty much the same with a few small changes.  Again start with the scrappy 1.5" squares.  This time 20 of them!

 

Sew together in rows using a 1/4" seam allowance and trim this up to 4.5" x 5.5". Sash both sides with Kona snow 1" strips and then both the top and bottom this time. 

  

If you are using a fat quarter cut one strip from the background fabric 3.5" wide.  Trim this strip to 12.5" long for the top piece. 

From the 4" strip from the earlier block cut one rectangle 6" x 4" and one 2"x 4" for row 2.  The bottom row is made up of rectangles 6" x 5.5", 3.5" x 5.5" and 2" x 5.5"".  I was able to use the remaining Fat Quarter pieces to make the 3.5" and 2" one but I had to piece two scraps to get the 6" x 5.5 " rectangle which is perfectly fine for this design.   

Assemble the block by adding the Kona 1" sashing to the 6" x 4" rectangle and 6" x 5.5" rectangle.  Do the same for the 2" x 4" and 2" x 5.5" rectangles.  Add the scrappy pieced block to middle rectangle on the last row 3.5" x 5.5".

Sew these 3 columns together using a scant 1/4" seam and then add the top row to finish the block.

Square up to 12.5" and there we have it block number 2!

I hope you have fun making these scrappy blocks.  Please post to Flickr so we can all enjoy and admire them!  Happy New Year and Happy Sewing !