Last summer, some of us were throwing around ideas for our next guild challenge over breakfast one morning at the Pacific Northwest MQG Meet Up in Portland.  We were talking about the books that we bought because we were inspired by the quilts inside of them and how these books sit on the shelves of our sewing rooms and we never get around to making the quilts.  The idea for our 2017 Creative Stitches Show Challenge was born:  “The book that you bought that you haven’t made the quilt from yet Challenge”. The idea of the challenge is that all participants take the opportunity to make the quilt from a book that prompted them to buy the book.

By our November quilt guild meeting, we had to commit to what our quilt was going to be. Our guild has a Facebook page and some of our members are already well into making their challenge quilts.  I usually agonize what I will make for any challenge and change my mind several times.  This challenge was no different.  I had several ideas and finally by the deadline, I had narrowed my choice down to one idea.

I thought I should pick a quilt pattern that not only inspired me but took me out of my comfort zone; after all this was a challenge.  I remember seeing a quilt at Show and Tell at a guild meeting one night that was so inspiring to me.  I ordered the book and curved piecing ruler so that I could make the quilt.  I believe that was back in 2014.  I never made the quilt because of the fear of making the curved blocks.  The quilt is in the book, Contemporary Curved Quilts – Curved Piecing using the Quick Curve Ruler by Jenny Pedigo and Helen Robinson for Sew Kind of Wonderful.

 The quilt in the book is called Modern Millie.  I have read the pattern over many times.  It isn’t a long pattern–only 3 pages of instructions.

Modern Millie Quilt from the book: Contemporary Curved Quilts

I wanted to make the quilt just like the picture in the book and I wanted to use a Kona solid for my background so I placed my order on line for 5 meters of Kona Cobblestone.

I picked a bright yellow for the center of the flowers–Kona Sunny.

My fabric order arrived in the mail.  I have pre-washed the 5 m of Cobblestone.  Now I am looking at the picture and thinking that the colour I picked may not be quite right for the background.

This morning, when I was reading blogs over coffee, I read a post by Debbie at A Quilter’s Table.   Debbie posted a picture of her latest quilt, Archipelago, which has a gorgeous turquoise blue background.  Debbie said that the use of Bahama, one of the Free Spirit Designer Essentials, as her background was an intentional use of a colour outside of her norm.  She went on to say that it was an enjoyable diversion.  This caused me to think that perhaps I have been approaching my challenge quilt all wrong.  Maybe I too should pick a background colour that I would never think to use.  After all, I am planning to use black and white fabrics like the quilt in the book, but who says I have to stick with the taupe background that the designer picked?  I have some Kona Turquoise in my studio that looks great next to the Kona Sunny.  

I have watched the videos of Jenny demonstrating the ruler over and over.  I think I need to audition background fabric choices against my black and white fabrics, pick a background fabric, quit stalling, and jump in and make one of those blocks!  

If the quilt doesn’t turn out, I can rename my challenge, “I was inspired by the quilt, I bought the book, ruler, and required fabric, and made the quilt; but in the end it looked better in the picture!

Today was a rainy day–the kind made for quilting.  I spent time this morning surfing the Internet looking for quilt inspiration.  I knew I didn’t want to make a huge project and I knew that I wanted to work with solids.  I came across a video from Missouri Star Quilt Co. showing how to make a quilt called, Floating Squares.  I didn’t have a charm pack of solid squares, but I did come across a nice stack of 6 solids all in the same location in the cupboard.  I am sure they were purchased all at the same time to go with some other print fabrics, but the print fabrics seem to have made their way to some other area of the studio.  They looked great together so a 5″ strip of each solid was donated to the cause for today.

In this photo, it looks like one of the fabrics is black but it is really navy blue.  The lighting on a rainy cloudy day isn’t the best.

By supper time, the blocks were finished and up on the design wall.  Truth be told, there is more cutting than sewing in this project which makes for a quick and easy project–perfect for today.

Jenny Doan of Missouri Star says that this quilt should finish about 47″ x 56″.

Now on to sewing the blocks together.

Last Friday (June 5, 2015), after a short fight with cancer, my Dad came to the end of his life journey.  I have been pouring through old photos of my Dad to select the photos that we will use for a slide show presentation during the Service of Remembrance to be held on June 20, 2015.  These are the photos that I selected for that presentation.

Born on December 16, 1935 on the family farm four miles west of Redvers, Saskatchewan. my Dad was the fifth child of Archie and Elizabeth.

At 19, my Dad purchased a half section of land and began farming. Despite his love of farming, he sold his land to one of his brothers.

In 1959, my Dad attended the Chicago Vocational School in Edmonton to begin his mechanics training. My Dad was awarded his journeyman’s status in 1965. He worked for several garages in Weyburn.

My Dad married my Mom on July 9, 1960 in Carlyle, Saskatchewan. They had two children: me and my brother. My Dad and Mom first lived in a 32′ trailer in Weyburn and later moved into the house they built on Duke Street in 1963.

In 1971, our family moved to Nelson, BC. My Dad continued to work as a mechanic, first at a private dealership and in 1974 for the BC Government Department of Highways. At the end of his career, he was foreman and also started to weld for them. He spent many hours proudly fabricating mower decks and sand boxes for the highway equipment. He retired in 1995 at the age of 59.

Once retired, my Dad and Mom moved back to Weyburn where they enjoyed a wonderful retirement – square dancing and spending time with friends and family. In 2004, they moved back to BC, where they could be closer to children and grandchildren.

In retirement, my parents enjoyed many bus trips around Canada and the US. In the last years, they spent the winters in sunny Arizona which my Dad loved.

We loved him and he will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

For the last three months when I have attended a quilt guild meeting, I have won a door prize.  

In April, I visited a new guild (FVMQG) and won a door prize–two fat quarters wrapped up with a pretty blue ribbon that were donated by Lynn.

These fat quarters are responsible for my new love of Tula Pink fabrics.  Both fat quarters were from Tula’s, “The Birds & The Bees” line.  The fabric on the left is called Swallow Skies and the fabric on the right is called, Little Bits.

I had so much fun at the FVMQG’s April meeting that I went back in May.  At May’s meeting I won another door prize–two packs of Moda 2.5″ squares and a spool of coordinating thread donated by Sheri.  The two packs of squares are from Moda–Sphere by Briditte Heitland and Simply Style by Vanessa Christenson.

Last night, I went to my regular quilt guild and I won a door prize–the Spring issue of Quilting Quickly magazine and some gingerbread tea.

Wednesday night, I also won this wonderful stack of fat quarters for having finished and shown during show and tell the most UFO’s this year.  These fabrics are from Windham Fabrics’ Tavern Signs line.  Windham worked with the Connecticut Historical Society to reproduce these fabrics.

The following is taken from Windham’s site and describes this fabric line.