Quilt Love

Here you go Rossie. I have to tell you it was hard to fold it up and put it in the envelope to send back to you. The fabrics were so amazing, such depth and yummy goodness! I adore your design...this is going to be one stunning quilt. What a wonderful start to this bee. Sorry again for the tardiness....i'll try to be more on it for the rest of you!

kelp strip for rossie

Rossie, you've rekindled my love for kelp (though I'm not certain it ever unkindled). This was so fun... though I didn't mean to make so many hollow shapes, but I started and couldn't stop. You know how that goes, right?

Oh yes.

Everytime I look at this, I get so pumped.

Strips (from l to r) by Simply Robin, Wise Craft, and Don't Call me Becky.

I can't even stand it.

I had a bit of kelp ADD with this block, Rossie.



There's a dash-ended piece of kelp.


There's some plain dash pieces of kelp.


And, there's a block ended piece of kelp.



Here's the hero shot. My strip piecing method was a bit flawed, so some chunks of the strip are 8.75" tall instead of 9" tall. I'm sorry for the miscalculation and I hope it will be okay in the final quilt!

Kelp Quilt Strip

I was a very good quilting bee-er this month and finished my strip for Rossie's kelp quilt completely on schedule. I was very intrigued by the design she had in mind, and even more impressed that she dyed the fabrics herself. I hope I am half as creative when its my turn to send out packages.
There is pressure involved when you have a certain amount of fabric to use, and a time frame to use it in. Which is precisely why this quilting bee is a good exercise for me.


I think my horizontal bars are a bit wider than Robin's (which I'm so glad you posted a photo of so early in the month). Rossie I hope that is okay!


I can't wait to see how the subtle red shades variations play out together in the completed top.

mid-century textiles

I just wanted to point out this blog post from Saidos da Concha in case anyone missed it.  Lots of images of mid-century textiles.

 I love the pillow on the far right.

Also, I found the book Robin and Lucienne Day: Pioneers in Modern Design at the local library (on of the commenters here recommended it). It has a lot of textile designs, too.

this is the one that most clearly suggests a quilt pattern to me:

Patchwork with the black motifs embroidered or silk screened on? That would be tight, no?

My Panel...

Ladies, I hate to brag, but I think I'm the first one done with our panel this month! At least from what I know... does posting it here first count as first one done? Anyway, I was thrilled to be working with such beautiful fabric and it was a fun pattern to execute! Thanks Rossie! You all don't have to worry that I'll be the first one out every month... I just happened to stumble on a little time yesterday to take care of this. I promise I wont be the most annoying one in the bunch! Can't wait to see what you are cooking up for next month Cheryl!

I blogged about it today on my own blog, and if you don't mind my shameless plug, here's my link! Hope you all are having a happy summer!

Can't Decide

I'm having a hard time deciding between the many ideas I've got for this project. I thought I was on track, but then I picked up this book.  The girls and I have been earmarking projects. It has also introduced me to a few new-to-me designers that I now want to research. 

It really is a great book for fun craft ideas. And I adore the details on different techniques, tools, and designers.

July, July!

Actually, it's still June, but I'm posting these instructions now because I am planning on handing off fabric to Rebekah and Debbie at tonight's Modern Quilt Guild (Brighton chapter). The rest of you can expect fabric in the mail within the week!

Here's the plan for the quilt:

This began as a kelp shape that I doodled and re-doodled.  Inspired, of course, by Amanda's work.
It doesn't really look much like kelp any more, but I still call this "the kelp quilt" in my head. 
Maybe that's what kelp looks like on Mars?

I had originally conceived of doing with it in mineral green colors.  But, I changed my mind and decided on oranges and reds, similar to the colors in this textile by Ray Eames.  I might bind it in lavender, but probably candy blue, as in the painting above.  We'll see.  : )

I hand-dyed these reds and oranges to get the variation in colors I wanted.  I used pimatex fabric which is really lovely to work with, so I think you'll be happy as you sew. (I'll send the white, too!)

(by the way, I used the flat dyeing technique that Robin explained on her blog.  It worked wonderfully.)

This is going to be a twin-size bed quilt.
Here are my guidelines:
--I'd like everyone to please make a 9" tall, 65" wide strip.
--As you can see in the picture, I would like your kelp shapes to be in the center of the strip height-wise (don't stress, just aim for the center, okay?)
--Try to keep the plants less than 4" tall and the stems no more than 1.25" tall.
--Anything goes as far as how many plants you'd like to put in your strip, how long the plants are, whether you do some that are just stems, and where you position them in the strip width-wise.
--I love subtle wonk, but nothing crazy or forced.

Can't wait to see what you all make!
Here's a song to get you fired up!

Housekeeping!

 (1)

Bee members, here are your month assignments!

July 2010  - Rossie
August 2010 - Jess
September 2010 - Cheryl
October 2010 - Amanda
November 2010 - Debbie

January 2011 - Rebekah
February 2011 - Robin
March 2011 - Lauren
April 2011 - Blair
May 2011 - Malka Yahaira
June 2011 - Jacquie

I do believe I have accommodated everyone's wishes.
If something comes up and you need to swap your month, that's fine; but please try to arrange it yourself and let me (Rossie) or Cheryl know if you need help.

(2)
Flickr group

If you would like to share your blocks on flickr, I recommend posting them to this group:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/quiltingbeeblocks/

That way they'll be seen by more people!  

The groups for individual bees don't seem to get much traffic, so we're not planning on setting one up.

(3)
Blog button

As requested, here is a blog button

html code for above

<a href="http://midmodbee.blogspot.com/"><img alt="Mid Mod Quilt Bee" border="0" img="" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1276/4672802101_3d0bb05c58_b.jpg" width="200" /></a>


In Blogger, add these by going to the "layout" tab;   click "add gadget";choose "HTML/JavaScript" as the gadget type;  paste in code; save your changes!

To make the button bigger or smaller, change the "200" to a bigger or smaller number.

(4)
Words of wisdom

Cheryl put this so well in her email that I asked her permission to post this for posterity:
"We have a phenomenally creative group of quilters, artists, authors, and designers. We are all fans of mid century modern design. We believe that we can come together to create some amazing quilts. These quilts will capture the spirit of the artists involved. They will also, hopefully, capture the essence of mid-century modern design.

"So, instead of sending out precise rules and pre-cut fabric, please share your inspiration and a pile of fabric. Let go and see what comes back to you. We can trust each other to produce quality blocks, so trust the process."

(5)
Please post each block you make

When you post a block you made, please attach two labels: (1) your first name  (2) ______'s quilt <--- filling in the name of the person for whom the block is destined.

This will make it easier to search back through posts. 
I have added ALL of these labels to this post so that you can add them to future posts just by clicking on "show all"



and then select the relevant labels.

(6)
Feel free to post about other mid-mod stuff here.
I'm loving the inspiration posts, and their comments. Keep them coming and please use the "inspiration" label! 

I have figured out how to get the byline up below the title of each post, hopefully this will help us know who is talking when. (I'll try to clean up the way it looks soon).

Also, if any members want me to add their email address to the list of those who get emailed each comment, shoot me an email.  (You can also subscribe to the comments by RSS, but I like the email method myself.)


(7)
I'm beyond pumped to get started!
Thank you all!

mid mod inspiration

You may be asking yourself what the heck a post office in backwoods North Carolina has to do with our fabulous new quilt bee (I'm so darn excited!!!). It's a good question, and it has to do with inspiration. See, I think I do have some understanding of the mid-century modern design aesthetic, but I've been looking for inspiration (already planning for my month, of course!) and I'm having trouble finding the exact right source. There's a lot out there in terms of mid-century modern architecture (see said post office; inspired mini quilt to follow!) and furniture, and I'm actually kind of interested to think about how that might translate to quilts. But I'm not finding textile-related things. Anyone else?

Children's TV

It may seem odd to list this as an inspiration, but I am always struck by how design can make it's way to something like kids' programming. Check out Sid the Science Kid's kitchen (love the
Nelson Swag Leg Desk in the corner).

And look at his bedroom! That wallpaper, the rug, and even a modern quilt on the bed. No wonder I'm so happy my kid loves to watch the show!

Now collecting members...

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for my mid mod faves to say YES!

Cool You-Tube video I recently came across talking about mid-century design.

(It's a school project, she misprounonces Eames, but very interesting, no?)