With a Little Help From My Friends

To borrow the lyrics from that famous song by the Beatles, this month's block lottery post would not be possible without   "... a little help from my friends."

Why?  Because like all good plans, this great life we live with it's opportunities, events, and circumstances, converge, seemingly at once, to shake things up and keep us on our toes.

Faye's practice block.    

The Plan v Opportunity 
The plan, hatched during our November meeting and election, was to have a Block Lottery Committee (Volunteers!  Thank you very much ladies!!) work together to have ideas, samples, tutorials, etc. for each meeting as well as the blog.  

They chose months.  They had a schedule.  We were off to a great start until opportunity knocked and Yvonne had to withdraw.  Exciting times for Pensacola and the modern quilting community!

A block from Laraine.

The Plan v Events
Our remaining committee members, Susan and Elaine, had a plan.  There's that word again.  Ha!  

As Susan told us during our impromptu meeting/lunch break at A&E, she had the block idea, only she needed sleep (That's what staying up sewing the EOD Silent Auction quilt the night before with Mandy will do to you - make you sleep deprived.) and requested a little grace period to make a sample and post the tutorial information.  Not a problem.  

However, when your dream house suddenly reappears on the market, after you've been looking awhile and after being outbid several times, you act quickly, hoping all of the stars align favorably.  They did.  Susan (and husband Chris) became homeowners - yay! - with a big beautiful new sewing space. 

So...

Bobbi's block.

The Plan v Circumstances
The next part of the plan, meant Elaine would run with Susan's idea, make the sample block, write the blog post, etc.  All good and well with the exception of discovering your attic is infested with endangered honeybees, you have a good-sized tree that's ready to topple onto your fence (or worse), and horribly strong thunderstorms tear through the area leaving you without power. 

Honeybee removal at Elaine's.

The day you'd planned to work on guild stuff.  So...

With A Little Help From My Friends
Elaine made phone calls.  Cindy agreed to help sew, write, and post.  That was the new and final plan.  Once again, ha!  

Friends, fabric, & caffeine.

Before Cindy could begin, Bobbi, having a small window of time available for sewing, asked the question in our fb group, "Can anyone remember what the May block is supposed to be?"  

Cricket's April (top) and May (bottom) lottery blocks.

Many, many thanks to each of you who contributed to the conversation that made for an enjoyable, cooperative, online quilting community this past Sunday  - Cricket (research, quilty math, block testing, pictures, blog writing); Elaine, Faye, Becky, and Natalie (links for tutorials and/or pictures); and Laraine, Cricket, Bobbi, and Cindy (block testing, pictures, and/or blog writing).  Without further delay, here is the plan.  

The.Final.Plan
We chose the classic Dutchman's Puzzle for the lottery block, made from flying geese, which tie in perfectly with our planned (there's that word again!) May program and Fisher House 2015 Charity Quilt. 

To participate in the block lottery, please review these guidelines. 

There are many, many ways to make flying geese.  Becky's round-up of methods can be found here; you can see Elaine's inspiration from Caroline of SewCanShe here; and the link Cricket used to figure the quilty math is here.  Choose a method that works for you.  Natalie decided to draft a paper pieced flying goose!

The color palette is scrappy and low volume.  Please use low volume fabrics for sky - all one print or mixed prints, again based on the method chosen - and two colors for the geese.  

One set of geese (4) should be darker; one set of geese (4) should be lighter.  Mix the color families - as in dark blue and pink - or keep them the same - as in teal and aqua.  A pinwheel pattern should emerge from the center set of geese.  

Second block from Bobbi.

Each goose unit measures 3.5" x 6.5".  Sewn with a scant quarter inch seam, your block, once all units are together, should measure 12.5".

The pictures in this post were made from the  Connecting Threads tutorial Cricket found.  Her quilty math requires two 9" x 9" sky fabrics, and two 7.5" x 7.5" geese fabrics for each Dutchman's Puzzle block.  

Thank you for your patience.   We plan (ha!) to be on track with a new block for the month of June, including samples for your viewing pleasure, at the meeting.  See you Saturday, May 9th!

Your Block Lottery Committee (and friends) -  
Elaine and Susan, Becky, Bobbi, Cindy, Cricket, Faye, Laraine, and Natalie

***All persons/guild members have approved the information in this blog post - ECMQG President Kira Bell***

MQG 2015 Fabric Challenge

Early this year, January 20, 2015 to be exact, the MQG announced the year's first fabric challenge, once again, generously sponsored by Riley Blake Designs.

THE MODERN QUILT GUILDMembers Only Newsletter 2015 Fabric Challenge!

If you were one of the lucky MQG members to sign up (in the eight hour window before all of the spots filled), you received a fat eighth bundle of six fabrics from designer Amanda Herring's The Cottage Garden collection.


The genesis behind The Quilted Fish, Amanda is, in her own words "a mom, wife, pattern designer, fabric designer, entrepreneur and all-around fun person.  I started The Quilted Fish in 2008 and it has been an amazing creative journey for me."

So what is the challenge?

• Make something fantastic that is quilted.
• Make something you've never done before.
• Challenge yourself to try something new.
• Use only Riley Blake The Cottage Garden fabrics in the aqua and gray colorway and any coordinating Riley Blake basics for solids.
• The challenge period is from March through July.
• Take pictures and upload them to the community page on the MQG website.
• Tag all of your photos on Instagram or Facebook with #mqgfabricchallenge.

If you did not receive fabric, you can still participate by purchasing these same six fabrics from your favorite local brick and mortar quilt shop or online retailer. 

We expect to see some fabulous quilted items during the guild reveal which is our August meeting.

Scrappy Needlebook Swap

Our next guild swap will be a Needlebook Swap.  

The internet is bursting with fun ideas for needlebooks.  Find one you like (or think up your own!), make it, and bring it to the May meeting in a brown paper bag.  This is a bring-one-take-one swap.  No names.  No partners.  Your book in a bag.  

Here is a link and a Pinterest page full of inspiration.  Please remember our aesthetic is ALWAYS MODERN.

And just a "HINT" - our June swap will be fabric from the incomparable modern quilter and fabric designer Tula Pink.  (Tula Pink's long out-of-print and hard-to-find Prince Charming fabric is shown above.)