Modified Bento Box Lap Quilt

Stats

Name: Modified Bento Box Lap Quilt

Dimensions: Around 68" x 68"

Pieces: Front - 425, Back - 17

Pattern: Modified Bento Box by Film in the Fridge (http://filminthefridge.com/2009/06/24/quartered-squares-a-modified-bento-box-block-tutorial)

Technique: Patchwork

Materials: 100% quilting cottons

Quilting: Free motion on my Juki and my sister's Singer

So my mom told me she wanted a quilt (a while ago). Said she didn't care when she got it, but she wanted one. As I was at least willing to entertain the notion, I asked her what colors: blue and green. I even sat down and showed her some pictures of fabrics in my stash and we came to the conclusion that she didn't want any fabrics with people, animals, or buildings on them. Primarily geometric with some butterflies and seashells mixed in. I had been wanting to give Film in the Fridge's Modified Bento Box tutorial a try for some time, ever since I had to make a block for someone in a bee, and decided that this might be the perfect opportunity. I was participating in the Stash Bee at the time (2014), so I wrote up a block tutorial based on Film in the Fridge's original. I don't remember, but I feel like I also asked for the same block from another bee, but it's been a while and I honestly don't remember.

Then the blocks sat and sat and sat, because I knew I wanted the quilt to be a decent size and I was missing a few blocks. Plus I had other quilts I wanted to get done. But I finally got my butt in gear, figured out how many blocks I still needed, did a quick fabric pull, and then chain pieced those suckers. The blocks are supposed to finish at 16" square, and I had deliberately asked people to leave them at whatever size they finished, so I could make decisions on final size later. Since some of the bee blocks turned out a bit crooked, when I cut them into quarters, I ended up with some warped edges. Which is why I decided to cut down the center as well, so I'd have consistent center sizes and at least one matching seam per block. Thank goodness for a sewing day with a fellow quilter, or that process may have gotten overwhelming. I believe I ended up somewhere in the range of a 14" block or so, after cutting down and reassembling. 

The only thing I really cared about was that the same fabric didn't end up next to each other, which wasn't a huge problem, because only a few of the blocks were made by the same people and had the same fabrics repeated. And then it took a while for me to arrange the blocks on my design wall to my satisfaction so the quarters weren't too close to each other. I did the arranging and sewed the top together during one of the trips my husband took with our son, when I was home alone and didn't have to worry about the little monster angel pulling blocks off my design wall. Then the quilt sat again, because I didn't have a back for it.

Enter one of our quilting retreats for the DC Modern Quilt Guild. I brought the fabrics I had bought, scaled up the modified bento box pattern to 70" squared and pieced the back (I'm rather proud of that one, tyvm). It took some piecing of strips, because I didn't have long enough lengths, and also some piecing due to cutting mistakes, but I really like the final result. I think I basted it at the retreat as well, but I don't remember, and maybe even started quilting it with the box free motion quilting pattern that I really enjoy. Then it sat again. And sat. I was trying to focus on my commission quilts, but they were just giving me quilters block. So on one of our trips to Michigan in 2017, I decided to bring this quilt with, plus the binding fabric, and see if I could finish it.

What I didn't bring... my beautiful Juki work horse. I figured I'd be able to use my mom's (old, solid) Singer or Pfaff, but neither had a free motion quilting foot. So I ended up borrowing my sister's small (cheap, plastic) Singer. It got the job done, but boy what a difference in quality of stitching and shakiness of the box sides. I also got the binding made and attached, though I forgot to embroider my initials and the date, because I figured I would see it again at some point. I got it done the day before or the day we were supposed to drive back home to Maryland, so ended up doing a quick photo shoot with my mom and my hubby of the final quilt. I'm quite happy with how it turned out. And recently it finally saw some use, after sitting folded at the end of my parents' bed, when I used it to cover up my sick son (which also meant it's first wash afterwards, which left it nicely crinkled). I think I like it so much because blue and green is my favorite color combo as well, and what I chose for my son's room. So I'm seeing another blue and green quilt in my future for his big boy bed at some point.

Diver Lap Quilt

Final Stats

Name: Diver Lap Quilt

Dimensions: 50" x 70"

Pieces: Front - 44

Pattern: applique pattern based off clip art found online

Technique: Patchwork, applique

Materials: 100% Quilting Cottons

Quilting: Machine quilted on my Juki

So this started, like too many of my quilts, with a friend who told me she had a fairly serious health issue. She was a professional diver in a former life before I met her at work. And oddly enough, I found out at roughly the same time as I found out about my other friend's health issue. And both of them told me that purple and blue were their favorite colors. So during one of the 2016 DCMQG's retreats, I decided to bring the printed applique pattern that I had created, and a stack of solids in purple and blue. You would not believe how long I had to search to find what I was looking for in terms of the steps to a dive (I believe this is a pike position). Once I finally found something, I blew it up to about 30 inches by 70 inches in Adobe InDesign and printed it out.

I started the second day of retreat and cut 10 inch squares from the purple and blue fabrics and arranged them to my liking. Sewed the background. Then used light iron on interfacing to transfer the divers onto my pink and yellow fabrics and then ironed them onto the top. I basted the quilt sandwich using a 120" backing fabric and then quilted it using kind of an elongated meander that reminded me of waves.

Finally I trimmed and bound it, all before heading home for the weekend. In fact, I may have even finished it in one day. It's been a while though, so I can't remember for sure. I even managed to embroider my initials and year into the corner. As soon as I got home, I stuck it in the wash, and presented it to my friend at work the next day. She approved and told me that the positions of the dive were spot on. So yay for me. :)

Granny Square Banner Quilt

 

Final Stats

Name: Granny Square Banner Quilt

Dimensions: 84" x 84"

Pieces: Front - 441

Pattern: Variation on the Banner Plus Block 

Technique: Patchwork

Materials: 100% Quilting Cottons

Quilting: Machine quilted on my Juki

 

So this quilt started out as part of my DCMQG 2016 QAL (which will get finished at some point, when I'm not wrangling a newborn). I loved this particular variation on Block 7 so much, that I wanted to turn it into a quilt. So when one of my best friends, and college room mate, told me she'd gotten some bad news about her health, I decided to make a quilt for her to cheer her up and wrap her in some love, like quilters tend to do. I asked her what her favorite colors were, and the answer was blue and purple. So I pulled every fabric scrap I had in those colors, plus my low volumes, and proceeded to bang out 9 28" blocks, while my hubby and son were visiting family in Michigan.

 

The very center square is black and all the other center squares are a dark blue. I guess there's supposed to be some symbolism there about coming out of darkness and what not. I spent some time arranging the various pieces to my satisfaction and then also spent some time moving around the finished blocks. I had bought a bunch of purple backing, because I was making this quilt and another quilt (post coming soon), and both were blue and purple. And because I was trying to finish this quilt rather quickly, I also just wanted something easy. For the quilting, I did a free motion box-in-box pattern, which is more "boxy" in parts than in others. The benefits of the pattern are that its fast and I don't really have to worry about accidentally running over already quilted portions, because I just turn it into yet another box.

 

For the binding I used some of the leftover blue bike path fabric from Eric's Pixel Michigan quilt. I machine bound it, because well, it's faster and I hate hand binding. Generally by the time I get to the binding, I just want to be done already and get the quilt out of my house (or on my bed). One load of laundry and lots of Shout color catchers later, and I had a finished, folded quilt to gift to my friend. All told, this quilt took me just under two weeks. I finished it right before my guild's March 2016 quilting retreat.