Friday Quilt Night and stuff

I enjoy the monthly quilting nights that our group has down at a local school. The lighting is good, the room is well set up and equipped and most of all the company is great.

I took a small wallhanging with me to quilt but forgot to take the thread holder with me - well that is my excuse, it doesn't help that I couldn't decide what colour thread to use - or should I use different colours. I did a Ricky Timms Convergence with fruit fabrics, red, orange, lemon and green. I thought of doing nice swirly lines to break up the criss cross of the pattern. Anyhow that wasn't done and I did a small bag instead with some of my Japanese fabrics. I hadn't really thought out what I was doing much and should have selected a plain fabric to bring with me for lining. And then I really should have used some pellon to give it a bit more body but I was being a tad lazy which really didn't serve me well in the end. There wasn't quite enough fabric of the ones I selected to cut out in a single piece and so had to do some piecing which in the end you don't notice. It turned out well after all the mistakes and reverse stitching that was made. After discovering the blot Tote-along I am keen to make myself some more bags and try to have a variety of styles as well as colours - it is fun to have a different bag for every occasion and event.

I saw a quilt pattern that I liked in a Keepsake Quilting catalogue - actually it was a cushion pattern that I liked. Of course it met my favourite criteria - super simple. It was made in batiks in the picture and that would be a good option or in dyed fabrics. The decision would be whether to have the same fabric for sashing throughout or different fabrics for the sashing - it would work with different fabrics. And then of course I could use my commercial fabrics for it instead - they really do need to be used. That is where I really need to find some good patterns - I enjoy scrap quilts.

On the inspiration front I joined a new group called Abstract-Challenge and they have a monthly challenge on a pre determined subject - it is to be an 8 x 8 quilt and the subject is to be interpreted in abstract. They encourage lots of talking about inspiration, design, colours and then of course to submit a photo for everyone to see. I am hoping that this will help me get away from all the traditional patterns (not that there is anything wrong with them) but I want to do more art quilts.