March ~ One Monthly Goal

My March One Monthly Goal is to make the 2nd border on my Autumn Medallion quilt, which I'm making for a medallion challenge at my quilt guild. According to the randomly drawn specifications, the 2nd border needs to have curves (sewn curves, not just curves in the design of your fabric) and at least a bit of "carnation pink." Although we need to put 4 borders on the quilt, the borders do not all have to have curves or pink, and the borders do not have to be the same width.

Here's my medallion quilt so far:

When "curves" was first announced at our guild meeting, I thought "UGGHHH ~ I don't like making curves!" Then I remembered that some of my friends from guild have been raving about how wonderful the Quick Curve ruler and Quick Curve Mini ruler are. So after work the other day, I stopped at my local quilt shop and bought a Quick Curve Mini ruler. I'll have to play around with it and see how it works.

While I was at the quilt shop, I *may* have succumbed to temptation and bought three more red and white geometric fabrics for my Splendid Sampler. :)

 

 

I'm linking up to Heidi at Red Letter Quilts for One Monthly Goal.

 

Happy stitching!

Autumn Medallion ~ Border 1

I finished my first border for my Autumn Medallion quilt (my One Monthly Goal for February). This is the quilt that I'm making for my guild's medallion challenge this year. For the first border, our assignment was to make at least one snowball block and include the color red-violet somewhere in the border (the red-violet does NOT have to be a snowball).

I have many fond memories of taking the kids apple-picking in the autumn. There is a wonderful apple orchard about half an hour northwest of our house. Since I'm making an autumn-themed quilt, I decided to turn my snowball blocks into apples. I had seen a few quilts with snowball-apples on pinterest, and I got some tips from Lori Holt at Bee in my Bonnet. In keeping with my asymmetrical center, I only made blocks for two of the four borders:

Although the apple core block looks darker in the photo, it is actually a good red-violet color. I decided to make different colored apples, to represent some of the wonderful apple varieties out there. Also, with the different colors, I think that the red-violet blends in with everything better than if I had made all the other apples red.

As a 1st grade teacher, I couldn't resist using this adorable yellow fabric with white numerals for my golden delicious apple! (This photo makes the background look more blue, but it is really more like the first photo.)

So, I've finished my One Monthly Goal for February. Stop by Red Letter Quilts to see what other quilters have accomplished this month.

Happy stitching!

Medallion Challenge

I have a few things on my "design wall" this week.

 

My quilt guild has started a new (optional) challenge for 2016: a medallion challenge. To participate, members had to make a center block (any size you want) and bring it to our sew-in last Saturday. Each month for 5 months, we will be adding a border to the quilt top, based on certain specifications.

I want to make an autumn wall-hanging, so I made this 12 X 12" center block:

I wanted to play with size, so I made the red maple leaf 6 X 6, the three orange leaves are 3 X 3, and the yellow one is 4.5 X 4.5. At first I considered making a white background, but I opted for Kona azure instead, to look like leaves tumbling in the sky.

At the meeting, everyone who was participating wrote out a quilt block or technique (9-patch, applique, etc), and put their papers into a bag. The challenge coordinator pulled out one paper, and that is what we must incorporate into the first border. She also pulled a crayon out of a separate bag, and that is a color we must use in the first border. So everyone has to include at least one snowball block and the color red-violet in border #1. The snowball block does not have to be red-violet, and you can use any other blocks/techniques and colors that you want.

I spent some time this yesterday planning out what my border will be. Based on the center blocks that women brought to the guild meeting, it's going to be really cool to see what everyone does with the first border.

We have to bring our quilt to the February meeting. Apparently, if you don't finish the 1st border, you will get some sort of "penalty" that you have to do for the 2nd border, in addition to what everyone has to do on border #2.

I recently heard about One Monthly Goal (OMG) at Red Letter Quilts, so my goal for February is to make the first border for my medallion challenge. If you're not familiar with One Monthly Goal, hop on over there and see what it's all about!

In other news, I finished another block for my Christmas Sampler:

 

While I'm not a fan of machine paper-piecing, I fell in love with this 12 X 12 "Lone Starburst" block at Six White Horses. Since it's only one block, I decided to give it a try. Don't pay attention to the fact that the centers don't all meet up perfectly! I haven't seen the quilt police show up at my house EVER, so I think I'm safe from quilt jail. Ha Ha!

 

I'm linking up with Judy's Design Wall Monday and Heidi's One Monthly Goal.

 

Happy stitching!