Modern Irish Bee

After the busy few weeks with our Rainbow Rose quilt a long and 1 hour basket swap, it's time to get back to our Modern Irish Bee.  This year we are doing a round robin style bee, each person adding a bit to the quilt they receive in the post and passing it on.  There are quilts in various stages but I think we are on officially on Round 4!

For those playing along please link up your progress on Round Robin or Medallion Quilts to be in the draw to win a 20€ voucher from Fluffy Sheep Quilting by clicking on the blue button below.

The link up will remain open until next Monday August 15th when random number generator will pick a winner!

Modern Irish Bee - Round 3 winner!

We had 7 link ups for our Modern Irish Bee 2016 which is a Round Robin/Medallion quilt type bee this year and guess what - I won!

Thank you Cindy for your very generous sponsorship of our Bee and happy 4th birthday to Fluffy Sheep Quilting!

Next postal date is 17th June though if you have it ready before hand feel free to post on - we are flying through the rounds. Thank you all in 2016 Bee for being such great hive mates!
-Ruth

Modern Irish Bee Link up

It's that time again when we get to share progress on our Modern Round Robin Bee!  Our Bee is being generously sponsored by Fluffy Sheep Quilting and to be in with a chance to win this month's €20 voucher  please link up your progress on the Bee and any medallion quilts you might be working on!

We hit a bit of a bottleneck this month as our intrepid traveller Cynthia returned home and blitzed 3 blocks super fast.  Thank you for such happy post this month!

 I received these two lovely quilts in progress along with Cynthia's starting block. 

I sketched out a few ideas and finally settled on growing them very minimally with arrows and corners in as close a grey I had on hand.

The second block got a bit of an extension treatment and the half square triangles became flying geese.  Nothing too dramatic!

 So that's been my progess this month - still brainstroming what to add to Cynthia's amazing circle block.  I've turned to Sherri Lynn Wood's Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters for inspiration.

It's helping!  I think I have an idea of where to go now and need to have a fabric rummage to see what colours I can come up with!

How about you guys - what progress have you made this month?  Please join up with the linky party and random number generator will pick a winner next week for our very generous prize from Fluffy Sheep Quilting!

-Ruth

Linky party open!

Morning all - hope everyone had a great Easter weekend and the Easter eggs were plentiful!  Apologies for opening the linky late this month - managed to get a bit of a flu and spent the weekend getting better.  So better late than never it's time to post an update on any progress on medallion quilts and our round robin bee!  Random number generator will chose a winner for Cindy's very generous prize of €20 euro voucher to spend on fabric @ Fluffy Sheep Quilting.

One of our bee's has just come back from a trip travelling in Asia so while she is making her starting block for me to add to, not having any progress on our round robin to share, I thought I'd share some medallion quilts I love for inspiration and what I learned about solid borders when making my first medallion quilt.

Image from first special edition of Love Quilting and Patchwork

Two of the most popular medallion quilt patterns in recent years are the Marcelle Medallion by Alexia Abegg and Made to Measure by Sarah Fielke. What really caught my eye on both of these is the use of black to add frames in the quilt drawing you into the centre block and the clever use of fabric in the prints used for borders (chevron and scissors above!)

Made to Measure quilt in Sarah Fielke's book Hand Quilted with Love

Sarah made a beautiful version of this quilt shown here in our gallery of our Happiness exhibition and I really like this one by Lynne@ Lily's Quilts in soft greys. Doing a quick search on pintrest using Marcelle Medallion will show you some amazing medallion quilts.  These are just some of the ones people have shared.

So what I learned in making my first medallion quilt, is that, in addition to making the length of the quilt easier to work with, adding a solid/un-pieced border can have some other very beneficial effects when making a medallion quilt.  Melanie @ Catbird Quilts has a really good series on making a medallion quilt and we followed her guidelines during our last QAL. 

This is as far as I got last time and there is one more round yet to be added to finish it.  In the making of this quilt top, I experienced 2 problems.  The first problem is the checkerboard border I used to frame my starting block was a bit stretchy and pulled my rectangle out of shape, when I added it.  Adding the first border by measuring and taking the average helped but adding a second border helped more.  It's still not right and I'm hoping blocking it will sort it out as I really don't want to unpick back but might have to!

I used Melanie's advice about using an un-pieced border to add some place for the eye to rest.  After adding in the low volume border the next round of diamonds was too busy against the checkerboard so I trimmed the first border down and added in the pink chevron to add a frame and give a resting place.  It's a skinny second border but without it the quilt wouldn't work so well at all!

Love this mad border by Sarah Fielke

But if you really like a pieced border check out this crazy pieced one again by Sarah Fielke from her book Hand Quilted with Love.  Am very tempted to try this sometime!

So onto the linky party.  Click on the button below to link up your progress!
-Ruth

Modern Irish Bee Round 1 - Hints and tips for Medallion and Round Robin Quilts

Now we all have made our starting blocks and posted them on, I thought I'd pull together some tips and examples for our first round of adding to our neighbour's blocks.  The starting block could be anything up to 16" finished (16.5" unfinished) so each block will, more than likely, be different in size!

Measure the block you want to add to and decide if you want to add a border to bring the block up to a different size that might be easier to add to.  For example, my 16" block could be made bigger to 18" or 20", if I wanted to add a border that needs pieces 3" or 5" high, to make up the next border.

If I use a white border, then my block will float in the frame and the border will disappear into the background. 

I can also add a border in a solid or print that reads as solid to frame my block and make it stand out before adding the next round of piecing or applique.  Melanie @ Catbird Quilts has an excellent series on Medallion quilts and recommends the round 1 border combination be approximately 5" wide.

Carla's original block image used with permission from Wendy's Quilts & More

Round 1- dark skinny border from scraps provided to frame it and wider patchwork border 5 in total to emphasise the greens in the original block by Jane @Where Jane Creates- image used with permission from Wendy's Quilts and More

Echoing the original block can be a very effective way of adding to and emphasising the main block idea.  In the above example, Jame echoed the colours used in Carla's orignal block.  In the example below, Carla @ Granny Mauds Girl added to this block from Serena @ Sew Giving by creating another circle around it.

Serena's original block image courtesy of Granny Maud's Girl

Carla's addition echoing the original block image courtesy of Granny Maud's Girl

The addition to the original block doesn't have to be symmetrical.  In this starting block by Jo@Riddle & Whimsy the arrow resulted in a long rectangular block.  Serena squared it up by adding in half arrows on either side and Carla took it back to rectangle again in the round after that! 

Jo's arrow block image courtesy of Sew Giving

Serena's first round addition to top and bottom only!  Image courtesy of Sew Giving

Turning a block on point will make it much bigger and can be a fun way to add piecing.  Instead of using a print for the corner points, using pieced triangles like these flying geese, is a very effective way of growing your quilt and can open up fun colour options.

Sharon @ Mother Dragons Musings original block image courtesy of Wendy's Quilts & More

Jo's (Riddle & Whimsy) colourful addition framed and turned on point image courtesy of Wendy's Quilts & More

So lots of ways to grow our quilt tops!  The shipping date for the next round is 4 weeks from this week so Friday 25th March.  The linky party will open then to link up a photo or blog post of our progress and to be in with a chance to win €20 Euro voucher from Fluffy Sheep Quilting!

Don't forget to link up this months progress on round robin or medallion quilts - closing date for this months draw is tomorrow with winners announced on Saturday!

Looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with for our next round of Modern Irish Bee 2016-Round Robin style!

Modern Irish Bee 2016 Round 1

Welcome to 2016 Modern Irish Bee!

Apologies for the delay to those who have signed up for 2016 for the late start. As quite a few people are taking a break from Bee's this year, we have re-formatted our Bee to suit a smaller group and are trying out a Round Robin format.

In a Round Robin Bee, each hive member makes a block and passes it to the next person who then adds to the block e.g. purple makes a block (round 1) and sends to red who adds a bit (round 2) and sends to green who adds a bit (Round 3) and so on until eventually, on the last round the quilt top gets back to purple who finishes it up into a quilt.  At each turn the hive mate is working on a different quilt that keeps growing with each round e.g. while red is working on purples block from round 1, green is working on reds round 1 block and black is working on greens.   Clear as mud?  Don't worry it will explain itself in the doing!

Sarah's quilt from Happiness exhibition

Quite often round robin quilts are medallion quilts with a square centre block surrounded by borders but they don't have to be!

Liz's quilt from Happiness exhibition

We are working with a block maximum 18" finished on the longest size to keep the rounds reasonable as they will get bigger as we go along.  Your block doesn't have to be square but can be if you want to!

used with permission from Serena @ Sew Giving

This block below arrived to Serena with the middle arrow as a long rectangular block.  She kept the arrow idea but split the ones she made and added to top and bottom only and then sent it on its way to the next person.

used with permission from Serena@  Sew Giving

Try to be kind with the size of the starting block having sides 12.5, 15.5, 16.5 or 18.5 including seam allowance.  This will allow the next person to add to it easily by keeping the maths simple.  The block can be any design, applique or pieced and can be any fabric from your stash.  The more colours used in the first block, the easier it is for the next person to pull inspiration from it and choose fabrics to compliment the quilt block. 

Carla's first round block used with permission from Granny Maud's Girl

We will be doing 6 rounds and maybe 7 depending on the resulting size of the quilt. The intention is that each person ends up with a quilt top measuring 60-70" so perfect for a lap quilt. The quilt can be made bigger by adding to it again if desired. The intention is to finish up around the end of September just in time for a Christmas quilt a long we have planned so mark your diaries for that coming up!

To keep us on track, Fluffy Sheep Quilting is sponsoring our bee and offering a prize. To be in with the chance of winning the prize you must complete your round on time and add a photo to our link up which will be in the next Modern Irish Bee post in February!

We will be using our Facebook group Modern Irish Bee to share ideas, brainstorm fabric choices and post progress. Members of Modern Quilters Ireland are welcome to join our bee group and quilt a long with us and join in the conversation!

For now, Modern Irish Bee 2016 hive members please make your first block for your quilt and have it completed to send to the next person on the list (I'll be sending this by email along with addresses shortly!). Please post to your nominated hive mate by 19th February and link up a photo on the linky party which will be open for 1 week up to the 26th. The draw for the prize will be awarded on our leap day this year February 29th!

If you have not signed up for the bee please feel free to quilt a long with us on your own quilt top, made in rounds, this year and join us on Facebook and Instagram #modernirishbee #modernquiltersireland and here on Flickr!

-Ruth