Modern Irish Bee – July block for Leda!

JULY BLOCK – STAR FLAKE

Hi everyone! My name is Leda and I live in Dublin... I studied fine art years ago but since learning how to sew I have become obsessed with quilting! I have changed my mind a million times when deciding what block to make and almost drove myself up the walls, but have finally settled on this one. This block is actually similar to the carpenter star we made previously, it's the same amount of pieces in the same size (2.75”) just laid out differently. I'm sending white fabric to you all – 3 cuts in a small, a medium strip and a large square which was easier for me than a fat quarter because the amount needed was more than fat quarter size and I was bungling my numbers on fabric amounts. Math is absolutely not my strong point! Colour wise I'm attaching two quilt pics for the colour combos I like, I keep changing my mind on colours too but blues, green, pinks and corals I love. I think it looks best to put the darker colour as the outside star but see what you think. No yellows or purples please, I love them but they just don't seem to suit our flat. And call me crazy but I hope to hand quilt each block to batting then use the quilt-as-you-go method to attach them all. Thanks a million & can't wait to see how they turn out!

~ FINISHED BLOCK 18.5” // EACH HST 2.75, 2.25” WHEN FINISHED ~

Fabric amounts:

Col A (outer star): 3 x 6.5” squares
Col B (star points): 1 x 6.5” square
Col C (inner star): 1 x 5.5” square

CUTTING INSTRUCTIONS

WHITE:
- Trim largest square to 13” then cut into 4 x 6.5” squares
- Cut rectangle strip into 4 x 7.25 x 2.75”
- Cut 11” square into 4 squares of 5.5”. Place 3 of these squares on top of each other &
cut into 4 equal squares of 2.75” and place the other 5.5” one aside. You will have 12 x
2.75” squares plus 5.5” one.

COLOUR A:
- Cut 3 x 6.5 squares
- Cut 4 x 2.75” squares

ASSEMBLY:
(TRIM ALL HST'S TO 2.75” & PRESS SEAMS OPEN)

1. Pair 3 x 6.5 Col A squares with 3 white of same size to make 8 HST's from each using method in diagram. You will have 24 HST's of Colour A.
2. Pair Colour B square with white & repeat as above
3. Pair Colour C with 5.5” white and make 4 HST'S using method below

Assemble in this order

Fun Exhibition at St. Patrick's!

 

Morning Modern Irish Quilters.  Hope it is a sunny Monday where you are.  Our exhibition at St Patrick's has been extended for another week and finishes this Friday 30th June if you haven't had a chance to see it there is still time!

In the meantime for those not in Dublin this week here are some photos I took at our opening earlier this month.  Next week when the exhibition is closed I'll post a slideshow of all the quilts!  Thank you to those who travelled to attend the opening and to Paula for representing us in the opening speeches.

We had a lots of variation in quilts this time with 2 quilts by a 9 year old and a 12 year old in the exhibition.  Well done Cathal and Isobel!

Thank you also to Imelda who gave her time to do a tutorial of a drawstring bag.  The fabric was donated by our Modern Quilters group and out of 21 kits there were only 2 left!

We have been invited back again in 2019 and on behalf of us all I would just like to thank St. Patrick's Mental Health Services for giving us the opportunity to exhibit our quilts.  We loved taking part and hope to have more bright, happy and fun quilts to share again in two years time!

Summer Swap 2017

Sign ups open for our Summer Swap!!!!!

Sign ups are now open for our Summer Swap – Binding or handsewing kit.  I received this fabulous binding kit from Erin as an extra to the summer tote bag swap two years ago. It looks like a fun project for a summer swap!

The pattern is on the lella boutique blog found here

Extras are great fun and always welcome but shouldn't break the bank.  An extra like a nice piece of fabric, a fat quarter, a favourite sewing notion to the value of €5, a fat quarter worth of scraps or a small handmade item would be ideal.  Chocolate is always welcome but if you are going to send sugary goodies please put them in a plastic bag so as not to melt all over your beautiful creation!

The sign up form is here and as always our swaps are open to all sewing levels and is beginner friendly so don't hesitate to join up!

To participate please make a mosaic of items you like, to give your partner an idea of what to make! Our previous post How our swaps work has step by step instructions to make a mosaic using images from Pinterest.

Sign ups will be open until next Sunday, 18th June, and partners will be assigned by Wednesday 21st June latest. You'll then have all summer to make your item for your swap partner, and posting dates will be Monday 4th through to Wednesday 6th September.

You can customise your binding kit with some patchwork or play with fabric choices for a fun project for your partner!  The most important thing is to have fun!

This swap is open to members of Modern Quilters Ireland residing in and outside of Ireland. If you are not currently a member, and want to join up (membership is free) please find the information and link to the registration form here or email us at mqgireland@gmail.com.

Please post your mosaic to Instagram using the hashtag #mqisummerswap.  The sign up form is here. I hope you will sign up and enjoy making for each other this summer!

Louise
Swap Mama

Happy National Quilting Week!

It's the 1st of June and time for National Quilting Week and also time for our Modern Irish Bee block which follows in the next below!

Don't forget our opening of our fun exhibition next Tuesday 6th June at 6pm at St. Patrick's.  We don't get the chance to get together often so please mark the date, we would love to see you there!

On now and coming up over the summer quilt exhibitions like the following:

 

Modern Irish Bee - June Block!

Hi everyone,

My name is Catherine and I am currently living in Belgium with my husband and 2 young children. I discovered quilting while pregnant with my first who is now 3 and I made a crib size quilt for her. I’m self-taught and it’s only in the last 7/8 months that I discovered various Facebook quilting groups and with their discovery my blind not sure if I’m doing this right world blossomed into I really love doing this and learning basically everything from wadding, thread, needles, fabric types, not to mention the different techniques and myriad of blocks.

I chose a block by Gerri Robinson from her Quilted Living Book. Gerri kindly gave me permission to share her block with you and to resize it. It’s called Tumble and I love how light and summery it appears.

It uses 4 fabrics, 1 white background and 3 shades of one other colour in light, medium and dark to create the tumble effect. You can choose which colour you’d like to use based on your stash.  

The instructions can be downloaded here!

Block Size 18" Finished.

Let's talk about neutrals!

In modern quilting, neutral background colours are often white and grey.  Kona White, Snow and Bone being really popular in the whites and Kona Ash being the most popular grey.

In the colour intensive course I did with Stiched in Color, Rachel Hauser gave us White, Black, Grey and Brown toned colours as neutrals.  Some of those tones are cream, champagne, beige, and tan.  I know modern quilters usually shy away from brown but when used with bright colours like yellow or neon green it can really work!  Try thinking of brown as dark orange and maybe you might use it a bit more?

Instead of the starkness of black I have loved using Kona Navy and for a while seemed to making only navy based quilts!

From time to time I get bored with solids and go low volume too for a change - I think low volumes fall into the neutral category! 

This past year I have really enjoyed playing with colour trying out Charcoal, Iron & Steel, Orange, pale Blues like Fog or Cotton Sky and even loved the darker purple-grey colour of Smoke.

I stumbled across a free download by Lila Rogers of Make Art that Sells and she identified the neutral colours to include that ground artwork as:
• Cool grey
• Orange
• Cream
• Navy
• Black
• Sky grey-blue
• Olive
• Red

I am happy to say that in the last year most of these I had tried but not Olive or Red.  I'm liking the look of Olive so maybe that might be the next colour exploration.  What about you - any go to neutral you use all the time for your quilt backgrounds?  Tempted to try any of these?

Modern Irish Bee!

Oops I forgot to post Aprils instructions on the blog!  Those of us in the Bee have been making the Carpenters Star for Gerardine in red & white according to these instructions by Cherie if you are following along!



To make up for the oopsie and as its a Bank Holiday weekend and some might like to get a head start I’m posting Aril late and May early today! 

This month’s block choice is from Genevieve and she has chosen a type of chain block that looks like fun to make.  Would be a perfect block to keep in mind for using up scraps at some stage too and I think its a lovely choice for a bee block!



To make this block you will need :
No half-square triangles or flying geese!! Only 3 inch squares

Overall blue theme– can use small print

Colour	Cut one strip (Or shorter strips in multiple of 3”)	Cut long strips into 3” squares
Very light blue or white	3” wide by 24” long	8
Mid-blue	3” wide by 57” long	19
Dark blue/navy	3” wide by 66” long	22

Put together with ¼ inch seams. Seven 32 squares across, row by row then join rows.
Press seams open.

Block size around 18 inches un-finished.  17.5” finished when pieced into your quilt.

Happy May Bank Holiday Weekend!