Des Moines Modern Quilt Bee, month 1

Marny here...I've joined my very first quilt bee! Our Modern Group within the Des Moines Area Quilt Guild is having a bee! Leila is the first one up. 

She has chosen Bubbles from aylin-nilya. Paper piecing here I come. 

Leila provided these greens to be included in the four blocks
that build into a single 'bubble'.

Here are the low volume backgrounds Leila chose.

My pile of greens to add in as needed.

Low volume (?) backgrounds.
Some might be easier to fit in than others.
I'll share my finished blocks in a week!

In the meantime, here is another "project" I've been working on. I need to sit less.  

I generally get all the steps I need, along with cardio and weightlifting hours every week. But now I am very aware sitting is being compared to smoking in its detrimental effects on your health.  Here is a simple and very readable article on the risks of sitting too much from James Levine at the Mayo Clinic. 

My Fitbit HR keeps track of the 250 steps within an hour, lets you choose which hours you want to monitor, and provides a visual report.

Interestingly, even though I had plenty of steps through the day I didn't reach my target of having the minimum of 250 steps every hour. Trying to reach perfection has made me very aware of time passing with me sitting still.
Of course there are hours you will not be able to take steps; driving, dining out, movies, etc, etc. I am just trying to make myself aware of time passing without my moving. 

Here I took fewer steps overall, but, I managed to get the 250 steps
in each of the 14 hours I monitor.

Do your health a favor and examine your own sitting durations. You might be surprised. I was. You can do it easily with just a watch and a pedometer! Time for me to get moving!

Till Tuesday...

Color Wheel Construction Follow Up

jill here...  looks like they were having fun ( but I had to coerce them to smile)!  Arranging the colors in a wheel was a bit of a challenge.  Forty eight little color squares can be confusing trying to sort them in hues, tints, tones and shades.  Deductive arranging and relative color matching all played a role in their final placement.  This exercise was devised to have a finished product and to help with color identification. 

Color therapy with grey backgrounds and glue sticks.

From left to right: blue, blue violet, violet and red violet.
The central small square is the hue which is placed on the tint,
then the tone and finally the shade.
These are hard to discern when they are jumbled together.

Another challenge:  red orange, orange and yellow orange
in the tones and shades are subtle differences.

The tones and shades of yellow flow into a green appearance.
No wander green and yellow are so compatible!

Super achiever Janice polished her wheel
before we made it home to Ames.
Some people are so cleaver!

Here's a site you might be interested in : The Craft Industry Alliance.  There is an article on current color trends.   Hope you have a great holiday weekend.  'till next Tuesday!

Color Wheel Construction

jill here...  Thursday evening were leading a color wheel tutorial for our modern quilt group of the Des Moines Quilt Guild.   I've taught color exploration classes in the past and have a bin of solid "colors".  Although a bit disheveled, with some sorting and pressing, the stockpile came to life. So its a good thing that I'm a saver. Recreating these tints, tones and shades is not an easy task.  It doesn't take a lot of fabric,  just the right color combinations.  

The Blues

This is my color wheel notebook.
Little factoids of color information
are stored within these pages!

Twelve colors sorted with their tints, tones and shades,
cut into little squares, packaged in little sandwich bags.

The blues, ready for Marny to individually sort and bag again.

Once the 48 colors are ready, it's a mixed bag.  The group will have to identify each color and their three components.  There are some surprises.  Then an arrangement on gray background will yield a color wheel for each member's own use.  We'll share some photos of the projects next week.

'till next Tuesday, enjoy the sunshine!

Little Scraps, Fun Messages

jill here....on a recent road trip out west, I toted a large bag of fun fabrics, cutting supplies, adhesive and purchased plain note cards with envelopes (you can find them at the local hobby shop). This is a great indoor project just in case the weather isn't cooperating. Even older kids might enjoy creating a special card.  We had fun picking fabrics and experimenting with different methods and color combinations.

 Notecards and envelopes.

Four fabrics with variety of prints and scale. These were
cut approximately the size of the card and then
backed with a sheet of " iron on" bonding material. 

The fabrics were directly stacked one on top of the other.
Three cuts were made with a rotary cutter,
through all four layers.

The fabrics were rearranged with each fabric appearing.
Once the composition was determined,
they were bonded to the card with careful heat application.

Four little cards.
The design could be smaller to accommodate
 writing a message on the front. 

Novelty fabrics work great to fussy cut.

Fun results with colorful combinations
Sometimes glue works better with the smaller pieces.

Transparency experiments with four fabrics.

Transparency plaids and modern designs.

Enjoy your day.  'till next Tuesday....

Icing on the Cake in Modern Patchwork

Marny here...The spring issue of Modern Patchwork is out 

and we have a really fun to make quilt inside!!! 

We call it Icing on the Cake because it is made using a layer cake. 

The 10" squares can be used as is to simply create the clever blocks. 

Only the background needs cutting!  

Icing on the Cake draped and beautifully photographed in the magazine.

See inside the Spring 2016 Modern Patchwork.
The magazine is filled with great projects and interesting information!

The idea for Icing on the Cake originated on the back of a small quilt
(Antipasto Platter) in Quilts du Jour.
It was a way to use some layer cake squares to bring a back up to size.
Space did not allow sharing the exact process for the back in the book. BUT...
the simple technique needed sharing, so we fine tuned it and turned it into the Icing on the Cake pattern for Modern Patchwork.

Till Tuesday...