Quilts for Boston

The Boston Modern Quilt Guild is asking all modern quilters to come together and donate quilt blocks to help those affected by the recent bombings at the Boston marathon. This is a great opportunity to actually do something to help those hurt by this tragedy.  The members of the BMQG will make the blocks into quilts and distribute them.

Here's my completed block.  Now I just need to get it in the mail to Boston!

I used the wonky star tutorial from Silly Boo Dilly.

It's a fun block, that goes together quickly.  Except that I made a little mistake in trimming the excess fabric.  On one star  point I accidentally cut through the fabric on the front.  See that gray star point in the picture?  Oops!

So, fellow quilters, join me in doing a little something to provide some comfort to those who need it. And check out lots of beautiful blocks in the Flickr group.

Layouts for the value quilt

I've been re-arranging the pieces of the value quilt, inspired by the beautiful tutorial from SewKatieDid.  Here are 5 possible layouts.
#1 Chevrons

#2 Flying Geese

#3Broken Dishes

#4 Radiating Diamonds

#5 Squares on Point

Which layout is your favorite?

As I've been working on this, I've been listening the "The Hunger Games" audiobook. I had seen the movie before, but since I watched it at a quilt retreat, I missed some major elements.  (I thought Gail and Peeta were the same person). If you aren't familiar with the plot, this doesn't mean much to you, but basically I thought the main character's 2 possible romantic interests were the same person. I'll probably always think of "The Hunger Games" when I see this quilt now!

Any suggestions for great books to listen to while quilting?

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.  Check it out!

Value quilt

With a (self-imposed) deadline looming, I decided the best way to beat burn-out is to start a new project! I'd really like to finish Tree #1 in time to enter NQA, but recently my desire to finish it has been a little stressful and the project isn't so fun anymore.  So I decided to put it away for a few days.

In the meantime, Katie at SewKatieDid has a fun and easy tutorial for the Value Quilt that I've admired for awhile. I decided this is the perfect fast project to re-invigorate me.

I'm still re-arranging to make the value differences more obvious in some places.  And I need more pieces- I want it to be big enough to be a throw for the living room.  Maybe I'll back it with flannel or Minky to make it nice and snugly.

I like the mix of fresh, modern fabrics with a thrifted shirt, and some old favorites from my stash.

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.  Take a look to see tons of inspiring projects in the works!