Finally, a Quilty Finish!

Some weeks ago, I saw a flyer advertising an organizing meeting of the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild. Although I am a girl that loves vintage fabric and traditional quilts, it seems to me that the modern quilt designs are not quite as exacting as the traditional quilts. And more suited to my skill level at this time.

I went to the meeting at the lqs and there was a very cool mix of women of diverse backgrounds, ages and experience. We talked a little about the business of starting a local 'chapter' of the Modern Quilt Guild, and got to know a bit about each other.

One of our group volunteered to do a demo at our next meeting of a wonky block and we decided to do a Mug Rug Swap.

When I heard 'mug rug', I immediately had a flashback to 1985 and some coasters made of plastic canvas and polyester yarn in dusty pink, that outlasted their charm by many years due to the fact that they were made by a lost sister. Today's mug rugs are different, it seems.

Big enough to hold a beverage and a snack, they are more of a small placemat, than a coaster. Six inches by nine inches was the recommendation and mine is just a bit larger by half an inch.

The yellow and green are Kona solids and the embroidery designs are from "Sublime Stitching", Jenny Hart's first book. (I put the initials "LVMQG" on the tea bag tag, but the quilting made it a bit hard to see.)

This is the back, a fussy-cut piece from a fat quarter from the same stack that most of the other fabrics came from. It's a Moda design called Hideaway.

This is the first quilted project that I have finished completely. First machine quilting and first binding.

The quilting went very smoothly, although I assumed symmetry in the new walking foot that I was trying for the first time. I stitched from the top down, then from the bottom up and notice after a few rows that the distance between rows was not the same. So, (and this is what I love about modern quilting!) I just varied the distance between the rows some more, so they were not a consistent 'thick and thin'. And of course, there are other inconsistencies, but overall, I think it turned out well.

I did a pieced binding, mainly because I had cut a bunch of small pieces that I didn't use and didn't want to waste. Also, I thought that a pieced binding would camouflage my errors a bit. A wider binding would have allowed me to stitch it down with the machine. I ended up finishing it by hand, which took no time, since it was such a small project.

Our next meeting is more than a week away, so I am also giving myself 'points' for not waiting until the last minute!

I suppose it was only a matter of time until I took over the 'livingdiningofficegymfamily' room for sewing. Oh - and the kitchen for ironing. I don't feel too badly, though. The Mister finally has a shop where he can work on cars. It is a storage place about a mile away, so not as convenient as in the back yard, but it is bigger that the garage we used to have, so he is able to spread out and see what he has and where.

We are both back to our favorite hobbies! (and trying to keep the other in the dark about how much we spend on 'parts'!)