Sew Sunshine

The International Quilt Museum in Lincoln Ne. where our local guild meets joined our guild for a challenge.  They have an exhibition up based off of use of feedsack fabrics and other reused textiles.  They gave us 5 vintage quilt blocks to choose from to make something more modern but with recycled or other textiles.  I used a black and white tea towel some a shirt, a skirt and some silk lining. The block I chose was the star block. I decided to do it in a QAYG method. cutting batting to various sizes to make the star more improv.  Since it came together in a lantern shape that I love I felt it fit the bible quote from Matthew 5: 15-16 This is currently hanging with the guilds display at the IQM. 

"Dressing Up" Modern Tile Pattern by  Mell Meyer   27"x 27" made from upcycled textiles   hand appliqued shapes on all the blocks hand quilted with big stitch in med gray I used all black or black gray textiles. I have always wanted to do dark on dark and thought by making this pattern smaller I could accomplish it and keep my sanity. Sewing with dark thread on blacks requires lots of natural light for me.  As you can imagine with the different textiles - denim, shirting, slippery shirting, skirt weight and stretch denim it was a challenge. Some areas have really thick seams. I opted to applique all the shapes on my backgrounds by hand. I was able to needle turn all the edges.     I had fun coming up with a quilting pattern of a sorts.  I signed up to do 100 days of WIPS with Leanne on her blog  HERE  and you can find her on Insta too.  First quarter challenge this Modern Tile quilt was finished! woot!! Such a cloudy funny day ...

"From the mending pile"  41" x 50"... ish, as it is finished as it was with no squaring up, improv design, up/re/cycled materials of denim, twill, stretch twill and denim machine pieced and hand quilted in a long stitch fashion These textiles originally came from some leftover scraps my mom had in her sewing room box. I realized they were bits of her old jeans and a bit of denim off cut from some she made herself.  I happened to look in my repair pile and I had a pair of worn out stretch denim leggings that I used to wear, a pair of Bugle Boy twill pants and a leg of work jean from my husband. In another pile I found a pair of stretch twill pants from my sister who always needs longer length in her pants. I am not sure if I was supposed to hem them and give them back to her or if they were just done but...they are in the quilt now. :) And, lastly another pair of twill pants I inherited from another sister.  This accumulation is from 5 differen...

"Closer to you" approx 46" x 48" spiral quilting did not straighten edges, just bound as is I finished! I am super surprised at this one. I have been working on doing the Improv scores from the book The improv handbook for modern quilters by Sherri Lynn Wood.  This is my #4 score on the patchwork doodle. I started the center blocks of this quilt last year when Louisiana Bendolph taught a class about Gees Bend quilts and quilters.  A good portion of this fabric is up-cycled pieces from my moms scrap box. The coral strips are pieces from an old dress. There is even a dart or two in my quilt that I left in.  Some of the denim is from a patch bag that she also had in her stash so I am assuming they are bits from her old jeans.  I didn't have any striped scraps from my dads old Oshkosh overalls so I went to the thrift store and bought a few striped shirts.  The lighter blue fabrics are from the portrait quilt I made of my mom called  So Blue . ...