Sisterhood of the Traveling Quilt: National Quilting Month

This month is National Quilting Month, and this Sat., Mar. 19 is National Quilting Day. How will I spend National Quilting Day? At a Miami Valley Art Quilt Network meeting. The meeting is at the Dayton Public Library in the room that we are having our current quilt exhibit.

To celebrate National Quilting Month, my on-line quilting group "Quiltsy" decided to work on a traveling quilt. Every year the National Quilting Association decides on a theme and this year's theme is "Build Your Own Log Cabin." We decided that each of us would make a log cabin square in the colors of green, blue and purple. One of our members even mailed a strip of fabric that had all three colors in it and it was optional to include in our blocks.

We have 43 quilters participating from 22 states and 2 Canadians Provinces. Texas has the most with 6 participants and Ohio the second most with 4 quilters participating.

We'll have 6 rows and each row will have seven blocks. We've all been assigned a spot and the first person in the row sends her block to the second person, who adds her block and sends it to the next person. I was the fourth in our row so my block is the one on the right in the photo above and I've sent it on to the next quilter. I'll be sure to post of photo of the whole quilt when it's finished.

One of our members has been blogging about the quilters as it progresses across the country, you had read about it on our Quiltsy blog.

12 Days of Quiltsy

On the first day of Quiltsy, my true love gave to me -

a TABLE RUNNER so Pretty...
FREE SHIPPING on my table runners,

Bra Quilt

Back in October of 2008 the QuiltsyTeam (a "virtual quilt guild" who all sell on Etsy) decided to make Bra blocks for a "Bra Quilt for Breast Cancer." The blocks were joined together with sashing, quilted and bound and is was for sale in our QuiltsyTeam shop on Etsy. The proceeds of this sale was donated to a major charity that raises money for breast cancer research.

It measures 56 x 78 inches and the label on the back has the name of each of the block makers in the order of the blocks on the front of the quilt. The background fabric is pink with pink ribbons on it.

The block that I made is in the top row, second from the left. I used a funky batik and couched a variegated yarn around the fabric and also for the straps.

And if you thought the title meant a quilt made from bras, maybe next time!

Where the Really Big "E" is now

Back in August I blogged about the Really Big "E" that I appliqued for my part of the Quiltsy Team's banners that we made for the Etsy offices. Etsy has received all the banners and posted photos of them in their new home. If you want to see more photos, including close-ups, just go to to this Flickr page.

Quiltsy on Etsy

If you've never heard of Etsy before, it's an on-line site for buying handmade items where I have a "store." I'm also a member of the Quiltsy Team (the name started out as QuiltEtsy, we just dropped the "Et" at some point). Here's a link to my Etsy store.

Quiltsy team members are a talented bunch! Some of them make non-quilted sewing items like aprons and purses, some of them make knitted and crochetd items, and other make jewelry and art dolls, so you're likely to find something that would make a great gift for someone on your list, or maybe even something for yourself!

Me and the Really Big "E"

The Etsy admin contacted Quiltsy, the quilting team I belong to, to have us make some large banners that spelled out "Etsy" for them to use as room dividers in their new offices. Several team members pieced the cream-colored panels and my job was to piece the cream panels together, applique the large orange "E" and then piece the orange borders on.

The piecing went quickly but appliqueing the "E" took longer than I thought it would. I cut out the "E" with a 1/4" seam allowance, put fusible webbing on the back of and folded the edges under, like you do when you blind-stitch by hand. Then I put another strip of 1/4" fusible tape on the part that was folded over and used the iron to press the "E" to the backing fabric.

Instead of stitching it by hand, I used the sewing machine and used a zigzag stitch wider than what I use when doing raw-edge applique.

It's over 9 feet tall, and I don't have any place in the house to take a photo of something that tall, so some if it is on the floor. I'm 5'3", so you can tell how big that "E" really is.

UPDATE: This post shows the banner hanging with the others.