April BOM: Modern Appliqué Gumdrops

If you're new to guild's Block of the Month segment, you can read my description of how it all works during the pandemic here!

This month's block idea goes out by special request to guild member Brenda (@quilting.wtmf)! She said, "I hope next month is appliqué" when she shared her Confetti Block from March, and who am I to say no to such a request?

Admittedly, the Confetti Blocks from the March meeting were a bit of a mind-bender (thanks to everyone who went along with it!), so let's slow things down for April with some Modern Appliqué. Plus, I think my "celebration" theme from the March meeting was perhaps pre-emptive, given the state of life in the Ottawa region these days! Sigh. I'll stick to sewing, rather than predicting a swift end to the pandemic from now on, okay? :)

So for this month's BOM idea, I looked again to the Ottawa Public Library's collection of quilting books and came up with Sunday Morning Quilts, which was written in 2012 by Amanda Jean Nyberg (@crazymomquilts) and Cheryl Arkison (@cherylarkison). Amanda Jean and Cheryl are both early pioneers of the modern quilting movement; they each have very inspirational blogs and Instagram accounts, and they're also very prolific, superfans of scrappy quilts. Perfect fit!

The basic idea for this pattern comes from their book, although I've modified their approach a bit. First, I'm expanding the appliqué method to be maker's choice - you can choose any of the following methods: 

• raw-edge machine appliqué (this makes for some cool frayed texture after a few washes)
• needle-turn (this is done by hand)
• freezer paper method
• ironing on with heat & bond and then zig-zag stitching around the edge (I think that's actually how you're supposed to do raw-edge machine appliqué)
• maybe a hybrid approach that combines other skills - what about big stitch raw-edge or needle turned appliqué?

So the method is totally up to you! I tried out four styles for this entry (needle-turn, two types of raw edge machine appliqué, and something I made up that I'm going to call big-stitch raw edge appliqué). Please don't feel limited by my examples! I'm not super familiar with appliqué, so this was a learning opportunity for me. Basically, pick a method that works best for you and give this a go!

This pattern is called Gumdrops and appears on p. 122-7 of Sunday Morning Quilts.

Fabric Instructions:

For the gumdrops, you'll need a mix of scraps or smallish pieces (each block requires a colourful scrap of about 5" x 5") in the following colours (solids or prints, whatever works for you):

• yellow
• pink
• red
• orange
• purple

For the background: each gumdrop is appliquéd onto a 5" x 5" square of anything white (again, solids or prints, whatever works for you).

Sewing Instructions:

Make a template for your "gumdrop" shapes. I used the book's examples for inspiration and then drew my gumdrop shapes onto the back of a shipping envelope:

 

I drew each shape freehand, making sure that each one was smaller than 5" x 5". Each one needs to fit onto the 5" x 5" background block, so it can't be bigger, right? Then I cut the templates out.

NOTE: I made four different shapes to give myself some variety, but each participant could definitely just draw one gumdrop shape, since everyone is going to draw a different gumdrop, so this will give us some built-in variety. Team work makes the dream work!

I pinned the paper templates in place on my gumdrop fabrics and used fabric scissors to cut out each shape. For a bit of variety in your gumdrops, you can flip your template over to make the reverse shape.

Then I appliquéd each gumdrop onto a background block. I used a bit of glue to baste each gumdrop in place, and I made sure to align the bottom of the gumdrop with the bottom of each background block.

First, I used a zigzag stitch on my machine for some raw edge appliqué - this was very quick!

Then, I used a straight stitch on my machine and sewed just inside the edge of the gumdrop to leave a little raw edge that will provide texture after it's been washed - also very quick!

Next, I tried my hand (haha!) at needle-turn appliqué - admittedly, not my favourite technique, but I think with some practice I could be convinced.

And finally, just to be wild, I used 8 weight perle cotton thread in a contrasting colour and hand-stitched big X-stitches along the outside edges of two of my gumdrops - this was a really fun technique and I think it looks very cool!

For each block I made, I ran a quick straight stitch 1/8" from the bottom of each gumdrop to hold the bottom edge of the shape in place. I'm not sure if this is actually required, but I figured it would keep things from getting "flappy" and the little basting stitch will be hidden in the seam allowance in the finished quilt, so it can't hurt.

So, this wasn't really an instructive post, per se, but hopefully I gave you some ideas so that you can appliqué a few gumdrops in time for our May meeting! I'm excited to see all the gumdrops that our group will make.

Don't forget to post your photos to social media with the hashtag #ottmqgBOM so we can all follow along with your progress! Happy sewing!

Ottawa Charity Quilt Recap

** This bog post was submitted to QuiltCon as a summary of the Ottawa Modern Quilt Guilds Charity Quilt Submission***

Ottawa is a large Canadian city, but most importantly the nation’s capital. Being such a government town in turn means that many move to Ottawa because of government jobs, and carry with them strong ties to areas across our large country.  We have guild members from Newfoundland, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, etc., so as a guild we don’t feel that we are representative of just one geographical region, but as a nation as a whole.  So when initial ideas were discussed via e-mail, various aspects that represented Canada such as ice, buildings, water, boats, etc. were at the forefront.  We really wanted our quilt to represent ourselves and our country at QuiltCon and also connect personally to the recipient when it comes home.
  
At our October meeting, our group (Laura Piggott, Joelyn Gregory, Kirstin Fearon, April Waddell, Janet Ferguson, and Julie Johnston) met and looked at a couple of sketches our president Laura drew up that incorporated some of the main themes mentioned.  We divided up the sections and elements among ourselves (flying geese, maple leaf, city scape, sailboats, fireworks/sun/stars, the word “Canada itself) and put our own individual, fantastic spin on them.

We chose to use the light blue as our main background colour to help create cohesiveness.  All sections were sent back to Kirstin for piecing and quilting. Jan Kittle, OMQG member and quilt-shop owner, donated time on her long arm at The Pickle Dish for Kirstin to use.  Kirstin quilted much of the main element details with free-motion quilting on the long arm and Jan offered to finish off the background elements in the shop. 

Everyone worked extremely well as a team.  Fat eighth Kona bundles were donated to each team member by OMQG Pam from Mad About Patchwork.  Once the quilt was all finished, Alison Harle (our guild Photog)  brought our quilt baby to Parliament (we are in the nation's capital, after all) and took some amazing photos.  The quilt went on the last leg of its journey thanks to Julie, who managed to get out during the last-minute Christmas shipping crunch and send it on its way.  We're very excited to see this quilt at QuiltCon and are so happy we participated in this challenge.  We have five guild members attending QuiltCon and we can’t wait to see it there! Thanks to the MQG for the opportunity!

Contributing Members:

Laura Piggott

Joelyn Gregory

Kirstin Fearon

April Waddell

Janet Ferguson
Julie Johnston 
Jan Kittle

This Is The Plan, Stan!

Hi all, our next meeting is this Monday, October 28th! Remember, we're at the Loblaws on McArthur Ave this month, up in the Community Room. Also, there is no outside food or drink allowed, but you can bring stuff up from the store below. 

We've got a fun program planned. In addition to a show and share and other fun modern quilting newsie bits like our first Sew-In (!), there will be two breakouts -- one talking about Zakka and one talking about Modern Design.

Each discussion will have a designated lead, but we want these sessions to be interactive so if you have any books, projects or other resources along these themes, please bring them to share!

See you Monday!