My Moda Bake Shop ABC Birthday Quilt Along Quilt

Hi Everyone,

Boy, that title is sure a mouthful, isn't it?  As I may have mentioned in an earlier post, I had heard about this QAL several weeks ago.  I toyed with the idea of making a quilt with patriotic words at first, but I just couldn't get excited about it, so I moved the project to the back of my mind.  Then about 2 weeks ago, I read a quote on Facebook and got excited.

Do you ever get so excited about a project that you immediately grab paper and begin sketching out the idea?  And as it takes hold, you forget about any other projects, responsibilies, or even other fun events?  That was happening with me.  As soon as I sketched it out, I got right to cutting and sewing.

I used a fat quarter bundle of Moda's Red, White, and Free by Sandy Gervais that I had on my shelf.  I also had yardage of the background fabric and some of the other pieces.  I was two thirds finished when I realized I would need more background.  I did a Google search and wasn't having much luck.  Finally, after a page or two of results, there was a link to a shop that I've been ordering from for years, The Stitching Post, located in Southern Indiana.  They had some!  There was 2 1/4 yard left so I ordered it.  The next day I was out for a while and when I got home there was a message on my machine.  My heart sunk when I saw it was The Stitching Post calling--I figured that they no longer had the fabric.  I was wrong, though!  They actually had more and were calling to see if I needed more!  Talk about fabulous customer service.  We chatted for a bit and finally the owner asked if I or my husband had been in the service as she had several addresses from me in the system!  I laughed and said, "Yes, but now we are retired here in Indiana, too."  I would love to one day visit the actual shop.  With every order I have placed, it arrives with a personal note, handwritten on the form.  I love that.

Anyway, once I had more fabric, I was able to resume.  Besides all of the words, I needed some filler blocks.  I wanted to make them with the neutral fabrics so that they would be less visible and not take away attention from the quote.

It was fun to play with these fabrics and still get fun blocks, even though the contrast is low among the pieces.

Once I had all of the words completed, I was looking it over and realized I had made some of the "A's" different.  About half were this way:

(with long legs)

And half were this way:

(wish short legs)

Grr!  I decided in the end that it wasn't bothering me enough to change things.  Just a note here:  the patterns for the letters, Spell it with Moda, call for using 2.5" strips.  To get my quote to fit on a smaller size, I had to make them half the size, using 1.5" strips.

Finally on Monday, I got the entire quilt top finished.  I am really happy with it!

This quote means so much to me.  I'm so glad that I was able to fit it into a quilt.  Just a note here:  the patterns for the letters, Spell it with Moda, call for using 2.5" strips.  To get my quote to fit on the size quilt I wanted, I had to make them half the size, using 1.5" strips.  The finsihed quilt size is 63" square.  I was surprised about that--I had realized it would be 63" wide early on, but I had no idea how long it would become with all of the spacer strrips included.

All of the fabric is Moda, aside from the star field in the flag.  I have no idea who designed it.

And all of the Moda was from the Red, White, and Free line except what I used for the word, soldier.  I decided that should be different, and camoflage.  Luckily Moda had another line, "Because of the Brave" which had the perfect fabric.

I had one design challenge:  As you can see, I used the light blue background to highlight some of the words:  Flag, Breath, Soldier, Protecting.  I wanted to highlight another word, and Fly, Wind, and Moves were the choices.  After thinking about it, I decided on Moves, as it referenced "moving" to me, which describes the quote--I find it moving.

Now that this project is finished, I will admit that I'm feeling a bit like the day after Christmas--let down and depressed--in other words, the excitement is over.  For now.  There will be other projects!  (I'm just not sure what to focus on next.  I expect my husband would appreciate it if I did some grocery shopping!)

Have a wonderful day!
JoAnne

Spell it with Fabric: America

Hi Everyone,

I'm not sure if you saw the blog hop that Moda began last week:  Spell it with Fabric.  I visited the first few blocks but wasn't paying it much mind and then I began to get some ideas.  I revisited the blogs and started downloading the patterns.  Each day Monday through Friday, 3-4 blogs are featured and each one is providing a link for a letter of the alphabet.  As of yesterday, A-R were available, and I'm guessing that S, T, and U are featured today.  If you are interested, you can find the details and all of the links here.   I quickly started playing and could hardly wait for each morning when I could get the next few letters.  It was tough to get through the weekend as there were no new letters.  Can you believe I was looking forward to Monday morning?!

It was even harder to wait as I only needed the "R" to finish the project I decided to make.  I got the R pattern yesterday morning, made it, finished my top, layered, quilted, and bound it in time to take some pictures in the afternoon. 

Since it was a Moda project, I decided to use Moda fabric.  In this case, my favorite designers, Minick and Simpson.  I had some small pieces of large-scale fabrics.  Since I normally make projects with small pieces (and I don't like to cut large-scale fabrics into small bits) these have been languishing for a while waiting for the perfect project!  The background fabric is from Prairie Paisley, and most of the others are from Prairie Paisley II, although there are a few others thrown in the mix. 

I would love to take credit for having the idea of adding the tiny stars, but it wasn't mine.  Bonnie (from Bonnie and Camille fame) did the "C" and had added a tiny star to it.  Since I love stars, I had to play with them, too.  The star pattern didn't come with the letter block pattern, but I remembered that the Countdown to Christmas quilt that was a quilt-along last year by the Temecula Quilt Co had directions to make little 2" finished stars.  They worked perfectly with these blocks, as the letters are made from 2.5" strips. 

The finished quilt is more of a banner.  I hung it outside on my porch for effect.

It finished at about 12" high and 64" long.  I think each letter block finished at 8" wide by 10" high.  I cut 1.5" strips to put between every letter and to frame the entire word.  I haven't stopped with this quilt, though!

I made a J for myself, using some fun, patriotic fabric.  I'll quilt it and bind it in red and it can join my wall of minis.  But I'm still not done!  I have been trying to decided on presents for my young nieces who are taking First Communion, so I'm playing with their names now.  I'll share when I get them done, but I need the V and the X to finish.  I'm making their letters by piecing 2.5" squares, for more of a patchwork look.  It has been lots of fun clicking on the hashtag #spellitwithmoda on Instagram to see what other quilters are doing! 

Have a great day!
JoAnne