Friday, December 4, 2009

The Coffee & Brown Sugar Quilt

Hello Shrinking Quilters!
I put my fabric in the mail today so go get yourself a big glass of water and get ready to start a new quilt with me~
Here's the situation...

I have an addiction to coffee.  Since the pregnancy (and now I'm still nursing) it's been 2-3 cups a day of decaf.  before that it was 4 cups to the whole pot of regular.  But it's not just the coffee.  For me, coffee is a vehicle for the cream and sugar.  In the past year there have been times that I've gone through a pound of brown sugar in a week, in my coffees alone.  (yeah, i bake too, but we'll save the brownie addiction for another quilt).
the thicker, the creamier the better.  bigger mugs give more pleasure-- my go-to mug at home is blue glass and holds about 16 ozs.  For this weight loss quilting bee (all of 2010?) I have decided to give up coffee and pour it all into a quilt instead.

Here's what we're making:


(I did this work up in EQ5, I haven't upgraded my software-- spent the $ on fabric instead.  So the fabrics will be different, of course, this is just to give you the general idea..)

I sent out a selection of beige, cream, and/or brown fabrics with a smaller piece of a deep turquoisey blue.  Please make one 9 x 9" finished (9.5" unfinished) block of your choice.  Any traditional or slightly wonky (think maverick stars) pieced or appliqued block is fine, but please chose something that works on point (i.e. don't applique your scene without rotating the foundation first!) Please use the blue in or towards the center, if possible.  The blocks in my EQ5 version are just examples, I can't even say they're blocks I like, I just needed something to fill the space for the preview quilt.  You do not have to chose one of those!  I'll make double nine-patch setting blocks.  When finished, the quilt will go in my family room.

Since this is the first quilt in our bee, use it as an opportunity to share a part of your personality with the group.  If you need more direction, below are a few quilt blocks that I like, but you are not limited to these examples at all!

I like Baltimore Album blocks and Hawaiian applique..but piecing is great too:
lots more 9" blocks over at quilter's cache!
Of course if you want to peak into my cozy haven of quilt-beauty, just check out my flickr favs.
 If you want to add fabrics from your stash, go ahead, but please stick with my color scheme.   It's ok to mix it up and combine modern designers, repros, batiks.  Solids are fine, but NO black or white fabrics please!

Alright ladies, this is not supposed to be hard!  If I've scared you with too many options, ignore them.  Just choose a block that you'll enjoy making.  When you're done, sign it with an archival safe permanent marker (iron a piece of freezer paper to the back first so you get a nice writing surface)-- name and location please, then send it back to me by January 31st. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!  I can't wait to see them!

~Jessica

11 comments:

  1. Oh, Jessica, this looks brilliant!!!! I can't wait for the fabric to arrive - it's gorgeous! I'll have to start figuring out what block I'm going to make!

    And I love your story of being a coffee addict. I am too, and I also have brown sugar in mine, but not very much - I don't like a very sweet cup of coffee. You have a lo of fortitude to give up coffee altogether! I hope the quilt will make up for it!

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  2. good luck giving up coffee. i know it's hard to kick a habit, but i'm sure you can do it.

    not sure what block i want to make just yet. i'd love to try paper piecing, but i'm scared!

    do you want to see updates and photos as we create, or do you want it all to be a surprise?

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  3. Great instructions, Jessica. Your fabric choices are really pretty and should make a striking quilt.

    P.S. Good luck with the coffee dealie-o. I'm hooked on Iced Tea so I totally get what you mean.

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  4. Jessica, I am in awe of how decisive you are about what you want from this quilt, and how well you communicated it. The colour combination is great, too. I can hardly wait!

    To avoid duplication, I thought I'd let you know which block I'd like to do. It's Heavens A Blaze from quilterscache http://www.quilterscache.com/H/HeavensABlazeBlock.html Please let me know if you'd rather I choose something else.

    Suzanna

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  5. I'd love to see things as people go along, but I guess it's up to Jessica - how much she wants to be surprised. I've started blogging about my New Year's Quilting REsolutions, and I think paper piecing is another one - some of those yummy blocks at quilters cache are paper pieced, as is Suzanna's choice. Come on, Jennifer, we can do it.

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  6. This looks fantastic and like a great way to start out.

    Do you want to know our blocks ahead of time so there aren't duplicates?

    I've never liked coffee, but I'm seriously addicted to Diet Dr. Pepper.

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  7. thanks for the comments everybody~
    i don't get them emailed to my yahoo account for some reason so i didn't even see them until today! i was wondering why no one had anything to say about my quilt and was getting a bit scared...
    glad to hear you like my idea. I'd love to see your blocks in progress so blog/flickr away! I don't mind duplicate blocks, like I said, I just want you all to make something you're comfortable with. Suzanna, the heavens ablaze block looks awesome~ it looks pretty tough, but intreguing too, maybe i'll bookmark it for a future quilt. Oh wait, if you make it, then i'll have it in my livingroom to remind me, hehe!
    I actually started my coffee break on Saturday, and so far (this is day 3) i'm doing ok. i think i'm most sad about the composting aspect-- i started a compost pile in the yard this fall and it was getting a healthy dose of coffee grounds daily.. I hope it will still turn out good without them!

    Oh, and can you please post or comment (maybe a flickr thread is better?) when you receive the fabric? that way i can keep track and send out duplicate packs if anything gets lost in the mail. Thanks.

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  8. Miss Jessica's fabrics arrived to-day. Let the adventure begin.

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  9. Jessica, the quilt you drew up looks great. I can't wait to get the fabric and get going, but it'll take us Canadians a little longer to receive the fabric. I want to do Love Light from Quilter's Cache; it has some piecing and a bit of applique.

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  10. Is it cool to design our own blocks, or would you like a recognizably traditional one?

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