Mighty Lucky Quilting Club: month one

A while back, last year, 13 Spools, a blog site for quilters, offered subscriptions to a twelve month quilt along of sorts.  Amy Garro, the blogger, designs modern quilts and publishes her pattern in her books. She has three boys under the age of four, definitely a wonder mom as well as a very innovative quilter.  The Mighty Lucky Quilting Club was formed for those of use wanting to improve our skills and also add a bit of pizazz to our projects.  January's quilt artist is Krista Fleckenstein lives Alaska, home to many outstanding art quilters.  Krista makes and uses single fold bias tape to enhance her works.  So our first lesson teaches us to make our own bias tapes then directs us to make a project using the tapes.

Well, several years ago, after an inspiring session with Beth Ann Williamson I eventually purchased a Simplicity bias tape maker.  At last!  I have a real use for it!

Well, I had a magnificent mess and little to show for it.  Oh, how I made bias cuts: 1/2" wide to 2"wide.  The large tape worked ok, but the folds never pressed down crisply. The narrow tape went in folded and came out flat as it went into the maker.  After a lunch break with my fri
end Robin, a better idea was offered by her-use ready made!  Ah so easy.  What a great way to use all this BT that came with my mother's stash, some of which cost a whalopping $.35!  Then I was caught cheating by Caroll!  Back to the drawing board! Thus, with  the tools from the machine, sans machine, I made my bias tapes of various lengths and widths. The instructor showed us samples and demos using monochromatic tapes.  Well, if I'm going to take time to experiment it's going to combine as many techniques as possible.  

We were to cut a fat quarter for making the bias tapes.  Well, the FQ is my background, and scraps are my tapes.  I've named it Purse Handles.  When I've finished with quilting I'll show you the result.  Oh my, more free motion quilting......here.

Krista Fleckenstein can be found at the Spottedstone blog.  The year's list of designers is shown, too.
Amy Garro from 13 Spools can be found here.
The Instagram hashtag is #Mightylucky quilting club; hundreds of students show off their work here.