Modern Quilt Guild Challenge Quilt--Entomology

Today's the deadline for the latest Modern Quilt Guild challenge, and I got my quilt finished and posted in the MQG forums early this afternoon. I had a hard time getting the colors to show up right in my photos, so I'm including pictures taken both outside and inside.

It's titled Entomology.

I made three paper pieced moths using the challenge fabric for the wings and a gray solid for the bodies. I designed the moth pattern, just to see if I could, inspired by an old scientific insect drawing that a friend pinned on Pinterest. This blog post on Shape Moth was very helpful for figuring out how to draw the pattern in EQ7. Sewing the moth blocks was pretty labor intensive, but by the last one I had figured out some tricks to speed things up and make sure everything fit together correctly.

The antennae were embroidered with embroidery floss in a basic chain stitch. I decided to hand quilt the moths with perle cotton, and then machine quilted the background. I got about 6 pokes that drew blood while hand quilting over the last couple days, but didn't get any on the quilt!

This quilt was kind of an exercise in using what I had on hand. I had thought about buying a light gray fabric for the background, but still had a large chunk of the aqua solid (Kona ice frappe), so I decided to use it even though I've used that same fabric in my last three mini quilts. Same with the quilting thread--ideally I would have used a slightly lighter aqua thread for the machine quilting, but I used what I already had and I think it turned out fine.

Here's the back:

And one more photo of the front, outside (on the shadier side of the backyard) this time:

I'm really glad I was able to participate in this challenge. I learned a lot and might even try making more paper pieced insects someday. Thanks a bunch to the Modern Quilt Guild and Michael Miller for providing the challenge fabrics!

Vacation fun

We've had a busy couple of weeks! The 4th of July was really fun, starting with meeting up with some old friends from Kansas for breakfast.

 

The food was very, very good. The kids' menus had eggs to color on the back and the kids had a lot of fun with that. This one is Rainbow Dash.

  

Later on, we had friends over for dinner and visiting, ending with watching our city's fireworks show. It was pretty good!

Then we got up at 4:30 a.m. the next morning and got on an airplane to California. We stayed with my sister-in-law at her (very kind and gracious) mom's house for a few days and then went to San Diego to a family reunion where we celebrated my grandpa's upcoming 90th birthday. I also got to spend time with a very good friend that I hadn't seen since 2008.

We went and watched the sunset one night. It was so pretty. And much earlier than where we live.

We saw airplanes and a Ripley's Believe it or Not exhibit at the Air and Space Museum.

And Lego Doctor Who, when we ate at the mall food court. Bowties are cool.

 

I made quilted zipper pouches and brought them for my sisters and SILs that I saw on the trip. I need to make one of these for myself, soon!

 

And I made bibs for two cousins who are expecting their first babies.

It was so good to get reacquainted with siblings, nieces and nephews, cousins, and everyone else. These feet belong to a really cute and sweet 2 year old niece. I came home feeling exhausted but also full of so much love for my whole family. I'm so glad we were able to spend time with all our loved ones.