April | 2016 | Lori Miller Designs

Back in January, one of our DAMQG members, Lynn, held a class to make a Plus Sign Zipper Bag. It was her own design. Our guild came together for a Saturday sew-in and we all made these bags.

I decided to make mine in scrappy colors of red, yellow and orange. I did some homework ahead of time so that hopefully I could finish my bag on the sew-in day.

I pulled out all of my weird and random tan fabrics for the background. They just became a neutral and worked well with the warm reds and oranges.

Here you can see that unusually large stash of tan and brown scraps for the background squares. Where did they all come from?

We made two panels for the front and back.

Cookie cat came to inspect my work. Like he usually does. I think it passed.

And here is the finished project and I was able to get it done on the DAMQG Sew-in Saturday. I deviated from Lynn’s pattern a little and made faux leather handles for it. I really like it and it is a BIG bag and holds a lot!

Here is a picture of Lynn’s original tote that she made. Nice and scrappy. Don’t you love her little kitty zipper pull?

Lynn even provided these super cute bags as prizes for the day. Aren’t they adorable? I think I need to make some of those first aid bags as gifts.

And finally, here is a picture from the Detroit Area Modern Guild meeting showing off our lovely Plus sign bags.

Dear friends, I have been neglecting you. This year my only son, Colin, graduates from high school. We went on a much needed vacation to warmer climes in February and then all the busyness caught up to me. Let’s catch up with a quilting roundup from January – yes January. That just means I will have a few more roundups to share to get us caught up to April. January, it was cold outside so a good time to stitch away. I worked on some old UFO’s, some newer things and some I even got finished. I thought you might like a peek into the studio to see what I have been working on .

I saw this pattern for birch trees and red birds and I thought it would be perfect for a January wall hanging in my dining room. The birch trees are pieced in black and white prints and then I quilted them with wavy natural lines.

The little cardinals are just machine appliqued onto a few of the trees.

Here it is finished. Don’t the cardinals make it such a cheery winter scene?

I belong to the Stitching Sisters Quilts of Valor Group in Clawson, Michigan. We have an Accuquilt GO cutter machine and it was my month to try it out. I made this awesome eagle medallion and the scrappy log cabins using the cutting die.

Here is the center medallion being pieced in the center of the scrappy log cabins. I added white fabric to make the medallion really stand out. I did not think I would ever do a log cabin but the fabric die cutting machine made it so easy and really easy to cut up those left over fabric scraps.

Here it is all finished. I used up a lot of scraps and Katy S longarm quilted it with feathers. It is beautiful.

These are the blocks from my Sit and Stitch group. We have a group of seven gals who get together each month. We each have a box with our quilt project inside and we pass the boxes around to each other each month. This month I had Tina’s box of paper doll blocks. She wanted each row a different color and I chose green for my row of dolls.

My Detroit Area Modern Quilt Guild does charity bee blocks each month. Then someone volunteers to make a quilt from all of the ones that each member made for the month. Rebekah, our president, sends out a block design and a color pallette and we stitch away. They always turn out great.