September 2014 Show & Tell Recap

Welcome to the 2014-2015 member ship year of the NYC Metro Mod Quilters Guild! Our first meeting took place at Hartley House on Saturday, September 27, 2014. After many warm smiles and excited conversations, we kicked off Show & Tell. (Special thanks to Maria Gualdoni for taking notes and co-authoring this post!)

Maria showed the quilt she made with the blocks her bee members made for her. They were asked to create a “Chinese gong” block using their favorite fabrics or colors. Maria made a chart on the back of the quilt to remember each bee member and their contribution.

Karen showed us a quilt she made and Rachael D quilted for her. She told us how happy she was when she found out the quilt was finished, considering how difficult this summer was for her family. Thankfully, her husband is doing very well now.

Nellie made this fantastic quilt in a class with Kathy Doughty of Material Obsession, at The City Quilter. Kathy encouraged Nellie to shop around for more colorful fabrics. Before, her selections were a bit flat, even when choosing bright colors. After Kathy’s tips, her blocks had a definite pop. This quilt will go on Nellie’s bed. She also shared with the members how she makes her quilt labels, using a template from Jaybird Quilts and printing it on Spoonflower.

This quilt of tessellated Ts is made using one of Anita’s crazy simple, “how-did-I-not-think-of-it”, methods. It is constructed with squares, using two fabrics per block. She will be teaching this quilt in Texas soon.

Nancy took a class with Andrea D at The City Quilter, to learn how to make this quilt. She used colors inspired by Navajo blankets. She loves how the pleats add texture to the quilt.

Judy C. showed us a fun cloth doll she made. She enjoyed making it!

Skulls! Chelsey wanted to make a quilt for a friend who loves skulls and has bought a new house. Chelsey was soldwhen she found this pattern by Boo Davis, from her book Dare to be Square Quilting.

Mandy showed us a quilt she designed for the Timeless Treasures blog, using fabrics from collections featured: Hatch, Polka Dot, Pin Dot Basics.

Mandy also shared this lovely geometric quilt.

Margaret had been wanting to make a zig zag quilt for a while and to make this great quilt she solicited fabrics from friends so there would be no repeats. 

As usual, Michael’s contribution to the show and tell is a gem of design and technique. This time around, it was a mini quilt she made as part of the Wicked! Challenge presented by Cherrywood Fabrics. The quilts from this challenge will be shown at the theater starting October 1st and they will also travel for a year before being auctioned off.

Elaine made this quilt for her eldest grandson, who turned 3 years old. She used flannels and only quilted in the ditch to make sure the quilt is extra cozy and not stiff.

Michele provided more information about the art quilt challenge. Above are all the submitted blocks.

Tina showed us some washable sanitary napkins she is making for the charity Craft Hope. Having these sanitary napkins ensures that girls in Kenya don’t miss school unnecessarily. She invited other members to make these items and help Craft Hope.

Chris attended Luke Haynes’ workshop at the Brooklyn Craft Company, where he showed attendees how he uses discarded clothing to make quilts. This quilt is made out of her husband’s clothing and he, an avid hunter, was the inspiration for the design.

Frances,a new member, grew up sewing but only took up quilting about a year ago at her boyfriend’s suggestion. She found our group online and joined us! Her quilt, with the hand appliquéd marching musicians, is for a cousin who lives in New Orleans.

Chris made this little quilt for her brand new grandson, Oliver, who lives in Spain, so he could have a little bit of England. 

She also showed her bee quilt top and pointed out that the solid square at the bottom left corner is a reminder of the bee member who did not return her block and failed to even send her fabrics back.

Melanie proudly showed us some articles of her designs in different quilting magazines and encouraged us to participate in a pocket block challenge to honor a friend and role model who has recently lost her battle with cancer.

Melanie also showed us a beautiful quilt made with fabrics either designed or dyed by her.

She shared a quilt that she made for her dad, who passed away last March. Jennifer’s dad was a jazz musician and the quilting reflects his passion. The back of the quilt is flannel, so it would be extra nice to cuddle with it during chemo. Her dad liked the quilt so much that he wanted it on a wall instead of on his lap!

She was inspired by one of the works by the Japanese graphic artist Ikko Tanaka and created this beautiful quilt.

She worked on this quilt in Victoria Findlay Wolfe's class at Quilting by the Lake. This “monster star” will be donated to the Greenwich Cancer Alliance for their annual auction.

She did not think English paper piecing was for her until Jessica A.showed the guild members her method to EPP and Andrea realized that it would be the perfect travel project. She searched for a pattern she liked and got hooked!

Rossanna shared how she feels this group’s creativity and generosity are what quilting should be about and she knows it is the right community for her. She showed us a quilt she made from Andrea’s block lotto prize, which she gave to Rossanna a few months ago.

This is a mother’s day gift quilt, that she tried to free motion quilt with the machine her family had bought for her. After a few mishaps, and two days of trying, she realized that it was not happening, undid all the stitches and straight quilted it to finish it in time for mother’s day. She has since FMQ’d successfully. Hayden thinks it might have been the batiks that threw off her machine.

Andrea created this quilt out of the other half of last Spring’s block lotto. She used some rare Heather Ross fabric to complement her layout and “creative quilted” (aka no straight lines!) for a beautiful finish.

Jacqui showed us a quilt she made her mother, the recipient is known for not being easy to please, so it was even more special to hear that she had loved it!

Laura showed us some containers she made using Seaside Stitches’ pattern. She recommends it as being quite simple and easy to finish. The bowls make perfect little gifts. Hers will go to her daughter’s day care teachers.

That's all for September's Show and Tell. We are looking forward to another great Show & Tell at our November 1 meeting!