February 7, 2015 Meeting Recap

Better late than never! Here are the notes and photos from our last meeting. Many thanks to Maria Gualdoni for taking such meticulous notes!

At our February meeting, our president Lisa had the great idea to install a design wall in the meeting space so that members may share blocks or get design help! At the beginning of the meeting, some blocks were showcased.

Later on, when Rachael's blocks were collected, many wondered how they would fit together (since there was no standard block size requirement). Then, the playing began as members began experimenting how to intersect the yellow lines!

Bernadette kicked off Show & Tell. Bernadette was very surprised to find that she really likes the nine patch quilt she made. Before she used to think that the block was too simple and she should aim higher. With this project, Bernadette pieced and quilted it herself, experimenting with different quilting designs. Though now she is onto the dreaded binding stage...

This quilt top is a great example of Karen’s love for everything HST (half square triangles) and will be the sample for her new class at The City Quilter. Several members have taken a class with Karen and can attest that not only is she a good teacher, but also knows how to make it fun for the students. 

Karen also showed us a baby quilt she made as a request from one of her husband’s nurses. She explained that the baby’s parents were into hunting, so the quilt needed to be appropriately themed. Nothing is farther away from Karen’s taste but she really wanted to thank this nurse so did her best and came up with a very cool and simple design.

Monica, together with some quilting friends made this adorable I Spy quilt for a friend who has recently adopted a baby. Ellen F. a member of our guild, quilted it.

Keeping the idea from last meeting’s quilt, Margaret again merged two different projects into one fantastic quilt. The black and white blocks where from an experiment she was doing and the string blocks were a random work in progress. She had some leftovers for a great back as well.

This quilt is soon to be on its way to Norway, a gift for a friend’s baby. The pattern, Breezy, is by Allison Harris of CluckCluckSew. When asking her friend about the nursery colors, Maureen's friend said "Blue, green, red, and maybe some elephants and crocodiles." The family also likes soccer. Somehow, Maureen was able to comply and put it all together in this fun and bright quilt.

Cynthia has been repainting her home and, with the new cheery colors as her muse, she created some color study pieces. She showed us her neutral, blue (that makes her think of day and night) and red (inspired by her doors). She also has a yellow study at home. Perhaps we will see it in March!

 

Mandy showed us a quilt she made with her bee blocks from last year. The bee members were asked to make strip blocks using pastel colored fabrics. The few strips that don’t comply with the request give the quilt a nice pop. Mandy thought of quilting with straight lines but had to go instead for a meandering line when her walking foot decided to take the day off.

With all the charm pack freebies (they were hard to resist!) Jody scored at Quiltcon 2013, she  created this colorful quilt top. Jody is not sure yet how to quilt it. 

Also, Jody showed the round robin quilt Karen passed on to her. Ellen F. called dibs and she is next!

Lisa spent a great sewing weekend at Margaret’s and showed us a bag she made for her. Without a specific pattern, Lisa used a very cool fabric that feels like leather for the handles and bottom.

Also, while working with her little protegé, Lisa started to work on what it would be a chevron quilt. Together, at the design wall, they moved pieces around and created this lively and dynamic quilt.

Susan showed a table runner made with pre-cut tumbler shaped Japanese fabrics from her vending booth.

Tina shared a bit of her process in dealing with her big scrap collection. She usually pieces them together until she has a good size block and keeps them for future use. This time she used four of those pre made blocks to make a cheery baby quilt for a friend. Her label was made with a custom stamp and permanent ink she purchased on Etsy.

Jacqui pieced and quilted this beautiful quilt for a friend’s second baby.

Ivete made this mini using Tula Pink’s latest collection and a cute Valentine’s pattern that she is sharing on the Gotham Quilts’ blog.

Ivete also showed us her progress on a clambake quilt along she is participating in.

Kim participated in Victoria Findlay Wolfe’s word challenge. Her word? "Word!" Kim really enjoyed making this mini and mixing different techniques for each letter.

She also finished an old bee quilt. Kim calls it “Hot links”. This is another example of how a quilt will take a different path once it is on the design wall. Quilted with metallic thread for an additional oomph.

Maria hasn’t finished any quilts lately, so she brought instead her version of Groove an Emily Cier design. She pieced it following Andrea’s log cabin method during a class at The City Quilter. Wanting special quilting for each section, Maria asked Rachael Dorr to do her magic. 

Rachael showed us the first quilt completely funded by her charity, Quilting a Memory. The recipient, the wife of a soldier who died in service, sent her a box with favorite clothing items, amongst them his camp jacket. Rachael usually does not make very patriotic themed quilts, but this time the clothes seemed to call for this stunning star design. With the remaining scraps, she made a pillow and a doll with all the patches and buttons from the clothes.

Diane doesn’t finish quilts very often, but she saw a tutorial for this mini quilt on Pinterest and went for it. She hung it up at home for Christmas!

Judith’s son gave her three beautiful vintage buttons and she created this vest to showcase them.

Anita showed us her double wrench block, created using her own fabric and time saving cutting method. It includes a fabric from her nephew’s discarded underwear! The pattern will be available at Elna’s website.

Deborah has been working on the blocks of this amazing quilt for a while now. She has enlarged the original block size to about 140% in order to make it less time consuming and offered to share her templates with other dedicated members. In Deborah’s own words, this is a quilt she will be doing in the afterlife!

Emily showed us a sampler she made following a Craftsy class. She chose to make a mini quilt with the embroidery blocks. The back is ready for hanging.

For her mother’s 75th birthday, Andrea is making her a surprise quilt. She had photos of her mother, her ancestors and her children scanned and printed on fabric and then she pieced them and appliquéd them onto a purple background. She also created two labels with captions of each photo. Because Andrea was not sure how she would like the photos printed she made two sets, one sepia and color and the other in black and white. Finally, the black and white set made it to the back of the quilt. Andrea was very thankful to her husband, who scanned the images, and prepared the pattern with cutting dimensions for her.

Aaand that's it for February's installment. See you all tomorrow!