April 2013 Meeting - Show & Tell Recap

It was a perfect spring day and another great NYC Metro Mod meeting at Hartley House last Saturday. I can't believe how quickly the year has flown by and that our next meeting in June, will be the last of the season until September. And of course, Show and Tell, did not fall short of expectations! 

Kendall was up first with a quilt she titled, Take a Bow, which were inspired by boats stacked up at the Mystic Seaport. The numbers are the boat correlate with significant events: "23" is a recurring number that appears often, "5" and "13" are for her wedding date, and "18" is the number on the hull of her sailboat.

Jody made this quilt for her eighth grandchild, who is very interested in trucks, diggers, and anything that goes "vroom vroom." She did not have to buy a single piece of fabric for this quilt and was quite happy that the fabrics all coordinated with each other. The front is busy but the back gives you a "little rest."

Margaret made all of the fabric for the above quilt. She had a hard time finding a border fabric an settled on the light grays to contrast the colors of the blocks.

Margaret followed block of the month patterns to make the blocks featured in the borders of this quilt. 

Brian's oldest son got married this past summer and he decided to make table runners for the rehearsal dinner. The one above is one of four he completed.

While in California for his first grandson's birthday, Brian found this treasure, a 1940s quilt top which he paid only $15!

David found this "easy" quilt pattern in a magazine which involved cutting and rearranging fat quarters. It is a work in progress. David confessed that though he doesn't quite like the quilt and is not drawn to it, it did pose an interesting challenge to complete. 

Lisa shared her version of Scrappy Trip Around the World (based on a Bonnie Hunter pattern that has also been quite popular on Flickr). Lisa's quilt is still a work in progress and she plans to send it out for quilting since it is so large.

Cassandra calls this quilt Tiger Tiger. She has been working through the last of the hand-dyed fabric she made in college. This particular piece was a black silk velvet, that also starched with bleach which makes yellow. After completing the quilt, she decided that it needed a tail, so she crocheted one and strung beads on it.

Mandy designs easy quilt projects for Popular Patchwork Magazine and this is one of the patterns included in the April 2013 (UK) issue. The design was inspired by Newcastle Fabrics, which are incorporated into the quilt.

Mandy also shared with us her very cute and functional Slouchy Bag. She also created a pattern for the bag.

 

While going through her studio at home, Emily found these beautiful hand-appliqued pieces she made 11-12 years ago. They are comprised of 1930s fabric, of which she has whole bins of at home.

Jenny's quilt as you go bird-inspired quilt is coming along. She fussy cut many of the blocks which include birds, butterflies, and woodland motifs. She even used some beautiful Liberty fabric samples. A lot of hand sewing is involved to complete the quilt.

Jenny needed a break from hand-sewing so she whipped this up! It needs two more strips before the top is finished.

Maria made this quilt after attending Quilt Con and establishing that she was a collector of fabrics. She made this very happy Scrappy Granny quilt to showcase her collection. 

Maria also shared the quilt labels she had made on Spoonflower.

This was Dolly's* first meeting and she shared a sampler quilt comprised of New York City inspired fabrics. The quilt was quilted by Sue Bradley in Utah.

May Ann created pieces for a "deck of cards" themed quilt challenge. The above cards were embellished with lots of great details like wool for the horse's mane and glass beads (May Ann also blows glass and made these herself!) for the frog's eyes.

Deirdre participated in a "local color" challenge and decided to focus on the city of Bridgeport, CT. She used upholstery fabric for most of the pieces and included a puffy velvet at the bottom and used a zig-zag stitch to create shadows on the letters of the building.

Elaine is new to the group. She has been sewing for three years and took classes at the city quilter, where she was told she didn't have enough "stash." She has 10 grandnieces and grandnephews and decided to make each one  a wallhanging. She is currently working on number seven, who happens to have a very pink room. She took a Liberated Quilting class at the City Quilter and didn't have anything in mind, but just kept cutting and re-cutting pieces in an organic fashion which yielded the wallhanging shown here.

Jessica had a lot share at this meeting-- her adorable son, Jack, and her new book, Quilting on the Go, which will be released in June! She also got to share a quilt that has been featured in the book. This one is called Travel Quilt #3. Jessica dated each star in archival safe ink to note where each one was completed. One was even completed during a guild meeting!

It was also Becky's first time to a meeting, but she will not be joining the guild because she will be moving soon. But she shared a "goth" baby quilt that she is making for friends. She used a pattern called Magic Tiles by Kathleen Bissett. For the top, she tried to choose predominately black fabrics, but was pleasantly surprised by the pops of color. the back is comprised of a pirate-themed fabric. 

Ivete shared this Waves of Strips quilt which is comprised of jelly roll and solid fabrics. She is almost done quilting it and will be donating it to a charity.

Ivete also shared this beautiful little piece for marriage equality. I missed photographing the front, but the back has a lovely world map print from Sarah Jane fabrics.

Andrea has always wanted to make a pineapple quilt in a circular motif and created this wonderful quilt with shades of blue and purple and green that is sprinkled throughout.

Chris' boyfriend purchased an XL man's shirt for her so she made them into a pair of functional PJ bottoms and incorporated every piece of the shirt into the bottoms.

Liz is new to the guild and shared this beautiful housetop quilt. When working with her quilt teacher, Liz brought fabrics from her stash that she loved but not sure if they "went" together. Her teacher assured her that they did and incorporated into the quilt design. The yellow fabric is cut from a vintage tablecloth. The quilt uses fusible batting (ironed-on).

This is me (Nellie) sharing my log cabin quilt pieced in a straight furrows design. Initially, I was apprehensive about log cabins thinking that they were old-fashioned and not very modern, but despite making 48 of the same blocks, I was very pleased that the outcome was quite modern.

This member* shared a block from her quilt as you go project featuring Amish blocks in bold vibrant colors.

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Andrea H. M. shared an appliqued border piece (top image) and a top she made experimenting with various techniques including y-seams (bottom image).

Andrea M. took a Dare to be Different class and created these two panels of strips. She is almost out of the horse fabric. 

Andrea also shared labels her husband designed and printed from Fabric on Demand. The image includes a chick with its foot on an egg that contains a quilt design Andrea made for her niece. 

That's it for Show and Tell. Thanks to everyone who shared for so much great inspiration.

Sidenote: For anyone looking to create custom fabric labels, I used this tutorial from Jaybird Quilts to get mine via Spoonflower. It's very easy if you know how to use Illustrator or Photoshop. Also, during Show and Tell, members shared their favorite pens or means to write on their fabric labels. Pigma brand pens (sold at the City Quilter) came up often. Another member mentioned Pentel Gel Rollers for fabric.

*Please let me know if your name or any information on your quilt was captured incorrectly or needs to be  updated.