August Meeting Recap

On Saturday, August 5, we met at the Lane Memorial Library in Hampton, NH.

We discussed the following business:

Jen Carlton-Bailly workshops Sept 9-10: No regular meeting is scheduled for September; it has been replaced by Jen’s workshops. (NOTE: NO block of the month will be due in September!) Both workshops are to be held from 9 am to 4 pm with a break for lunch in the West Newbury Town Hall Annex (381 Main St., West Newbury, MA). Panera lunch will be ordered. All workshop fees should already be paid. If you are registered for a workshop please refer to the supply list Amy sent via email on June 25. There is a note in the PDF supply list about ordering plastic templates, if you would like to do so.

Festival of Trees: our application has been sent in (thanks Nancy!) and the 4 ornaments per member will be due at the November meeting. Please see the July Meeting Recap for instructions and inspiration links. Dates for the festival itself are November 17-19.

Strawbery Banke:  Paula received communication from Strawbery Banke asking if we would be willing to show quilts at the Fall Festival on October 7. Paula asked for potential committee volunteers who will step in if we move forward with the project (thanks Letty, Hildy, Barbara, Mary Lee, Kathy, and Diane!) and collected questions to ask when she tours the property. Find your mini quilt from the Gathering...and READ THIS PDF for more information!

Upcoming meetings: October in Kingston, NH for officer nominations, Dec swap name draw, and crayon challenge voting. Please consider whether you would like to fill any of the four available officer positions and contact any of our current officers with questions; November in Brentwood, NH for charity pillowcase sew and annual election; December in Hampton, NH for annual end-of-year celebration and swap fun. We will be making the Boxy Bag from the Kelby Sews Tutorial to swap.

Crayon Box Challenge is due at the October meeting, details can be found here: Crayon Box Challenge

The next lottery block is due at the November meeting, so you have several months to make one or many. Information for the November block lottery block is HERE

The 2018 Retreat will be held at the Franciscan on May 3-6, 2018. Please contact JoAnne via email if you would like to serve on the retreat committee.

A yellow Olfa rotary cutter was found at the retreat this past May, please contact Nancy if you are missing one.

Show and Tell

Robin showed off her finished retreat project, which was quilted by Carrie Zizza.

Amy showed her Triangle Toss and Namaste quilts.

Suzanne showed two bright charity quilts that she quilted on her longarm.

Barbara showed off her retreat project from this past May.

Barb finished her husband’s quilt after beginning it at the 2016 retreat.

Diane participated in a “hoop along” challenge, finished the table runner she was working on at retreat, and participated in Sherri Lynn Wood’s Van Gogh challenge, showing one prototype project and one final entry.

Paula finished her four tree ornaments.

Thanks to Amy for her presentation on EQ 7. We had many questions answered and were all impressed by the program’s many useful functions.

August Meeting Reminder

Our August meeting will take place from 10am-12pm August 5th, at the Lane Memorial Library, which is at 2 Academy Ave in Hampton, NH. Amy Friend of During Quiet Time will be giving us a presentation on EQ7, the quilt design software.

July Meeting Recap

On Saturday we met at the West Newbury Town Hall Annex for our July meeting.

We had our Christmas in July sew-in to begin making ornaments for the Festival of Trees. We are asking for each member to make 4 ornaments that are 6 inches or less in size.
Some inspiration:
http://www.aquiltinglife.com/2014/07/small-quilts-and-quilted-projects-parade.html
http://stumblesandstitches.blogspot.com/2011/11/tutorial-scrappy-stocking-christmas.html?m=1
http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/2014/12/mini-christmas-tree-quilt-ornament.html
http://blog.betzwhite.com/2011/12/fabric-star-ornament-tutorial.html#.WWV6iyMrIy5
https://wanelo.co/p/37627805/two-2-christmas-tree-ornaments-decorations-english-paper-pieced-hexagons-green-red

We are still looking for a home for our most recent QuiltCon Charity Quilt. In the past, we have donated quilts to A Safe Place in Portsmouth, NH, and in 2016 our quilt went to HAWC in Salem, MA.  Please speak with one of the board members if you have a suggestion for a home for our 2017 quilt!

Block Lottery for August: Quarter Log Cabin Block
Mono-tone with gray

The block for this month is a quarter log cabin. There are many tutorials online if you want to get general instructions, but essentially the block starts with a square and builds with strips ("logs") on only two adjacent sides rather than on all four sides, as a log cabin usually does. Choose a shade of the rainbow as your dominant color and add in one layer of gray.
1. Start with a 2 1/2" square of a solid in your color of choice.
2. Build out 5 or 6 logs on 2 adjacent sides of that square, make the 2 adjacent logs of the same fabric.
3. Logs should be straight (not wonky) but of random widths.
4. Each block should be made of one dominant color, prints or solids and varying shades are allowed.
5. Each block should contain at least one log of a gray fabric, any shade you choose, print or solid. If more than one log layer is gray another shade of gray can be used if you choose.
6. The block should be 7 1/2" square or just slightly over so the winner can trim it to 7 1/2".

We also had a door prize of some scraps from Amy's new fabric line, Improv. This can be found online, or locally at Cross Cut Sewing in Melrose. Paula and Kali were the lucky winners!

Also, our BOM group shared their most recent blocks:

For Show & Tell, Hildy shared a quilt made with wonky 9 patches, as well as her new portable design wall! She made this with a box, some flannel, a staple gun and some tape!

 

 

Jane F shared this quilt which I believe she made for a new nephew, using the Bjorn Bear quilt pattern by Elizabeth Hartman.

Kathy shared these two charity quilts made using fabric from the guild last month, and some scraps of her own.

 

JoAnn shared this quilt that she was working on at retreat that was made with the Quick Curve Ruler for her sister. Most of the fabric used is from Mardens!

Barb shared these double gauze baby blankets made for her second granddaughter who was born on July 4th! She used many different manufacturers of double gauze, but had the best results from Robert Kaufman or Cotton and Steel brand. These shrunk the least when pre-washed.

Upcoming events:
July 31 - Final Jen Carlton Bailly payments due to Amy.
August 5th - August Meeting EQ7 Demonstration by Amy Friend at the Lane Memorial Library in Hampton. Please email any questions you may have to Amy before the meeting so that she may add tailor her presentation to the things we want to know!
Sept 9th & 10th - Jen Carlton Bailly workshops. Email Amy to get on the waitlist!
For September, there will be no regular meeting, and no show and tell.
Oct 7th - October Meeting in Kingston, Crayon Box Challenge Voting and Prizes
Oct 22nd - Sew Boston 9am-8pm in Kendall Square in Cambridge. Signups are here!

July Meeting Reminder

Our July meeting will be held on Saturday July 8th from 10am through 2pm. This meeting will be held at the West Newbury Town Hall Annex which is located at 381 Main St, West Newbury, MA 01985.
We will be having a Christmas in July Sew-In with our goal being to make ornaments and decorations for a tree that will be displayed indoors in mid-November at the Urban Forestry Center's Festival of Trees in Portsmouth.

Please bring your sewing essentials (sewing machine, magnetic pin cushion and pins, etc) and some holiday fabric to sew with.

June Meeting Recap

On Saturday we met at the West Newbury Town Hall Annex for our June meeting and to do some charity sewing.

The weekend prior was the retreat, held at the Franciscan Guest House in Kennebunk. There were 20 attendees and it sounds like everyone had a great time! The High-five hand was passed to JoAnne for all of her hard work leading the Retreat Committee.
The 2018 retreat will be held at the Franciscan from Thursday May 3rd to Sunday May 6th.

September workshops with Jen Carlton-Bailly - Final payments for these workshops are due July 31st.

The Block of the Month sewists shared their April, May, and June blocks. For July, the block is the To and Fro block.

We also held the lottery for the star blocks that were requested way back in March! I believe it was Jane, who sent in a block even though she couldn't make the meeting, who is the winner of the blocks below!

Judy also announced our summer Crayon Box Challenge. Please see the post here for all of the details!

Nancy started off our Show and Tell with her finished quilt done with a Lori Holt pattern.

She also shared this quilt that was a Mystery quilt made with her Bedford guild. She used her fabric choices to update this traditional pattern.

Bethany shared her fractured landscape quilt. This quilt was started in a class, however she adapted her technique to utilize paper piecing.

Gayle, a new member, shared this quilt that she worked on at retreat. She finished this with spiral quilting.

JoAnne shared this Kaffe inspired quilt that she worked on over the winter while in Florida.

Suzanne shared this BE quilt that was made for her grand daughter. The bricks behind the word BE feature 240 different words of things to aspire to be. She also mentioned the following tip: use Press N Seal wrap to test out quilting designs. Stick the wrap to your quilt top and use a felt tip pen or marker to plan out where you are going to quilt. She says that some people quilt through this, however she never has.

Kathy shared her quilt made using Score #2 from Sherri Lynn Wood's book.

She also shared this quilt top that I believe she said was paper pieced.

Diane shared a few different projects with us. The first is this star quilt made using Victoria Findlay Wolfe's pattern to slash the pieces of fabric, and some of a stripe fabric that Victoria designed.

This quilt top was made using the Quick Curve Ruler.

 

This quilt was made using block 1 of the Block of the Month.

And this quilt was inspired by a Mighty Lucky challenge.

Hildy shared these two coordinating quilts that are for two sisters.

For our July meeting, we will be meeting on July 8th in the West Newbury Town Hall Annex (this is the same place as May and June). We will be having a Christmas in July sew-in from 10-2pm. We are going to be making ornaments and decorations for a tree that will be displayed in mid-November at the Urban Forestry Center's Festival of Trees in Portsmouth. We will be decorating a large tree that will be displayed indoors.