Monday, April 22, 2013

Quilts for Boston

 
The Boston Modern Quilt Guild is asking for help making blocks in blue, yellow, gray and white.  They are collecting the blocks and will make quilts for the victims of the Marathon bombing.  If you'd like to contribute, please read all the details here.  The deadline is quickly approaching so try to fit it in soon. 
 
If you'd like to offer to help with these quilts, please leave a comment here or email me and I will forward your contact information to the BMQG in case they find themselves in need of extra hands.
 
Amy

Saturday, April 20, 2013

to Boston with Love


Berene of Happy Sew Lucky contacted me earlier this week to see if I would help achieve her vision.  She wanted to create a bunting made of flags from people all over the world to be hung in Boston. They would be a gift to the city.  My small part is to help find a location for the flags in Boston and to receive them.  I will be working to find a location this coming week once Boston gets back on its feet a bit.

If you would like to spread the word about Berene's effort and if you would like to participate, there is a detailed tutorial and lots of information on the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild's blog

I think that this is an extremely thoughtful gesture.  If you'd like to thank Berene for thinking of us, her email can be found on that same blog post.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Surface Design Brochure

Diane has made an informational brochure about our Surface Design workshop next month.  Thank you Diane!  It can be downloaded here.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

May Agenda-Fabric Surface Design

 

Our next meeting will be held on Saturday May 4th at 10:00.  We can work as long as we want (within reason!).  The meeting will be held at the Barnard School, 219 Main Ave. South Hampton, NH 03827.  New members are always welcome. You may attend a meeting as our guest, dues to join for the year are $36.  Membership forms will be available at the meeting.
 
FROM THE HAMPTON, NH AREA
From Rte. 1 at Hampton Falls center, heading south, bear right after the common at Fiddlestitcks (Rte 84).
Go over Rte. 95.
Take your second left onto Mill Lane.
Bear right at the fork.
At the end of the road turn right onto Rte. 107.
At the next intersection turn left onto Rte. 150 south.
Continue over the state border into Amesbury, MA.
Take your first right onto Fern Ave.
At the end of the road, turn right onto Rte. 107A (South Hampton Rd.)
Continue north onto Rte. 107A to South Hampton.
Barnard School is about 1.5 miles north on the right.  It is a white building.
 
FROM RTE 495-THE HAVERHILL, MA AREA
Rte 495 towards Amesbury, MA
Take Rte 150 exit.
Follow Rte. 150 through Amesbury center.  Go halfway around the rotary at the town center and head up Market St. (Rte. 150) where you will see Provident Bank on the right.
At the fork in the road, bear left.  This will be South Hampton Rd. (Rte. 107A)
Continue about 2.5 miles.
At the hilltop there will be a common on the left, across the street is the school.
 
FROM RTE 95
From RTE 95 take the Amesbury Rte. 110 exit.  If you are coming from the north, take a left at the end of the ramp.  If you are coming from the south, bear right off ramp.
At the first set of lights, turn right (at Burger King).
Continue on Elm Street until you get to Amesbury center.
Do not go around rotary but turn right and head up Market Street (Rte. 150) where you will see Provident Bank on right.
At the fork, bear left.  This will be South Hampton Rd. (Rte. 107A)
Continue about 2.5 miles.
At the hilltop there will be a common on the left, across the street is the school.

AGENDA:

We will have show and tell--bring your latest project to share.

We will review a draft of the SMQG bylaws and discuss officers.  We will continue our discussion about joining the MQG-so far, all are in agreement so we are working on the requirements needed to join (bylaws and officers).

We'll hold our first block lottery organized by Sam-see previous post.  Make a block and bring a $1 and you get one chance to win all the blocks.  Bring 3 blocks and $3 and you get 3 chances to win all the blocks....get it?  The money will be earmarked to go toward our guild's MQG dues. 

Diane and Paula have put together a great fabric surface design workshop for us.  Diane will show us how to make freezer paper stencils, how to silk screen and make gelatin prints.  Paula will demonstrate how to make marbled ink fabric.
 
Supplies you must bring:  $5 toward ink costs, drawing pad and pencil, fabric to print on (prewash if you plan to wash your final product), meat/fruit/veggie Styrofoam trays as big as possible (fyi, you can put these through the dishwasher to clean them before bringing them).
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Seacoast Guild's First Block Lottery

Hello Everyone!  Sorry for the delay in posting, fortunately I can use a sewing machine much better than a computer!  


Here is the block I chose for our first block lottery! Natalie, from Greenleafgoods, is the creator of this beauty.  When I saw it in person (in quilt!) at the Boston Modern Quilt Guild, I fell in love!  The tutorial is very clear with lots of pictures.  Each block is four pinwheels and will be 12.5 inches unfinished.  


Wonky Pinwheel Blocks: A Tutorial



Here are the colors I chose using Design-seeds.com.  This site will make you want to start 100 new quilts and repaint every room in your home!  The fourth color from the left will be our neutral for the pinwheels.  Greenleafgoods uses a variety of neutrals so feel free to do the same.  Have fun with the colors, use them as a guideline, but don't drive yourself crazy matching.  This is supposed to be fun and wonky!




At our last meeting we had discussed donating a dollar along with our block to go toward our Modern Quilt Guild dues.  So if you want to make 1,000 blocks that would be great!  Can't wait to see how this quilt looks when put together!

Samantha Russell

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Asbury Challenge

 
 
 
Thanks to Andover Fabrics, our guild was able to have an Asbury challenge that wrapped up at our meeting yesterday.  Andover donated charm packs of Asbury by Thomas Knauer.  Members made projects highlighting the charm pack, adding only solids. 
 
This clever work apron was made by Karen would couldn't model it in person but sent along this photograph.
 
 
 
This wonderfully creative mini was made by Stephanie-check out the boardwalk and the Ferris wheel!
 
 


Sam made this set of zip bags.


Barbara made this structured bag.


Laura made this tote (featuring my fav. text print!).

 
Nancy made this colorful (and long!) table runner.

 
Paula is also working on a table runner with the collection using some raw edge applique.  It's almost done but not finished due to a thread emergency!

 
Samantha made this quilt top that she is more than half way through quilting.  Maybe we will see it finished at the next meeting!





 
I didn't get the names of the guild members who made these three quilts but if they would like to email me, I will happily add their names!


 
Our challenge winner, by popular vote, was Diane who made this adorable, reversible jacket.  This is the second challenge she has won in a row! 
 
Thank you Andover Fabrics!

April Meeting


We had a lovely April meeting, hosted by JoAnne at her condominium club house in Hampton, NH.  It was definitely our most plush accommodation to date!  Thank you to those who provided snacks and beverages.

We started out with Show and Tell.  Paula completed her bottle pillow cut at our March meeting using the Sizzix.

 
Judy shared this large coin quilt made for one of a set of twins.  She is working on the boy's quilt now.

 
JoAnne made this beautiful ocean quilt and, believe it or not, it was quilted on her home machine!


 
Laura made this colorful quilt for her little girl's 2nd birthday!

 
This is the back!

 
Nancy showed her Twister, completed from the February meeting.

 
And she shared her curved piecing pillows from the March meeting.


And finally, she shared this applique table runner from a recent workshop.


Samantha R. shared her logcabin quilt in progress.

 
Stephanie's Bookworm quilt was back from the public library where it had been on display so she was able to share it both front...

 
and back.

 
 
Sam shared her second twister quilt from the February meeting.


We then discussed Sarah Watson's generous offer of a fat quarter stack of her Indian Summer collection.  We decided to divide it into 2-3 bundles and Peg offered some solids to coordinate.  We will divide into groups and put together baby quilts, Round Robin style, and donate them to the hospital in Portland, ME.  Paula will get the contact information for that.

We had a good discussion about joining the Modern Quilt Guild.  The group was unanimous to go ahead and join in July.  The major selling points were group insurance rates, non profit status, and inclusion in the greater modern quilting movement.  In order to do that, we need to write bylaws, have formally elected officers, and a bank account.  We have the bank account all set.  Michele and Paula will work on a rough draft of the bylaws for review by the next meeting.  We will talk about formalizing officers titles at the next meeting as well.

In order to lighten my work load (Amy), I asked if someone would take care of arranging beverages and snacks for each meeting.  Robin agreed to do this so be looking for her email prior to each meeting and please try to take a turn to volunteer.  Laura agreed to take photographs at the meetings and write the post meeting blog post each month. 

I suggested a block raffle where we would each sew a designated modern block and bring them in to the next meeting.  They blocks will be raffled to one winner.  Sam agreed to take over this "block lottery" of the month or every other month.  Check the blog for details once Sam has decided on the block tutorial and colorway.

Amy presented a brief outline of Electric Quilt 7 software.

The other big highlight of the meeting was the Asbury challenge!  It deserves it's own post coming next.