Keep Calm and Sew On!

Hey guys...
Tomorrow
OUR SEWING ROOM
10-5
$5

We are going to make Kim's block from the August meeting-- for our Sample 2012 block.

Bring 4 coordinating 6 1/2" squares and a (8) 2 1/2" squares of your "neutral". We can get our
snowball on!

It will be awesome.
Better than the parade.... or go to that and then come and sew.  I am going to finish my biggest boondoggle project ever, I am finishing or pitching all my UFOs!

yes,
tomorrow
is
going
2
B
EPIC!

--Jessica

August meeting recap

AUGUST 15—YA GOTTA LOVE AUGUST!

We met on the grass around the EWEB fountain.  Delightful!  Jessica started the evening with cooling treats.  Yum!

 

Ice cream treats! 

Kesch had a package of quick threading 80/12 needles for sewing machines.  Missy volunteered to try them and will report back. 

BEE NEWS:  Lillian handed out Jennifer’s August Bee Blocks.  Deanna collected Karen’s completed July Bee Blocks.  Gorgeous collection of blocks!

Karen's blocks based on this tute. 

My version of Jenn's block : )

ANNOUNCEMENTS. 

1. Lane County Fair.  Check out the fair!  There were a number of entries from EMQG members....

2. September Meeting. Save the date—September 19.  Dessert potluck at the Friendly Park (28^th and Monroe)   Family and friends are invited.  SWAP COLOR is “cider”. 

3. October Meeting. October 17.  Place to be announced. SWAP COLOR/THEME is “ghoulish”.  Deanna will provide a tutorial on Hardanger.  While Deanna plans to provide fabric swatches to us to practice with, we need to bring thread and needles.

4. November Meeting. November 21.  Place to be announced.  SWAP COLOR/THEME is “leftovers”.  Wanda will provide a tutorial on hand quilting.  Wanda plans to provide swatches for us to practice with.

5. December Meeting. December 19. Place to be announced.  Lela will provide a tutorial on Appalachian quilts.

6. AUGUST SEW DAY is Saturday, August 25^th at Our Sewing Room, 5^th and Main in Springfield, 10am-5pm.  Hope to see you there!

7. Monroe Quilt Show. September 1-2, 12-5 at Sweet Earth Vineyard.  Check it out at sweetearthvineyards.com.

8. NW Quilting Expo. September 20-22.  Lets plan a road trip!!

9. EMQG Banner Reminder. Don’t forget to make a 6 ½” (unfinished) square.  Any color, any style. Eager to see our new banner—complements of Denise and YOU!

This is just an example....do what you want...maybe those Farmers Wife QAL blocks that you started (ehem...) and will never finish for an entire quilt....not pointing any fingers here...hee hee

 

SWAP—PURPLE-LICIOUS!! 

There were potholders, bags, pillowcases, and pin cushions to name a few...obviously all of us taking pix forgot to get a group shot of the swap items : (

 

 

SHOW AND TELL

·       Wanda started off with a lion ‘animal blankie’ designed for little fingers to explore textures while they drift off to sleep.

 She has a pattern that she is willing to share that includes an alligator and other cute animals.

·       Kim showed a baby quilt, Rose for Tennessee, and several blocks.  She tried to stay busy—our thoughts are with her as she copes with the death of her dad.

 

You can do something similar with  this tutorial.  

 

Very pretty!

 ·       Missy showed her ‘grocery’ bag that she designed.  Really cool!


 

·       Kesch  displayed her ‘solids challenge’ from a year ago.  She finally figured out how to turn her triangles into butterflies.

 

Look how her quilting turns the triangles into butterflies!  Love it!!

Next Kesch and her daughter Zaide showed a black/white/red quilt that young Zaide made.  The quilt was birthday present for Ketsch’s13 year-old nephew.

 

 

 

 

·       Deanna displayed her quilt from her ‘Beginning Quilt Making’ class at Piece by Piece. It’s a wild quilt with lots of machine quilting—both walking foot AND free motion. 

 

·       Denise displayed a jellyroll quilt embellished with a mustache!  Cute!

 

 

 

Virginia showed a dustbowl, Bull Durham quilt.  The colored fabrics were from seed sacks and flour sacks.  The sashing was made of Bull Durham tobacco bags.

 

 

Meeting

It is that time again...meeting time! 

To take advantage of the wonderful evenings we have been having we will meet outdoors...here...by this lovely fountain and the river.

We will keep it low key with show and tell, doing our swap and visiting!

See you tomorrow night....that is if you aren't off to the Lane Co. Fair instead. : )

July Meeting

And now we are all caught up!  Story of my summer really, playing daily catchup...or trying to stay caught up with the kiddos...good grief! 

JULY 18—GLAD TO BE INDOORS!

GETTING ACQUIANTED.  Building on last month’s get acquainted, Denise posed the questions, “Which do you prefer to watch—a sunset or a sunrise?  Why?   Sunsets were preferred (17) in large part because they happen later in the day and more importantly, because they tend to have vibrant colors.  Sunrises were a close second (13), largely because it starts the day with quiet wonder.  I really like this brief exchange as it helps me put names and anecdotes to faces.

TUTORIAL. Jessica led a discussion on Design Walls.  Check out the YouTube videos here.  We agreed a Design Wall gives much better perspective when designing a quilt than a ‘design floor’ or a ‘design bed’.  As you can see, there are many creative Design Walls.

·       Insulation forms from Jerry’s covered with batting.  Two 4’x8’ in 1” thickness are perfect for attachment to a wall.  The 2” thickness is good for a temporary wall as it can be leaned against anything.

·       Ceiling tiles attached to the wall.

·       The reverse side of a vinyl tablecloth makes a good temporary wall.

·       An old school map roll would make a good start to a semi-permanent wall.

·       There is a vanishing design wall that is available on the market.

·       IKEA tracks with multiple panels and tracks (covering a closet opening) was suggested.

·       Flannel clipped to the top of wire baskets makes a good temporary wall.

·       A retractable clothesline was posed as a temporary wall.  Have to be wary of the potential for sag.

Here are some more links:

Quilting Board design wall ideas
All People Quilt
Sew Katie Did...layered design wall
Oh Fransson...A simple design wall

These are just a few...there are enough ideas out there to make my eyes start to swirl around.

SWAP. Next up was the swap—lovelies in white!  As you can see, there were many clever, creative ideas incorporated into the swaps.

SHOW AND TELL—my favorite part of the evening!  And there were many beautiful projects.

Kathleen shared her teeny, tiny flying geese.  (She worked on this project at June’s sew day.

Itsy bitsy, teeny tiny...LOVE!

Nelda completed here blue and green quilt and sold it ($150—wha hoo!) so she brought a photo of the completed quilt. 

She also showed a block with hexi’s machine pieced and a block incorporating machine piecing of curves.

A nice beginning...we will see what she creates with these!

Charlene, wearing purple, showed a gorgeous purple quilt she made for her mom.  The quilt had LOTS of threadwork.

Absolutely beautiful!!!



Denise showed a quilt with wonky floating blocks on white that she machine quilted with her longarm.  She’s no longer a novice longarm guilter!

Lots of doodles!

Missy brought two pillows and a quilt that her grandmother made using polyester fabric from the clothes she wore.  A vibrant crazy quilt with hand stitched embroidery.

Can you all just see your grandmas in this quilt with their polyester pants...I definately can! 

Kesch showed her January Bee quilt that Denise quilted for her in echoes of the fabric.

 

She also showed her Bee quilt from last year—all she had left to complete was the binding.  This quilt was “appli-quilted” blocks of raw edge scraps.  Using the Bottled Rainbows design

 

front

back

Sheila showed a beanbag cell phone holder she made for her husband to use! 

  I think we all wanted one of these! Great idea! 

She also shared her initial blocks of the Tokyo Subway, a class she took in Sisters last week.

 
The piece d' resistance was a collaborative quilt with her friend.  The friend designed the top and pieced it, while Sheila machine quilted it.  Incredible piecing and quilting.

So lovely!

 Detail of some of the quilting

 Amazing quilting on the back!



Jessica shared her hexi blocks that she pieced by hand as part of the Hexy MF quilt along...she is into hexies right now...the bottom block is one she designed for our quilt along that we are doing on Sew Days.

Laurie shared the Mystery Quilt she made through Piece by Piece. Stunning! She described the five-month process and noted that Piece by Piece plans to do a three-month holiday mystery quilt beginning in August...PBP Class list.

front

back

Connie shared a colorful snowball baby’s quilt.

So sweet!

 

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

·       Lillian noted that Saturday, July 28^th , the EVQ was having a mini-quilt sew at Our Sewing Room.  The guild provides all the material, patterns, etc.  This is part of their annual fundraiser.

·       Sheila noted she was contacted about the sale of a HQ16 longarm that is three years old.  She will provide more information for the blog as she learns more.

·       August SWAP color is PURPLE!

·       September TUTORIAL is HAND QUILTING by Wanda.

·       October TUTORIAL is HARDINGER by Deanna.

Thats all folks...see you on the 15th for our August meeting.

June...a catch up blog post...

...in which your earstwhile leaders try to get on the ball and get the minutes caught up for everyone!  Ha!

To get us caught up I am going to cheat and just paste in the minutes as done by our wonderful volunteers! : )

First up is Wanda's take on our June meeting: 

JUNE 20—MEETING IN THE ROUND!

Jessica noted this was a full meeting—and she wasn’t kidding.

Jennifer, one of EMQG’s ‘toddlers’, showed baby quilts; the same pattern in two different color ways.  She was really proud of her accomplishment.  And so were we!  (Then she was off—a date night with her husband!)

With summer just beginning, Jessica encouraged us to identify a favorite summer vacation.  As you can see, favorite vacations were varied.

·       Camping trips were by far the most prevalent.

·       Cross-country road trips. (Phyllis shared a wonderful story that amazed all of us.)

·       Grand Canyon trips.

·       International trips—Caribbean, Africa, Costa Rica, Cruise through the Panama Canal.

·       Trips to New York City, Alaska, Hawaii, the Wallowa’s, and the Adirondacks.

·       The retelling of a winter snow showing backpacking trip at night left us in stitches.

 

Nancy provided two tutorials.  The first was on GO and GO BABY, a much-applauded die cutting process that produces very accurate cutting.  (At least Nancy, Phyllis, and Deanna/Karen own machines.)  Both GO and GO BABY are available (at a better price than found at JoAnn’s) on Amazon and EBay.  There are suggestions on the back of each die package.  Nancy particularly likes the strip dies.

"I love the Accuquilt Go! Cutter...I could be their spokesperson I love it so much"

The second tutorial was on SEWING HEXAGONS BY MACHINE.

·       Cut the hexagons. (Nancy generally uses her dies to cut the hexagons.)

·       Mark the fabric ¼ inch in from each point.

·       Sew one column of hexagons. (Do NOT press until after ALL hexagons are joined.)

Then add a hexagon to the top AND to the right of the top hexagon. Line up the hexagons and sew the first leg of the Y (from outside to center).  Fold the result in half, then pin and sew the next leg of the Y.  Continue until the column is completed.  Repeat until all hexagons are joined.

"I make a long chain of these..."

Next up, notes from Deanna:

The June exchange called for something yellow.  Those that participated made and received some beautiful items.  There was quite a variety.

Next month’s exchange will be something white.  Have fun creating!

Show and tell brought out some fine pieces and showcased some of our members great talent.

Kelly brought a beautiful snowball and crosses quilt in blues, yellows, reds and whites.  Truly a nice quilt that needs to be shown, maybe in our next quilt show!!!

Can you say gorgeous!!!!

Kelly also brought her bee block quilt from 2011.  Rectangle piecing in blues, tans, greens and yellows.  It was machine quilted with nice hand quilting accents.  The back was really cool with wonky log cabin squares.

Front

Back...not sure which is more beautiful! But what can you expect from Kelly,
her work is A-L-W-A-Y-S amazing!

Nancy showed us her work in progress, a Storm at Sea pattern in lovely greens, whites, purples and blues.  The quilting was done with free-motion.  Nancy used her lazy angle ruler for cutting.  Another neat tool to look for and add to our tool boxes.  She also had a bonus pillow sham she made.

Love, love, love...but then I am a little obsessed with Kate Spain fabrics.

Nancy also told us about the Steady Betty arm support, a foam piece that goes around your hand while quilting, leaving enough room so you can move your fingers to sew while wearing it.

And that ladies was a wrap up of June's meeting!