November Meeting Reminder

GRMQG Regular Monthly Meeting

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

(Election Day)

Stitched Studio

1144 E. Paris

Grand Rapids

Social Time:  6:30 p.m.

Meeting:  7:00 p.m.

Michelle Luke, our fearless leader, will update us on the new trends she uncovered at the Fall Market in Houston.  At the October meeting we agreed that Abby would present a lesson on modern embroidery embellishments integral to modern quilting, however her presentation has been postponed.  In its place a surprise speaker will present what modern quilting means to her and probably initiate a very interesting discussion.  Wish I could be there ( I work elections)!  

Here are the minutes prepared by our devoted interim secretary, Lynda Plowman:

       

 October 7, 2014

Grand Rapids Modern Quilters Guild

Make sure you take a look at Cathy's blog GRMQG@blogspot.com.  It features photos from previous meetings and updates on upcoming events and meetings.

We are establishing a board that will consist of President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary.  It will be a two year commitment, and the Vice-President will take over the Presidents position.  A survey on Survey Monkey will be going out so that we can participate in voting for officers and start the process of by-laws and a mission statement.

The Great Lakes Modern Quilt Guild is hosting a retreat the weekend of November 15 and will be located in upper Indiana.  They are looking for some fun, enthusiastic quilters to join them for a great weekend.

The next meeting will be November 4.  Be sure to vote before you come to the meeting!  We are going to ask Abby to come and give a demonstration on her embroidery and pillow embellishment.  If you come, please bring a needle, hoop, small scissors, some embroidery floss and a small piece of material.

Adrienne hosted the skill school for this meeting, and she shared with us some secrets for combining color in our quilts.  She shared that in fabric has music: the stage is the background, you have a soloist, your harmony (which is made of three), and a chorus, and they all need to blend and work together.  And of course, don't forget the binding, which is the fabric that will hold it all together.  When picking fabrics, make sure you take into consideration how light can effect color.  Adrienne gave us a challenge to explore the store and come up with our own choir combination in five minutes.  It was inspiring to see the different types of "music" that everyone presented. 

Show and Share was a whirlwind, but was of course a great example of the giftedness of the group!



Recently Caroll D and I visited the Muskegon Art Museum to view Judy Crow's modern quilts - more in a later blog, but to finish this post with something pretty from the museum enjoy this Chihuly bowl

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Curve it Up Time......

Reminder Time

Block of the Month Time for October!

Stitched Studio

Tuesday, October 21 at 6 p.m.(5:45 to show)

or

Wednesday, October 22 at 10 a.m.(9:45 to show)

 Next week is the first meeting to bring in your completed squares for the Curve It Up BOM so you receive your next patterns and fabric at no additional charge.  If you have no completed block to share an additional fee will be charged - so get your blocks done.  More about the rules here.

Remember I shared my first blocks, I'll be interested in seeing all of your blocks and the different fabrics you chose.  No shyness allowed.

If you recall my October post about curly shot cloth you might also be interested in reading the 13 Spools on the shrink factor of shot cloth!  Her discussion also deals with mixing shot cloth with regular quilting cottons. Have you had any problems or interesting experiences with shot cloth?  Please post or bring your comments to your class on October 21st/22nd. 

.13 Spools has many great patterns and tutorials. Check her site out....See you Tuesday/Wednesday.

I recently learned about a controversy on using Best Press and shrinkage....will do some investigation and let you know.....

Also, do you know about Frixion pens?  Stay tuned for more info.....

Business Per Usual.......

 As promised, here are the minutes from the October 6, 2014 meeting.  Please note that if this guild is to take off and become "real" Michelle will need help with the legalistic business.  Don't be shy about your skills.  One thing I know women do to themselves, and that is undersell their capabilities.  As a woman over 60+ years of age and veteran of many school and non-profit boards, and 25+ year career in mid and upper management, the younger women who attend need to step up:  this guild is really for you in the long run.  I love to share my experiences, but I just know you all will glaze over just as my daughters do....you need to create your glazing over memories for your heirs....





Grand Rapids Modern Quilters Guild

Make sure you take a look at Cathy's blog GRMQG@blogspot.com.  It features photos from previous meetings and updates on upcoming events and meetings.

We are establishing a board that will consist of President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary.  It will be a two year commitment, and the Vice-President will take over the Presidents position.  A survey on Survey Monkey will be going out so that we can participate in voting for officers and start the process of by-laws and a mission statement.

The Great Lakes Modern Quilt Guild is hosting a retreat the weekend of November 15 and will be located in upper Indiana.  They are looking for some fun, enthusiastic quilters to join them for a great weekend.

The next meeting will be November 4.  Be sure to vote before you come to the meeting!  We are going to ask Abby to come and give a demonstration on her embroidery and pillow embellishment.  If you come, please bring a needle, hoop, small scissors, some embroidery floss and a small piece of material.

Adrienne hosted the skill school for this meeting, and she shared with us some secrets for combining color in our quilts.  She shared that in fabric has music: the stage is the background, you have a soloist, your harmony (which is made of three), and a chorus, and they all need to blend and work together.  And of course, don't forget the binding, which is the fabric that will hold it all together.  When picking fabrics, make sure you take into consideration how light can effect color.  Adrienne gave us a challenge to explore the store and come up with our own choir combination in five minutes.  It was inspiring to see the different types of "music" that everyone presented. 

Show and Share was a whirlwind, but was of course a great example of the giftedness of the group.


Must run for now....be sure to check out one of the blogs I follow shown on the side bar.

Share and Show....

Not only did we have a wonderful attendance at our monthly Grand Rapids Modern Quilt Guild meeting, a great demonstration by Adrienne, and a Share and Show which was truly remarkable.  Below are the pictures, ENJOY and be inspired....

A combination of piecing a 5 patch with applique fall corn cobs.

Claire made this MSU quilt for a friend, the green color doesn't show well.  The logo material is shown for the backing.

 The flowers are the back of the pillow, don't you just love the log cabin front with the garden on the back!

This is one big drunkard's path!  Well done!  Love the curves.  The back, below, must be showing the path to all the breweries in West Michigan!

This multi-colored Irish Chain is simple but absolutely one of my favorites!

Beautiful hand applique work.  All those stems....egads!

This is the back to the applique, (I now hope) We can mix so many different fabrics when we let go of our inhibitions.

I am so glad to this top completed.  It's an Amy Gibson mystery quilt from Craftsy.com.  My fabric is still upstairs waiting for my attention.  Aren't the colors great.

Last, but not least.  Part of our meeting was the fat quarter swap.  Partners were chosen is September.  We were instructed by our fearless leader to name our favorite color and our least favorite color, and then present them WRAPPED at the meeting.  Of course Adrienne's came in the wonderfully done bag with leaves matching her fat quarters!

Adrienne led the choristers!

At our regular monthly meeting, and what a meeting it was, we not only had outstanding attendance but a very full fun agenda!  Anyone who's been with Adrienne for 10 minutes will soon know she's a Kiwi and some very interesting sayings.  Her personality sang through her presentation on color:  the soloist, the harmony, the background singers and of course the stage.  She attended a class several years ago by a guru quilter on color.  To help quilters understand and simplify fabric choices the choir and soloist analogy was used.  Digging though her own stash and apparently having fun at Stitched Studio she brought in several samples of good choices and some where the voices needed silencing.

Adrienne getting ready to explain color selections

The cute elephants fabric is the soloist with the pinks becoming the harmony. One of the pinks can also become the stage

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Questioning this fabric as a harmonizer.....

Here Adrienne is demonstrating how a stripe cut on the bias makes a great binding.

Another soloist example...

with a  stage and two harmonizers.

The whole choir , stage and soloist

 

The harmonizers don't have to be plain fabrics, notice the gray check.

 After her presentation Adrienne had us all go and find fabric selections using this fun technique.  What a fun night it was! 

While I'm not so keen on hexies, I know many of you are.  If you're not familar with the Moda Bake Shop site here's an opportunity as this link has a table runner you can make as a thank you gift or holiday gift.  Moda Hexie Table Runner

Next blog will show all the great projects our members did in the last month!  Stay tuned to see your work.....

Quilting with Kids......

On Wednesday afternoon my Caroll and I had the privilege of substituting for a volunteer at North Park Montessori of the  Grand Rapids Public School system.  Robin G is the technical para-pro for the school and it always helping out the teachers in other classrooms, but this time outside help was needed.  The eighth graders have been working with Miss Sue on making a quilt using applique.  We were blown away with their creativity with little or no knowledge of sewing or the type of applique procedures "grown ups" use.  I would have loved, and so would the students, to show their faces but chose to only share their work.  They were all working on making a town, city, village, street, you get the idea. Enjoy!

Detail cutting attracted the girls, large obtuse shapes attracted the boys!

After detail cutting this quilter was making a garden.  Since the fusible webbing wasn't already on, her problem solving skills came into play!  Great thinking.....

These shapes are tall buildings

It was so much fun to be back in a GRPS school.  In the fairly recent past I had the privilege of serving GRPS.  Consequently, I have been in every high school in session at the time, most if not all middle schools and many classrooms in the elementary schools.  If all the other school districts were as transparent at GRPS it would be common knowledge that GRPS is probably the safest school system in west Michigan!  If you've ever thought about helping out, in any school district, call the administrative offices.  If interested in volunteering in GRPS check this site out.

Here are some pictures from the Russian school I visited on my trip:

Hallway

Exercise Room

A true English classroom:  where speaking English is taught

The secondary school, grades 4-9, in a village of 600 persons.

 

 Don't forget the West Michigan Quilters Guild bi-annual quilt show at the Delta Plex!
 Bye for now.....

Curly Shot Cloth......

Thursday was my day of courage.  I began the Sew Kind of Wonderful block of the month offered by Stitched Studio.  Because of my trip I missed the demo that Michelle presented to the group that attended on the 16th of October.  Promise to self:  never miss the demo again.  So much to say and show!  My renewed interest in curves began this past January when I took a Craftsty.com class on curves.  It was wonderful!  The class offered techniques and methods of cutting and sewing curves.  While not great, I did enjoy it and used up some of my Civil War scraps.

When I learned that Stitched Studio was doing a BOM using the Quick Curve Ruler I was so excited!  Michelle warned me about the Shot cloth fraying.....never did she warn me about the curling ability it has!

 We've been having dry weather for Michigan and my sewing room is upstairs where it's always WARM!  While Michelle did suggest to starch the fabric, I used my favorite Best Press.  Since I always do as I am told (cough cough) my iron was steaming away.  Dry iron, Best Press made no difference.  My large rulers came to the rescue, but those pesky corners we measure from sure did not want to lay flat.
On to using the ruler.....I watched the demo videos here.  
I even read and reread the pattern instructions.....well, I need a lot more practice.  Here are my blocks for September.

The corners almost match on all the sides......

Need help with measuring the 1/2" off the triangles.  These golden corners remind me of so many of the Russian churches I saw a couple weeks ago!

 

 

Wonky is my favorite feature in modern quilting, I don't even need classes on it, it's all improvised!  (RLOL)!

I opted to match the "cathedral" points, but two of the blocks are about a 1/4" short which ramifies into the  total block.  I can hardly wait for the October21st meeting.