More members, more Show and Share....

It is so wonderful to see Grand Rapids Modern Quilters grow in membership.  Along with more members, more inspiring ideas are displayed by the members.

 Nancy has not heard of Glamping, but she has made a Glamping pillow.  Glamorous and camping combined make the new word: glamping.  My new favorite magazine, Mary Jane's Farm, has a special section for women that Glamp!  Nancy is on her way!

 Marcia's Vintage Revival quilt is at the long armer's so she showed us the picture.  We definitely want to see the real thing when completed.  I do believe one of the modern bloggers designed the pattern and published a book to this name.  Marcia's colors are so uplifting.

 Adrienne has made her first and last bag!  However, the bag is gorgeous and roomy!  Good job, Ade!

 Jan shows us her Riley Blake challenge quilt.  Apparently, Riley Blake had an on-line challenge.  Sadly, Jan missed the date for submission.  Her quilting is detailed and very appropriate for the quilt.

 The picture does not do justice to the back fabric Jan used.  It's really pretty.

Not only designed the top and the quilting Jan does her own labels.

Holly brought her red work blocks she's embroidering for a quilt.  Great craftswomanship!


Sew Mama Sew has a tutorial on a really nice looking heart block:  Love Wins All!  It's one of the better shaped heart blocks I've seen, it's paper pieced.

Quilting can be a sanctuary for some....

and for the Grand Rapids Modern Quilters we took our meeting to the sanctuary at Kuyper College....no other doors were unlocked.  It was a great meeting as always when wonderful recommendations and ideas pour forth.

 President Ginger refreshes us on what the purpose of this group vis a vis the bylaws.

Interested members listening to Ginger.  Nice to see Michele L., our founder and Stitched Studio owner.

Adrienne gave us a very informative explanation of fabric that "appears" or "reads" solid versus those fabrics that do not.

These blocks were our homework if we wished to participate in the drawing to win them.  All of our blocks that we've made since we started the modern block give away should read solid.  While most of all the blocks have been good looking, not all have "read" solid.

 These two pictures show us Kathy's stack and whack squares.  Bright colors are so cheerful.

Ron showed us her strip baby quilt - those 30's fabrics fit in with any style of quilting! Roni also applied lesson learned at an earlier meeting on faux edging all included in the binding.  

More pictures to come....

While making gak has nothing to do with quilting, it's just fun especially as this summer winds down and school is getting closer......glitter gak recipe

Becky Bid a Slam and Made IT!

I couldn't resist the bridge analogy for Becky's Show and Share from our meeting on Tuesday night!  She made these beautiful self-binding baby receiving blankets.

Becky directed us to the Missouri Star Quilt Company and search for self-binding baby receiving blanket.  Becky made these three blankets in one day without a lot of stress or time.  I believe she indicated that all three blankets were done is about 3 hours.  Well, since we have a new baby girl in the neighborhood, I was up to the challenge.  Oh, my goodness!  I had to double check my angle cut since I'm a lefty and angles and I are not always congruent.  Including the sizing and squaring of the two pieces of flannel, my blanket took an hour and fifteen minutes!  Thank you, Becky!

I really liked how this flannel even looked like patchwork!  The mitered corners were perfect!  Yeah! I did wash it before delivering it across the street and the flannel went a bit wonky, but not too bad.  Next time perhaps I'll wash the flannel first. 

Missouri Star Quilt Company is a must site to bookmark.  Jenny Doan does the absolute best videos.  I don't really enjoy watching videos on line all that much, but hers are clear, simple and easy to follow.  Here's the site for the blanket.  A few posts ago I highlighted the Disappearing Pinwheel from MSQC.  Enjoy.

Triangling Up

A few posts back I showed you my attempt at making a block made of triangles:

I had been at the Mod Squad thinking it couldn't take all that long especially since I have the super 60 degree ruler.  The bottom triangle looks lopsided, but figured it was all part of the process.  In the past I have whined how hard it is for me to work with scraps.  This project is no exception.  About a week has past and since I'm caught up on my monthly regular blocks the challenge to conquer this triangle block persists.

 I have two 12" x12 "x 3" cases full of the scraps I save for Mod Squad.  They are now sorted and spread out over my cutting table, super large ironing table. design wall and  a wherever spot.  Each spot has several layers of similar colors.

Even though it was approaching 80 degrees upstairs with the A/C on I ironed each piece, hoping for new inspiration.  So, I cut more triangles, only smaller.  See the small examples on the design wall.
The new inspiration came with resignation to AGAIN read the instructions:  triangle-up the triangles to 12"  My two large ones were in excess of this measure and wanting to grow, but missing that right piece of scrap.   I do not want to tear apart my stash for that magic piece.  The resulting square of triangles may not be pretty but it will be square.....will keep you informed.  Oh, by the way, I have at least 5 hours total invested in this "block".

What are you all working on this summer....this new mess is keeping me from finishing my swirling star started last year.....next in line.

Here's a recipe to make your own celery salt, which I  understands perks up the fresh tomatoes and oher veggies now arriving at our local produce stands. The celery salt that's been in your cupboard for a while (years?) is probably stale.

"Celery Salt fresh: Or better yet, for maximum freshness, you can make your own celery salt in small batches.

It's easy to do. Start with a tablespoon of whole celery seed. Grind it up in a spice grinder or use a mortar and pestle. Then add two tablespoons of Kosher salt, mix thoroughly and use. Keep it sealed tightly and it'll stay fresh for a month.

For that matter, you don't need to grind the seeds. It's just that some people don't care to bite into whole seeds. If you leave the seeds whole, your blend will stay fresh longer."by Celery Salt fresh: Or better yet, for maximum freshness, you can make your own celery salt in small batches.

It's easy to do. Start with a tablespoon of whole celery seed. Grind it up in a spice grinder or use a mortar and pestle. Then add two tablespoons of Kosher salt, mix thoroughly and use. Keep it sealed tightly and it'll stay fresh for a month.

For that matter, you don't need to grind the seeds. It's just that some people don't care to bite into whole seeds. If you leave the seeds whole, your blend will stay fresh longer."  From Danilo Alfaro.

Buzzing from the Beehive

We met Monday evening.  The gray, white on black and one red snowball block will be interesting to see assembled!  Here are Linda's blocks:

Kelly is the Queen Bee for August.  She made some samples and gave us the fabric she wanted included to connect the blocks.  The plan is for a bedspread quilt of approximately 120"  I believe the blocks we make for her are 18", same as for Polly, our first queen.

Isn't this fabric the best!  I went and bought a half yard just to have!  This fabric as well as the gray corners connect the blocks, we can do pretty much what we want to make it all work.

Enjoy!

Meeting Time Again....

Here are the minutes from our July meeting:

July 7, 2015

GRMQ Meeting Minutes

Meeting called to order at 7 PM by Kathy Nelson, VP

16 persons were in attendance. We each introduced ourselves as we had 3 new persons attending.

Old business:

Fall Retreat: there are 2 spaces for overnight guests. There are 5 spots for day quilters at 10$ per day. Let Kathy know if you are interested in either option.

Legwork continues on getting the GRMQ logo on promotional items. 

New Business:

Linda Plowman is planning a Spring Retreat April 22-24 at Lake Ann Camp (near Interlochen) Cost is $132 and includes accommodations, meals, and work station. Ten persons expressed interest at this time.

Great Lakes Modern Quilt Guild has sent an open invitation to us to join them for their July meeting. July 25 at 10:30 AM at Wood Hall at WMU campus they are having special guest speaker Angela Pingel. Her blog is cuttopieces.blogspot.com She is a published quilter, her new book is A Quilters Mixology. She is also featured on Moda Bakeshop. Cost is only $5. Bring a friend and attend!

Lindsey Weidner will organize a mini quilt swap for the Fall

Lindsey won the Lotta Blocks. Cathy Mueller brought her completed Lotta Blocks quilt to show and share.

August Lotta Blocks pattern is posted on Face Book page.

Skill School was given by Carol Drudy—how to make pressing strip bars using ¼ round shoe moulding and batting and muslin. They work great to press open seams.

Show and Share

Meeting adjourned at 8:09 PM

I made my block and thought that maybe some of you may want to know of the Quilt in A Day squaring up tool.

 In the bottom picture the uneveness of making HST's shows.  With the ruler placed on the size, above, on the seam line, 4", I was able to trim the HST equally.  This method is very accurate since the HST isn't being opened with the likely chance of getting stretched and made wonky during pressing.  Experts stress not to iron HST's since stretching occurs.

 Below is the trimmed and square half-square triangle square.

 The above block is the month's challenge.  Below is the block I made with the trimmings from the above block.  No HST's in the featured block, only trimmings.

I could have matched the feature block, but opted to turn the top rows 90 degrees. 

See you August 4th with the social starting at 6:30.  Check our Facebook page for the details.....need to sign off I have a dog staring at me and one scrunched on my left....

Lower Wings, Raise Flaps and keep the rudder steady....

Yes, I'm practicing my free motion quilting again.  My sampler from 2014 has been assembled for a while but not quilted.  While hand quilting would have been ok, it is after all called a "sampler".   First, I started with the walking foot.  A couple of my blocks look really neat.  However, doing straight lines can only hold one's attention for so long.  Thus, the FM journey began again!  This quilt is only 48" square - just a nice size.  After doing several Civil War commemorative quilts that range in 98" to 104", smaller quilts are now my favorite.  So how do these flight terms fit in.....free motion quilting rules number 1-100 all have to do with "relax", after that the remaining rules get quite technical.  When my wings(elbows)were out - bobbin thread showed; wings in but flaps slumping - bobbin thread showed and finally keeping the rudder(foot pedal) going at a reasonably rate (slow) gave the  stitching process better stitches.  After reminding myself of these rules, my mantra, the free motion looked pretty good....for me!

 I chose only 9 of the 12 blocks - keeping the size down.

 This center block ended being a grid design just by going with how the block angled.  I love the color and now I'm even impressed with  the quilting on this block.

 Well, then the FMQ!  The more I did it, over several days and many, many hours, my squiggles stretched and stretched!  Towards the end of this exercise hand quilting was appealing once again!

I may have shown this quilt earlier in the year as I used used dryer sheets as the base for the border rectangles.  At the first stage of FMQ, I was matching colors, well that got to be tedious with the scrappy rectangles!  So I just chose a color and went with it.  I'm showing the back as this is my missionary fabric.  I bought it because I liked the colors and it helped a school in Africa.  So what to do with a small quilt?  

 In the spring of 2003 I took my first quilting class, hand quilting.  The above quilt is my class project.  Everything was completed by hand....boy have I come a long way!

This quilt has been my lap quilt since completed in 2003!  My stitches are huge and oh my, the colors chosen.  The binding has been coming off for a long time now.  I put it on my lap even in the summer.    When my helpers come in from outside their wet paws go on it and my me.  It's time for it to retire, just like the owner.

My patient helpers! Is she done yet?  Dog days of summer....it's only 81 degrees up here!

Lemon Quilts has a great tutorial on how to sew Y seams!  Enjoy!