Chattanooga Modern Quilt Guild: 2015

Thursday, November 19, 2015

November Meeting Recap

Our meeting began in a frenzy as we collected:

Dues for 2016, $30 per member
Quilts and forms for our December guild quilt show
Water blocks and scraps for our improv charity quilt

Report on AQS Volunteers from Dawn Harkness

Our payment for volunteering during the September show is $302.
Kathleen McMullen will be volunteer coordinator for 2016 QuiltWeek Chattanooga
Aprons were awarded to our top five volunteers for this year’s show
Next year will likely be the last year AQS comes to Chattanooga

Our plans for the December 12^th meeting

It’s a party! Bring finger food
We’ll have our quilt show from Design Series work. Prizes will be awarded.
We’ll open the cards we wrote in January about our modern quilting goals
If you bring a handmade gift for the swap, you will take another home

Quilt Week Opportunity Quilt—Do we want to make the one for 2016?

What is it? A quilt that is displayed just inside the main entrance to AQS
Patrons have the opportunity to buy a ticket with a $1 donation to a designated charity; winning ticket gets the quilt
This year Chattanooga Quilters raised $1300 with their Opportunity Quilt; last year they raised $900.
The ticket tumbler and hanger would be provided
We would make the quilt from supplies purchased with guild funds.

It was suggested that we:

Form a committee of five people to plan the project
Committee presents idea to guild at our December meeting
Members can make and contribute blocks or sections of the quilt
We have to make the decision of whether or not we will do this by December
We could do pre-sale of tickets
We supply everything but the tumbler (tickets, advertising, signs, quilt, people)

Hart Gallery Update (Gerry Haywood)

The project with Christmas trees and plain ornaments worked well with the clients
This was our last time to volunteer there
The gallery people were most appreciative and made a cake to thank our volunteers
The team Sandy quilt was sold at auction for $250
The team Denise quilt is still for sale

Team Jean Quilt Presented to Habitat for Humanity

Jean explained how our guild made four charity quilts in 2014 starting with bags of unwanted scraps
New Habitat homeowner Cornelia was surprised and delighted to receive the quilt
Team Janet will try to get their quilt finished so that it can be presented at the next Habitat home opening in January

Election of Officers for 2016

Pam presented a slate of officers and three people were duly elected:

President—Audrey Workman

Secretary—Sharon Griffith

Treasurer—Jean Larson

Modern Quilt Guild Charity Project

Audrey explained what our guild is making and collected the water blocks.

Brainstorming Session

Veronica directed us as we formulated ideas for next year’s programs and directions. She began by asking us to close our eyes and classify our ability levels with these results:

Rate Yourself	Newbie	Confident Beginner	Intermediate	Advanced
Quilting in General	1	7	23	7
Specifically Modern Quilting	13	14	12	0

Ideas from the brainstorming session follow.

BRAINSTORMING SESSION

Suggested Workshop Instructors

Chawne Kimber

Maria Shell

Gwen Marston

Libs Elliott

Elizabeth Hartman

Jacquie Gering

Victoria Findlay Wolfe

Nancy Purvis

Heather Jones

Michelle Wilkie

Katie Pasquini Masapust

Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr

Anna Maria Horner

(Karen Downer volunteered to teach basics.)

Basics

Piecing curves 1 vote

Blocking the quilt

Y-seams

Pressing seams

Piecing inserts 1 vote

Terminology

Squaring up blocks and quilts 1 vote

Borders/bindings

Appliqué

Grainline and cutting

Consistency with cutting (no wonky strips)

Blocking

Improv piecing 3 votes

Modern quilting techniques 2 votes

Design/Composition

Sources for inspiration

Where to start

Principles of design 1 vote

Process for starting

Color theory 1 vote

Patterns for modern quilts

Exercises for designing quilts 11 votes

Round robins

Scale 5 votes

Pattern design/writing patterns 3 votes

Choosing fabrics 4 votes

Quilts from other countries

Principles of Modern Quilts—How to create a modern composition

All 1 vote

Negative space

Minimalism

Basic guidelines

Pixelation 1 vote

Modern vs art/contemporary quilts 1 vote

What is modern stitching/quilting and how to do it 2 votes

Modern traditionalism

Graffiti quilting

Techniques/Trends/Technology

Abstraction—steps explaining how to do it 5 votes

Software—quilting, design 3 votes

QAYG

Slide presentation and discussion of modern quilts

English Paper Piecing (EPP)

Quilting apps 2 votes

Incorporating “other” fabrics in modern quilts

Machine features and tools

Navigating the MQG website

Mentor/hands on working

Logistics for Meetings

Sit and sew

Workshops

Exercises—mini groups/bees

Chairs vs tables

Extra ideas

Bring design walls and parts and design a quilt

Show and Tell

I accidentally cut off a few heads and don't have i.d.s for all the quilts. If you have one to claim or can help me out, please comment below and I'll try to fix that!

Karen Downer

Karen Downer. DO NOT use blue chalk!

Patricia Steadman

Mary Keasler

Toni Faidley

Theresa Kitchell

Sandi Suggs

Jackie Cory

Jean Larson

Gerry Haywood

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Recent Quilt Exhibit at Bessie Smith Cultural Center

These quilts made by our guild members (except the first one shown) were recently exhibited at the Bessie Smith Cultural Center in conjunction with AQS Quilt Week Chattanooga.

Blocks made by children from a local school.

Twenty Stars

Karen Downer combined twenty traditional blocks to make this quilt.

It is machine pieced and quilted on a long arm machine.

Made in Alabama

Janet Suber has paid homage to the Gee's Bend Alabama Quilters with this quilt.

It incorporates fabrics from clothing. It is machine pieced and thoughtfully hand quilted

with a variety of thread colors. The binding is also pieced.

Ties that Bind
Jackie Cory is a local artist and instructor. Her quilts reflect her artistic background
and use of nontraditional approaches. Machine pieced, hand embroidered, and hand tied.

Purple Crazy Haze
Another example of Jackie Cory's unique pieces.
Machine pieced, hand embroidered, highly embellished and hand tied.

Colossians 3:23

Carolyn Rippee's piece shows the calm beauty that she achieved with

the use of neutral colors, traditional blocks and fantastic machine quilting.

The label is inscribed with:

"Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord."

Marketplace

Veronica Hofman-Ortega is a local fiber arts instructor working in several fiber media.

This quilt includes some of her signature free motion quilting (circles)

along with straight line machine quilting on a domestic machine.

Sands of Time

Theresa Kitchell mixed batiks with traditional fabrics and

beautiful beads to create this small decorative piece.

It is machine pieced and quilted in the ditch.

Pullman Puzzle

Robbie Maddux has created a modern statement piece

successfully blending antique piecework from the early to mid 20th century

with an art-deco symmetrical layout.

Machine pieced and straight-line machine quilted.

Tsunami
Using Karen Stone's paper piecing patterns for "Untie-tied"
Karen Downer machine pieced this version representative of
violent weather patterns occurring this century.
It was machine quilted by Sherry Meyer.

Thank you so much Karen for making this exhibit happen!

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

October Meeting Recap

Guild Announcements

Team Jean’s 2014 Charity Quilt will be presented to the family at the dedication of their new Habitat home. This will happen Saturday, October 24, 1:00pm at 3351 Hughes Avenue, Chattanooga, 37410.

Common Threads Quilt Show is happening right now at the Mount Olive Church of God, 3522 Harrison Pike in Cleveland, TN 37311. Jackie Cory has six quilts in the show and two of them won blue ribbons. Show dates are October 9-10.

At the Community Quilt Show at the mall, Jackie Cory won the Viewers’ Choice Award for her flower quilt with an embellished center.

Mary Keasler is one of two artists featured at the Blue Ridge Mountain Arts Association. Her show runs from October 17 through January 9. Gallery is closed on Mondays. It’s a fun town with nice shops and restaurants. Here’s the link for hours and a map.

Other Announcements

At the Living Heritage Museum Quilt Show in Athens, Tennessee, a modern quilt won Best In Show. The maker is Emily Pike Doane of the Knoxville MQG who also won Second Place in the same show for a different quilt. Emily is on Instagram @MissEmilyTaylor. It’s not too late to go see the quilts. Here’s the information link you need.

Local quilter Rusty Stubblefield recently passed away.

Read her obituary here.

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Reports

**H*art Gallery Outreach Project**

Our last day at the Hart Gallery will be this Wednesday, October 14 from 1:00-3:00pm. If you want to go, they have room for one more volunteer. Participants are asked to bring Christmas fabric, metal fingernail files and fabric scissors.

Treasurer’s Report

We have about $2,000 in our account.

ChattMQG Design Series Quilt Show

The quilt show will happen during our December 12 meeting.

Hanging sleeves are not required.

Pam needs to have your quilt(s) in hand by our November 14 meeting, or you can deliver quilts to her at the Gunbarrel Road Panera between 10:00am and 12:00pm on Saturday, December 5.

For each quilt in the show, you need to fill out an information card.

The cards MUST be turned in no later than the November meeting, even if your quilt is delivered to Panera in December.

Prizes will be awarded.

Remember, this show is for modern quilts inspired by our design series programs on the L-block, the quarter square triangle, and the quarter circle. To refresh your memory, look for Design Series blog posts from January through March 2015.

Here’s a link to the information cards.

December Guild Meeting

We’ll have the aforementioned quilt show in one room and a potluck lunch in another. Please bring finger food. If you want, you can bring a wrapped handmade gift item. If you bring one, you get to take another home. And feel free to invite a friend for the quilt show and the party!

Officer Elections

Anyone interested is requested to stay for a meeting right after this meeting. The International MQG requires us to submit names of our President, Secretary and Treasurer.

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October Program

MQG Member Charity Quilt Challenge Progress

In September we passed out 16 kits for making improvisational blocks. Each kit contained a stingy amount of fabric and a photograph of a bridge section. Members were asked to look at the shapes in the photo and, using their larger section of gray fabric as background, sew an improvised abstraction of their bridge. Then they were to use the smaller section of gray as the background for an improvised water block.

We requested that the bridge blocks be returned in October if they were complete and water blocks be brought back by November. Everything is due by our November 14 meeting.

We received most of the 16 bridge blocks and at least half of the water blocks already. Thank you ChattMQG participants!

The program next moved to techniques that could be used when making improvisational blocks that represent water.

Sewing Improvisational Curves

Audrey showed the method she uses to sew gentle improvisational curves.

First layer two pieces right sides up.

Cut a gentle curve through both layers.

Match top right with bottom left...

...and top left with bottom right.

Now make reference marks where the fabrics meet up. If you want, also mark the high and low points of each curve.

Sew the pieces together.

Match the two pieces of fabric at the top right edge. Sew with a 1/4" seam allowance as far as you can get without adjusting the fabric. Stop with needle down. Lift your presser foot and move the fabrics until another section matches along the edge. Line up with your 1/4" guide, lower your presser foot, and sew a little farther. Repeat as many times as needed until the seam is complete top to bottom.

Press the seam flat, then open. Clip curve if needed.

Add another piece

Now layer another piece on top of the first curve. Cut the desired shape of curve into your added fabric. You can mark and cut, cut freehand, or just follow the shape of your first curve.

The completed curve

Repeat previous steps to complete the second curve.

Inserting a Narrow Strip of Fabric

Audrey then showed a method for creating a straight and narrow fabric insert. The original tutorial can be found in Stephanie Ruyle’s blog post, “How Do You Feel About a Little Stripping?”

The goal of this method is to make an extremely narrow insert, but it can be used for most any size. Here's one that's about an eighth of an inch.

The skinny red center strip was inserted using the steps described below.

Notice how the pattern is sort of matched from side to side.

The photos below illustrate the method but they are done larger scale so you can see them better.

Steps 1 and 2

Steps 3 and 4

1. Fold your fabric right sides together and press the crease.
2. Baste 1/4" to 3/8" from the fold. Use the larger size if you are inserting a strip into a fabric that has some piecing already because you'll need the extra room.
3. With the fabric still folded, use your rotary cutter and straight edge and trim the fold. Cut off as little fabric as possible. You are SHAVING it here. Save yourself some seam allowance to work with.
4. Press the seam open.

Steps 5 and 6

Steps 7, 8 and 9

5. Glue baste your narrow insert strip to the open seam allowances. I use washable Elmer's and a narrow tip. Put your glue along the edges, away from the basted seam.

6. Use your hot iron and press to help set the glue.

7. Now switch your machine from baste to seam.

8. Hold up the work with the seam allowance and strip, letting the bulk of the fabric fall below. Put the SAs on your machine. You will sew close to your basting stitches. Above, the basting stitches are along the fold. The seam is in black. You will sew CLOSER THAN THIS. I've kept it at a distance so you can see it better.

9. (Not shown) Lift up the SAs as before and sew the other side of the strip, again staying close to the basting stitches.

EACH SEAM YOU SEW CLOSE TO THE BASTING STITCHES IS ONE HALF THE WIDTH OF YOUR FINISHED INSERT. So if you are sewing 1/16" away from the basting on each SA, your insert will end up 1/8" wide.

Steps 10, 11, 12

Close up of Step 10

10. Remove the basting stitches. You can do this from the top side to be sure you don't accidentally cut your seam, but it is easier for me to see it from the back of the work. The photo on the right shows the basting stitches and the seam. Remove the basting stitches and leave the seam stitches alone. Repeat both sides.

11. Pull the folded originally basted seam open with your fingers. If you see any glue, try to scrape it off.

12. Press seam open to expose your skinny insert.

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