October Meeting Recap

Our October meeting was held on Saturday, October 8.

On Our Calendar

October 29: Last day to see Gee's Bend quilts at the Bessie Smith Cultural Center
October 30: Deadline for submitting our Financial Statement to MQG
November 12: Our next meeting

Modern Charity Quilt Challenge

Exploding Nine Patch top

Here's a preview of our MQG Modern Charity Quilt challenge top. Stephanie, Theresa, Kelly and Jean worked together on the design and put together kits for each of the nine blocks. Several of our members sewed blocks during our September sew-in meeting, then Kelly and Stephanie sewed the blocks into this top.

Next: a very modern quilting design!

Our October Program:

Alternate Gridwork | Modern Stitching 

Patricia, Camille and Carolyn shared with us a dynamic and comprehensive program on two aspects of modern quilting, each of which was mind-expanding and creativity-inspiring. And Veronica let them use some of her quilts to show us examples of modern quilting. It was a treat to see all this up close!

They began with a power-point presentation that included much of Jackie Gering's work (Jackie is current MQG chair). If you haven't been following her blog you are missing an inspirational treat. Go see for yourself!  

Next they showed us real-life examples of alternate gridwork. Simply put, that's a modern way of composing quilts with blocks NOT in rows and NOT on point in the traditional every-cell-filled-the-exact-same-way arrangement. 

Top left: Patricia's traditional gridwork example. Top center: Camille, Nyah and Patricia with alternate gridwork tops made by Veronica. Top right: Carolyn's modern top with a mixture of quilting, including feathers;
Center left: Patricia's off-the-grid top with squares in squares; Center right: Patricia's floating triangles;
Bottom left: Patricia's strip blocks; Bottom center: Veronica's modern arrangement of the hatchet block; Bottom Right: a book you might want to buy because it has WORKSHOPS to teach you more about modern quilt making.

Next they talked about MODERN QUILTING. 

Veronica teaches quilters how to do this on their regular home machines and we saw how she enhances her quilts with a wide variety of motifs to add texture and interest.

Carolyn showed us her portable design wall. She pins a quilt top to this, covers it in plastic, then with a dry-erase marker plans out her quilting design in advance.

And we were treated to fine examples of modern quilting that are amazing in person...

Top left: Veronica, Top center: Veronica, Top right: Patricia.
Center row left: ?? Center right: Veronica
Bottom left: Veronica, Bottom center: Veronica, Bottom right: the book Material Obsession, another recommended for your personal collection.

Our program team recommends that we start a quilting sketchbook to collect potential quilting designs and to practice drawing them. 

Thank you ladies for this fantastic program. We appreciate your organization and thoughtfulness!

Habitat Quilts
Thanks to a generous donation by Melissa DeLisio of Lost My Marbles fabric, we have another quilt ready for a Habitat home.



It is being held sideways because we are not that tall.

Vanessa will present this to its new owners on Saturday, October 22. Contact Vanessa if you can be there; you will find her in our directory.

Show and Tell

Top: Gerry
Center left: Vanessa; Center right: Kelly
Bottom: Camille, Camille, Camille

Our next meeting will be Saturday, November 12.
Watch your email and the next blog post for the upcoming Presidential Challenge!

PS. Some of the photo credits may need help. If you see mistakes, please email Audrey directly and she will amend them. :)