Oooops! A correction to Ginormous Bag Info

On my drawing of how to fix a one way print, I flipped the indication of which way was WOF and the 36" cut side.  Thanks Joan for pointing it out.

Hope it did not confuse anyone else.  It would still work the other way - just change the dimensions of finished bag some.  As Tim Gunn would say - We'll make it work!

Janet

Generous Offer from Spool!

You may not have seen this on Facebook, so I wanted to share this here as well - from Maddie at Spool:

I love big prints I cannot lie. These dramatic prints and more are perfect for really big bags!

So if you are part of the Chattanooga Modern Quilt Guild and will be part of the March Ginormous Tote Sew-in then come over and see the fantastic fabric combinations we can help you put together for this project.

To make it even sweeter we are offer 15% off of your bag making supplies! Now through the end of the month!!

See the Feb meeting recap for a link to the fabric requirements for the bag.  Also, if you need a set of the swivel clasps, let me know if you want me to save you a set.

See you in March!

janet

February Meeting Recap

Another enthusiastic group of quilters showed up for our February meeting!

The meeting started with the following announcements:

Membership—Members who joined the ChattMQG in January should have received an invitation from the national MQG to join their website. Members who have not received that invitation or are having trouble logging in, should email us @ chattmqg@gmail.com. Members who joined this month should receive their invitation within the next couple of weeks.

March Sew-In—Our first Sew-In of the year is Saturday, March 8th immediately following our March meeting, from 12:00—4:00. Bring a project to work on or join the group that will be making the "Ginormous Tote Bag". The fabric and notion requirements for the "Ginormous Tote Bag" can be found here. In addition to all your sewing essentials, you will need to bring a multi-plug extension cord or surge protector. You may also want to bring your lunch to get a jump on those projects. 

Tennessee Aquarium and IMAX Theater Quilt Exhibit—Our committee for these exhibits met with our Aquarium/IMAX liaison to preview the spaces allotted for the quilts. The themes for both the Aquarium and IMAX exhibits, quilt entry requirements and timeline for entries, were all discussed. The complete committee report was emailed to our members. This is a huge opportunity for our guild and we need to make it a great show.

The Modern Dresden Plate lottery blocks were turned in. Catherine and Linda each went home with some of these.

Jean presented the lottery block for March, a simple Plus block. Here is a quick tutorial. You can use any color scheme you want. Make them any size, wonky or straight. The only requirement is that the colors be true solid colors.

• Step 1. Select two contrasting or different value fabrics. Fabric (a) = background, Fabric (b) = contrast, different value. You will want to cut your background fabric a little larger than your planned block size.
• Step 2. Cut two strips (will become the Plus) out of the contrast fabric (b). Strips need to be long enough to be sewn to background fabric length-wise and width-wise and can be any width. The strips shown are 1 1/2" wide and will finish at 1".
• Step 3. Cut background fabric (a) in half length-wise, as desired (wonky or straight).
• Step 4. Sew one contrast fabric (b) strip to one half of background fabric (a). 

• Step 5. Press seams open.
• Step 6. Sew remaining half of background fabric to contrast fabric strip and press seams open.
• Step 7. Cut block in half width-wise, as desired (wonky or straight).
• Step 8. Sew remaining contrast strip to one half of the cut block. Press seams open.

• Step 9. Sew remaining half of the block from Step 7 to contrast strip sewn in Step 8. Press seams open.
• Step 10. Ta Da! You have a Plus block.

Sandi presented our program this month on two characteristics of the "Modern Aesthetic", expansive negative space and modern traditionalism. She gave a thorough description of both characteristics, while member quilt examples where shown. It was an informative and visually impressive presentation. Her goal was to help answer questions some of our members may have as to what denotes a Modern quilt. I think she was successful! Our members broke into their teams from last month. They were asked to think about ways their improv blocks could be worked into an expansive negative space or modern traditionalist quilt.

Time for show and tell.

1. Tricia Steadman   2. Tricia Steadman   3. Melissa Klingensmith

4. Mary Keasler   5. Mary Keasler   6. Mary Keasler    7. Mary Keasler

8. Marcia Taschenberger   9. Marcia Taschenberger   10. Kathleen McMullen   11. Kate Trundle

12. Catherine Price   13. Joan Thornbury

Melissa asked me to add; the product she used to get the "yellow" out of her high school dress was "Retro Clean".

It was another great meeting!

Make it Modern~Pam

February Meeting

The February Meeting of the ChattMQG is this Saturday, February 8th, 10:00 a.m. at Christ United Methodist Church.

Remember to bring your "Modern Dresden Plate" lottery blocks. In case you haven't had time to make any yet, here are a few links to inspire you.

www.craftsy.com/blog/2013/09/dymanic-dresden-plates/

www.sewmamasew.com/2010/04/dresden-plate-block-sew-along/

www.lurlineg.blogspot.com/2009/12/dresden-plate-tutorial.html

www.swimbikequilt.com/2012/06/dresden-squares-tutorial-ez-dresden.html

Our program this month will focus on two characteristics of the "Modern Aesthetic", expansive negative space and modern traditionalism. I think you will find this very informative and inspiring. It may even help answer the question, "What is Modern Quilting?".

As always, bring your Show and Tell. Hope to see you there.

Make it Modern~Pam

Member Monday—Ava Moore

Today's Member Monday is Ava Moore and here is her story…

"I feel like I have been sewing all my life. It started when I was young—by sixth grade I had sewn my father a down vest from a kit one used to be able to buy, feathers and all! I do recall feathers all over my room before I figured out how to get them from the plastic baggies to the vest. I learned to sew on my mother's 1950's Singer machine, which was a tank, even back in the day. But it is a great machine and would stitch anything! I learned tailoring and pattern making in high school and made a lot of my clothes, even into college. I made my first production order for a friend that was starting a line of "dog" clothes—remember, this was 30 years ago—and made 500 dog rain jackets as one of my summer jobs between my junior and senior year in high school. 

Two of my favorite projects were making my sisters and best friend's wedding dresses, as well as numerous bride maid dresses. And yes, I made my own wedding dress as well.

I was always intrigued with quilting, but felt like I would do it "one day when I had the room". At that time we were living east of San Francisco in an 800 square foot house…and yet, that is where I ended up starting my quilting adventure. I felt so lucky to be in an area with such creative quilting inspiration all around me, from the "quilt artists" to those gals who were never afraid of color! I took my first quilting class in Berkeley and never looked back. I took just about every class I could fit into my schedule—a unique Winding Road, even using design boards back then to visiting quilt teacher's at the East Bay Heritage Quilters. I can remember laying out the Winding Road quilt in the living room, from edge to edge and then running to the back room to stitch the blocks together in order.  Who says you need room? 

Since then I have loved being a part of the quilting community—both the alone time stitching and creating in my own space and coming together with other quilters to share ideas whether on the web, at a guild or a road trip to a quilt show near or far. I love finding a local quilt store in a town where I am traveling to see what other quilters are up to. The latest stop was the Treadle Yard Shop in St. Paul, MN this weekend. And in addition, it was a "real fabric store" which are disappearing from the landscape. Lots of gorgeous wools and flannels to go with the colder weather. 

So as I head home, I look forward to quilting my Kaffe Diamonds quilts in the room once considered the dining room and creating new projects for the winter ahead!"

I love reading these stories! It is so interesting to find out what brought our members to quilting. Thanks for sharing Ava.

Ava's logo block is featured in the ChattMQG header.

~Pam

January Meeting Recap

What a great start to a new year of the ChattMQG! Janet opened the meeting with a few notes of business. She informed the members that the Board of Directors had approved the Guild’s by-laws. Everyone on our e-mail list should have received a copy of those last week. She discussed an invitation we received from the Tennessee Aquarium to exhibit “nature-inspired” quilts during AQS QuiltWeek in September. The members voted to participate in this event and it was agreed that a committee would be formed. Membership applications were distributed during the meeting and dues were collected. We have 27 ChattMQG members!

Gayle presented the Lottery block for February, the Dresden Plate. We want everyone to get their “modern mojo” on and create a dresden plate-inspired block. There are no color or size restrictions. Here is the link Gayle provided for the paper pieced pattern.
www.christaquiltsblog.com/2013/01/31/do-you-dare-to-dresden-free-paper-pieced-pattern/

Here are a few more links to inspire you.
www.craftsy.com/blog/2013/09/dymanic-dresden-plates/
www.sewmamasew.com/2010/04/dresden-plate-block-sew-along/
www.lurlineg.blogspot.com/2009/12/dresden-plate-tutorial.html
www.swimbikequilt.com/2012/06/dresden-squares-tutorial-ez-dresden.html

This month our program was Improvisational Piecing. We divided into four teams and with the help of our great team leaders, everyone got their hands on a wide variety of scraps and created their own, one-of-a-kind fabric pieces. What a great time everyone had while learning such a diverse technique.

If you are interested in exploring improvisation further, you may want to check out some of these quilters.

Denyse Schmidt - www.dsquilts.com

Gwen Marston - www.gwenmarston.com

Jean Wells - www.jeanwellsquilts.com

Sherri Lynn Wood - www.daintytime.net

Bonnie Hunter - www.quiltville.com

Victoria Findlay-Wolfe - www.bumblebeansinc.com

Certainly, this is not a complete list, but will be a good start.

…and it wouldn’t be a ChattMQG meeting without Show and Tell.

1. Gerry Haywood  2. Gerry Haywood  3. Gerry Haywood

5. Sandi Suggs  6. Marcia Taschenberger  7. Denise Ohlman  8. Susan Lawson

9. Josie Dinwiddie  10. Josie Dinwiddie  11. Josie Dinwiddie  12. Josie Dinwiddie

13. Vista Mahan  14. Jackie Cory  15. Jackie Cory  16. Jackie Cory

17. Linda Smith  18. Linda Smith  19. Linda Smith  20. Mary Keasler

21. Melody Johnson  22. Melody Johnson  23. Vanessa King

It was a great meeting! 

~Pam

January Meeting

Our first meeting of 2014 is this Saturday, January 11 at 10:00 a.m. in our new meeting place, Christ United Methodist Church. We are very excited about our new space. It is huge and will accommodate us very well with plenty of room to grow and to sew! 

We are also excited about the activities we have planned for the year. Our program this month is Improvisational Piecing and will be interactive. I don't want to say too much, but think you will find it both fun and enlightening; an experience you won't want to miss.  

Be sure to bring your Show and Tell and get ready for a great year with the ChattMQG!

~Pam