May Meeting Recap

Reports / Announcements

H*Art Gallery

Denise gave an update on the H*Art Gallery workshop that was held on April 20th. Since our time is limited with the workshop attendees, it is felt we need to "rethink" the projects we offer. Several thoughts were shared as to what would be most beneficial to the attendees and the Gallery. Workdays will be scheduled to get projects ready for the next workshop. Denise also reported that 5 of the toiletry bags we had donated for sale had sold. Kudos to the ChattMQG!

Community Quilt Show

Sandi announced the 2nd Annual Community Quilt Show to be held at Hamilton Place Mall.  The Show will be on display August 30 — September  27, 2015. In addition, a "VIP Block Party" event will be held on Thursday, September 17th, from 6:00—8:00 p.m. in connection with AQS QuiltWeek-Chattanooga. A "Call for Quilts" along with the Rules and Guidelines will be sent to area quilters within the next week via email.

Resource Committee Established

Since our Guild has accumulated funds through membership dues and our work at last years AQS Show, it was decided to establish a Resource Committee. This committee will be responsible for utilizing our funds to best benefit the Guild and our commitment to Education and Community. Committee members are Camille, Karen S., Pam, and Sandi.

December ChattMQG Quilt Show

Ask and you shall receive! Several members have commented they would like to see all of the "Putting It in to Practice" Series Quilts together. In connection with our December Holiday/End of Year Party, we will have a Series Quilt Show. More details will follow in upcoming meetings.

May Program - "Finishing School"

Our May program focused on quilt finishing techniques; Basting, Binding and Facing a quilt.

• Janet demonstrated "Basting", more specifically, "Board Basting" a quilt. This is a unique, but ingenious way to baste a quilt while saving your back and knees.
• Jackie demonstrated "Bindings". Jackie took us through the steps of sewing the binding on a quilt to get those perfect corners, and also shared examples of various binding applications.
• Mary demonstrated "Facing" a quilt. This is a technique that is typically found on small wall quilts, but is finding it's way onto much larger quilts. Mary shared a great way to eliminate that "bulk" in the corners to create a professional finish.

Janet and Mary shared online tutorials they found useful for their demonstrations.

Board Basting:
http://colormequilty.blogspot.com/2013/04/board-basting.html

Facing:
http://artwithaneedle.blogspot.com/2011/03/perfect-faced-quilts-tutorial.html
http://artwithaneedle.blogspot.com/2011/03/facings-that-stay-where-you-put-them.html
http://artwithaneedle.blogspot.com/2011/03/facing-why-i-changed-my-tune.html

Show and Tell…

1. Carolyn Rippee  2. Catherine Price  3. Sandi Suggs

4. Janet Suber  5. and 6. Patricia Steadman

7. Robbie Maddox  8. Jean Larson  9. Joan Thornbury

Catching-Up on Pictures

February Show and Tell…

1. Jackie Cory   2. Martha Griffin   3. Karen Downer   4. Joan Thornbury

5. Camille Miller   6. Patricia Steadman   7. Karen Sperry   8. Marcia Taschenberger

9. Mary Keasler   10. "Team Jean" Finished Quilt   11. Janet Suber

Quilts from our "Putting It in to Practice" Series…

1. Carolyn Rippee   2. Patricia Steadman   3. Jean Larson   4. Theresa Kitchell   5. Mary Keasler

But wait, there's more!

March Show and Tell…

1. Joan Thornbury   2. Denise Ohlman   3. Pam McCallie

4. Audrey Workman   5. Karen Sperry

6. 7. and 9. Nancy Packard   8. Martha Steele

"Putting It in to Practice" Quilts…

1. Camille Miller  2. Carolyn Rippee   3. Janet Suber   4. Theresa Kitchell

And Last, at least with "catching up"

April Show and Tell…

1. Patricia Steadman  2. Melissa Klingensmith  3. Jackie Cory

4. Jackie Cory  5. Diana Morris  6. Audrey Workman   7. Theresa Kitchell  8. Nancy Packard  9. Jan Webster

Phew! All caught up, with the exception of our May meeting, and it is coming soon.

This has been a busy group of quilters!

April Meeting Recap

The ChattMQG met on Saturday, April 11. 

Outreach Reports

National Quilt Day: Stitch in the Mall (Sandi Suggs)

Sandi was happy to let us know that this city-wide quilting event raised $650 for our local charity, The Next Door — Chattanooga, where women who are currently incarcerated are gaining job and life skills that will equip them for re-entering society. To read more about this organization, check out their website:

The Next Door

The Mall people who worked with the quilters estimated that between 1000 and 2000 people came through and saw the quilts. Afterwards, each guild president and event sponsor received a large and unique thank you note and we saw a stack of those at our meeting.

Hexies at The H*art Gallery (Denise Ohlman)

Denise received some feedback from Gallery worker Brooke Montague. Although the clients enjoyed the hexie project, it might be a better idea if we could share projects that they could complete during the art lesson. Denise suggested that we make finished bags, table runners, wall hangings, or painted pillows in advance and let the clients embellish them. 

The next visit to the gallery happened Thursday, April 24. We'll hear about how that went at our May meeting.

Project for April: Hexies and the Big Stitch

Project organizers brought us pre-cut grey fabric, fusible batting, and backing. They shared punched cardstock hexagons, needles, silk thread, 2-1/2" fabric squares (3 each person), pins, embroidery floss and moral support as Denise showed us how to make hexies from fabric, glue-baste them to our quilt sandwich, and prepare to quilt with big stitches. And Sandi walked around giving up-close and personal demonstrations , which helped greatly for the nearsighted among us who forgot to bring binoculars.

Here's a screen shot borrowed from Sandi's Instagram account showing her finished hexie mug rug.

We took our supplies and work-in-progress home with us. President Janet generously shared embroidery thread from her collection with those who wanted to add more color.

If you borrowed thread from Janet, please remember to bring it back on May 9.

So keep stitching on your mug rug / little art quilt and have fun learning what are new techniques for many of us!

Our next meeting will be Saturday, May 9 at 10:00 AM. 

Designs from our "Putting It into Practice" Series…

January - Quarter Square Triangle   

Carolyn Rippee •  Jackie Cory

Karen Downer • Marcia Taschenberger • Mary Keasler

Melissa Klingensmith • Theresa Kitchell • Patricia Steadman

H*Art Gallery Workshop

Our Outreach Team; Denise, Sandi, Gerry, Martha and Patricia, held the first workshop with a few of the Gallery's artists last week. They demonstrated the BIG Stitch and got them hooked on Hexie's.

The pictures tell the story far better than I ever could.

March Meeting Recap

The ChattMQG met on Saturday, March 14. Here’s what we did:

Report from Outreach Committee (Denise Ohlman) 

Denise brought photos and delightful stories from the day at The H*art Gallery. The photos are on Facebook and Pam has included them in a separate post. Denise said the experience was rewarding and the participants enjoyed the work.

Remember those charity quilts we made in 2014? 

We are looking for homes for them and we don’t want to send all of them to the same place. If you have ideas for this please make suggestions to our Outreach Committee.

National Quilt Day: Stitch In The Mall (Sandi Suggs) 

Don’t forget that this event is Saturday, March 21. If you plan to bring a quilt you need to have it at Hamilton Place Center Court between noon and 12:30 PM. Hours for the event are 1-4 PM.

Quilt Con Report and SWAG!

Our President Janet Suber and Treasurer Jean Larson attended Quilt Con in Austin last month. They brought back enough swag to cover a large table and during our meeting gave all of it away.

Some things Janet and Jean noticed in Austin:

• More straight-line quilting than any other kind

• A lot of alternate grid design work

• The quilts that used light color for their negative space faded into the off-white curtains used to display them

 

The Modern Aesthetic—Putting It Into Practice  

This month we are making Drunkard’s Path blocks and arranging them into a modern design. The link to our handout and directions are in a separate blog post. Go there for information. And remember, this time you can use any combination of the three blocks we’ve studied so far this year: drunkard’s path, L-block, or QST (quarter square triangle).

 

AQS Quilt Week September 16-19

The submission deadline for this year’s event is May 1, 2015. Chattanooga will be the only venue with a category for Modern Quilts.

The information you need to know if you want to enter a quilt is here. 

Something to note…while the quilts with light-colored negative space faded into the display background at QuiltCon, those with black negative space might do the same here because AQS uses black curtains. Keep that in mind!

 

Please sign in when you come to our monthly meetings.

Sandi Suggs will be distributing name badges but we want your name on our list as well. Thanks!

 

That’s all, folks.

 

Have fun and Make it Modern!

The Modern Aesthetic—Putting It Into Practice, Part III

The Modern Aesthetic—Putting It Into Practice, Part III

This month we are working with the Drunkard’s Path block. Each block features a quarter circle within a square.

Whether your quarter circle comes all the way to the outside of your block or stops short of that is up to you. At our March meeting Pam showed us that really, it’s all in the trimming.

If you want to learn how to make a drunkard’s path block at a size of your own choosing, Leanne Chahley has an educational tutorial on her blog, shecanquilt.com, that explains how to construct templates with seam allowances in the right places. 

Decipher Your Quilt – Circles

Here’s our own handout from the March Meeting:

Directions for Designing a Drunkard’s Path Block

When you make your design this month, you may use drunkard's path blocks, L-blocks, quarter-square triangle blocks, or any combination thereof.

Please bring your designs, quilt tops and quilts to our April 11 meeting