Wednesday, October 30, 2013

October Meeting Recap

Our October meeting featured an outstanding presentation on adding hand embroidery to your quilts by the adorable Kate Herron.  For labeling quilts with embroidered text Kate suggests a split stitch using 3 strands of embroidery floss.

She also shared her ingenious "frugal lightbox".  She recommends using a lightbox and Sulky Iron-on transfer pens to transfer your pattern to fabric.  

One thing Kate is especially passionate about from working to archive textiles is that quilts with embroidery should not be machine dried.  She shares this great Craftsy article with more tips.  Bottom line: the less you wash your quilt, the longer it will last!

Caught the embroidery bug?  Kate has this fantastic "Vintage Bowls" pattern featured in the current issue of Kindred Stitches.

A huge thank you to the fabulous folks at Quilter's Way for hosting us!!!  Our November meeting featuring the lovely Lizzy House will be held 10-12 on Saturday, November 23 at the Annex - 381 Main Street, West Newbury, MA.  The meeting is free to members of the BostonMQG and SeacoastMQG.  Guests are welcome, $10 paid at the door.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Playtime with Victoria Findlay Wolfe

This month we were lucky enough to have the fabulous Victoria Findlay Wolfe stop by to visit with the Boston and Seacoast MQGs.  A New York City based quilter, fabric designer, and author, Victoria was in town for the Curator's Reception of the Roots of Modern Quilting show at the NEQM which features some of her quilts.

Victoria gave a lively talk about her creative process and how she ended up making quilts after swearing never to do any of the activities she endured growing up on a farm in Minnesota.  She also let us fondle several of her quilts including this beauty from the cover of her book, 15 Minutes of Play.

Victoria is continually challenging herself to try something new and stretch her creativity.  Make the quilt you said you'd never make...  in her case, a cow quilt.  Challenge:  Try a technique you thought you'd never do.

In many of her quilts Victoria uses what she calls "made fabric" where she randomly pieces together slabs of fabric then cuts them into the shapes she needs.  Challenge: Grab your scrap bin and jump in.  Chop up those ugly fabrics and the ones outside your comfort zone to create your own "made fabric".

Victoria also likes to reinterpret traditional quilting designs like this King sized grandmother's flower garden quilt.  Her Double Edged Love, a modern twist on the traditional double wedding ring won Best of Show at QuiltCon.  Challenge: Mix up your old orphan blocks to make something new. 

Consider yourself challenged...  step away from the computer and go play:-)

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Riley Blake Challenge Details

The latest MQG Challenge is underway!!!  We distributed this awesome Riley Blake Basics fabric packet to those who signed up at our October meeting.  If you haven't received yours contact Jen at JenSorenson05@gmail.com.  Here are the latest guidelines from the MQG:

Now for some exciting news! Riley Blake has offered up some fabric prizes. Here are the details with an updated deadline:
  • Deadline: February 17, 2014
  • Completed photos must be posted in the FINISHED forum here.
  • Members can make anything they want as long as it is quilted.
  • Add in any solids fabric or Riley Blake printed fabric.
  • You do not need to use all the fabrics given to you.
  • Upload and share your photos to the Fabric Challenge Forum on the Community site here.
  • Don’t forget to use the #mqgrileyblakechallenge on Instagram and Twitter!
Ten finalists will be announced February 19, 2014.
Riley Blake will pick three winners and announce the finally winners on February 24, 2014.

Have fun and create something awesome!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Out and About: Quilty Happenings Around Boston

Gratuitous quilt show photo from our exhibit at the 2013 Lowell Quilt Festival

Quilt Show season is upon us...  check out these fabulous ways to get your quilty fix this month:

The Concord Piecemakers are hosting their biannual show, A Basket of Quilts, in Acton 10-6 on Friday, October 25th and 10-4 Saturday, October 26th.

The Rising Star Quilters Guild is holding their annual show in Lexington 10-5 on Saturday, October 26th and 11-4 Sunday, October 27th.

The Burlington Quilter's Guild is also holding their annual show in Bedford 10-5 on Saturday, October 26th and 11-4 Sunday, October 27th.

BMQG members Laurie Matthews and Donna Morales-Oemig will have quilts at A Quilter's Gathering.  Running October 31st to November 3rd in Manchester, NH, the Gathering is celebrating it's 25th anniversary this year.  If you haven't been to this incredible show it is definitely worth the trip!


Monday, October 14, 2013

September Show and Tell

Show and Tell is always inspiring and this month was no exception!

Alexis finally finished this fabulous quilt she started on retreat last year and brought her latest masterpiece.

Valerie's adorable I love you s'more quilt.

Annie made these sweet little matching plus quilts for her twins.

Laurie has been really busy finishing things!

Julie made this cute double sided quilt for her neice.

Ellen's fantastic HST quilt (with some Mendocino mermaids swimming through!)

Reva made this fun novelty quilt...  I just love the lizards!!!

Kim is ready for Dia de Muertos with this awesome table runner.

Andrea's iPad will be cozy in this fun case she made.

Taz shows over her new zipper bag (and sparkly new engagement ring:-)

Janelle made these adorable handprint blocks with her sister's class.

I let Kate hide behind her stunning herringbone quilt since she'd done such a great job coordinating it with her shoes;-)

Natalie has also been busy making things!

Sara's stunning star quilt.

Join us for our October meeting from 1-3 this Saturday at Quilter's Way to see what people have been up to this month:-)


Friday, October 11, 2013

September Meeting Recap

We kicked off our new year with a fabulous meeting at Franklin Mill.  It was exciting to see so many new faces mixed in with our old friends.  A few announcements...

Committe Chairs:
We are thrilled to have 3 new committee chairs to help us get even more done.  
  • The fabulous Jen Sorenson will be in charge of external relations coordinating with the MQG and other guilds for swaps and challenges.
  • The amazing Natalie Sabik will be heading up our charity committee.  Natalie's already done an amazing job spearheading our Quilts for Boston efforts.  Stay tuned for more opportunities to quilt for good:-)
  • The awesome Alexis Deise will be our communications czar coordinating our blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts.

MQG Update:
Fabrics for the Riley Blake challenge will be distributed to everyone who signed up at the October meeting.  Submissions will be presented at our December meeting.  Watch the blog for more details.

Quilts for Boston:
We have distributed more than 40 Quilts for Boston to the Watertown Police Department, MGH and several individuals injured in the bombings.  It has been truly amazing to see how touched people are by these quilts.  We still have quilts to be quilted.  If you'd like to quilt one or have a finished quilt to return contact alice@alidiza.com.

The highlight of our meeting was an incredibly comprehensive demonstration of big stitch quilting with Perl cotton by Natalie.  If you missed it, Natalie recommends this video and check out all the fabulous tips she has pinned on her Handstitched board.  I hope to see lots of hand quilting at our next show and tell;-)

A huge thank you to Franklin Mill for hosting us!!!  There was definitely much stashing done after our meeting finished:-)

Monday, October 7, 2013

October Meeting: Embroidered Labels with Kate

Photo courtesy of The Story of Kat
I can't wait for our October meeting!!!  Fabulous member Kate Herron is going to talk with us about hand embroidered labels and will also be sharing with us some of her past projects as inspiration for different ways that you can incorporate hand embroidery into your quilting. She will cover a few basic methods for transferring your embroidery designs onto fabric, the best stitches for hand embroidered text, and how to best care for your quilts with hand stitched elements.
If you wish to try out some of the techniques she’ll be covering please bring the following:
  • A label design on regular paper that you’d like to transfer (hand drawn or digital image is fine as long as the lines translate well to embroidery…we’ll cover that too!)
  • Sulky Iron-On Transfer Pen
  • A piece of scrap cloth and embroidery hoop to fit your label design
  • Embroidery needle and cotton floss
  • Small embroidery scissors/snips
The meeting will be held from 1-3 on Saturday, October 19th at Quilter's Way in Acton.  As always we will have show and tell so bring your latest finish, work in progress, or anything else you'd like to share.  Sancks are welcome.  As an added bonus the fabulous folks at Quilter's Way are offering a 20% discount off everything in the store for all attendees:-)

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

November Meeting with Lizzy House


We're so excited to announce our November meeting!!!  The absolutely adorable Lizzy House will be coming to speak to the Seacoast and Boston Modern Quilt Guilds on Saturday, November 23, 2013 from 10 am-noon.  In case you don't know, Lizzy is a fabric designer for Andover Fabrics and the creative genius behind Pearl Bracelets and the Constellations, Castle Peeps, and so many other fabulous collections.  Her latest creation, Catnap, will be hitting stores this November.  

The meeting will be held in the Annex at 381 Main Street, West Newbury, MA.  All paid members of the SeacoastMQG and BostonMQG will be admitted for free.  Guests are welcome, $10 paid at the door.