February 2014 archive


Feb
2014

February 2014 Sew Day – a Recap

categories: Sew Days

There were lots of new faces at this meeting – we signed up 9 new members!

We began our Sew Day with Show and Tell.  Here are some recent projects by our members, including a couple projects for the Riley Blake Fabric Challenge:

February 2014 Quilt 3

February 2014 Quilt 2

February 2014 Quilt 1

February 2014 Quilt 5

February 2014 Quilt 6

We talked about making a banner quilt.  This will be a group effort, and we are so excited to get started.  We’ll need a bunch of 6.5″ unfinished quilt blocks for this project, and we’re planning to have a block-making frenzy for next month’s sew day.  Check out our Quilt Block Tutorials Pinterest board for tons of inspiring free tutorials.  We made sure to put the block size on each pin!

Then we shared a couple of news items:  the Michael Miller Fabric Challenge and 2015 QuiltCon.  Exciting stuff, folks!

Lori Wambolt (our Treasurer) shared her experience from SewDown Portland, along with her “conversation” quilt block.

February 2014 Lori Sew Down

Lori showed examples of quilts that focused on composition and use of negative space. Then we made some quilt blocks along this theme, using this tutorial by Alissa Haight Carlton: This Way Quilt.

February 2014 Quilt Blocks

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Feb
2014

Sew Down Portland – a Recap

categories: Events

Now that we’ve recovered from our Sew Down Portland weekend retreat, we (Christy and Lori) want to share a few pics. Both of us had a great time and look forward to the possibility of attending future MQG events. Meeting other modern quilting enthusiasts was definitely a lot of fun and worth seeking out again. Hopefully the MQG will have more future events on the western side of the country to make traveling to and from easy.

Quilt Blocks from Heather Jones Workshop - You & Me Quilt Pattern
Quilt Blocks from Heather Jones Workshop – You & Me Quilt Pattern

The pattern for Heather’s You & Me quilt was pretty straightforward and didn’t require a lot of instruction from Heather.  As a result, the workshop was mostly heads down sewing time.  The best part was seeing all the different color and fabric choices for the pattern.

Look at all those scraps! Christy's ready for improv sewing. Bring it on!
Look at all those scraps! Christy’s ready for improv sewing. Bring it on!
Finished results of great "conversation" with other sewists during the improv round robin workshop.
Finished results of great “conversation” with other sewists during the improv round robin workshop.

Christy is on the left holding her finished improv piece in Sherri Lynn Wood’s workshop. Sherri’s workshop was fantastic and a great way to engage in “conversation” with other participants. Each person did an initial starting block that was passed along with our container of scraps to the next person.  After taking a look at the general composition, the conversation would be added to from the respective scrap bin.  Each sewist who added to the conversation also had her own signature fabric that was added during her turn.  Both Christy and Lori really enjoyed the improv workshop and found Sherri Lynn Wood’s approach quite refreshing.

Lori's initial block for the improv round robin.
Lori’s initial block for the improv round robin.
Fun to see how the initial block evolved! Great conversation was had by fellow sewists to complete Lori's improv round robin block!
Fun to see how the initial block evolved. Great conversation was had by fellow sewists to complete Lori’s improv round robin block.

 

Finished Night Sky quilt pattern blocks from Julie Herman's workshop.
Finished Night Sky quilt pattern blocks from Julie Herman’s workshop.

Learning to use Julie’s Sidekick Ruler was a nice change from the typical straight line cuts in quilting.  Accurate cutting is definitely a key factor to getting all those points to match!

Unfortunately, we don’t have any pics of our last workshop, Shooting Star mini quilt with Lee Heinrich.  Lori ended up only being able to stay for the first 30 minutes or so due to catching an earlier flight out of Portland.  All in all, we had a great time at the Sew Down.  Despite the snow in Portland, we were well taken care of by The Modern Quilt Guild, Drygoods Design, Modern Domestic and The Nines Hotel!  Thank you to all!

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Feb
2014

February 2014 Sew Day – Join Us!

categories: Sew Days

Join in the fun! We are looking forward to another Sew Day in our roomier space at the downtown Boise library. Last month was our first month at this location and everyone enjoyed having a bit more elbow room to work.

When: Saturday, February 22, 1pm – 3pm
Where: Boise Public Library, 715 S Capitol Blvd, Boise, ID (Marion Bingham Room on 3rd floor)

Our discussion topic for our February sew day will be composition and the use of negative space in a quilt.

We will be working through the recently posted tutorial on the Janome website by Alissa Haight Carlton, one of the founders of The Modern Quilt Guild.

Screen Shot 2014-02-12 at 8.47.09 PM

“This Way Quilt” by Alissa Haight Carlton

Yes, the tutorial is for an entire quilt, however, we will start with the foundational block that the quilt builds upon. How much of the quilt you make after we make the very graphic, simple block will be up to you.This quilt does appear to be one that will come together quickly (once you tackle all the cutting!) and would be a great example of modern quilting to showcase in the upcoming BBQ 2014 quilt show.

For the foundational block, you will need the following materials:

Fabric A (Background Fabric)

  • 1 – 3.5” x 3.5” square
  • 2 – 2” x 2” squares

Fabric B

  • 1 – 2” x 5” piece
  • 1 – 3.5” x 2” piece

If you’re interested in completing more than the starting foundational block, here is the link to the tutorial that details remaining cutting instructions:

http://content.janome.com/index.cfm/ProjectCenter/Project_Detail/This_Way_Quilt

Additional supplies you may also want to bring:

  • Cutting mat, ruler and rotary cutter
  • Iron and small ironing board (if you have something portable)
  • Sewing machine, thread, small scissors
  • Power strip/surge protector if you have one

As always, be sure to bring your latest show and tell finished quilts for all to see! You are also welcome to bring your own project(s) to work on if this tutorial doesn’t peak your interest or you are focused on a current project and simply can’t tear yourself away from it to start something new. We look forward to seeing you for our February Sew Day.

UPDATE: If you are participating in the Riley Blake Fabric Challenge, bring your quilt.  We’ll take photos of our entries.

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Feb
2014

Getting ready for the Portland SewDown

categories: Uncategorized

Less than a week before we (Christy and Lori) leave for the Portland SewDown! We’ve never been to something like this and are very excited. What could be better than staying at a fancy hotel and quilting all weekend with like-minded folks in a great city like Portland? We’ve got a lot to do before we leave though. Over the next few days we”ll be busy preparing our fabric (three yards of scraps? How do you measure that?) for the workshops and gathering supplies.

The workshop Christy is most looking forward to is the Improv Round Robin taught by Sherri Lynn Wood. She loves improv piecing and is looking forward to doing it in a group. Lori is looking forward to learning new techniques with Julie Herman’s sidekick ruler.

Below are a couple pictures of some of the fabric and supplies Christy and Lori have gathered so far.

photo(4) (640x480)

Fabric

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