Monday, May 24, 2010

A charming evening

Our May 2010 meeting took place at PNCA on May 20th.  Thirty quilters were in attendance and expressed appreciation to Katie Sciarrino for designing our logo, which she and Amber are making into name tag buttons.


Elizabeth Hartman gave a brief presentation on the history of charm quilts and charm squares. Historically, charm quilts contained only one piece of each fabric.  Charm quilts were seen as early as the 1870's and have had occasional resurgences in popularity over the years.  Today, charm packs of 5" fabric squares are widely available by many manufacturers.  Elizabeth discussed several uses for charms in quilts and invited any interested members to complete a project to bring back for show and tell.

Each member brought charm squares for swapping and it took two large and two smaller tables to hold them all.  We were an incredibly quiet and polite group as we surrounded the tables to choose and count our charms.  Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of the charms or the swap process as I left my camera in the classroom and am still hoping that it finds its way back to me.  In the meantime, I will try to make do with my iphone camera.

These 40 squares went home with me.

Following our charm swap Jen, Tania, Tobey, Tracie, Anne, Lisa P., Cherri, Linda, Wendy, and Lisa B shared quilts for show and tell.  If my camera is found or if any other members took pictures to share, I will come back and post them here as an update.


Robert Kaufman donated several charm packs of their beautiful Kona Cotton solids via Elizabeth.

And the winners were:  
Sorrell, Elise, Lisa B., Anne, and Kristin

Thank you Robert Kaufman!


Jill Collins donated several packs of rulers that she is designing and manufacturing with her husband.
And the winners were:
Circles -- Beverly
Squares -- Katherine
Hexagons -- Karen

Thank you Jill!


From now on, Saturday Night Sewing at Modern Domestic will be the first Saturday of the month, making our next sewing night June 5.  Lupine of MD is putting together a large basket of goodies as a raffle prize for us!


The next regular meeting of PMQG will be June 17 from 7 - 9 at PNCA.
I will be giving a presentation on a bit of a journey I have been taking this year in 
using solids 
and exploring liberated quiltmaking,

including a virtual field trip of my visit to the Amish Abstractions exhibition at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco in April.


After the presentation, there will be a show and tell of first quilts and most recent quilts.


Joan Callaway, PMQG Secretary



Saturday, May 22, 2010

The excitement builds...


Originally posted FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 2010

by Joan Callaway

Thursday, April 22, was the second meeting of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild, and we enjoyed meeting at a new location, Pacific Northwest College of Art, in the Pearl District in Portland. It is a nice, central location, and they are friendly and seem genuinely happy to have us use their space. 
The energy and excitement of gathering so many  passionate quilters together at one time is electrifying.  Who else could get so excited over -- POTHOLDERS!  Welcome to our potholder swap.

We all made and brought potholders in any fabric or style desired and wrapped them in plain brown wrapping, depositing them in this large (almost not large enough) soup pot.  Each member chose a package, and as our Program Chair, Cherri, would say, mass unwrapping ensued.  I got the very last package left as I was so busy watching everyone opening their potholders and taking pictures.  There was so much inspiration and so many big smiles.

Amber and Tania


Leah...

...who made this brightly colored potholder that went home with me :).

This lovely lady opened my potholder, and I was so pleased that she looked really happy, I forgot to get her name!  This is the first potholder I've ever made, and my first grommet, too.  It was an act of courage just to mark on and then cut a hole in something I'd just made!  

Cherri gave brief demonstration on how to make these wonderful cathedral window-ish potholders.  See the peek-a-boo fabric in the center?  The larger fabric triangles were originally sewn to the back and then flipped to the front.  I was busy taking notes and pictures, so I think I'm going to need a refresher course, Cherri.

Tobey went home with the book Pretty Little Potholders, donated by Lark books.  

Everyone went home with a little package of Insulbright, donated by the Warm Company.

We ended with a little impromptu show and tell.  Tamara had just received a couple of quilts that had been professionally long arm quilted.


Lovely finished quilts by Tamara:


 Marcia shared this quilt -- one that she is finally keeping for herself.  While she was very humble about the simplicity and ease of the pattern, is there anything better than a design of simple shapes done beautifully?  There is a lot to be said about the beauty of simplicity.  The wonderful long arm quilting on this was done by Nancy.

You will have to forgive this horrible picture, but I just had to try to give you an idea of what one member did, inspired by a design on Project Runway.  These blocks were made by pleating this fabric:

A real labor of love!

Seriously.  Would you actually risk getting marinara sauce on one of these?

Too excited to sleep


Originally Posted THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

by Joan Callaway

Tonight was the first meeting of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild, brought about by the efforts of Elizabeth Hartman (Oh, Fransson!). We came from all over the area: north, south, east, west -- approximately 25 of us. We shared our passion for quilting, our fabric addictions, and our hopes that we are never cured. We shared ideas, inspiration, laughter, and projects from zippered pouches to pillows to quilts of every shape, size, and use. We talked about husbands who don't quite get it, making tiny design walls for daughters, the things we learned from our mothers and grandmothers, the things we've learned on our own along the way, and the things we hope to do in the future. Lots of sharing. More laughter. And plenty of eye candy:




















Yes -- I'm definitely too excited to sleep.