Free Motion Quilting

Do you free motion quilt on your home machine?
Do you love doing it?
is your machine portable?
Are you coming to the next meeting?

If you anwsered yes! Leave a comment and let's talk!

Quilt Retreat

Show off your Blog!

Do you have a blog or website that you don't see on the side bar?
Are you a member of PMQG?
If so, leave a comment and let me know the address and I'll get it all linked up!

Meeting information coming soon look for a detailed blog post in the next few days.

Remember we are doing a hexagon swap.
15 one inch hexies for a blind swap!

Thanks!

Jen

Heather Ross!

You love her fabric, you love her designs now come listen to her speak at PCNA!

Heather’s Week

 

This week Fabric Design with Heather Ross begins!  In addition to her class, Heather will be giving a free presentation about her work, process and approach to design that is open to the community.  

This will be held Friday evening 7:00pm-8:00pm at the PNCA main campus (1241 NW Johnson Street).

All About Hexagons

We had another beautiful summer evening for our July meeting at PNCA, with 47 stitchers eager to learn and/or share All About Hexagons.  President Jen started the meeting off with a brief history of hexagon quilts, which was followed by a show and tell of hexagon quilts old and new and other recently finished projects.  Show and tell is always a favorite part of meetings, and it's easy to see why....

Marcia already has a beautiful queen-sized quilt top made from charms from our May charm square swap.

Heather shared this quilt of beautiful Amy Butler fabrics,

this Cherry Pie quilt, and

and this Thimble Blossoms quilt.

Lee shared her Egg Drop Soup quilt

and this quilt with black and white and color gradations.

Shayla shared a vintage Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt top and blocks in pastels.

Janet's mini Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.

Marie shared a large stack of Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks that have been stored away for some time.   We'll have to wait and see if a little inspiration from last night's meeting is just what Marie needed to turn her UFO into a finished quilt.

This hexagon WIP was shared by Kate.

Christina shared her hexagon creatures which were inspired by thumbprint drawings by children's author, Ed Emberley.

There are more pictures of Christina's blocks on the Portland Modern Quilters Flickr group.

Violet displayed her Heather Bailey quilted duvet cover.

Jill's hexagon pillow.

Gorgeous vintage English paper pieced quilts.

Show and tell quilts and projects inviting closer inspection after the meeting.

Christina (The Sometimes Crafter; on the left in the black top) gave a presentation on her Adventures In Hexagons, comparing and contrasting different methods and materials.
 Even if you couldn't join us last night, you can read all about it on her blog post here.

Stitching and chatting in the small groups.

!!!THANK YOU!!!

Many, many thanks from PMQG to Mettler and YLI for generously donating thread for our hexagon stitching pleasure.

  Jill made and donated the hexagon paper templates for everyone.  Your time, effort, and generosity are much appreciated, Jill!  (To make your own templates like the ones Jill made for us: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TabSlot).

And a big thank you to Rachel for putting together and donating two giveaway bags -- and I won one!

Flea Market Fancy, thread, and scissors.  Ready, set, HEXY!

I'll close this post with these lovely hexies stitched and dressed up by Heather for Mo in Mo's Party Dress fabrics.

Keep on stitching, Portland Modern Quilters!

Note:  If I missed your quilt at the beginning of the meeting, please send me a photo and I will add it to the eye candy.  Also, I have tried to link to blogs whenever possible.  If there is a photo of you and your quilt above and it is not linked to your blog, please let me know and I will add it.
joanhcallaway@comcast.net

July 15th Meeting! Hexagons via the English Paper Piecing Method

This Thursday is our fifth meeting and it's all about Hexagons or Hexies as some like to refer to them.

We have some pretty cool things happening:

1. Donations from Tab Slot-1 inch card stock hexagons

2. YLI donated silk thread

3. Mettler donated thread

4. Rachel from 2nd Avenue Studios has two kick butt giveaway packages

5. Christina from The Sometimes Crafter will be joining us and doing a presentation all about her adventures in teaching herself about Hexagons.

 Here's a little eye candy to help inspire you.  Some of you might even recognize a few things!

Now, for the meeting please try and bring the following supplies:

1.  Fabric you'd like to turn into hexies

2.  Scissors

3. Thimble if you have one

4. Sewing Needles

5. Anything that you have done with hexagons for show and tell!

I will have extras of everything above in-case you don't have something.  Also, if you are so inclined, please bring extra.

Please RSVP so we can make sure that there are enough pre-cut hexagons, chairs and snacks!

UPDATED To include directions on how to RSVP
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To RSVP for the meeting:
1. Under the map on the right hand side of the  page click the "Join This Site"

2. Under the right hand corner of the new pop up page click the "follow" button if you have any of the following accounts: Google, Twitter, Yahoo, AIM or Netlog, sign in. If not, hit "Create a new google account".

3. Follow sign in directions. After the super easy sign in it will take you back to the event, click "I'm going" 

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If you'd like to do a little pre-work, below are some links from Christina's web site!

I came across lots of helpful sites while reading up on Hexagons. I’d like to share them here and if I come across any new links in the future I will add them as well. Let this be your hexagon resources post.

1. Posy Gets Cozy – Hexagon Piecing (Writes about her experience in hexagon piecing) 
2. Postcards From Panama – Hexagon Quilt Tutorial (suggests using glue stick) 
3. Craft Passion – Basic Hexagon Quilting Tutorial (links to hexagon pincushion project) 
4. Thimble Blossoms – Hexagon Quilt Tutorial (Great tutorial and photos) 
5. All Buttoned Up – Oh snap! That girl doesn’t baste. (Awesome alternative to basting) 
6. The Jax Collection – Traditional English Hexagon Patchwork Demonstration – Video 1 and Video 2. (Great videos demonstrating how to make and connect your hexagons) 
7. Incompetech – Hexagonal Graph Paper PDF Generator (generate your own hexagons in any size you need) 
8. Paper Pieces – Hexagon Cutting Guide (how big to cut your squares of fabric and also a great spot to buy paper hexagons)
9. Texas Freckles - Hexagon Fussy Cut Template (A how-to for creating a template)

And that’s what I've learned so far. I have some more ideas, but we’ll have to wait to see what comes of them. You can be sure I'll share more as I learn more. I hope that all of this information is useful to you and that you find something to make piecing these a little easier for you. Happy hexagon sewing!

Get Pinned!

(Moved from Ning)

From Katie Sciarrino (the super awesome talented lady who designed our banner/logo/button!)

"Amber and I have decided the name tag buttons, I presented at the May meeting, will cost $1 ea. Please leave a comment below with your name as you wish for it to appear on your button and bring $1 to the July meeting Thursday the 15th. We'll keep this an ongoing process until we have everyone "pinned.""

While you are at it...RSVP for the July meeting -- All About Hexagons!  We want to make sure we have a big enough room and enough chairs for everyone!

Meet Kristen -- a Portland Modern Quilter

Welcome to the first installment in an ongoing series,
Meet a Portland Modern Quilter:

Kristen 

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

My name is Kristen, and I'm 27 years old. I live with a roommate, and my cat Fritz. I work as a Print Production Artist for a small graphic design firm. I like going to the movies, playing video games with my friends, and of course, quilting.

How long have you been quilting/how did you get started? 

I haven't been quilting all that long, I started in 2008 after I graduated from the Visual Communications Program at Chemeketa Community College. I was unemployed for awhile, and I was bored. I'd always wanted to try quilting, so I got a quilting magazine and went from there. I picked a pattern that had colors that I liked, and didn't really pay attention to difficulty levels. It turns out that the pattern was considered advanced, but it was totally possible to just follow the directions and make it work. It was a real testament to whoever wrote that pattern that it worked out as well as it did, because I didn't know anything about quilts, or quilting. Or even sewing really. I had to watch a youtube video to figure out how to thread my mom's old sewing machine.

I didn't want to take a class, or let anyone know that I was making a quilt. I don't like being a beginner, or having basic things explained to me, I like to figure it out myself for the most part. I even bought all the fabric at Wal-mart because I was sure no one would ask any questions about what I was making or why. For some reason I was nervous that someone would tell me that I couldn't do it. I don't know why I thought so, everyone I've met through quilting is super nice, and very supportive.

 

Why do you quilt?

I quilt because it's a great creative outlet. It's interesting to me that quilting is the creative outlet that stuck most with me. I've dabbled in a lot of creative type things, like painting, drawing, piano etc., but I never really pursued them outside of a class. I enjoyed making art that way when a teacher would look at and evaluate my work, but it wasn't something I did in my free time. Quilting, however, I do all the time. I'm always thinking of a new quilt idea, or working through a quilt. I find it very satisfying. It helps that my roommate plays a lot of video games and ties up our TV. It leads me to find other ways to fill my time. :)

What is your favorite and/or least favorite part of making a quilt?

I always have this fantasy that I'll become a famous quilter, and have studio assistants to do all the things I don't like in quilting. I usually have this fantasy when I'm doing something I don't particularly love, like winding bobbins, or ironing a million seams, or doing bindings. Then I imagine it would be nice to have someone do the cutting for me, and maybe the pinning too. I don't really mind these things that much though, as they make up almost all of quilting. The one thing I would love to have done for me though, is making the quilt sandwich. It's hands down my least favorite part of the quilting process.

My favorite part of the quilting process is the seeing the progression of the quilt. I like doing things where you can physically see the progress of what you are making. Quilting is wonderful that way. Each set of tasks you complete is as important as the last, and each one brings you closer to a cool finished project.

What inspires you?

The question should be what doesn't inspire me! I see quilts everywhere. The worst is when I see something inspiring when I'm driving and I have to try and keep my eyes on the road while jotting down whatever has struck my fancy.  I love working with solid colors. I struggle with prints. It's not that I don't like them, or find them beautiful, because I really, really do. I like seeing quilts that other people make with prints very much, but I just have trouble using prints that other people have created. They've already done the fun part! My creative outlet is in creating new shapes and colors through the quilt.

What are you working on right now?

I just finished a quilt inspired by the Dear Jane quilt, and feel pretty good about it. It all happened so quickly, and I finished the top in about month and a half. My job was going through a slow point, so I was sewing all the time. It was a very intense period of creativity for me, both in physically sewing it all together, as well as drafting all the blocks, and researching possible blocks. I'm very happy with how it turned out. The Portland Modern Quilt Guild has been very good for me in that respect, as it gives me timelines to complete work if I want to show it off.

 Thank you, Kristen!  Your enthusiasm and can-do attitude are very inspiring!

Winners of Our First Blog Giveaway!

This was so much fun, and I loved reading all of your comments!  

The two winners of the sets of hexagon templates and papers from Jill of Made on Main Street are:

Vicki @ Dotty Jane &

Just Jenn

The next five prizes were donated by Christina, The Sometimes Crafter.

The winner of the Orange Sherbet pattern is:

ledamewood

The winner of the fabric boxes tutorial is:

elena

The winner of the Patchwork Memories quilt pattern is:

jeri

The winner of the colored pencil portfolio is:

Mary on Lake Pulaski

The winner of the coffee press cozy and coffee sleeve is:

kaiolohiakids

The winner of the Little Monsters quilt pattern (from Don't Look Now) donated by Robin Christensen is:

cardygirl

And the winner of the Warm & White batting donated by Jen (Betty Crocker Ass) is ALSO:

cardygirl

The final prize, a selvage pincushion from Cindy of Live a Colorful Life goes to:

KTMae

Congratulations to all our winners!

I will be emailing you soon to gather information toward getting you your lovely prizes.  And some of you will need to contact me because you didn't leave or link to an email address. 

Thank you to all who donated prizes, entered, and became followers!