Wednesday, June 27, 2012

June Recap

Last week's meeting was such a fun meeting! Amanda started things off with sharing all about the amazing quilting community that exists on Threadbias. If you haven't checked out yet, go there now! 

Elizabeth shared all about her new book, Modern Patchwork. She walked us through some of her quilts and quilting techniques. Thank you so much for sharing with us! 

Show and Tell: 
To see descriptions and links to blogs, look below each photo collage. 

Erin Gallagher - Baby Log Cabin quilt made from one large log cabin block. 
Bill Volckening - Marvelette - for "Manland" exhibit in Sisters. It was one of his first quilts.
Mary Bywater Cross - Quilts made from 100% wool, traditional quilting patterns, quilted with Perle Cotton. 
Wendy Mamahali shared her Massai quilt. It celebrates the beautiful story of the Massai people of East Africa. 



Michelle Marcus - Boyer - Aqua and red wonky crosses pillow
Lara Giles - Baby Quilt made from left-over scraps after cutting curved blocks from another quilt = inspiration!
Violet Craft - Broken Herringbone in Madrona Road citrus colorway. 
Suzanne Gray - improvisational quilt for a friend's wedding
Dawn White - Mo Bedell's Party Dress from class at the Pine Needle - Ruler from Sew Kind of Wonderful. Black & White quilt, pattern from quilt magazine. 
Veronica - 5 block



Rachel - Four Various Quilts
Amorette - Little Apples Valentine String Quilt
Monica - Treat Yo Self - made from Elizabeth's letter pattern
Anne Whiting - Chevron Quilt made from pattern/tutorial at the online Moda Bake Shop. Picnic quilt - disappearing nine patch, quilted on home machine. 
Anne Woodman - Quilt Con Reject Pillows - The pillows are made from blocks I decided not to submit for Quilt Con block contest. 



Patty - Quilt of Valor Donation & For brother's 50th birthday
Brittany - Watermelon Swirl - bright pink & green snail trail blocks baby quilt
Megan Dye - Trajectory 2 - Second version of Trajectory based on mid-modern boomerang design motif. 
Amber Garrison - Sample 9 Patch - Nine simple log cabin blocks - light colors - for baby! 
Cathy Fowler - Citron & Gray Quilt - from magazine Modern Patchwork
Michelle Freedman - Park blocks - Improv bee - completely finished!

Also, Christin Ritz - four shoe fly blocks with stripy blue border and a cotton chenille backing to donate to Bradley Engall House

Thank you all so much for coming! Remember next month, we plan on meeting at Laurelhurst Park for a picnic! Feel free to bring family and food! 
- Heather

Thursday, June 21, 2012

June Announcements

We have lots going on at PMQG, so if you missed tonight's meeting or want to check out some of the announcements mentioned. Here they are: 

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Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show!

We are so excited about going to Sisters for the July 14 Outdoor Quilt Show! We will host a casual meet-up in our special exhibit space for the Oregon modern quilt guilds, including Eugene and Central Oregon, in the late afternoon. Hope to see you there!

Marilyn Ulrich of the QuiltWorks shop and gallery in Bend has invited the PMQG Sisters special exhibit to do an encore show with quilts from the Central Oregon Modern Quilt Guild! The show will open with a reception on August 3 and run the entire month.

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Seattle Sew + Shop Hop this summer!

The PMQG-SMQG-VMQG meet-up for a shopping and sewing weekend is officially planned for August 10, 11 + 12! We’ll be shopping for fabric at Quilter’s Loft, doing a collaborative charity quilting project at Island Quilter, and having mimosas at Drygoods Design with lovely guild members from Seattle and Vancouver, BC. Please fill out a quick online form if you’re planning to go, so Heather can organize the weekend!

We’ve reserved a block of 20 hotel rooms at the Executive Hotel, 400 Spring St. Seattle. The cost is $129 + tax a night and they are all doubles. Parking is available across the street for $22 a day or $29 for valet. To book your room call 206-623-3900 before the cutoff date of July 10. After that date our block will be released. 

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Charity Quilting

June’s charity quilting opportunity is the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative. The organization is collecting new mini-quilts, which can be up to 9” x 12” and in any style, which are sold or auctioned to raise money for research. This would be a perfect way to use Michael Miller improv blocks, or any others you’d like to give! Michelle Freedman has offered to collect blocks or tiny quilts this month and register them for a group donation.

Please email us at portlandmodernquiltguild@gmail.com if you’d like to donate blocks or a mini quilt, or work on a collaborative project.

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Michelle also attended the Oregon Quilt Project workshop in Salem this month representing PMQG, and historian Mary Bywater Cross taught guild members from all over the state how to best document our quilts and share their stories.

Michelle and Bill Volckening (aka Willy Wonky) are working to organize a PMQG quilt documentation day at the Pendleton Woolen Mill Store in the fall, and we’ll be in touch about that when it’s set!

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Northwest Quilting Expo

PMQG has been invited to do a second special exhibit at the NW Quilting Expo here in Portland, September 20-22. Quilts need to be submitted by August 15 to be part of the exhibit, and we’ll have more info on the blog soon, as well as at the July meeting.

We can show a total of 20-40 quilts and there’s no fee to enter (unless you want your quilt to be part of the competition, which is $10 per quilt). We have forms here, or they’re on the NWQE website.

Two vendors are looking for help in their booths all three days of the show - $10/hour in cash plus free entry. Email us if you want to get in touch to apply!

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More quilt shows!

The Oregon State Fair is accepting quilt entries for their 2012 show and competition through June 29, and the Washington County Fair is also open for quilt submissions on July 21 and 22. Thank you to Ann-Marie Cowley (who’s won lots of ribbons at both fairs!) for encouraging the rest of us to enter our quilts.

Stitches in Bloom is accepting entries for their 2013 show (January 25 and 26), and offering a 3-day pictorial appliqué workshop as well (which is discounted through July). Mary from the Oregon Garden said that she’d love to see entries from us and that modern quilts are her favorite! Deadline is January 4, 2013.

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PMQG has signed on as a gold needle QuiltCon sponsor! That means all of our members will get 10% off workshops and conference registration, plus we’ll get two free show tickets to raffle off! More details coming soon, but you can check out quiltcon.com for lots of info on workshops, shows and events – and mark your calendars for February 21-24, 2013 in Austin, Texas.

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Next month's meeting will take place at Laurelhurst park! Bring a picnic blanket, something to snack on, and quilts for show and tell! We'll be in picnic site A at 7pm.






Wednesday, June 20, 2012

modern patchwork

I'm very excited to review Elizabeth Hartman's gorgeous new book Modern Patchwork today, and we're so looking forward to Elizabeth sharing some of her quilts in a special presentation at tomorrow night's PMQG meeting!

Modern Patchwork

Modern Patchwork includes a dozen new quilt designs to take you beyond the basics - territory beautifully covered in her first book, The Practical Guide to Patchwork. Along with full, detailed instructions for creating each quilt, she shares many extra tips and ideas in the back of the book (more on that in a minute).

Looptastic from Modern Patchwork

I wanted to spotlight two of my favorite quilts from the collection. Looptastic is a stylish and striking design of concentric circles, created through a surprisingly simple, straightforward sew-and-turn applique method. I love the aqua and citrus colors Elizabeth used in this quilt - inviting and full of life.

Looptastic variations from Modern Patchwork

But if you have another vision in mind, she offers a lovely alternative: two other totally different color and style options, each created as a mini one-block quilt. Each quilt in the book gets this wonderfully open-ended treatment!

Xylophone from Modern Patchwork

I also love Xylophone, a lively, colorful, angular design that sweeps across a neutral background. It reminds me of her Chopped Vegetables pillow patterns, another instant favorite.

Xylophone variations from Modern Patchwork

And of course she has some interesting alternate takes on this one to share as well!

making a design wall from Modern Patchwork

After the quilt patterns, Elizabeth offers a thorough guide to constructing a quilt, from choosing fabrics and piecing to quilting and binding. Along the way she shares tips for making a design wall,

keeping things organized from Modern Patchwork

keeping your work organized,

free-motion quilting from Modern Patchwork

and some of her signature patterns for free-motion machine quilting. (If you're interested in free-motion, I highly recommend her class at Modern Domestic, or if you're not local, checking out her posts on the topic over at her blog).

Modern Patchwork

We are so thrilled that Elizabeth will present at tomorrow evening's PMQG meeting (7 pm in room S1 in the Stagecraft Building, across the street from the main PNCA building). She'll be giving away copies of the book*, fabric, and templates** to lucky winners, so make sure to put your name in the bucket. And check out her blog, Oh Fransson, for a July 1 announcement of a new Modern Patchwork quilt-along!

*Thank you to Stash for sending a review copy of the book, plus the ones to give away at our meeting!

**Speaking of templates, our own Jill Collins of PMQG offers templates from many of the Modern Patchwork quilts (including Looptastic, Honey, Fire Drill, Happy Hour and Owl Eyes) in her Tabslot Etsy shop!

Monday, June 18, 2012

Meeting Reminder & Seattle Meet-Up


Happy Monday everyone! After the hot weekend, it's nice to be cooled off by the rain a bit! 
This thursday is our June Guild Meeting. We are excited to be having Elizabeth speak and share with us some of her fabulous quilts from her new book, Modern Patchwork. We will be meeting in the stagecraft building, room S1 at 7pm. Also, don't forget to bring your pouch for the pouch swap (if you are participating). See you there! 

If you've been to the past few meetings, you'll remember that we've been talking to Vancouver MQG and Seattle MQG to organize a meet-up this summer. Well, we've finalized the details, here they are! 


Who: Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild Members
When: Friday, August 10 - Sunday, August 12 (come for all, or come for part of the weekend!)
Where: Seattle, we've reserved a block of 20 hotel rooms at the Executive Hotel, 400 Spring St. Seattle. 
The cost is $129 + tax a night and they are all doubles. Parking is available across the street for $22 a day or $29 for valet. To book your room call 206-623-3900 before the cutoff date of July 10. After that date our block will be released. 
What: We have a great agenda planned! It includes collaborative charity quilting at Island Quilter, mingling with new friends at Drygoods over mimosas, fabric shopping in Seattle, and more! 
Why: To meet other creative quilters in the Pacific Northwest and have a great time together

If you're on board for this adventure, there are two things that you must do: 
1) Please click here to fill out a simple google form so that I can have a solid head-count and information from everyone attending. 
2) If you want to stay in our reserved block, please follow the directions to book your hotel room. 
(We wanted to provide an option for everyone to stay in the same hotel. But if you'd like to stay with friends/family/another hotel, that is perfectly fine.)

Monday, June 4, 2012

All Day Sew and Pouch Progress?

How was your weekend? Mine was busy but I managed to make it to the All Day Sew for a few hours but one of these days I will be their bright and early at 9 to sew ALL DAY!




We had about 25 people at the sew day. I think they were running behind me when I took my phone photos because it doesn't look that crowded or they were at the Fabric Depot Sale stocking up on Denyse Scmidt fabric and yes it was crazy cheap. We hope to see you at the next one on August 4th there's still room for more it's a big space! Also we're planning an extra summer All Day Sew in July more info on that soon.

How are you all doing on your pouches for the NW Guild pouch swap? I saw Jen's on Saturday and she has one lucky partner. It made me think I should get started on mine. If you are a new swapper let us know if you have any questions we'll be happy to help and remember to bring your pouch to the June guild meeting. 

Pétra

Friday, June 1, 2012

quilting modern

I'm so happy to be part of Katie and Jacquie's blog party weekend of posts celebrating their stellar new book, Quilting Modern! Katie is president of the SMQG and Jacquie is past president of the KCMQG, a current member of the CMQG, and on the national board too. These two know their modern improvisational quilting, and they generously share so many beautiful ideas, packed into one gorgeous book!

Quilting Modern book cover.jpg

I love improvisational patchwork (and was very lucky to take Denyse Schmidt's classes at PNCA), and Katie and Jacquie's thoughtful designs, techniques, tips, and details are wonderfully illuminating. They cover many facets of modern quilting, like improvisationally piecing curves, creating sharp, perfect triangle designs, and one of my favorites, the log cabin makeover - they offer seven core techniques in all, each with three projects to sew. The table of contents gives a nice peek at the diversity of approaches and techniques (and I love the names they chose for their quilts!).

Quilting Modern table of contents

I'm sure many of the other bloggers will cover the 16 beautiful quilt designs in the book - but for my review I wanted to spotlight the striking smaller projects Katie and Jacquie designed for the home. With two little ones and not much free sewing time lately, a beautiful pillow or table runner is more my realistic speed, and these projects are also very scrap- and stash-friendly... a nice bonus! When I first got my copy and read right through it, I was immediately drawn to the Winging It Pillow, which builds a simple, stunning design around a focus-fabric scrap. The mix of erratic-height vertical piecing, bright, strong colors, and ultra-streamlined background is so appealing. This one is at the top of my to-sew list (and I love Katie's invisible zipper technique, which is also included in the book).

Winging It Pillow.png

The Southwestern Pillows are similarly striking. I especially love the Tumbleweed (the center asterisk-like design) - it's such a fresh take on my favorite design style, mid-century modern. I'm picturing how fantastic a quilt made up of all Tumbleweed blocks could be... hmm, maybe when Pearl starts kindergarten...

Southwestern Pillows.png

My favorite of the three is the Sardinia Table Runner, a calm, serene, and gorgeous design with neatly curved "pods" (that Jacquie's husband thought looked like sardines, so that's where the name came from). This is another one I could see as a larger quilt. Angela Walters did a great deal of the quilting in the book, but Katie and Jacquie quilted these three projects.  I loved the simplicity of these neatly alternating-angle diagonal lines over the curves and solids - a beautiful texture.

Sardinia Table Runner.png

I will bring a copy of Quilting Modern for everyone to check out at our PMQG All-Day Sew tomorrow afternoon (at Fabric Depot from 9-9, though the book and I won't be there til around 1:30), and I'm so thrilled that we'll also be giving a copy away at the June 21 PMQG meeting. Thank you to Katie and Jacquie for including me in their book party, and to Interweave for sending two copies of the book for me to review and offer up at PMQG!

PMQG banner

Be sure to visit the other bloggers reviewing (and giving away!) the book, too at the Quilting Modern blog celebration weekend:

A Stitch in Dye – Malka Dubrawsky

Fat Quarterly blog - Tacha Bruecher

Film in the Fridge – Ashley Newcomb

Generation Q – Jake Finch

Handmade by Alissa – Alissa Haight Carlton

Happy Zombie – Monica Solorio-Snow

iheartlinen – Rashida Coleman-Hale

Oh Fransson – Elizabeth Hartman

One Shabby Chick – Amber Carrillo

Pink Chalk Studio – Kathy Mack

Quilting is my Therapy – Angela Waters

Red Pepper Quilts – Rita Hodge

Sew Mama Sew

Sew Take a Hike – Penny Layman

West Coast Crafty – Susan Beal

Whip Up – Kathreen Ricketson

Wise Craft  - Blair Stocker