Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Portland: The Pearl sneak peak

Westside Modern Quilt Club

At the end of August, 2015, the club got together for a pot-luck and had a sneak peak of their Portland: The Pearl collection being submitted to the NW Quilting expo. 

THE BIG REVEAL followed. Here are a couple of photos to wet your whistle for the big show at the end of September.







July 2015 WestSide Modern Quilt Club Meeting

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Quilt Knit Stitch Show will be at the convention center August 13-15. The Pine Needle will be there and would love to have you stop by.

Portland: The Pearl quilts for Expo will have a "Big Reveal" party on August 26th at Millennium Park in Lake Oswego at 6:00 pm. It will be a potluck and assignments are as follows:
A-G: Hot Dish    H-P: Salad    Q-Z: Dessert

No meeting in September! (Due to NW Quilting Expo)

If anyone is interested in finding a place to hang our Pearl quilts after the show, we are looking for volunteers.

LETS TALK ABOUT BATTING

While there is a large selection of batting available to the public, The Pine Needle chooses to carry Quilter's Dream batting which is a very high quality of batting. Quilter's Dream has a large variety of types of batting  - here are some of them we really like:
  • Dream Cotton: available in 4 different lofts. These are very popular and are 100% cotton available in either white or neutral. The Select version is used by the majority of our customers.
  • Polyester: This is a great product also. It feels like cotton and is available in white in 3 lofts.
  • Dream Green: This one uses recycled plastic and is very light.
  • Dream Angel: Is flame-retardant and available in 2 lofts
  • Orient: Is a combination of Bamboo, silk, and tensil - super soft
  • Wool: This batting is machine washable and does not shrink. It doesn't hold creases like cotton. It is light and airy and shows quilting nicely.

SHOW AND TELL

 Ellen Mickanin shared "Party Animal"  (pictured on left)

From Pam Raby's Intuitive Design Class, Cheryl Walden shared her masterpiece (pictured on right)








Elisa Corcoran shared "Hydrangeas" (pictured on left)

"Squares with Friends" by Kristine Milio is a take-off of Tula Pink. It is for her niece's wedding (obvious Seahawks fans)
(pictured on right)




Frances Barns sewed "Bertie's Bungalow" using 30 fabrics. Quilted by Dawn Graf (pictured on left)

Jo Noble created this amazing Embroidery Sampler (pictured on right)
   






Triangles "floating on blue" by Ellen Lane is pictured on left.



Sandy Vick shared "leaves" - an applique quilt (pictured on right)







 Donna, with the Westside Quilter's Guild in Hillsboro, shared the quilt they are raffling (only $1 per ticket or 6 for $5!). It will hang in the store awhile so that everyone can enjoy it.










GUEST SPEAKER: SHELLY FIGUEROA

Shelly's mother taught her how to sew at age 6. Life happened and when she was in her 20's, she got into sewing again; sewing for girls as a nanny, and sewing for her own kids (boys).  Although she has quilted and considers it an art, she says that she just doesn't much have the patience for it to be a full-on quilter!

She started an Etsy business 9 years ago where she made and sold her works (until she was notified that she could not sell products made from other people's patterns. Shelly then started designing her own patterns and made sure that others could also use it to make and sell products.  When she moved to Portland, she received mentoring on how to make and perfect her patterns.

Shelly wanted to do more, so she started Figgy's Designs and started teaching kids to sew from her home. She has had over 600 kids come through her classes.

Her first book, Sewing for Boys (from newborn to 7-8 year olds) was a big success. She realized that there was a need for "tween" patterns and clothes, so her second book, Miss Figgy's Garment School for Girls, by CT Publishing, will be out in September. This book starts with basics, like tank tops, and moves on to shirts and other clothing as well as accessories. She covers all different types of fabrics. The girls pictured in the book are some of her students.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
Q: How many are typically in your classes? A: Never over 6.

Q: Do you have a sewing studio? A: I am currently teaching out of my home in Lake Oswego, but will be moving the operation to a retail space. It will be called "Urban Makery" and they will work additionally with yarn, jewelry, and even baking! He goal is to be a mentor to others.

Q: Do you have both boys and girls in your classes? A: Yes, for about every 10 classes, we have one boy-only class.

Q: What are the ages that you teach? A: From 6 years old to 13 and then some older students.

Q: Do they have to bring their own machine?  A: She does have some they can use, but have a deal to receive a discount from Common Thread.

Q: Do you start everyone off at the same base level? A: Yes, she goes over the basics, like threading the machine and seam allowances by sewing small projects. The kids set the tempo. She does lay down basic safety rules as well (like don't touch anything silver!). There is a great Janome video on how to thread the machine that she sends the parents.

At the new place, she will also have an hourly rate plus a supply fee available for those who want to come in and work on their own projects. She will be carrying the types of fabrics that the quilt store doesn't: Knits, home deco, and buttons, etc. For older kids they will even have faux fur and leather.

Q: Do you use sergers?  A: We use a stretch stitch which works great.

Q: Do you teach them how to put in zippers?  A: Yes. Every class! We use Wonder Tape, which is a fantastic product. Our techniques let them know that what may seem difficult, usually isn't. 

Q: Do you every have a fashion show? A: Yes. We might even do one at Geri's next Open House.

Q: Do you adjust the patterns to fit their size?  A: Our patterns are simple, so adjusting them is simple. I cover this in the new book.

Q: Do you have a website?  A:  Yes. Figgiespatterns.com has patterns. Our new brand will have everything: http://www.nicandfigs.com/. 

Next Regular Meeting: October 28


Friday, July 31, 2015

Portland: The Pearl

Background
The PEARL District is an area of Portland formerly occupied by warehouses, light industry, and railroad classification yards and now is noted for its art galleries, upscale businesses and residences.  

The area had been undergoing significant urban renewal since the mid-1980s, including the arrival of artists, the removal of a viaduct, and the construction of the Portland Street Car and has since been reclassified from industrial to mixed-use.

Learning how the area got its name and how impactful that was to our artistic heritage, it somehow demanded to be represented in fabric.

Please go to our Blog Site (http://pineneedlequiltshop.blogspot.com/2014/12/susan-beal-shows-off-pendleton-wools.html) and read about Pearl Amhara.  A truly informative and inspiring story.
Because of the history of the area, and because of the renovation that it has experienced, it reminded me of the juxtaposition of Traditional Quilting and Modern Quilting and the common relationship of both.

Quilting has undergone a transformation as well and this exhibit will be a combination of that journey.

WestSide Modern Quilt Club, sponsored by The Pine Needle in Lake Oswego Oregon, would like to invite you to participate in our 2015 project entitled: Portland: The Pearl

Project Description
Our mission is to create a 32” x 44” finished piece representing your interpretation of a Pearl District image.

This exhibit is not necessarily a pictorial exhibition, but rather a Modern-style representation.

The quilt exhibit will be hung in a magazine-style format with facing quilts which will act as pages and will debut at the Portland Northwest Quilting Expo September 24, 25, and 26, 2015.

This challenge is open to anyone interested in participating.  It is not required to be a member of the WestSide Modern Quilt Club.

Below are some ideas for your information but, of course, you can develop any image that you find inspiring:


The Armory
Union Station
The Alphabet Streets
Lovejoy Columns
First Thursday
White Stag Sign
Powell’s Books
Jamison Park
Urban Renewal
Loading Docks
Weinhardt Brewery
China Town
Portland Street Car
Pearls/Iron/Black Jewelry/ Gardenia (Look up the story of Pearl Amhara on the Pine Needle Blog site to understand this input into the area)
North Park Blocks
NW Industrial Triangle


To name just a few ideas………
We have someone doing our COVER and someone doing our Table of Contents page, so your assignment, should you choose to accept, is to create a Modern quilt of Portland: The Pearl.

Requirements
Each piece must finish at 32”x44”.  Each piece must have a rod pocket (see below)

Rod Pockets
Rod pockets should be flush with the top, or at the bottom edge of a binding (if the binding is not larger than 1/2" wide). The rod pocket or sleeve should be a double pocket so the rod does not touch the back of the quilt and finish at 4" wide. The length of the rod pocket or sleeve should be equal to the width of the quilt, or no more than 1/2" shorter than the width of the quilt.

Expo Entry
Each piece must have an entry form found in the NW Quilting Expo flyer or on line at nwquiltingexpo.com.  It is free to have your Portland The Pearl quilt showcased at Northwest Quilting Expo.

However, if you desire your piece to be judged (optional) you must then follow the guidelines of NW Expo for judging.

Each quilt must come with a type written (75 words or less) ….description of the theme of your piece. Including your name.

Preferably with a copy sent to friends@pineneedlequiltshop.com.

Due Date
Each completed piece is due August 15, 2015

Our Big Reveal Pot Luck will be at Millennium Park in Lake Oswego on Wednesday, August 27, 2015. (Last names beginning with A-G bring a hot dish, H-P bring a salad, Q-Z bring desert).

Please do not reveal your quilt to anyone prior to the Millennium Park Pot luck.

Once you have decided to work on this project, we would appreciate a phone call or email letting us know of your intent, only so that we have an idea of how many pages will be in our exhibit.  Not mandatory but appreciated.

Last year our Bridges of Portland was elected to hang at the PDX airport. This year I am working with the City of Portland Travel to see what they can do for us. I will keep you all informed.
I WANT your work exposed!!!

If you have any questions, please feel free to call the store (503-635-1353) and ask for Geri.  I will, hopefully, be able to answer any questions you may have.

I look forward to working with you.  I am SURE it will be the Talk of the Town!

Geri


Monday, July 27, 2015

June 2015 WestSide Modern Quilt Club Meeting

Guest Speaker - Marie Deatherage

Marie has been quilting seriously for 6 years. She tends not to be a "social" quilter and after retirement became a hermit to finish all of her projects. Now, more recently, she is focused on marketing her new book, Pieces of Portland.

When she was younger, she watched her grandmother quilt. G'ma was a hand-quilter (stitching 16 stitches an inch) and quilted on a frame that took up the entire living room. Her mother also became a quilter after she retired.

When Marie started quilting, she really had no plan. She only took one class and just dove right in.

 "Window Frames" (on left) was one of her 1st quilts. 

The challenge quilt pictured on the right was made out of one "layer cake".








Marie then "discovered" Kaffe Fassett's fabulous fabrics (on left). They were so colorful and bold.

"Zipper" (on right) was simple and with bright peacock colors.







Marie then started getting back into more solids and created this log cabin (on left).

Further expanding on her love of solids, she created this quilt on the right and the one pictured below left.






Marie then got re-intrigued by Kaffe Fassett prints and created this small throw (right).

Marie had so many quilts she decided she would like to have a show and approached a mattress store in the Pearl District and showed them on the 1st Thursday Art Walk.

A friend was taking pictures of quilts around Portland and the idea for her book was born. One-of-a-kind quilts are a special feature in the book. This disappearing nine-patch (left), was made for the book and the quilts in the book are based on experiences of places and people around Portland.

Marie found a printer in Illinois and has just received the first printing at the beginning of June. She is working on a website: quiltlandia.com. The website for the book is piecesofportland.com



Tips and Tricks

  • Lay paint chips around the project to match them. Then bring the paint chips with you when shopping for fabric. You can even share the paint chips with others for joint projects.
  • Save your selvages when cutting them from fabric. If you run out of fabric, you will be able to find it again using the numbers from the selvage.
  • Don't over-buy your Wonder-Under! Buy what you need! Soft-fuse is also a great product. Remember: don't use fabric softener on fused items!
  • Throw a fabric sheet in the dryer with your project - it is great at taking off animal hair.

Show and Tell

"Speed Dating"

Scrap Bag quilt
Lauren Teubner created "Speed Dating" (left) in the Studio 429 class. 8 different people worked on it. They each had one hour to work on it.

Colleen Barnhardt created this scrap bag quilt in two motifs: a traditional one (pictured on right) and a more organic one.

Betsy Biller
Disappear 9-patch
Betsy Biller created this modern design using bright fabrics (left).

Kathy White created this red, white, and blue disappearing 9-patch that she is donating to Quilts of Valor.








Connie Brown's grandmother made this 48-state quilt (left)so Connie had to finish it up making pillows for Hawaii and Alaska!

Connie also finished this quilt (right) for her nephew. 

 Karen Nelson created this quilt (left) in Rachel Kerley's "Splat" class.

Kay Wagner utilized hand-dyed fabrics and fused them into this amazing wall hanging.








Front
Back

Malory Jarboe finished this blue and gray quilt adapting The View pattern to fit her needs. Both sides were of equal interest!










 Ellen Kane self-quilted her "lightening" quilt (left).

Pam Raby finished her "Sequoia" quilt. She will be teaching a class in the fall featuring this pattern (soon to be in the store).

 Pam shows off the "Splat" quilt made for her by a dozen people including Rachel Kerley. When Pam saw Rachel's original quilt hanging in the store, she immediately fell in love with it and conspired how to get one for herself. Little did she know one was being made for her as a gift!





Fat Quarter Raffle

The group was asked to bring a fat quarter in either red or yellow. The fabric was assembled and Betsy Biller was the big winner of the fat quarter collection! Congrats, Betsy!

There were no other announcements or business.

Next Westside Modern meeting will be Wedsday, July 29th.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

May 2015 WestSide Modern Quilt Club Meeting

Announcements

  • The Bridges of Portland quilts that have been on display at the Portland International Airport are coming down and will be delivered to The Pine Needle. Come and pick them up! They will be available after May 29th.  The quilts have created the most activity out there with people taking photos, sending emails and calling in.
  • The Portland Modern Quilt Guild will be having a Sew-In Mod-Squad on Sunday, June 28, 2015 (12 noon to 4 pm). We will be sewing for the Cares program. Let us know if you would like to participate!
  • The Row-by-Row 2015 Experience is coming up. It begins on June 21. Quilt shops from around the country are participating as well as shops all across the city.  Check it out online at: http://www.rowbyrowexperience.com/start-here.htm. The Pine Needle's row is "Perfect Pines". So cute!
  • The Sunshine and Stitches Shop Hop begins June 13 and goes through June 27th. Be sure to come in and either pick up our "Sailing Away" block or our Table Topper kit.

Quilt Market 2015- Minneapolis

If you are interested in trends, check out the Quilt Market online at their FaceBook page. (https://www.facebook.com/QuiltMarket).  There were fabulous fabrics: whites and brights, modern and vintage. Very creative and fun!


Portland: The Pearl (theme for WestSide exhibit at NW Quilt Expo)

For more information about our quilts or if you are interested in submitting one, click HERE.
Reminders: Finished size =  32" x 44", Due date: We will have a pot-luck "reveal" that everyone is invited to in Mid August. The "drop dead" due date is September 1.

Resources: Need a little help with your mathematical computations?

Superior Threads: They have a huge selection of helpful FAQs, tutorials, and advice. For a helpful guide to reference when planning a quilt using your own design and blocks, click HERE.

Robert Kaufman: Robert Kaufman Fabrics and Quilter's Paradise have joined forces to bring you this collection of essential quilting calculators. Designed by quilters, our calculators allow you to quickly convert between yards and inches, meters and centimeters; work out how much fabric you need for backing, batting and borders; and see how many rectangular pieces can be cut from a larger piece. There are even calculators for square-in-a-square, set-in and corner triangles. A link to download the app on your smartphone is found HERE.

Online Quilt Calculators: 
Fabric Measurement Conversions: Convert between inches, yards in decimal form, yards in fractional form, and centimeters.

Backing and Batting Calculator: Determines how much yardage is needed to make a backing or calculates batting needed.

Binding Calculator: Calculates the binding length and the amount of fabric required to bind your quilt.

Border Yardage Calculator: Calculates the amount of fabric required to put a border around your quilt.

For additional calculators, click HERE.

Show and Tell

Susan Dottarar
Quilting by Lisa Cavenaugh
Marlene Fox
Go small!
Liz Mitchell
Jan's Wonky Log Cabin class















Sally Hass
Made from granddaughter's dresses
Cathy Erickson
Acquired this 1860 "Modern" quilt
Sharon Rauch
Made with prints of
friend's hand-made cards















Sandy Vick
Made in Pam Raby's class
     
Sandy Vick
Grays and Whites
     
Sandy Vick
"Sunset over Sedona"















                          
                               Kathy White
                                   Studio 429 - Innovative Round Robin
        
Carol Parks
Quilted this "Umbrella" Quilt















Guest Speaker: Carrie Tasman

Carrie is an artist and graphic designer and has been showing her artwork for 15 years at various shows and galleries. Since everyone may not be able to afford paintings, she also makes cards and prints. This is how P&B Textiles found her.

Carrie's first collection, "Florianna" has just come out and it is based on her paintings from the garden. P&B selected various prints they liked and they proceeded to email back and forth, refining the designs for the fabrics.  This collaboration took about 1 1/2 years.

P&B also designed a quilt pattern using this new line which inspired her to design her own quilt pattern (with Pam Raby's help) called "Flora & Dot". You can find this free pattern on her website: www.tasmanstudio.com.

Q&A:
Q: Will you continue designing more fabrics?
A:  Yes! I really enjoyed the process. We will be working on more lines.

Q: Was it challenging switching from fine art to designing a quilt pattern?
A: I really like graphic design and have done graphic design work, but I definitely needed quilters' input on the pattern design. For example, I had too many curves at first which would have made the pattern extremely challenging. Pam was a great help with this.

Q: Does every fabric line have to have a quilt pattern to go along with it?
A: A lot of designers now do like to also design accompanying quilts to highlight their collection.

Q: How do you choose all the colors that go into the collection?
A: For this process, we designed the main print first, and then all of the colors for the other fabrics were drawn from that.

To check out Florianna at The Pine Needle, click HERE!

Florianna - Vase Flower
Florianna - Scrolling Vine
Florianna - Dots on a Line - Red
Florianna - Dots on a Line -Yellow

Florianna - Paintbrush Dot Green

Florianna - Paintbrush Dot BW

Florianna - Flowers and Dots Pink on Green

Next Meeting: June 24th, 2015 (6:00 pm)

Guest Speaker: Shelly Figueroa, Author and local expert on teaching children how to quilt. Shelly will be talking about her soon-to-be-released book and other topics. 

Fat Quarter Exchange: Bring one / take one!  Theme: REDS AND YELLOWS