Westside Modern Quilt Club - Jan 2018

  Happy New Year!

We've missed our monthly meetings, and with the full house at our January meeting, it looks like you missed us too. 

We started off by talking about our annual challenges. Last year's Transitions exhibit was well received at the NW Quilt Expo and we've been invited to exhibit at the Clark County Quilt Show in April. Our exhibit can include pieces from ANY of our previous challenges. That means it could be a Bridges, The Pearl, Modern Heritage, or Transitions quilt. If you would like to participate, please give your name and phone number to Kristin or Geri and plan on dropping off your quilt by March 15th.

Our challenge for 2018 will be Black and White. You can approach this as conceptually (or not) as you wish. The shortest sides should be no less than 36" and the longest no more than 60." 

Pinecone Kristin was our speaker for the evening. She shared some tips to get yourself organized and Get Things Done in the new year. 

Of course, Show and Tell is the best part of our meetings:

Deslie is the queen of letting the fabric do the work. Her "Wild Bush Flowers" quilt shows off the patterning in the Australian fabric of the same name beautifully.

Karen G showed off her tessellated fall leaves  quilt designed by the inimitable Sandy Rae, a beloved instructor in the shop who may be gone, but is definitelynot forgotten.

Mary Pat brought two quilts to share. The first is color blocks for a recent grad. The ombré fabrics add perfectly to the overall glow .

Mary Pat's second share was a fabulous indigo and taupe quilt who's relatively simple design shows off a fabulous collection of fabrics.

Sandy shared a cute little birdie wallhanging in progress.

Susan B shared her improvisational "crumb" quilt, made up of scraps! Her straight line quilting in overlapping peaks wowed us as well.

Cathy E shared her most recent Modern Baltimore Album oversized block with exquisite machine quilting. She hopes to enter her quilt into a show or two, so it will have to remain somewhat secret for the time being. We wish her all the best!

Please keep your eyes out for our monthly meeting email announcement. We'll be at the Sewing Expo in Puyallup, WA at the end of the month, so we may hold our next WMQC meeting a week early, or skip February. Stay tuned.

Westside Modern Quilt Club July 2017

Our meetings are pretty casual, and Geri seems to have a never ending cache of Oli and Lena jokes to start us off with a cheeky smile.

She also showed off some gorgeous digitally printed fabrics from P&B which we'll be restocking in September, and 100% wool dryer balls which are new to the store and perfect for fluffing up all your laundry without using dryer sheets. Geri also demonstrated that folding your quilts on the bias will help prevent creases and prolong the life of your quilts, especially when stored.

Next month (August) will be our annual pot luck party at the park, where we get to unveil our challenge quilts and turn them in for our exhibit at Northwest Quilt Expo, so of course the details are top of everyone's mind. The image below has all the important dates and information on what to submit and when. If you are submitting a quilt for our Transitions challenge, pick up an Expo catalog at the shop to fill out the entry form, or download it here. Make a copy of it before you mail it in to Expo and turn that copy in with your quilt. We'll be displaying a 14"x 20" (portrait orientation) "poster" of your inspiration quilt, block, or other image, next to your challenge quilt, so be sure to note the picture information below. Because there is no charge for this special exhibit unless you want your quilt judged, we ask that you have your poster created at COSTCO yourself and turn it in with your quilt (this simplifies coordination for us as well). Click the image to see it larger:

Business taken care of, it was on to the fun part. This month we were honored to have Annette McFarlane from our local Studio Art Quilt Associates pod bring a trunk show of 50 small art quilts for us to enjoy. These were small pieces which reflected the huge range of aesthetics and techniques employed by members of SAQA.

We're pretty confident in saying that everyone really enjoyed looking at all the pieces in the trunk show and learning the stories and techniques behind them. More than a few were inspired to go home and try some new things.

Show and Tell was lots of fun and very varied as well. 

Darlene brought a beautiful quilt that was a study in light and shadow:

She also surprised Geri with an oldie but goodie quilt she made from a Pine Needle kit designed by our dear friend and teacher, Sandi Rae.

Elisa brought two quilts. The first is a bubbly Christmas Wreath created to showcase equally exuberant long arm quilting inspired by a class with Rob Apell.

The second quilt is a vintage quilt she beautifully long arm quilted for a customer.

Virginia brought another quilt from her book on the US money system. This one is based on the African proverb that a bundle of sticks is stronger than a single stick. To reinforce the concept (and because she's runing out of time to complete the quilts before exhibiting them at Expo), she plans to have the quilt in a frame at the show so that anyone who wants can help quilt it.

Linda made this smallish quilt as a test for a king sized version she's making for her daughter as a wedding present.

Molly recently went on a knitting tour of Estonia and brought some of her purchases to share. The intricately patterned knits also inspired her to make a quilt with lots of mitten blocks, which she brought, in progress:

Diane showed us her exquisite Fire Island Hosta quilt from a Judy Neimeier pattern. You may recognize it as Dianne and quilter Kazumi Peterson won the President's award at the NW Quilt Guild show last spring. 

Debbie showed off a striking black, white, and red wall hanging of her own design...

and a black, grey, and chartreuse work in progress, hoping to get a little feedback on what direction to take it. We think she got some excellent suggestions.

Patty shared a sweet and simple grand baby quilt she's working on with a friend. The pink and gold is a little outside of her comfort zone, but we all think it's fabulous!

Janet made a super cute Elf Hat quilt, complete with ricrac in the border!

The prolific Deslie brought a box of roomy fabric bags she made to donate to Outside In. These will be great for filling with toiletries and needed items for the kids, and also uses up a bunch of fabric so Deslie can replenish her stash with new patterns.

Deslie also shared two fun quilts. We are partial to the one on the right which makes fabulous use of one of our favorite Anthology batiks.

Pat brought a quirky dimensional quilt which will be inspiration for another quilt she's been commissioned to make, based on the upcoming eclipse, and using a vintage bedcover from the Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood. We're curious to see where Pat's imagination takes her.

Remember that next month's meeting will be at Millennium Park, just down the street from The Pine Needle. If you've made one, bring your Transitions challenge quilts, the inspiration photo on poster board, and a copy of the entry form you will have already submitted to The Northwest Quilt Expo. See you then!

Westside Modern Quilt Club - June 2017

Freshly back from four retreat sessions in Washington and Montana, Geri shared crazy country song titles in lieu of a joke. We imagine everyone who went on the retreats had a fun time riffing off the cowboy theme.

The August meeting will be at Millennium Park and we will share our challenge quilts. If you've made a challenge quilt, please download two copies of the entry form, one for Expo and one for our organizational purposes. There is no charge for your entry unless you want it judged or it needs special handling (rolled). At the July meeting we'll talk about getting posters printed at COSTCO of your inspirational quilt.

Kathy White passed on a request from the Metropolitan Patchwork Society. Ruth Ann Marquist is collecting flannel to be used in washable feminine hygiene kits for girls around the world. If you have flannel to donate please bring it to the July meeting and Kathy will collect it. Otherwise contact the MPS.

Our July Speaker was Mary Ann McCammon. She's a local art quilter who has traveled several times to Eldoret, Kenya to help the Beyond Fistula program there. 


Mary Ann spoke to us about the project last year and gave us an update which included well deserved growth in the program. A separate program pays for the fistula repair surgeries which helps many young women, and Beyond Fistula helps with after care in the form of counseling, scholarships, and job training. Mary Anne's part, Quilts for Empowerment, is part of a vocational training program sponsored by Beyond Fistula. The quilting program provides obstetric fistula survivors with an opportunity to learn a new skill, gain self-confidence and earn income by making quilts. They are refining their one of a kind product line made from African fabric and personalized with hand stitching using embroidery floss. Products include table mats, table runners, aprons, as well as ornaments and decorative quilts that often tell a woman’s personal story through her stitching and choice of fabric. 


They have recently added sturdy tote bags with a "story quilt" panel. The full time seamstresses receive a salary and enrollment in a Business and Savings Training course developed in Africa, which is culturally specific. All have the opportunity to go to school or vocational training as payment. Thank you Mary Ann for giving us insight into the lives of these young women and their efforts to overcome adversity.












Show and Tell:
This month's Show and Tell was short, but sweet.

Linda's quilt was a retirement gift for a friend. All the blocks represent things she hopes the friend will do in the next chapter of their life.

Carole brought two quilts, one made from silk ties and tailor's wool given to her by a friend. 

The second was a vintage quilt which she repaired and finished. It's old but has a very modern aesthetic.

Deslie shared a quilt she made using our Elements pattern. It's design perfectly showcased the fussy cut Alison Glass flying geese fabric. Deslie also shared a pro-tip: if your quilts are no larger than lap sized they don't take so long and you can make more of them! 

Don't miss our July meeting meeting (last Wednesday of the month at 6:00 pm): Annette McFarlane from our local Studio Art Quilts Association chapter will bring a trunk show of 50 small art quilts for us to enjoy. There will be a huge range of aesthetics and techniques to study.

No May WMQC

FYI, Westside Modern Quilt Club would normally meet on May 31st (the last wednesday of the month) but because our retreats are happening at about the same time, we won;t be having a meeting this month.

Please join us next month, on June 28th, when we'll be back to our regular schedule.

We're always interested in ideas for speakers or programs, so please let any of us Pinecones know what you want to see and hear.

Thanks!

Westside Modern Quilt Club March 2017

 We had a fun night in March, starting with some very silly texting for seniors jokes from Geri. 

Catching up on news, the Clark County Quilt Show is this weekend! Go check it out at the fairgrounds in Ridgefield, WA April 6—8.

The Mid-Valley Quilt Guild is having their annual show April 20—22 at the Polk County Fairgrounds in Rickreall, OR.

Don't forget about our Aboriginality Challenge: bring in your quilt, garment, bag, etc, 40" wide or less, by April 15th. We'll display the works until June 15th. We'll have a viewer's choice winner too!

We're also thinking about our Transitions challenge for the Northwest Quilting Expo in September. Check previous blog posts for details, but basically, your modern quilt (any size) inspired by a family heirloom or otherwise inspirational older quilt is due by August 15th. We'll have our usual potluck and unveiling at Millennium Park. We'll pair the quilts with a poster of their inspiration. More details to come on the poster, but be thinking about having a photo that you can print out at COSTCO.

Lilly is coordinating an exhibit of our Tribal Winds challenge quilts at the Lake Oswego Library to celebrate their remodel. If you participated in tribal Winds and have not yet gotten your email info to Lilly, please call us at the shop to get connected.

For our main presentation, our own Kristin La Flamme led us through four steps to critiquing our quilts from an art point of view. Getting beyond "like" or "don't like" when we are analyzing our use of colors, scale, composition, or perhaps even intent, can help us grow as artists and makers. We learned to first Describe, then Analyze, then Interpret, and finally (if desired) Judge. Then we broke into four groups and practiced our investigative skills with a variety of Kristin's quilts. Moving around and discussing in small groups was a great change of pace.

Show and Tell was short but sweet, and our favorite part of the evening as always.

Cathy brought her flannel pinwheels which she had originally made as a class sample, and now it will be raffled at her church to support their Mission program.

Lorie and Lilly participated in our Quilt Till You Wilt pizza party. They used the "2 For One Best Friends" pattern which cleverly lets you cut once to make two quilts. These will be donated to the NW CARES program.

Mardi shared her Farmer's Wife quilt. The blocks all have meaning to her and many reflect specific likes such as fishing. Check out our Facebook page for another photo of this beauty!

Robin's Quilt As You Go "Family Album" is so fun and unique.

Theresa brought her pretty — and seasonally appropriate, "Road to Ireland." 

Westside Modern Quilt Club November 2016

We had a fascinating presentation at November's meeting. First though, our usual business. Our first "sew-in" for charity was extremely productive. a half dozen ladies met in the lounge for several hours before the meeting and sewed up nearly 20 market bags which we will fill with socks, underwear, and toiletries and donate to the homeless teens of Outside In. At our next sew in (in January) we'll make rucksacks for the same purpose.

Pinecone Kristin told us a little about what she saw at the Houston Quilt Festival (big winners here). The Special exhibits were particularly interesting, including La Passacaglia quilts like the one in progress our own Virginia shared a few months ago, amazing collage quilts by Susan Carlson, and a wonderful range from traditional to artistic. Trends were harder to spot. Nothing really stood out that we haven't already embraced at The Pine Needle. Intense color, soft color, Elizabeth Hartman's Fancy Forest quilt, the Quick Curve ruler, we're doing a pretty good job of staying on top of what's popular.

Geri gave us some inspiration for our then and now challenge, entitled "Transitions." Looking for the emotional element in our work, one idea is for participants to create a modern quilt inspired by a family heirloom. Of course, not everyone has a vintage quilt at hand, so we encourage people to consider alternatives such as inspiration from a book, or by using vintage blocks themselves. Geri shared a book Kristin brought from the Houston special exhibit "Twisted" in which quilter Mary Kerr incorporated vintage blocks into modern settings and had them quilted by some of today's most accomplished long arm quilters. It was fascinating inspiration. We are also planning a "field trip" to the Latimer Quilt and Textile center in Tillamook, OR. Please call the shop if you'd like to sign up to receive more info. We'll have more info at our January meeting as well.

Our main presentation was a fascinating slide show by Nancy Betts of her and her husband's 2011 and 2014 trips to Mongolia. The first trip combined teaching quilting techniques to local women with adventuresome tourism. The second trip was similar, plus added putting on an international quilt show in the main city of Ulaanbaatar. They shared stories of sleeping in tents and gers (yurts), eating unusual foods, traveling many, many miles on unimproved roads in an old Russian van. We marveled at the stark scenery, great open spaces, and conditions completely different than most of us are used to. Thank you to Nancy and her husband for sharing their adventure with us.

Show and Tell was was short but sweet.

Virginia shared her "Admit One" quilt which recently won a prize at the Machine Quilting Unlimited show for Coleen's fantastic quilting. These two ladies make a great creative pair!

Marlene shared two vintage quilts she hopes to use as inspiration for our challenge. This well loved Sunbonnet Sue and Overall Sam quilt belonged to her husband when he was a baby.

Deslie shared  her reimagining of a pattern she found in a book. The original was much larger than she wanted, so Deslie adapted the pattern for a lap size.

Remember Susan B's Tribal Winds quilt with the silhouetted chief wrapped in a blanket? Check out what she made with her leftover blanket strips. We love the graphic punch of this!

Susan D shared a gorgeous purple quilt she recently finished.

Last but not least, Mardi shared a fantastic "fidget quilt" she made for a friend with dementia. She came up with all the fun, interactive blocks herself.

We won't be having a December meeting, so we wish everyone a happy, healthy, remainder of the holiday season and transition into the new year. We look forward to seeing everyone again in January.

Westside Modern Quilt Club October 2016

Despite rainy weather we had a great turnout. Looks like after a few months off, we were all ready to get back into the swing of things again.

Speaking of the swing of things, we'd like to make charity sewing days, like the one Pam R hosted, a regular thing. The Pine Needle can accommodate small groups in the lounge and has started a sign up sheet for an informal sew afternoon that will meet prior to next month's meeting. Quilts made will be donated to CARES NW.

Also back for another year will be our challenge! At this year's Expo, our Tribal Winds exhibit was shown alongside an informative display of PNW Native American history and culture from the Historical Society. The combination was very well received, so we'd like to do something similar for 2017. Our theme will be "Then & Now" which we hope to pair with something from the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center. Lori and Lily have already volunteered to organize a field trip to the center for inspiration. Our challenge will be to take an older quilt -- perhaps from your family or collection -- and interpret it in a modern way. There will be no size restrictions. Stay tuned for more details in the new year.

Our speaker this month was Lori Friedman, who spoke about her work with the Oregon Quilt Project. The Project was started in 2009 by Martha Sparks and Bill Volkening and reorganized in 2012 as a project of the Willamette Heritage Center with a 10 year mission to train local museums on how to document the quilts in their collections, and to document quilts in private collections in Oregon.

Lori brought a fantastic crazy quilt she found at a thrift store many years ago and used it to illustrate how The Oregon Quilt Project documents things like the provenance of the quilt, it's design, colors, size, etc. Lori brought a few reference books and a collection of vintage fabrics and blocks which she uses to help date quilts. The documentation the Project creates gets added to the national Quilt Index, and given to the quilt's owner.

Lori strongly encourages everyone to label their quilts with at minimum a date and name for the benefit of future "quilt detectives" like her. If you would like to take it a step further and register a family quilt, or otherwise special quilt, with the Project, click on the link above and call the phone number to find out when and where the next documentation day is.

After Lori's engaging talk was Show and Tell. First up was Darlene who brought a quilt with a fun story. After purchasing fabric for a quilt, her daughter thought no, it needed to be a different color. Darlene used the rejected fabric to test out this Twisted Sister block, and wouldn't you know it, once finished her daughter loved the quilt and wants it back!

After investing much brain power into her Tribal Winds quilt, Deslie was ready for something quick and easy, so she used aboriginal Australian fabric recently added to her stash to add excitement to simple blocks and create a simple but satisfying quilt.

Cathy E brought a work in progress (WIP) which could be perfect for our upcoming Then & Now exhibit! She's taken a traditional basket block from a Baltimore Album quilt and deconstructed it. We know that Cathy does amazing machine quilting, so we are all waiting excitedly to see how she transforms those temporary blue likes with intense stitch.

Marjorie shared her beautiful Tribal Winds Heron quilt inspired by Susan Carlson's book. 

Linda B also shared her Tribal Winds quilt, this one inspired by petroglyphs in the Columbia Gorge.

Robin S shared her dramatic peacock quilt made with The Big Easy pattern for her daughter, initially as a wedding gift but sped up to become an engagement gift.

Finally, Lisa G brought her modern churn dash quilt which she had with her in order to find backing fabric, but was encouraged by the group to share!

Thank you to everyone for coming and sharing your inspiring work. We look forward to seeing everyone again in November -- on the last Wednesday of the month.