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Cathy brought her flannel pinwheels which she had originally made as a class sample, and now it will be raffled at her church to support their Mission program.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

Community Quilting Day

Thanks to Pam Raby, one of our amazing instructors, The Pine Needle recently hosted a Community Sewing Day to make quilts for Cares NW, a local charity. 

Pam has been inspired by the heart quilts that so many guilds have made for communities affected by tragedy. Cares NW has long been near and dear to the Portland community and especially the Pine Needle.Thinking about how she might contribute, Pam offered her time as a teacher and presented construction techniques as well as heart quilt ideas which she discovered online. It was a wonderful day! A lovely group of generous, kind hearted women came to our community service day. Pam (and probably everyone there) especially enjoyed the collaborative, willing spirit everyone brought. As quilters, we often spend many hours alone happily stitching the hours away. It is refreshing and gratifying to pitch in and work together to create quilts for kids in need of comfort in our town.

Part of the group was busy working in our Lounge.

While still more people worked in the Classroom.

Some of our Pine Needle regulars, and prolific quilters for CARES: Charlotte, Pam, and Margaret.

Master coordinator, Karen, working behind the scenes organizing and making kits

Kathy's work in progress.

Kathy's finished quilt top (Illumination, designed by Pam Raby).

Beth's hearts in progress.

Nikki's citrus themed quilt top.

Another heart top in progress

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who participated. The event was so fun and productive that we will definitely be doing again.

Creative Customers

Phew, it's been a full month. Our fall catalog came out, we held an Open House, Mary Fons came to talk, and then there was the Northwest Quilt Expo -- all in September. It would have been great to blog about these things, but we got too busy! But speaking of busy, our customers have been busy too. Please join us in putting up our feet, grabbing a nice cuppa, and looking back at the beautiful quilts our creative customers have brought into the shop lately to share with us.

If this delightful photo of Betty bringing in her armload of charity quilts doesn't epitomize the generosity of our customers, we don;t know what would. Thanks to everyone who donates to CARES NW.

Barbara proudly shows off her beautiful Sequoia quilt.

Cheryl used a fun panel fabric to make a fun and easy quilt for a grandchild.

Can you believe that Evelyn used all Australian Aboriginal prints in these fantastic wheels? It's a great combination of traditional and unexpected.

Nancy's Melbourne quilt is also made using dynamic aboriginal prints.

Here's another surprise from Evelyn. She mis-cut triangles for her Spinner table runner, so she used them in another arrangement to make this "Plan B" runner.

Joie wouldn't let us photograph her face so here's her feet. We love her happy quilt made with dog-themed fabrics. Even the quilting includes a dog bone motif!

Kathy's Dancing Churndash made with the Quick Curve Ruler is stunning! We're a big fan of her grey and yellow (grellow) color scheme.

Dawn's Seeing Stars class produced stunning results. Here's Maxine's stellar blue version.

Our Pinecones are pretty creative too. Kristin made good use of the Quick Curve Ruler and our Awesome Odds stash to  create this glowing quilt for a friend's birthday.

We'll be back to posting more regularly as we re-stock the shop and get ready for cooler months and more indoor quilting weather! Be sure to also check us out on Facebook and Instagram for quick posts about new fabrics, show and tell, and more.

CARES NW

313 quilts were sewn by our generous customers and friends for the Cares Northwest program last year! 

You can be a part of it too! Pick up a free bag of fabric, complete your quilt, and donate it to this valuable program that helps kids in need! Stop by today http://www.caresnw.org/

Here are a few quilts our lovely customers have made recently: