SewDown Portland

We had a wonderful time at the SewDown! See the previous post for the workshop recap.

Last weekend, Susan, Kristin, and Lindsey attended the MQG SewDown Portland. The weather wasn't ideal for a trip across the mountains, but Portland was beautiful in the snow and luckily everyone arrived safely.

...But we were able to stay warm and cozy at the Nines.

Modern Domestic  and Bernina set up some beautiful sewing machines for us to use in the workshops and during open sew each night.

We ate some wonderful food. During the meals we enjoyed excellent lectures from Violet Craft, Valori Wells, and Bill Volckening.

Violet spoke about her personal journey as a fabric designer. She shared some beautiful quilts and showed us some of her patterns.

Valori spoke about her design process for her latest line Quill with Robert Kaufman. Her quilts and fabrics are amazing.

Bill is a quilt collector, and he shared vintage quilts from his collection from the early 1900s to the 1970s that show modern elements. His collection was beautiful and insipring! See Bill's blog post for more pictures of the quilts he shared with us.

Work in Progress Wednesday: SewDown Workshops

On Wednesdays we share works in progress from COMQG members. Enjoy! Today we're featuring projects made during the Portland SewDown.

The four workshops at the SewDown were so great! See our next post for the recap of all the other happenings.

The 80 attendees were divided into four groups that rotated through the four workshop sessions. The three of us from Central Oregon were lucky enough to all be in the same group for the workshops.

Up first on Saturday we had the Improv Round Robin with Sherri Lynn Wood. We each started with our own scrap bin. After some quiet reflection time and started our piece in silence so that we could focus on our inspiration. We then passed our started quilt and our scrap bins to another person in the class who had 15 minutes to add their part to our piece using our scraps. Sherri Lynn likened it to a conversation: what does this piece say to you, and how do you want to respond? We had time to pass our quilts 4 times, and most of us didn't see our quilts in progress until they were returned to us at the end of class.

Here we are with our finished pieces after we exchanged one more time at open sew that night. 

Saturday afternoon was a change of pace. We had a class with Heather Jones where we made her You and Me quilt. This quilt has a bold, modern design. It was really fun to see all the different color combinations from other people in the class. Heather will be teaching this same class at Quilter's Affair in July. We all sewed and sewed and sewed all afternoon and most completed a block from the quilt. There are four blocks in the quilt so we were quite productive!

Near the end of class we hung all the completed blocks on the classroom wall.

On Sunday morning we took the Shooting Star class from Lee Heinrich. The quilt is a modern mini quilt with a traditional block but pieced so that the final quilt has asymmetry and a fun, modern look. We learned two methods for sewing flying geese units, and used ombre fabric to get a great effect.

Lee's Shooting Star mini quilt.

Lee snapped this one of us with our finished products and posted it on Instagram. 

Finally on Sunday afternoon we had the Sidekick Sampler workshop with Julie Herman. We learned how to cut four different shapes from strips using the ruler. Then we used these shapes to create the block used in Julie's Night Sky Quilt. Julie will be teaching this class at Quilter's Affair in July. Valori Wells provided some fabric for us to practice piecing the blocks before we used the kit provided.

Julie demonstrated the shapes you can create using the Sidekick ruler.

Julie's samples. The mini on top is the kit we received in class, and her quilt samples underneath.

Kristin's block in progress.

Members Share Their Space - Christy

Welcome to a new series where COMQG members share their sewing space. Enjoy! 

The best feature of my sewing space is the closet.  I use it to store my work in progress projects which I've hung on coat hangers.  It gives me a visual reminder to work on what’s already underway rather than start new projects.  However, this doesn't always work and I end up starting lots of new things anyway!  

I just downsized my fabric storage to a small cabinet purchased from the Humane Society Thrift Store in Bend.  I used some simple plastic brackets and pre-made shelving from ACE Hardware to double the number of shelves in the cabinet.

I sew on a Juki TL-2010Q.  I bought it after 18 months sewing on a Brother CS-6000i which was a great starter machine.  The Juki sews so smoothly and the quilting is first rate.  I love the 9” throat, which makes large projects almost painless!   

I built the ironing table using Elizabeth Hartman’s tutorial.  I added a wooden box on top of the TV dinner tray to raise the height.  The larger square ironing platform is the perfect size for me even thought it makes the table a little tipsy.  

The Toes in the Sand quilt by Jaybird Quilts is up on my design wall right now, I'm working on layout.  Because I’m using my own fabric choices I think I will end up deviating from the suggested layout in order to balance fabric color, and value.  

I’m looking forward to eventually finding a taller cutting table.  I do love having the cutting table close to a window where there is lots of natural light.  I've got scraps stored in a few plastic bins perched on a reclaimed piece of cedar.  

Wish Upon a Card Fabric Postcard Challenge

As mentioned by Kathy the SOQG rep at the last meeting Michael Miller Postcards are easy and fun to make.

 

The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show page includes more details and rules on the Wish Upon a Card postcard challenge to benefit Wendy's Wish

The tutorial for fabric postcard creation is found on About.com Quilting.

They have two recommendations for filler  Fast2fuse in regular weight (heavy weight is too thick for the mail) or Timtex.

The 2013 Wendy's Wish Facebook page has a beautiful slideshow of last year's lovely cards.

More information about Wendy's Wish on their homepage.

From the SOQG website: Michael Miller Challenge winners and other cards selected by jury are custom framed (compliments of High Desert Frameworks!) and silent auctioned.  Unframed cards will be available for sale with proceeds from the sale and silent auction benefiting Wendy’s Wish. 
Postcards should be 4” x 6”
To be considered for Challenge prizes and silent auction, cards must be received  by April 15
We are happy to accept cards for sale up to July 1st
Please include your name and address with each card and mail to 
SOQS/Wish, 220 S. Ash St. #4,Sisters, OR 97759

Work in Progress Wednesday

Every Wednesday, we share works in progress from guild members. Enjoy!

Here we all are with our Riley Blake Challenges! From top left: Janice made her dual-Challenge quilt with Ohio Stars (for the COMQG Challenge), and the Riley Blake fabric. Kayla did this great baby quilt with squares appliqued during the quilting. Lindsey made a diamond table runner. Christy made a wonderful quilt. Susan is holding Shannon's quilt with all the area codes where Shannon has lived. Susan has already gifted her sweet quilt! 

Bottom row: Jeanne made these great potholders, Crystal made this quilt-as-you-go tote with a stitched pocket. Erin also made Ohio Star potholders as practice for her challenge quilt. 

See the Modern Quilt Guild blog post for information about our challenge. We were provided 6 fat eighths of Riley Blake Designs fabric from the Basics line. We could then use any solid fabric and any Riley Blake fabric to make our final quilted product. Participants have until February 17th to post pictures of their quilts in the forum on the Modern Quilt Guild Community site to be eligible for the challenge prizes. 

Guild Meeting Photos

COMQG 02/04/2014, a set on Flickr.

Riley Blake challenge finishes! A great meeting tonight, all!

Meeting Reminder

On the First Tuesday, February 4th, we'll meet at Quiltworks from 5pm to 8pm. The shop will be open if you'd like to do any shopping.

What to bring:
--your completed Riley Blake challenge
--handwork projects. Our meeting attendance is so high now we have limited work space for sewing machines. Many members bring their binding, embroidery, English paper piecing, or knitting projects.
--show and tell

For the business portion of the meeting, which starts at 6,

1) our focus will be on sharing our completed Riley Blake challenge quilts.
2) I'll bring my camera and computer, and we can photograph and post your pictures in the MQG forum at the meeting. If you have any questions about your Modern Quilt Guild account or using the website, we can go over that at this time as well.
3) March 1st is the due date for the Ohio Star Made Modern Challenge quilt.
4) Susan is looking into planning a COMQG sew day in February.
5) Kayla will be distributing fabric to make blocks for the COMQG banner this month.
6) Show and tell