Saturday, September 26, 2009

A Filler Stitch for Every Day

I stumbled upon a blog I thought some of you would love to look at. It's one about free motion machine quilting - I think the idea of it is a new stitch every day for a year. A quilting Julie, as in Julie and Julia. There are videos, also. Just click on the link below-----

http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/

Why don't you check it out and let us know what you think of it?

Show Time

Recently I went to a great quilt show put on by the Sarnia Quilters' Guild. They had enough quilts to fill TWO high school gyms.

There was a lot of traditional stuff...



...very intricate work...


A lot of "international" themes...


Melissa would have liked this one...
Some really creative things as well ...




Their "challenge quilt" was Bloomin Business

Here my sister, who accompanied me, had to demonstrate the "interactive" quilt (note she is wearing a glove - LOL).
Have you been to a show lately? Why not tell us about it - and if you have pictures send them so we can post!

October is almost here - don't forget to bring your Show and Tell!

Friday, September 18, 2009

A Visit to Colonial Villa

This is National Assisted Living Week and Colonial Villa here in Midland asked if some of our guild members would come out, bring some quilts and visit with the residents and show them some of our work.

Some of the residents looking over the quilts that we brought along. It was a lovely fall day for an outing.

Nancy Wyse with her gorgeous, paper pieced masterpiece - 9,960some pieces!! And she did her first hand applique on the border. Wow!
Barbara Ellis and Kathy Gruber sitting in the area where we had the quilts displayed. Barbara was doing some embroidery.
Carol Bornsheuer and Kathy Mallory make a total of five of the Q2 members who went to Colonial Villa today to share our love for quilting. (Click pictures to enlarge)

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Third Tuesday Sit and Sew

The third Tuesday of each month Q2 has a Sit and Sew Day at the Chapel Lane Presbyterian Church. Everyone is welcome to come, bring your projects (machines are welcome) and spend from 10:00 to 3:00 with a group of great gals that share a love of quilting. Today was that day for September. Click on the pictures to enlarge them


Here are Helen, Marsha and Nancy smiling and enjoying the day and good company. There are a number of those coming that have been bringing embroidery projects - most of which will go into wallhangings, etc. Carrie is working at her sewing machine with a lapful of fabric strips. Always several of the ladies bring their machines. Sit and Sew is also a good place to do quilt binding and other such handwork.

Marlene smiles as she wraps fabric strips around clothesline for a project that was inspired by a class last week by Ami Simms. Debris all over the floor - but that's okay, she cleaned it all up!

Kathy and Barbara are in a happy mood - and so is Judy, who is concentrating on her work.
A binding project has Alice's attention. This is a representation of the group of ladies that came out for the day or part of it. We would urge you, if you are able, to come join us whenever you can. It is such a good way to get to know each other. Our guild meetings go quickly and, even though we have a social time beforehand, it is difficult to get around to talk to everyone. Lunch is whatever you want to do - some bring their lunches and there are always some that go pick up something from someplace close such as Quizno's, Parkside, etc. Hope to see you there soon! (Click pictures to enlarge)

Monday, September 14, 2009

MQN Showcase in Lansing

This past weekend was the Michigan Quilters Showcase that was held in Lansing this year. A group of our quilters went to the show on Sunday, and Stephanie sent along some pictures she took while there. Our challenge for our 2009 quilt show last March was "Not Playing with a Full Deck" and we made a wallhanging depicting the card that each of us drew. The challenge was on display at Showcase. The first picture above, although, is one of an Australian memory quilt made by Stephanie several years ago for which she won a prize in a contest held by a magazine. It's a wonderful quilt!


Some of our great playing cards!
Barbara went along to the show.


Kathy and Judy in second picture above and Kathy directly above.

Two more of the cards. This group of wallhangings made for a great exhibit - what a fun challenge.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

September 8th Meeting

Well everyone - I apologize now for the photos - I need to spend more time setting up before snapping (will probably let Carol do the shoots from now on as she is much better at it).

I heard 69 folks attended our first meeting of the season! Wow, that must be a record for us! Thank you Nancy Wyse for helping us get settled into our new digs. We even had a lovely "Welcome" poster!

Ami Simms was our guest speaker (How Not To Make A Prize Winning Quilt) - wasn't she great (I'll never forget her shower curtain ;->). We may be starting a tradition on "booing" winners of our various monthly draws - but all in fun.

The gals who took her class earlier in the day got to show off the end results...

Our Temp Prez Melissa and on of our Program Peeps, Tam were busy at the back getting everyone signed up for all our wonderful upcoming classes (I'll post more details shortly). Congratulations, and many thanks, to Nancy Stanley who has graciously agreed to be our 2009/2010 Prez. Give her a big smile, handshake, hug (and probably some sympathy) next time you see her! Also, let her know if you are interested in this year's Round Robin...

We also did our "inchie" exchange amongst other things - they really were cute. No Show and Tell this month but we expect to see great things in October!

The 2009-2010 Quilt Challenge was introduced by Kathy - this year's theme is Storytime (check the side bar for more information).

Still waiting to hear about any shops you would like to see us list, your glob (whoops, meant blog) if you have one, and anything else you like to see on our site. Leave a comment and I will be happy to get back to you.
And new to our site - we do have "Bees" - check out the list and if you have any to add let us know!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Volunteers Required


Next week is National Assisted Living Week. On Sept 18th, from 1-2 pm, members of our Guild will be visiting Colonial Villa to share their love of quilting with residents. The theme for next week is Traditions of the Heart - how fitting that we have been asked to help celebrate this week. If you are interesting in participating, please contact Julie Oman. And thanks in advance for helping.