Donation Quilts for Orlando Pulse

At the social meeting on Wednesday, we agreed to try to complete a quilt or two to donate to the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild's effort to provide quilts to the families of the Orlando Pulse shooting victims. http://theorlandomodernquiltguild.blogspot.com/2016/06/donation-quilts-for-pride-orlando.html

If you can donate a block, please follow this tutorial for a 10-inch block:  http://cluckclucksew.com/2015/01/making-heart-blocks-in-multiple-sizes.html, using a rainbow-shade heart and low-volume background. Bring it to the August meeting. That will give our volunteers time to assemble the blocks into top(s), sandwich, quilt, and bind before Orlando's September due date.

If you can't attend the August meeting, please contact glmodernquilter@gmail.com to arrange a drop-off.

June 2016 Social Meeting

Tonight was an informal social meeting of the Great Lakes Modern Quilt Guild.  We had a great meeting!

 Thanks to Pam for opening her home to us and letting us meet on her back patio!  It was delightful, despite the threats of rain.  The weather held off for us just long enough.  It started pouring shortly after I got home!

Here are the highlights of our meeting:

I forgot to take photos, but both Carolyn and Joanne brought versions of our challenge block they had sewn up already to show us.  The block is so stunning!  You're going to want to get in on this action and have a chance at winning the blocks.  Get to work on making a block, if you haven't yet.  Details can be found here, in the last blog post.

Speaking of winning blocks, Shannon has already sewn up all the blocks she won from our last challenge!  Check it out!

We all loved how she offset the blocks with this ingenious sashing!  Well done, Shannon!

Another member brought quilts she had made for a high school classmate's daughters.  Her friend's husband had recently passed away.  The guild member cut up the husband's shirts, and she made these quilts for her daughters, at her friend's request.  They were so amazing, and the quilting was beautiful on them!  I loved the design!

She had enough scraps to make a third quilt as a surprise for her friend.  She used chambray for the background because the husband often wore blue jeans.  What a special treat for her friend.  They will all love these quilts!  (I am not saying who made them to try to make sure her secret is kept.)

Terri brought this really cool cathedral windows quilt that her grandmother made in 1967.  It was so amazing!  It was not faded at all, because it had been stored in her mother's cedar chest for many, many years.  She was recently gifted this quilt by her mother, who is now in a care facility.  We were all astounded at how heavy the quilt is, despite the fact that there is no batting in it.  Maybe someday I will actually make one of these.  Wow.

Pam gifted us all with some snazzy sewing machine cleaning tools she made from coffee stir straws and pipe cleaners!  How fun and useful!  Thank you, Pam!

And thank you to Carolyn for prizes!  She gave away some nice scraps of Alison Glass fabrics she had leftover from making her challenge block!  Woo hoo!  What a nice prize!

We discussed making a quilt for the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild and decided we would go for it.  Watch for a post from Carolyn on specifics, if you'd like to contribute a block.  We'd love your help on this one!

It was great seeing everyone!  Looking forward to our next formal meeting in July!

Stephanie

June/July 2016 Block Activity

Since we will be meeting and hearing from Amy Garro in July, it's only fitting to make an Amy Garro block this month, don't you think?

The block we will make is her "Flock of Half Square Triangles" block. The tutorial is available at http://www.13spools.com/2013/06/flock-of-half-square-triangles-block.html

For the color palette, let's use the beautiful palette that Jackie used in the quilt top she shared last month (with her permission - thanks Jackie!)  For the triangles, use patterns or solids in these rich warm colors like the ones that that make up the rings in Jackie's piece. For the background, rather than white, use a single solid dark grey, dark blue, dark purple, or dark olive. 

Amy's instructions in the blog are perfect - I don't have any tips to add! She suggests pressing all seams open, but I found the corners were not too bulky when I pressed the individual HSTs to one side and then pressed rows open. 

Here are the photos I took as I constructed my block:

I used some of my gorgeous new "handcrafted patchwork" from Alison Glass.

 I used the two squares method and cut 8 purple and 8 colored 2 7/8" squares. Amy describes another method that makes 8 HSTs at once, but I wanted more variety in the colors.

I love the resulting block and can't wait to make another with a different color solid - maybe grey! I will bring this block to the social meeting next week.

See the rules for submission and winning all the blocks here.

June Social Meeting

It's that time again! Our next social meeting is Wednesday, June 22nd at 6:00. GLMQG member Pam is hosting at her home. We hope you can come for great conversation, company, and quilt-talk! Oh, and SHOW & TELL!

Watch your e-mail for Pam's info.  (Please let us know if you do not receive the e-mail!)