Monday, September 26, 2016

September Meeting Recap


Hi, all! 
Here's a quick photo recap from September's meeting. Details to follow (aka meeting minutes) in an email. 


Our business meeting was short and sweet so we could move onto the fun stuff--the block giveaway and show and tell! 

Carolyn found these simple but impactful shadow blocks for us to make. Jane P. won them--we can't wait to see what she does with them! 


Jane also showed off her two WIPs from the Jacquie Gering workshop earlier this week. First, a table runner in progress: 

And then a wall quilt:

Lisa showed off her scrappy rainbow star quilt, made from using the made fabric technique she demonstrated at our March meeting. 

Pam shared a man's dress shirt that she converted into a cute maternity shirt as a gift for a friend.

Stephanie shared a quilted notecard case she made (and then generously donated as a giveaway for the group!)

After the meeting, we moved on to our sew-in, with a sweet project to sew! Karen Kortman from Bernina Sewing Center joined us to teach the candy bag zipper pouches featured in Missouri Star Quilt Co.'s Block magazine. Armed with our copies of the magazine for reference, we followed Karen's instructions to transform our favorite candy bags! We may have eaten a little chocolate too...

Here are Karen's samples:

Karen, sharing her experience:

Stephanie and Claire with their bags:

Lynn and Jane:

Jill, proving that you can sew with a baby attached to you! 

 
Pat's M&M bag


Jane's Tootsie Rolls


 Pam helped two visiting friends sew candy bags


Shannon's M&M bags

Love Stephanie's purple skittle bag!

Jeanine's Swedish Fish and Candy Corn M&Ms!


Thanks to everyone who joined us for the meeting and the sew-in, and another thank you to Karen for coming to make the candy zipper pouches with us! 

Our next informal meeting will be Wednesday, October 19th, location to be determined. Stay tuned! 

Friday, September 23, 2016

Meeting Tomorrow 24 Sept 2016

Hi,

Just a reminder about our meeting tomorrow. 

There are a lot of events in downtown Kalamazoo tomorrow.  So allow plenty of time to find a parking place.
Remember meters are free on the weekends.

Here is a link to the library, and parking.

http://www.kpl.gov/central/map.aspx

All of the info about our demo project is here
http://greatlakesmodernquiltguild.blogspot.com/2016/09/important-information-for-our-september.html

We have the library room from 9am-4:30.  So feel free to arrive early and we will have plenty of time to sew following our candy pouch demo.

Also, you can bring your lunch/snacks  to this meeting.

See you tomorrow.

Pam

Friday, September 9, 2016

Important Information for our September 24 Meeting--DON'T FEAR THE ZIPPER!

Hi Everyone,

This is Stephanie!  Hope you're all doing great.  As you know from our last blog post and from the email notification, Angela Pingel had to postpone her visit to our guild.  We have been working diligently to plan an alternative activity for that day.  Sorry it has taken us a bit to get that information posted here, but we had a few details to line up, and we wanted to have all our ducks in a row before sending out any information.

Regarding the cancelled workshop:
We will be refunding the $10 fee any of you paid for Angela Pingel's workshop.  We will start over with that when we get her rescheduled.  Teri will be working on getting your refunds to you via Paypal.

Regarding the revised plan for Saturday the 24th:
We were scheduled for an all-day workshop, and now we are going to change gears slightly.  We will have a meeting starting at 10:00 am at the Kalamazoo Public Library downtown.  It will be a brief meeting, with announcements, show-and-tell, and the shadow block raffle only (no program).  So, bring your show-and-tells and have some fellowship!

At about 11:00, we will start our sew-in.  We are going to do the sew-in at the library.  We have the room reserved for the entire day.  And we are so lucky that Karen from  Bernina Sewing Center will be coming to do a demo and make-and-take.  We are going to be making a zipper bag from a candy bag!


From https://recipebookandmore.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/candy-wrapper-zipper-pouch.jpg


 We thought it would be fun to do something with zippers, given that our holiday gift exchange will be a pouch exchange, and many of you have expressed some fear of inserting zippers.  Thanks so much to Karen for helping us out!  She will give us a demonstration of how to make the zipper pouch, and we will sew along and make one for ourselves.  You can even make more than one, if you want.  I doubt it will take all afternoon to make the pouch, so if you want to bring something else to sew after that, please feel free!  We have the room reserved all day and it will be fun to have some open sewing.

DETAILS

What will you need? 
We will be sewing from a pattern called Don't Fear the Zipper! by Jenny Doan.  The pattern is found in the Summer 2015 (Volume 2, Issue 4) Missouri Star Quilt Company Block Idea Book.


Cover of the Missouri Star Block Idea Book


If you already own the book, great!  Please bring it.  If you don't, you'll need to purchase it out of respect for the copyright holder.  But it is only $5.99 and has over 100 pages of quilt patterns and tips.


Table of contents from the Missouri Star Block Idea Book


There are 10 quilt patterns and the bag pattern in it.

Table of contents from the Missouri Star Block Idea Book


Pretty good deal! 

You will also need some fusible fleece and some iron-on vinyl.

We have set up a shopping cart  for all these items so you can also order these if you need them.  Karen will bring the books, fusible fleece, and vinyl for you on Saturday.

Click here to go to the cart and order these supplies.  You can order whichever items you want/need.  Tax is included on all items in the cart.  Again, if you don't own the book, please purchase one.  If you have iron-on vinyl and fusible fleece at home, you can just bring it.  Otherwise, you can order it now.  Please place your orders by September 16 at 3:00 so that Karen can place an order for more books if she needs to.  We want to make sure she has them in on time.  If you order after that date, you may not get your book on Saturday (but we will still make sure you get it!).

If you order a yard of the fusible fleece and the iron-on vinyl, you will likely have enough materials to make at least two bags!

What else should you bring from home?
Please bring:
  • Your sewing machine (don't forget your foot pedal!)
  • Your sewing supplies, like rotary cutter, scissors, thread, etc.  If you want, you can bring a small cutting mat to keep by your sewing station.
  • One large bag of your favorite candy.  You can bring more bags of candy if you want to make more bags!  Think of things like a large "pounder" bag of M&Ms or Starburst or one of those really large Hershey bars.   These would make great bags!  (Hmmm....maybe we should have some big bowls so we can share the candy!  haha.  Actually, you can just bring the empty bags, if you like.) EDIT:  NOTE FROM KAREN--Please do not RIP your candy bag open. If you feel the need to open your bag prior to this day, please cut straight along the top or side of the bag.
  • A rectangle of fabric to use as the lining that measures at least twice the size of your pouch.  The pattern suggests a 9"x20" rectangle.  A fat quarter should do nicely!  Bring one for each bag you plan to make.
  • A nylon zipper that goes with your bag.  Make sure it is longer than your bag is wide.  Bring one for each bag you plan to make.
What will the guild provide?
 The guild will provide irons, ironing boards, and power strips/extension cords.

What about lunch?
You can take a lunch break anytime you want.  There are lots of restaurants downtown you can go visit.  We are checking on whether you can bring a lunch to eat at the library.  I'll edit this post shortly when I know for sure.

Okay, now I am sure I forgot something!  Please comment below if you have any questions, and I'll do my best to get them answered for you quickly!  Thanks for your patience as we ironed this out and thanks to Karen for pinch hitting!  We really appreciate it!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Stephanie