August Online Activity!

Get your text fabric ready! It's time for our August Online Activity!!

We're going to be making the Spiderweb block, as suggested by Stephanie. I made mine this afternoon and the tutorial is excellent--easy to follow.

The details:

• Find the tutorial to make the block here.
• Please use black on white/cream text fabric for the center star, which means you'll need a 12-1/2" square of text fabric to get you started.
• For the strips, I followed her recommendation of using strips ranging from 1" to 2" wide. Please use bright, candy-like colors. You can see I've got a bit of variety in mine. :)
• I will stress a few points from the tutorial and from my own experience; first, follow the directions for marking your triangles--it may seem strange, but trust me--don't think too much about it--just do what she says and it works out! 
• Second, you're only sewing the strips to each other, not to the text fabric behind as you would in a typical foundation. This means you'll have a triangle of text fabric to trim at the end.
• Third, this is my own point to stress--after you trim each quarter block, you'll have a decent amount of bias edges. When you start assembling the quarter blocks into the block, pin frequently! Especially where the text fabric joins the first strip so that you get decent points. The text fabric will be very stretchy.
• Fourth, after the block is assembled, the tutorial says to trim the block to 12". Despite everyone's best effort, I anticipate there being a bit of variety in our block sizes (maybe because mine measures more like 11-3/4" square?!?!). I recommend not trimming--that way the winner of the blocks can trim them all as she/he likes. So to repeat, do not trim the block to 12" when you finish. (And sorry, whoever wins, that mine is already a little small!)

 Here's a pic of my quarter block pieces, pre assembly. I fell more in love with this block as I made it--someone's going to end up with a great quilt!

Submission/Winning:

• Submit a photo of the completed block by Sept 26.  We want this to be fun and easy, not stressful, so we have several options for submitting your photo.
• If you have a Flickr account, please post the photo to Flickr, add it to the Great Lakes Modern Quilt Guild group pool, and tag it GLMQG0914. *Adding the tag is key, because it allows the photo to get into the slideshow on our blog.*
• If you have a Facebook account, you may post the picture to the Great Lakes Modern Quilt Guild Facebook page. 
• You may email your photo to glmodernquilter@gmail.com 
• If you do not have access to a digital camera, contact me (Lisa) and I will arrange to photograph your block.
• How to win all the blocks:
• We are going to draw for a winner of all the blocks at our next live meeting, which is September 27.  You do not need to be present to win.
• IMPORTANT: If you want to be entered in the drawing but will not be at the meeting with your block, please make sure to let another attendee know. We try our best to make sure everyone who submits a photo of their block gets entered in the drawing, but making sure a friend puts your name in the hat will guarantee you have a chance to win!
• You get your name in the drawing each time you enter a block.  So, if you submit two blocks, your name goes in the drawing twice!
• Please bring your completed block to the September meeting so all the blocks can be delivered to the winner.  If the winner is not at the meeting, we will mail them to him/her.
• We'll post the name of the winner here on the blog.  So, if we don't have your email address, check the blog so you can see if you won and can send us your contact information.  (If you are at the meeting, you'll get your blocks on the spot!)
• If you will not be at the meeting, either
• Give the block to a friend to bring it for you, or
• Mail it in.  E-mail us at glmodernquilter@gmail.com, and we'll send you the mailing address where you can send your blocks.

• That winner must assemble the blocks into a finished quilt before being eligible to win again. Fair enough?

As always, leave a comment if you have a question and I'll try to answer it!
Thanks!
Lisa

July 2014 Meeting Summary

We had 19 members at our meeting.   We would like to welcome our 4 new members, Pat, Susan, Samantha and Mark.  We now have 31 members!

We had a wonderful presentation on fabric dyeing by Teri Springer along with samples of her work.  She gave us a very informative handout on MX and other dyes.  If anyone is interested in dyeing fabric, they can contact Teri at 269-615-6591.  Thank you Teri for sharing your talent with us.

Fabric Swap:  Fun Times!  We had over 100 fat quarters and over 45 different designs of "text fabric". We might see some of the black and white text fabric used in next month's online activity.

 Retreat Update:  The retreat will be at Camp Lutherwald in Howe,Indiana on November 14 thru 16.  The cost is $210.00 for private rooms and $150.00 per person for rooms with 2 to 4 people.  There is a $50.00 deposit due by October 25, non-refundable after that date.  On October 1 we will open reservations for nonmembers.  There is an additional $25.00 fee, but it includes a membership.  Meals are included, Friday dinner thru Sunday lunch.  We will provide our own single bed linens and towels or we may pay an extra charge.  We are checking into the possibility of coming for the day.  More information will be on our blog.

Meetings:  Our next meeting will be at the Portage Public Library on September 27, 10:30 to 12:30 followed by a sew in.  We will not have a meeting in November due to our retreat.  We have a Christmas party planned for December 8 at Bells Brewery with a small handmade gift exchange.  Possible choices include:  pincushion, placemats, oven mitts, coasters, rotary cutter case, eye glass case, small zipper bag or fabric ornament.   January 24, 2015 meeting/sew in will be at Bernina.

Block Drawing:  Our new member Mark  won 27 "X Marks the Spot" blocks.  Congratulations!

Door Prizes:  Pam B. won a very cute small duffle bag donated by Stephanie, and Pat F. won three zipper pulls donated by Holly.

 Tina shared information about donating handmade items to Bronson Babies.  If anyone is interested, please contact volunteer services.  Sue Haas, haass@bronson.org 269-341-8754 or Julie VanderNoot, Vandernj@bronson.org, 269-341-8644.

Show and Tell: Our favorite part, was great as usual. 

Text fabric swap details!

Hi all,
We'd talked at the May meeting about doing a text fabric swap in July, and the date is fast approaching!

Here are the details:

• If you want to participate, bring a fat quarter of text fabric to swap. (If you like, bring more than one and you'll take more than one home...it's up to you!)
• At the meeting, anyone who brings a fat quarter (or more than one) to swap will take home a different fat quarter. 
• If you can't make the July meeting (July 26) send your fat quarter with a friend so you can still be part of the swap!
• Text fabric is any fabric with words/numbers/writing on it. Here are some examples below.

link

link

link

link

(Note: I found all of these examples [and many more!] simply by googling "text fabric." You can also check out your favorite online quilt shops.)

A few shops to look at:

Pink Castle Fabrics

Pink Chalk Fabrics

Hawthorne Threads

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Now, to make things slightly more complicated, if you like, this can tie into our next online activity (for the September meeting). Our block will be the spider web block (find the tutorial here and see the block photo further down in this post). We will be asking you to use black on white/cream text fabric for the center "star" (the solid white portion) of the tutorial block.

Sample of black text on white/cream background:

link

Here's a peek at the block (color scheme of the pieced portion still to be determined--we'll let you know details at the July meeting/on the blog after the July meeting):

Photo and tutorial: 

http://alamodefabric.blogspot.com/2010/06/spider-web-quilt-block-tutorial.html

What does this mean?

• You may wish to purchase more than a fat quarter of text fabric when you choose something for the swap. 
• Each spider web block uses a 12-1/2" square of text fabric. Ultimately, you'll have text fabric scraps left over from making the spider web block, but you will only be able to get ONE 12-1/2" square (for the block activity) out of a fat quarter. 
• If you choose a non white and black text fabric for the swap, that's fine--just make sure you also have a white and black text fabric option of your own to use for making your online activity block. (I say this because I haven't seen a lot of text fabrics around the area--you may end up going online to buy text fabric for the swap and/or activity, and this way you can plan ahead to purchase both at the same time.)
• If you buy 1/2 yard of fabric, you can cut it into 1 fat quarter for the swap and still have fabric left to make one spider web block. If you buy 3/4 yard of fabric, you can cut your fat quarter for the swap and be able to make 2 spider web blocks (or just have leftover text fabric to play with!). *You can also the FQ you receive in the swap for your block if it is black on white.*

I tried to make this post uncomplicated, but I'm not totally sure I succeeded! If you have questions or need help finding fabric, please leave a message in the comments and I'll get in touch with you.

Thanks!

Lisa

p.s. If you have suggestions on where else online to shop specifically for text fabric, please leave web addresses in the comments below and/or on Facebook!