TOMORROW: QuiltCon Registration

Double post today! (look below for info on the Kaffe Fasset workshop)
A message from our president today reminded me to post this! I apologize for not doing so sooner - I knew I couldn't go so I wasn't paying attention to the registration date. I will pay more attention in the future!

If you didn't already know, registration for QuiltCon (the first conference and show for modern quilters in Feburary 2013) opens on Thurs. 8/30 at 10 am EST. Some workshops and lectures are expected to sell out so if you're sure you're going, register early.

For general information go to:
http://www.quiltcon.com

For workshop and lecture schedule:
http://www.quiltcon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/QuiltCon-Online-Catalog.pdf

To register go here when it goes live:
https://www.cvent.com/Events/EventPassword.aspx?return=/events/quiltcon-2013/event-summary-628ded56a82944caaa1a2224ae84eda0.aspx


Thanks!
-Jess H.

Kaffe Fasset Workshop Info

Passing on this important info from Robin, our secretary:

Where: 1 Tree Farm Rd, Pennington, NJ (in the same shopping complex as Pennington Quilt Works - so we can walk over and shop for anything we need).
When: Sunday Oct 7th from 10-5
Spots Open: 30 

Kaffe Fasset will be teaching a workshop on color and fabric selection with his partner, our very own Liza Prior Lucy. You be learning about color and fabric selection and placement using a design wall. You do NOT need to use Kaffe's fabrics, but it is certainly an option and they are available at Pennington Quiltworks. The workshop will include cutting and using a design wall, but not any sewing, so machines are not needed. The quilt you will do is called "Sunlight in the Forest":

 

If you're not familiar with Kaffe's work, please look up his MANY books online. He's a prolific textile designer with an amazing sense of color. He designs quilts, fabric, and even needlepoint and knitting patterns and yarn. He has many years of experience and an amazing and varied career to share. He lives in England and chances to take a workshop with him are few and far between.

To register for the class, please email me (check BigTent if you don't have Robin's email, or message her on there) should you like to participate in this workshop. The spots in the class will be held for 1 week (until Sept 2) for guild members to have first opportunity. After that, the additional spaces will be opened up to the non-members on a first-come-first serve basis. The workshop fee is $80 for CJMQG members. The fee is $100 for non-members. The full balance is due absolutely no later than our next monthly meeting on Sept. 11th. However, when you express interest, we will send you the address to mail you payment and ask that you do so as soon as possible. If it turns out you miss the monthly meeting, we will no longer be able to hold your spot and it may be taken by a non-member. The fee is non-refundable unless we are able to fill your spot. After you are enrolled/paid fee for the workshop, you will get a list of fabric and supplies needed. Any questions, please let me know.

(GAH, as most of you know, this is my wedding day, and I want to be there!! You'd better all go and update me!)
-Jess H.

Member Spotlight: Robin

I'm happy to announce that Member Spotlight will be a new segment on our blog! I gathered interested email addresses at our August meeting and sent out a list of several questions to be answered (if you are interested and didn't receive an email, feel free to email me at quiltyhabit@gmail.com and I'll send you the easy instructions :) ). I'll be posting about one a week - so far I have enough to fill September!

Robin was the first to answer! She is our secretary, and was also the host of our last Sewcial get together in July.

 

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Tell us a little about yourself!

I learned embroidering when I was a Brownie (a la Girl Scouts) by my grandmother and great grandmother. This turned to sewing of all kinds of sewing although "craft" and "bag" sewing are my absolute least favorite types. I enjoy bonsai, cooking (baking too), hiking (Western US), and traveling. I trained with a few chefs and had a catering business when I was a wee bit younger. With each of my hobbies, I take information and use it in another hobby. Bonsai training is a big influence in how I design with fabric. I love dressing tables with table runners, small quilt tops, etc. It appears that I figure out a way to add fabric to my other hobbies!

 

Robin's take on improv piecing

How long have you been a quilter, and why did you start?

I have been quilting since 2007. I went into a quilting store in Oregon with my friend and fell in love with Kaffe Fassett's stripes that were used in a quilt on display. I bought fabric and then had to learn how to make a quilt!

Which of the quilts you have made is your all-time favorite? Tell us why and what it means to you.

 

My all time favorite so far is one that is getting to the final stages … it is a quilt using Japanese woven fabrics (taupes and creams) and printed fabrics. I hand pieced the dresden plates and machine pieced the background that the plates were hand appliquéd. I used the Japanese kurumi buttons in the centers of the plates since I saw them in Tokyo at the Quilt Show. I love the old fashioned pattern with unorthodox fabrics (non-American ones). I have machine quilted in the ditch and have to finish with hand quilting because of the "buttons" since they will get in the way of the foot on my machine. The quilt is for my younger son who appreciates what I make. He went to the Tokyo Quilt Show with me and took photos since he knew how to use my camera. This quilt is a combination of my hand and machine work so it blends my love of low and high technology in sewing as well as a special quilt for my son.

How would you describe your style?
 

I like to make things that have my spin on them. When I make a pattern, I vary rarely make it as it is written and purchase them for ideas (diving board) instead of following directions. My favorite fabrics are taupe and clear (creams). They are pleasing and soft. I tend to be monochromatic or sharp contrast when choosing colors. I love silk thread and use it or silk fabric wherever I can. I also love linen fabric. My garment sewing background influences me in quilting.

 

Quilt made for Robin's son

What else do you enjoy sewing, besides quilts?
 

I enjoy sewing garments, home dec, tailoring, and heirloom sewing by machine, and hand needle turn appliqué, embroidery and ribbon/beaded embroidery.

 

Quilt for Robin's grandson - she reproduced a digital image of him, as you can see on the back!

 'Fess up. How many WIPs (works in progress) do you have right now?

I actually have a spreadsheet since I purchased my first BERNINA and started quilting …. on the spreadsheet there are over 2 dozen in various stages … some just require binding! I have completed over 122 projects since 2007. (The reason for "over" is that sometimes I listed more than 1 item on a finished line.)

A modern quilt

 

What project are you working on right now?

It would be great if I were only working on one! They would be completed more methodically. I am actually working on finishing binding on 3 quilts that are quilted, binding and then hand quilting another, and finishing 5 other ones. I set some ridiculous goal of finishing off a dozen quilts by the end of the year! I rotate them so I don't get bored and then they will be done.
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Thanks so much, Robin! I love your takes on both traditional and modern quilting. I can't wait to see that dresden quilt finished at one of our future meetings :)
Tune in later this week for some Flickr inspiration!
-Jess H.

Modern Monday #6: 8/20/12

Modern Monday posts detail happenings and trends in the modern quilt blog world. I will discuss general news, significant contests and their results, new quilt-a-longs, and post flickr inspiration boards. My hope is that everyone, both CJMQG members and modern quilters around the internet, will find some inspiration and get involved with the online world!

Flickr Inspiration:

1. TNT Quilt ~ In All Its Glory, 2. 6FillByLetters2, 3. #15, with buttons!!, 4. That's So Random!, 5. ice cream money, 6. Scrappy Lone Star Quilt

-Jess H.

August Meeting Recap

Woo! I have the August meeting recap ready for you, just a few days after the actual meeting! This has got to be some kind of record :) Pictures and a recap of the minutes headed your way!

(P.S. Check out the July meeting pictures, now on the post! Thanks, Laura!)

General Announcements

• Join BigTent if you haven't already. Email centraljerseymqg@gmail.com if you are having trouble!
• Keep checking the blog for Modern Mondays (yes, there will be one tomorrow!) and our new segment, Member Spotlight... as well as some other things I have up my sleeve
• Want to teach a mini lesson at a meeting? You'll get a $10 gift card as thanks! Email the account. All the cool kids are doing it (well, at least, I am :))

Upcoming Events

• Next meeting: September 11, 2012 (more on that in a minute)
• Quilters Take Manhattan - Sept. 15, 2012 (see the minutes for more details)
• Sewing Sewcial at Sandy's - Thurs. September 20 at 5 pm. Bring a dish for dinner! (I will post more info when it gets closer!)
• There will be more info regarding a potential Kaffe Fasset workshop on Sunday, October 7. It will not be a sewing workshop - it will be cutting and color inspiration. This is bound to be a unique opportunity, so look for more official info soon. Anything news that is sent out via BigTent will also be posted here!

Meeting

• Intros: We shared what other hobbies we have besides quilting and sewing... we have a lot of knitters and hikers, and there were a lot in between!

• Next, we swapped pillow covers. Anyone who wanted to participate made a 14x14" cover in any modern style. Our guild always produces such beautiful swap items - I'm always so impressed!

• We had a lengthy discussion about improv piecing, led by our president, Jessica. There are so many ways to go about improv piecing that you can do it however you would like, and those of us who have tried it stated that it's "freeing." One method you can use is Denyse Schmidt's, which was shown at the workshop. The main idea of all improv piecing is: don't use a pattern!

• At the break, the officers took the scrap bags members brought in (I think almost everyone brought one, too!), and filled them with different scraps, to ensure that each would have a variety.

• Our September challenge is to create scrappy improv blocks using ANY technique, as long as you include the Sage Kona Cotton passed out at the meeting (if you couldn't make it to the meeting, you can pick some up from Jan at Pennington Quilt Works). The blocks should be 12.5" in one direction to ensure that, when swapping (see below), there is a little consistency. Otherwise, your other dimension can be whatever you want it to be! Try to make at least 3 blocks: 1 to keep, 1 to swap, and 1 for charity. Bring whatever you make to the next meeting! Remember: LOW STRESS, have fun! I'll be posting some improv inspiration on here, too.

• September swap: Bring in one of your improv blocks to swap! Easy peasy.

• Finally, we had show and tell!

That's all for now! It was a very productive and interesting meeting. Stay tuned!

-Jess H.

August Meeting Reminder and RSVP

Our August meeting is this Tuesday night, the 14th, at 7 pm at Pennington Quilt Works!

RSVP here please!

We've got a lot going on, as usual!:

-We will have a discussion/demo of different types of modern improv piecing

-Swap pillow covers for 14" pillow forms - any modern style you'd like- we'll only swap the covers, not the form itself

-Swap scraps - bring quart ziplocs FULL of scraps (up to 5 bags) - all swaps will be emptied into a big bin and mixed before dividing for the swappers - these can be be used for our improv challenge/swap for September

-Discuss the September improv challenge/swap - all who wish to participate will be given a fat quarter of the same solid fabric to work with so we can have some connection between the blocks - if you can't be there but want to participate, let Jessica Levitt know (email the account at centraljerseymqg@gmail.com)

We NEED RSVPs so we have enough fabric!

-General business and regular show and tell


Hope to see you there! Lots of swappy goodness!

-Jess H.

July Meeting Recap

Introductions: We went around the table and discussed our favorite season for quilting. Lots of people said "fall" and winter, but there were a few "summer"s in there, and a few "any seasons" as well!
Discussion: We discussed batting, passed around samples, and shared tips. Check out this post for that info, as well as pictures from the Denyse Schmidt workshop!

Next, we discussed the workshop and those who attended shared their initial issues with improv piecing and some of their products from the day. Hopefully, I can post some of these pictures on the blog. More will be discussed at our August meeting (this coming Tuesday night!).
Challenge: We shared our hand embroidered projects.

Show and tell came last, as always. It's always nice to see people bring quilt tops in one month, and bring them in quilted and finished another month! And of course, seeing new projects is always great!

Stay tuned for a posting about our coming August meeting, and for at least one new segment to our blog :)

*I apologize for such a late posting. The official minutes will be up in our BigTent soon!*

-Jess H.

Pillowsperation

Are you working on your modern pillow (14") for our August meeting? Guess what - it's August! It's time for me to get started, too, haha - this needs to go to the top of my quilty to-do list.

1. Modern Quilted Pillow Swap, 2. Pillow Talk {Swap} 8 Received from Elisa Bernarda!, 3. PTS 8 package from Marika. So happy!!!, 4. And I already know how to quilt it!, 5. New Pillows, 6. Hope you like this partner!


Pillows are super easy, like a mini quilt with a loose back (kind of), and hey, no binding! Woo hoo! (well that's your decision - mine probably won't have binding :) )

So what are you waiting for?! Get started!

-Jess H.