Wow!  We have a great new blog thanks to Cynthia, our newest member!  Not only did she do a great job putting up the new blog, she also did half of my work on reporting the meeting!  I’ll just add some photos of the wonderful show and tell and a few links to things we discussed, and my job for the September notes will be done!

Kim, Birgit, Sharona, Kristen, Cynthia and I met at the Royal Grounds in Berkeley, despite the heat and had some great discussions and shared some impressive and cute projects!

At the last meeting we had discussed the mythical “perfect skirt” pattern.  As it turns out, there appear to be a few floating around out there.  Kristen brought in her pattern from Titus to show us, and was even wearing the skirt she had made from it (I failed to get a photo of that!).  It’s a cute little A-line with a drawstring waist and the pattern looks very simple.  I might have to venture beyond the world of “flat sewing” and give it a go.

She also brought in some vintage patterns from East Bay Center for Creative Reuse.   Okay, Kristen, lets see you rocking those looks in October!

Kristen brought her finished quilt with a hand embroidered label.  Oooh, I love that label.  I think I’m going to have to start doing something like that for my quilts.  Great job, Kristen!  It’s been fun to see this go from merely a drawing in your notebook to a completed project.

Kim also brought in a quilt she completed.  This was originally a snowball quilt that she made in a class at New Pieces.  When she got it home, she didn’t think it looked quite right, so she cut each of the snowballs into quarters and re-sewed them.  Genius!  And, the quilting on this is really nice.

Birgit brought in a few cute and seasonal projects she’s been working on in her new dedicated sewing room/sweatshop.  She also showed us a picture of the landscape quilt that she started talking about making last month.  Upload the picture, Birgit!  First quilt completed – YEAH!

I brought in a finished quilt made with all second-hand fabrics and an unfinished baby quilt top.  I was also super-excited about the fabric cutting abilities of my new Cricut cutting machine!

Sharona showed us her latest quilt top (I didn’t notice at the time how well her shirt went with the quilt!) and fabrics from her stash for a very unique wedding quilt.  (You can see the stack of wild prints in the foreground of the picture.)

Cynthia showed us a very intricate needle-turn applique of a very intricate yoga pose that uses a wide assortment of different kinds of fabrics.  She’s definitely going to be the go-to girl for figuring out how to handle difficult materials!  The beautifl background fabric was also hand-dyed by her using Pebeo Setacolor pigments.

Cynthia and Sharona are members of the East Bay Heritage Quilt guild and we discussed the differences between that guild and the Modern Quilt Guild.  It was fun and informative to hear about the perceived differences.  A few other guilds discussed were Studio Art Quilt Association (who’s online auction is happening now!) and Northern California Quilt Council where Sharona will soon be giving a talk about us “modern” quilters.

Here are just a few of the other things we talked about:

• Ottobre magazine for childrens clothing patterns
• Carol Lee’s class at New Pieces called Making Do – sign up!!
• Six Minute Circle sewing technique
• Silk Road Fabric store (how is it possible I’ve never been here!)
• True Up – digital fabric printing reviews – okay, I’m too tired to find the actual article, but there’s a ton of stuff to look at on there!
• Modern Quilt Guild Challenge
• Tall Grass Prairie – Red Cross Quilt
• The Alameda Flea
• A possible Thrift Store Saturday outing – leave a comment if you’re interested!
• Pacific International Quilt Festival – sign up on Facebook if you’d like to find a carpool.

Huh, and I thought I wouldn’t have a lot to write about.  Leave me a note if I left anything out!