quilting – east bay modern quilters

We had so much fun at the Berkeley Rose Garden with our quilts! The pictures almost speak for themselves…

Still, I have to add in that I just loved having Lauren’s kids along for the event.

They were so friendly and interested in what we were doing.

They wanted to see the quilts and photograph the quilts. And they wanted us to WATCH them – well, Rad did, anyway! Zeke wanted to participate, but in his own 2-almost-3-year-old fashion.

It was also nice to see each other out in the world, have a moment to chat in the way that is hard to do when you’re chatting to 15 people at the same time.

And… the day was gorgeous! What a gift after all the dark rainy days that led up to our outting!

I hope we get to do it again this summer. Lauren came in with a huge stack of finished quilts (of course!); Margaret brought her two from the last meeting; and Joel brought his smile and his camera.

I managed to FINISH my pink rose quilt the day before, and then I had to make do with showing two tops in progress. That was fine by me. A quilter’s work is never done!

Is there anything sweeter?

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!

Kristen's Titus Skirt Pattern

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.

Kristen's Vintage Patterns

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's Crosses Quilt

Kristen's Quilt Label

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's Altered Snowball Quilt

Kim's Altered Snowball Quilt Back

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's Quilted Pot Holder

Birgit's Halloween Pennants

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!

Stacey's Linen and Denim Quilt

Stacey's Baby Quilt Top

Fabric cut with a Cricut

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's Rainbow Quilt Top

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's Yoga Applique

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.