Monday, April 11, 2011

April Meeting Notes


Upcoming Activities
Last month we asked members (on the membership form) what activities you are most interested in for the guild – Adrianne shared the top results from the membership forms that are in so far, which are:
  • Block challenges
  • Sewing retreats
  •  Fabric swaps
We’ve already started having block challenges, and the officers will be putting our heads together to work on fabric swaps and sewing retreats. 

New Challenge:
We have a new challenge!  Robert Kaufman is sponsoring a challenge to use a charm back of their solids (the “bright” colorway).  

The Rules (such as they are):
1)      Made a quilt, any size.
2)      You can add fabrics, but try to keep the focus of the quilt on the charm pack fabrics.  It’s definitely fine to purchase and add additional bright charm packs if you want.
3)      We will show the tops (if you have completed the quilt that’s fine too!) at our June meeting (on 6/4/11). 
4)      If you take a pack and then decide not to participate, we ask that you contact Adrianne and return the pack so that someone else can take part in the challenge. 

Discussions:
We discussed the “Infinite Variety” quilt exhibit at the American Folk Art Museum.

We also talked about the blog posts that have sparked a fire around the internet – the “Dumbing Down of Quilting.”   

Quilts for Japan:
North Hills Quilter is organizing a shipment of quilts to Japan.  You should check out her site.  She showed a picture of the quilts she had collected so far, JUST from Southern California – piled up to the ceiling on top of her son’s bunkbed. Finished quilts are being accepted in addition to quilt tops (floppies) that will be finished and sent to Japan. 

Ning website and our internet presence:
We discussed how members are using the web, and our current problem with the ning site – our membership there is capped at 150 and we are approaching that limit.   Right now anyone can join the Ning site, but we decided to change this so that only guild members can join the ning site.  People who are interested in our guild but have not paid dues will still be able to join our Facebook and Flickr pages and view our guild blog.   

Gift to outgoing president:
Adrianne presented awesome and incredible bag of gifts to former Prez Ruth (me).  Wahoo!  I can’t believe all the great fabric (especially the bird fabrics!) and all the little presents you guys collected, including the great bag that Jaye made for everything to go in.  Thank you everyone – I was seriously blown away! 

Modern Meadow Challenge results:
Everyone showed off their Modern Meadow challenge blocks, and we had enough to draw two names as winners, they were Adrianne and Amanda M. 


Show & Tell:
  • Ruth showed her twin size quilt for her niece
  • Rhonda showed her monochromatic quilt, in white.  
  • Colleen showed her star block – she’s making a doll quilt for her daughter.
  • Lisa showed her “Side A” rectangular blocks for a quilt class that she attended at New Pieces in Berkeley.
  • Claudia showed the mermaid doll that she sewed and embroidered for her daughter’s birthday.
  • Cynthia showed her plum and green quilt top with a squares pattern.  
  • Leslie brought a wall quilt that she made improvisationally with fabric that she dyed, and a knitting bag that she made from Japanese fabrics.
  • Peggy showed her quilt-as-you-go baby quilt in blue and tan and her mosaic block pillow in green.  
  • Jaye shared her newest chubby charmers bags (she is making them for her husband’s family for Christmas this year.)
  • Kris showed a wall quilt that featured appliqué flowers.  Each of the flowers was on a separate mini-quilt type thing that’s quilted to the top of the quilt.  It’s hard to explain, so check out the pictures!
  • Heather showed her mod mosaic pillow cover and her Nicey Jane quilt
  • Patty showed her quilted bag, with a vintage shoe buckle.

See all the photos on Adrianne's Flickr Set