Sunday 8 October 2017

The Summer Round Up - Part 2

Welcome to the 2nd round up which is a world of WIPs and UFOs - if you are of a quilty bent you will know this has nothing to do with corporal punishment or Roswell.

Our September meeting involved a lot of catch ups on bee blocks.  We had more Christmas cheer for Pauline.  Mags provided us with a lovely herringbone pattern to create a French garden style elegance with our fussy cutting skills exercised.




The parallel bee block wasn't feeling blue, just being blue...



This was the month we brought our block swaps for Augusta Modern Quilt Guild together for the first time.  The challenge was to make a pair of 12.5" block out of solids and each guild kept one of the pair.  We are then building twin quilts over the few months.

I'm not going to win any prizes for this photo but I wanted to keep the mystique, yes that's it, mystique, so it wouldn't have been right to share too much.


The majority of the meeting was taken up with confessions on unfinished work and some lush finishes. The guild have registered c50 Work In Progress pieces to challenge ourselves to finish those projects that need a bit of a push. 

Leading the charge was Cathlene with a gorgeous array of colours and big hexies!



Sue then shared her part makes with a bangin' wonky dresden started she made at Stitchgathering 2016 and numerous blocks she wants to use some how!



Now the Empress herself with the most divine Liberty medallion. Sheila is talked about in hushed tones around these parts with how prolific her output is so we didn't believe she had any WIPs!


And sure as eggs is eggs there she is with a beeeeeaaaauuuuutiful Tartankiwi finish.  We all started choosing our favourite block* but then agreed they are all fabulousa! *It's the otter ;) 


Angela kicked off with this amazing finish, so much thought in the colour/fabric balance. She then went on to show is about 2,784** blocks she has amassed for a couple of quilts, can't wait to see them together!  (**Slight exaggeration)



Here's a lovely WIP - it belongs to someone. My sugar high peaked at this point and my memory is foggy as to who is hiding behind it! You will be found (is it Diane?)!


At this point my mental note taking lost count of Suzanne's gorgeous haul of tops! Lone star rising, jelly roll, vintage lace (not pictured) and a study in one designer (whose name escaped due to cake overdosing on my part).




Now dear Mags is another prolific quilter who is currently working on a dozen or so makes - beautiful birch trees, QAYG Cori Dantini panels, the STUNNING rainbow scraps (which is now complete!) amongst others.





Our esteemed treasurer, Ruth, brought us a mini piece of elegance with her fallen feather with scrappy binding which is just perfect.


Margaret continued the theme of elegance and sophistication with a WIP and a finish in stunning soft colours both showing how solids and patterns can play together. The cushion is inspired by her love of pebbles that have a single line of quartz (or calcite).  A very effective pattern.



We then saw Liz's modern pinwheel made with her own templates - gorgeous, who doesn't love grellow! 


Finally, from a photographic perspective, Robin's hand pieced, hand quilted BOM stunned with the amount of labour this love will have taken.


There are more WIPs to come next month! Any that weren't photographed will feature when completed I am sure (my own included). Everyone get finishing now :)

In other news for September... A few volunteers from the Guild are supporting a great charity called The Welcoming by hosting a workshop and weekly drop in to teach hand piecing techniques.  It's early days but we are getting lovely feedback so we will bring more news on this in future blogs.

Autumn calls...

The Summer Round Up - Part 1


The Edinburgh Modern Quilt Guild has not been on holiday.  The silence belies how busy we have been.

The scarcity of updates is due to our Empress of Communication (and that is the official title) handing over to somebody (me) who has little ability to workout how to write a blog. So a huge thank you to Sheila for her great blogs and I hope I can measure up.

So what exciting things have the EMQG been up to?

In August, we raffled our Quiltcon 2017 charity quilt along with other great prizes in aid of Richmond's Hope raising £350 to help with their fantastic work. Winners have been notified.



We shared our favourite sewing notions from scissors to (empty) chocolate boxes, plus some gorgeous makes:

Mags' kaleidoscope of pinwheels had our heads turning in awe. 

Helen's amazing crosses inspired gasps front and back!


Now as I write this the little girl destined for this beautiful quilt has arrived, but Irene was patiently waiting for her grand-daughter back in August.


The incomparable Jo Avery shared her improv landscape which uses all the colours
from her recently released Aurifil thread collection - what a stunner! 

The final make I have a picture for (sorry I will get better at this!) is Ann's bonny blue cushion... A stunning use of solids!


Finally we had our Bee Blocks, due to summer holidays the blocks are coming in over a couple of meetings so we'll have to wait with bated breath to see the quilts bring them all together. I can't wait!

Yes, Pauline is being super organised for a Christmas quilt.



Shuffle forward in time to September, and we have a jam packed meeting with bee blocks, swap blocks and a bountiful audit of UFO/WIPs all to be seen in the Summer Round Up part 2.



Monday 31 July 2017

July meeting - 1st and most recent quilts

Lets start with the bee blocks! What a lot of lovely stars for Ann, who is a real star herself as she is going to make a quilt for siblings together with them. The theme for this months show and tell was first and most recent quilts. Its lovely revisiting our first quilts and seeing how far we have come. But before we delve in, lets pretend my pictures did not get all jumbled up when i uploaded them to flickr and i was too tired to sort them out into order?? Pretty please? *mwah* thanks. Soooo in absolutely no particular order we have- Anns first quilt a really lovely log cabin
Dianes latest quilt a really lovely lone star (told you the order was random!)
 
This was such a poignant story from Angela, this is a happy cheery quilt which helped her work through grief. I think we can all relate to how quilting helps us in times of stress. 
The latest quilt from Audrey, a wonderful medallion quilt.
Awww this one is very special too! A star wedding quilt from Fiona for her son, she made the label from her own wedding dress!
Do you recognise this quilt?? It was the unknown one from the last sewing day! Yep it is the latest quilt from Liz, made from two layer cakes!
A lovely hexie quilt the first one ever made by our chair, Cathlene.
Aaaarrrrrgggghhhhh guess who cant read their own notes .... i know this is Audreys first quilt then the writing is illegible! Sorry Audrey!
Adrienne brought in her sketchbook and some utterly glorious cushions!
Ruth has recently become well hooked on paper piecing. How utterly adorable is that small seahorse!!
I wish i had Sheenas eye for design i really do, here is her pixelated interpretation of an old house. Beautiful.
Blimey, was i on the gin that night? More illegible handwriting, i know this is Margarets but according to my notes the first is the latest quilt and its a batik headboard?? Sorry Margaret, but it is stunning! 
Ruth apologies that this is out of focus! Which is s shame because your little Red improv mini is sooooooo cute!
Some more of Adriennes lovely cushions!
Liz didnt have her first quilt so here is her first one which was accepted for an exhibition, well done Liz!
Back to Diane and here is her first beautiful blue quilt.
Angelas first quilt, its funny how so many of us mentioned that we knew so little when we started and used wrong  wadding etc but the end product is still amazing.
I know i have missed some out there seems to have been a bit of an upload fail! Sorry! Your humble blog writer aims to do better next time.
 

  Christmas in March! For this month only i'm handing over the blog (mostly) to Mags Scammell. She is the host of tonight's ceremony...