Member profile, Our Chair!

*editors note* - Lets all have a huge shout out to all the Guild committee members out there, folks who give a lot of their free time and energy to help keep our guilds running smoothly. So it seemed very appropriate to kick off our new series of new member posts with our fabbity new Chair, Cathlene. You do a great job Cathlene, now over to you!

Hello! I'm Cathlene, I've been a member for about two years now and I'm currently the chair of the EMQG. I've been making quilts for almost half my life. My very first quilts were for me and my sister and were single bed sized, 4-patch blocks with sashing, I used the sew right-sides together method of binding and the quilting was thread ties!   They were made with fabric from Laura Ashley as I had a weekend job there at the time and I got a lovely discount and got first dibs at the sale stuff. As far as I know they're still on the beds for my kids at my mum's house...


My skills, fabric and quilting choices have improved over time and I now throw in dressmaking and sometimes the knitting of accessories, into what (little) spare time I now have! I'm pretty much entirely self taught having only attended two patchwork / quilting classes and the 2016 Stitch Gathering. I love brightly coloured rainbow based quilts, hand quilting and free motion quilting.  I don't often follow quilt patterns from start to finish, I mostly see something I like, draft it up in good old PowerPoint (my image processing software of choice!) and start making it.


*editor* Here are some of Cathlenes wonderful creations:

May! The quilt group not the book group 😊

You know that thing when you realise that the next meeting is imminent and you still haven't done all your blog posts?? Yes - that 😊😊

Blimey im in danger of loosing my "social media empress" tiara, I've always wanted a tiara .... Right enough of this rambling and onto the meeting. You saw we had some fabulous book suggestions so now to see what fabby show and tells we had. First up more new members!! Fab, we love new chums.  Welcome Angela and Suzanne! Lets get introduced.

Wow!! We are off to a fabulous start with this beauty from Angela, am i reading my notes correctly? This is epp'd?? Goodness me stunning looks incredible in these African fabrics, a very warm welcome to the guild Angela!

Up next is Suzanne! Eh dear my poor photography doesnt do this justice (hold the quilts still for me a bit ladies, always welcome!)

Suzanne has a love for recycling old fabrics and textiles, a beautiful example to show us your style Suzanne! A very warm welcome to you too.

Oh goodness me!! Wow look at this! Now its Ann and my notes say Tula Pink 100 blocks but then i thought was that the book recommendation or the quilt?? Ach this is s stunner whatever!! Well done Ann, great work as ever.

 

 

Awwwww Helen! Some gifted panels got turned into Linus quilts and Helen made a super job of hers.

 

All of the Helens are producing fab work! Here is our other Helen with some sublime colour choices here. Pattern by Jo Avery, crockery done in Kaffe, match made in heaven.

 

And you deserve to smile Sheena! Great piece of modern quilting your beautiful improv cushion.

Diane brought along this amazing memory quilt she made for a friend, made with pieces of the friends mothers clothing, how powerful a memory quilt can be.

Oooohhhh Helen again! Helen A. to be precise 😊 Quilt made with her bee blocks from the last bee round. A great stash buster and looks stunning.

 

Hussif! 'Bless you!' Ahhh the old ones are the best 😊 This is by Angela, made from the pattern by Sarah Fielke, the third picture down is the version made by Robin, and blow me ive forgotten to note down what a hussif is but i think we can all agree they are lovely.

 Wow! More uber modern work from Ann! Great improv letters! Plus kaleidoscope quilt.

I think we all agree that no one does feathers quite like Jo Avery and we all get to see it in the quilty fabric flesh 😊😊.

Sweet 😍😍😍 lets end on this cute hexagon cushion from Diane.

 

Righty ho folks! See you next time. Happy stitching. 

May meeting, quilt group or book group?

The answer is both! We decided as part of the show and tell to bring along a quilting book which has inspired us. What a fabulous selection we got!

First up is the quilt cook book! Pam loves this becuase of the modern slant on sampler quilts.

A firm favourite with a lot of us, Sarah Fielke Little quilts, this was chosen by lovely Barbara who is not very well at the moment, get well soon Barbara! This book is grest inspiration if you are doing mini swaps.

 

Next up was Sheenas choice, well we are a modern quilt guild so we choose modern quilt books!

Talking of modern you dont get much more modern than Nancy Crow! Chosen by new member Angela, great choice Angela, i cant wait to see the exhibition of quilts by Nancy Crow at the Festival of Quilts!

Susan Briscoe! Fabulous book, she gave a great talk to the region 16 area day recently so fab choice Diane, what an exclectic mix from our members!

Oh squee, this is my choice! I learned so much about my sewing machine from this book, incredible instructions.

 Now i hadnt come across this book before Quilt Love, but after hearing Adrienne talk about it how the quilts tell a story. I so want to go out and buy it!

Tula Pink! Well of course, we couldnt miss out Tula Pink and this is a modern classic, chosen by Ann.

 

Oooohhhhh now this is interesting too! Jo Averys choice, this is a book from the 80s but to see the quilts you would think they were done yesterday, so modern looking too. A real find.

last but most certainly not least here is Suzannes choice, Quilt me by Jane Brocket. Jane was the first quilter I followed, Suzanne loves her use of recycled fabrics, i love her use of colour and pattern.

 

 

So where is the show and tell!! Fear not that will be in another blog post, i thought about just keeping this one for the books. Watch this space!!

 

Knitting and stitching show!!! We did a stand!

*adopts nonchalent pose* oh  yeah we had a stand at the Knitting and  Stitching show in Edinburgh 😊😊  This was the second time the Knitting and Stitching show had come to Edinburgh, last year the Edinburgh Modern Quilt Guild had a table in the crafters in action stand which was great but we thought we could do more this year. Well anyway there was much planning, lots of choosing (thanks especially to Sheena for a lot of the organising) and we had a stand!! There was a doodle poll and a rota, all in all a true group effort. And do you know what? We had a blast! Setting up!

Can you see our incredible charity quilt? We are raffling it (plus other super prizes) for Richmond Hope an amazing charity which helps bereaved children, Jo is selling tickets st Mybearpawcraft. The tickets were flying off the stand!

Womaning  the stand!

       

Happy guild members with their quilts! 

Seeing them all hung in fabulous lighting was amazing.

These lovely sew together bags were reunited after first meeting at our sewing day.

On the sunday our chair, Cathlene met with Jane the chair of the new Borders modern quilt guild to hsnd over the pot holders for our guilds swap.

My favourite moment of the show was when i was busy taking pictures of the quilts, the ladies inside were killing themselves laughing, i turned round and this wee chap was looking longingly at me .... bless the wee chap he just wanted his picture taken!!

See you next year!