February meeting

Phew! What a meeting we had in February. So much to show and tell.

First we handed over bee blocks from january. Above is the beautiful star block we did for Tatanya. Below we have the quarter dresdens done for Jane.

Now for the show and tell, Sheena had managed to prise the quilt she made for her boyfriend from him to bring to show us.

The back is as stunning as the front:

Sheena has been really busy, she has also managed to finish off her bee quilt.

Lesley showed us her beautiful squares and rectangles quilt, love the colour choices.

The first block I made for the EMQG was for Ann's house quilt, so it was great to see the finished quilt. How fab is this!!

Fiona carried on the trend of finishing off bee quilts with her soft and gorgeous greek cross quilt.

Did you see the fab EPP kit holder in a recent Love Quitling magazine? Well look at Barbara's version! How lovely is this. Made me want to make one.

How sweet is this heart she also made for her husband!

Lucy always has great colour choices, I fell in love with her cathedral windows cushion, what a great background colour, and inspired back to cushion as well.

Jacqui brought a much needed breath of summer to the cold Edinburgh night with her bright and sunny quilt top.

Janice wowed us all with her soft and cuddly baby Liberty quilt, you had to feel this one to believe the texture.

Snow dying? Well I had never heard of this until I saw the beautiful fabric Jane had dyed.

Jane also had the really cute mini Dresden to show us.

Last by certainly not least is this stunning quilt top from our very own Jo Avery who is just off to quilt con. Look at this! Stunning as ever Jo. That's it for February, can't wait to see what our march meeting brings!

Instagram

Instagram

Instagram is a social media sharing application. It allows you to share pictures, either from your file or camera or taken instantly on your smartphone or tablet.

To be able to use Instagram,  you need to download the app either from the play store for android, or itunes for Apple.

You can then register and choose a name - you only need an email address and your user name can be anything,  it doesn't have to be personal or identifiable. You are also able to set your account to private if you wish, in settings. This means no one can see your images unless you have approved them.

What can you do and how to do it?

You can 'follow' other users on Instagram,  and their pictures will then appear in your 'feed', a constant update of picture eye candy. Health warning: checking your feed can become addictive!        

Add your own pictures, add a filter for special effects and add comments. Any of your approved followers can see these.

You will be able to search and also see suggestions of pictures you might like. Pictures are grouped under headings starting with #, for example #EMQG will show you some pictures from our group.

To look for a particular person or show them a post or comment, use @ followed by their name, for example Jo is @mybearpaw.

Instagram is a quick easy way to keep a record of what you make and do, but you will also find support, encouragement and lots of other quilters. There are swaps to join  and lots of other things going on. Have a look around and have fun.

Lesley's biog and Bee block

Hi, My name is Lesley and I have been a member of the Edinburgh Modern Quilt Guild since we began nearly a year ago. I live in Edinburgh with my husband and 3 year old little boy.

I sewed a lot when I was at school, mostly making clothes, with the help of my mum. Fun fact: I won a competition at school designing and making sports kit, and won Roger Black for the day! But at university I had a lot less time for sewing and making. Then 2 years ago when I finished my MA, I treated myself to a new sewing machine, and I was hooked again. I managed to get to one of the classes at mybearpaw, and made my first quilt.

 I haven't stopped since, and I am hooked on pattern. This cathedral window cushion is one of my favourite makes so far. I also seem to make a lot of baby quilts for people! 

My block for the february bee is an offset churn dash, with a navy background for cream, coral and light blue. The idea is that the blocks will look like they are kind of floating. Have fun!

January 2015 meeting

Just a quick post about last week's meeting. I didn't take many photos I'm afraid, and Sheila, who's so good at remembering to take photos, wasn't there.
But above is the adorable finished Teacup wall hanging that Audrey made from her Bee blocks. It's lovely to see another Bee Finish!!

Here is Jane's Bee block for this month, it's a quarter Dresden Plate. Jane will sew down to the background. Please make 2 if you can. Jane has emailed instructions and there is one more template sheet at the shop if anyone needs one.

Here is Tatyana's Bee block for the month, 60 degree triangles that make this striking hexagon. There are some instruction sheets for this block at the shop.

Don't forget Tatyana and Jane, I still need your biography/favourite quilt/inspiration for your bee block, etc to post about - AND a photo of you! Please email text and photos separately rather than in an embedded document.

We got a lot of things decided at our last meeting with many fun things planned for the year ahead.
There'll be more info in the minutes but here are a few highlights:

In the next round of the Bee we will each make 2 blocks a month, one from each group.

Between the current bee ending and the next one starting we will have a month off and a special 'sew-in' evening for our meeting where Tatyana will show us how to make a Japanese Origami bag!!

We will try to arrange a whole 'sew-in' day at a weekend after Easter when we can try out screen printing or possibly thermo fax printing, and make our own EMQG quilt labels.

We will try again to arrange a swap, this time with Leeds MQG.

Tickets for the Karen Lewis event are going VERY fast - faster than Luke's! There are only 11 places left out of 60! That includes 15 put aside for us. If you are still undecided then aim to let me know soon so I can reserve your seat. I think this one will be a sell-out!!!

Fiona's biog and bee block post

Hi,
I am Fiona and have been a member of the Edinburgh Quilt Guild since it was founded.  I live in Edinburgh with my husband and two grown up sons.

I have always enjoyed knitting and two summers ago my sister and I visited Jo's shop at Morningside while she was having a Quilt Exhibition.  We signed up for a Beginner's Quilting workshop and at that stage I did not even know how to thread a sewing machine much less use it!  I am, therefore, a relative beginner and have only completed two quilts, which are both my favourites, and are for each of my boys.

The block I chose for my bee block was the shoo fly block which I asked to be made in peach, pink and cream.

I've already received these beautiful blocks from the Jelly Rolls!

Jacqueline's biog and bee block post

Hello!

I grew up in a sewing household with my mum always sewing being it making clothes, curtains, covering chairs or altering wedding dresses. I sewed a bit as a kid making various bits and pieces but I started quilting while I was at university to keep me sane while writing my thesis – my first quilt was pieced and quilted by hand and took a year and did indeed provided an excellent distraction from my thesis! 

Being self taught there have been many mistakes along the way but I do always try and do something new and different with each quilt if I can. I recently attempted curves in flannel and although I love the result it may be a while before I want to piece with flannel again...

  

May favourite quilt is also probably the least modern but never mind. I recycled a patchwork quilt top my mum made in the early 70’s using any fabric she happened to have so it is full of memories. There are fabrics from school uniforms, my mum’s clothes, her sister’s dresses, cushions etc – each piece has a history. So it started like this....  

And after a mountain of unpicking, cutting, piecing and hand quilting the final quilt looks like this...

My bee block for the Layer Cakes is Christmassy because I love Christmas fabric and have a tendency to hoard it and then never use it! I have been meaning to make a Christmas quilt for ages and this is an excellent way to get started. It is a Christmas tree block based on instructions which can be found here:

http://www.fatquartershop.com/media/blog/DeckadeTheHalls/08-TimeTheTree-Pattern.pdf

or a video tutorial is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KLerkOV23c

The tree should be in a predominantly green fabric and the trunk in a red fabric and please feel free to use Christmas fabric if you have any lying around...

December meeting

Our December meeting was a very festive event. We had our christmas party, fine food, fine wine and fine company, what more could a Modern Quilt guild ask for?

There was of course our months bee blocks to hand over. Fiona had asked for a shoo-fly block in bright oranges and pinks.

Jacqui was very festive and requested a christmas tree block.

Show and tell was up to the usual excellent standard. Jacqui made this fabulous bag.

Margaret made this amazing split dresden block.

Here is Sheena showing us her christmas quilt gift for her boyfriend. A great colour selection here and amazing piecing to get all those lines to match up!

The back is just as beautiful as the front.

Barbara showed us her festive quilt, again impressive piecing skills.

Katie excelled herself and has managed to put together all the courthouse steps blocks she recieved when it was her month for the bee blocks.

Lucy has also put together her quilt top from her bee month, how cute is this!

It seems december is the month for finishing off quilts, Janice took our breath away with her quilt top  made from her bee blocks, we all loved making the shirt blocks for her quilt top with her recycled fabrics. The top is amazing Janice!

 What about the backing as well and the quilting!

 Tatyana is our resident long arm expert and never ceases to amaze us with that she can do. Not content with working magic with our QuiltCon challenge quilt she has also transformed our charity quilt. The guild was donated a set of orphan blocks earlier this year. We decided that we would each take one set to piece together and then sash in a scrappy style. When put together this totally transformed the little orpha blocks, Tatyana took this to the next level with her amazing quilting skills.

There was of course a secret santa, I didn't manage to get pictures of all the presents so will just show you mine. How utterly prefect is this?