July Meeting 2016

The meeting this month was hosted by Roberta at Marco Polo Land, her campsite in Cavendish. 9 members and 2 guests were in attendance. One of the guests was Valerie from Burlington, Vermont and the other was Catherine, from Charlottetown. Catherine became our newest member before the  night was out. Welcome to the PEIMQG Katherine.
Kylie also joined, last week as our second Junior member.

Well we finally have our PEIMQG Logo and it turned out fantastic!! Can't wait to start using our brand wherever possible.

We started the meeting by collecting Roberta's Queen Bee blocks, what a beautiful assortment!

Helen is the Queen Bee for July and she brought in this amazing block.

Lucinda is Queen Bee for August and she will bring in her block kits to the August Sew-In (as we won't be having a meeting the month of August).

The Low Volume FQ swap was collected by the members present, and the remainder will be collected at the Sew-In where they will be divided up. Reminder to put your name on your bag of FQ's. The next FQ swap sign-up will be at the September meeting.

Also a reminder about the Frank Lloyd Wright challenge. The deadline for completion is the September meeting.



If anyone who contributed blocks to the Quilts for Pulse would like to sign the label block, they can do so at the Sew-In in August. I am currently working on quilting one of the completed tops. the other top will have to be put in the mail this week to meet the August 15th deadline. Thank you again to those who participated in this charity quilt project.

Upcoming events discussed include: The Kindred Spirits Quilt Show in October, a bus trip in May to a quilt show, an overnight retreat and workshop.  Lots to look forward to in the coming months.

When things started to get dark, the gang headed inside.
Here's some of Roberta's recent buys. Love the whimsical designs!

Gail also had a fun print to show us, whales with Santa hats. I love it!

The Dessert party was next up for discussion, with Dawn collecting items for the silent Auction. Here's some of the items Dianne brought:

To finish up the meeting we had Show and Share.

Here is Roberta's "Isabella" quilt. Stunning!

And our newest member Catherine had wonderful examples of some of her work:

Big Thank Yous go out to Colleen for taking photos and Lucinda for taking minutes in my absence. It seems I missed out on a great meeting.

Upcoming Events:

August Sew-In: August 13th (9am-4pm) Sobeys West Royalty

39 Babineau Avenue, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island C1A 0C9

August Meeting: In Lieu of the August meeting we will be hosting the Time Out With Textiles Dessert party (7-9pm) Murray Centre in Kensington. Doors open at 6:30 pm.  Hope to see you there!

Tips, Tools , and Techniques July 2016

For this month's Tips, Tools and Techniques we will be discussing 3D blocks. 3D blocks are a good way to add some visual interest. They also happen to be a fun way to challenge yourself with a new technique.

Heather J. was kind enough to join me for a demonstration on some 3D blocks she has made and an interesting way to combine them in a finished project.

First she showed me a really fun 3D bowtie block. You will need 3 fabrics. For example:

1. 1- 6" red square
2. 1- 6" black square
3. 2- 3" B&W print squares

This is enough to make two 5.5" blocks.
Cut the red and black squares into 4 - 3" squares (2 for each block).

Fold the print in half (wrong side together) and put on top of the red square with the fold in the middle and raw edges in upper right corner. Then place the black square on top of them both.

Sew down the right hand side and press, so the folded print side is away from the solid red/black squares.

Put the 2nd red square under the print and the black on top, so they are opposite the other squares and sew the other side.

After you sew, press the same as the other side.

Now fold the two halves together, making sure the print is lined up with the edge. (this will take a bit of patience).

Sew along the top and press. Tada this is what the finished one looks like. Super Cute!!!

Next up she showed me another 3D block. For this one you use a foundation fabric square and a larger coloured/ patterned square. For example the foundation square is 5" and the colored square is 7".

Finger press or iron, the half way point on all 4 sides of the colored square. Pin the 4 corners of the 2 fabrics together. Carefully find the halfway point of the colored square and fold it to the right side of the top edge, making sure the fabrics stay lined up along the top. Do this for all for sides and pin as needed. Sew a 1/8" away from the edge all the way around. Manipulate the excess fabric in the middle so it forms a square or rectangle in the middle and press flat. Voila another 3D block. Have some fun experimenting with different sizes of squares/ foundations.

Here are some examples of different results.

Heather did a great job combining these 2 blocks into a fun wallhanging. She even put on some prairie points too.

Another example of a 3D block is the 3D pinwheel block. Heather found a great tutorial in the Make Modern magazine Issue #1. It was designed by Serena Edwards. This is a very versatile block with simple math. Check it out!  Here is the finished block.

And here is Heather J's finished quilt.

I can't wait to have some fun playing with these 3D blocks!!

Thank You Heather J. for the great techniques. Stay tuned next month for Tips, Tools and Techniques.

July Sew-In 2016

For this month's Sew-In, we had a small group of 10 members throughout the day. Lots of  fun was had and we got a lot accomplished for the #quiltsforpulse charity project. Thank you to everyone who made sure their blocks made it to Cathy, now she will be able to start assembly of these quilts.

Cathy was in for a surprise at the sew-in....Dianne knew that she was missing a case for her vintage Kenmore sewing machine, and Dianne found one in her travels around the island exploring, Canada Day weekend. Not only a case but the machine as well!!!  Dianne and Jean gave it a test run and a cleaning and it sews like a dream. Now Cathy has 2 vintage sewing machines and a case to bring it to Sew-In days. Thank you Dianne for your generosity!

 Dianne brought in her " I Love my Cat" quilt to show us and work on.  I love the bright colors and can't believe she does her zigzag stitch by hand. Amazing!!!.

 Janice was working on these super cute potholders. The images are designed and stenciled by her. These look like a lot of fun, maybe a workshop in the future? What do you say Janice?

Linda showed us her fantastic nametag, she designed it herself. I Love that Laurel Burch fabric!

 Here is the backside showing the zippered pocket. what an excellent place to store your debit card/ cash so you don't have to carry a purse to Sew-In/meetings.

 Gail was working on her "Piano Key tablerunner. Can't wait to see this one when it's finished! I know her sister will love it.

 Linda also brought out her " Black and White and Red  All Over" quilt, to work on the binding.

 

Jean brought a couple of patterns, which use the Quick Curve Ruler(Chic Country, and Jelly Snakes).

  Dawn stopped by to drop off  her and Colleen's Pulse blocks, and she stayed awhile to chat and visit.

In the afternoon, Velda stopped by for a visit, and to pick up some things for the Kindred Spirits Quilt Show.  The group got to work on their Pulse blocks. Lucinda, Linda, Dianne, Janice and Susan were able to finish their blocks by the end of the day.

Cathy and Jean started to play with the layout. Here's the start of Quilt #1

And here is Quilt #2 all ready to be assembled:

We also discussed Our Dessert party, and some exciting ideas for projects using our new logo.
Anyone who has their contribution for the silent auction, could you please bring it to Dawn at the July Meeting.

Upcoming Events Reminder:

July Meeting: July 28th (7-9pm)   Roberta has offered to host the meeting at her Campsite at Marco Polo Land please contact peimqg@gmail.com or FB for more details.

August Sew-In: August 13th (9am-4pm)   Sobeys West Royalty

39 Babineau Avenue, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island C1A 0C9

August Meeting:   In Lieu of the August meeting we will be hosting the Time Out With Textiles Dessert party (7-9pm) Murray Centre in Kensington. Doors open at 6:30 pm.  Hope to see you there!

Guest Blogger July 2016

For this month's guest blogger, we have another Canadian Modern quilter, one who just happens to run an online store. Can you imagine having all that fabric at your fingertips???  Please welcome our sponsor...   My name is Alicia, and I run Dinkydoo Fabrics with the help of my husband and kids! Our shop is online only (for now), but we can't wait to open up our own little quilt shop when the time is right. We are located in Pitt Meadows, BC, Canada (The Greater Vancouver area). Aside from running the  store, I'm an avid quilter who loves quilting as much as free time (and the children) allow.  I'm the current President of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. I love doing my part to help the VMQG, all the lovely sew ins, events and retreats! Dinkydoo is also a Platinum Sponsor of the Modern Quilt Guild, and we love to help out other Quilt Guilds across Canada!  What's a Dinkydoo?  We always come up with goofy nicknames for our kids and pets. When our son was born, we started calling him Dinkydoo - it just fit. It's a silly name, but we love it! So we decided to use that for our store and make it just as memorable. It's fun meeting people who've heard of us and hear them say "Dinkydoooooo!" (Everyone always extends the O sound) If we make people smile, we're OK with that! Q&A:     1. What do you love about (Modern) quilting/fabrics? For fabrics, I love all the bright colours and interesting patterns. Like Carolyn Friedlander's collections. They have great colours but very creative and/or unique designs on the fabrics! As for quilting, I really enjoy seeing people take a more traditional block or technique and completely re-work it.       2. Where do you draw inspiration?  Instagram is a great source of inspiration. There are so many quilt patterns and techniques that I want to try out. There are so many talented people out there! It's so great to be connected to other Modern Quilt Guilds as well! Such talent!    3. What are you currently working on? (Can we have a sneak peek?) I'm currently working on quilting my daughters very pink quilt. It's my first time that it's a completely non-continuous quilt design on it. LOTS of burying of threads which I'm slowly starting to regret. I also just took a class with Latifah Saafir and started the Rocket 88 Quilt with bias tape applique which is so much fun! I'm also making a quilt for my mom in so many gorgeous purples!             4. Solids or Prints? Ooooh this is a tough one. I do love both. Prints are so fun but I really do want to try out an all solids quilt at some point, like the Postcards quilt or Moda's Building Blocks quilt.      5. Precuts or Stash?  I am a terrible stash user. I get so attached to the fabric I buy on whim which almost makes it pointless to buy!      6. Favorite Tool/Trick you can’t live without? Oh definitely the Bloc Loc Ruler. I have a major love/hate relationship with Half Square Triangles, which I think a lot of quilters can relate too. I will cut all those HST's out, trim and sew and say "I'm never doing that again" but then the next quilt I see or have an idea for will be full of HST's. The Bloc Loc definitely saves time.       7. What’s your Favorite Blog and/or Designer?  I would have to say right now it's Rashida Coleman Hale. I just adore her colour palettes.      8. What’s one thing we should know about you?  I still relatively new to quilting! I have been sewing my whole life but my first quilt was only about 6 years ago. There is still so many things I want to learn and try out!                                                                                                                            Thank you so much Alicia for being our guest blogger this month, Don't forget to check out her shop at:https://www.dinkydoo.com/