Sunday 21 October 2018

Great Quilt Club Start to 2018-19 Year!





Do you belong to a guild?  I do, but I also belong to a ‘quilt club’ – totally volunteer-run.  Every August, a few of us get together to plan something to get the club off to a good start.  Once that happens, we have a calendar formatted so that at the beginning of each meeting, the meeting’s chair calls for volunteers for the upcoming meetings:  chair, lesson, snacks, clean-up, plus quilters who want to have a quilt bee during the weeks when we don’t have meetings (more about that later). 
Our quilt club is called the Happy Quilters and we meet near Gore Bay on Manitoulin Island.
This year, we aimed to choose a project that all the members could try and enjoy – both beginners and advanced quilters. 
What’s a good block to both teach and enjoy?
Well there are many, but we chose the 9-patch and the snowball block.  Think about it – the 9-patch block can end up several ways.




And the snowball is perfect for personalizing a project – with many kinds of embroidery and appliqué.  The snowball block is fairly easy to sew because the quilter can really choose any size of square to sew on the corners (as long as they are consistent!).  We also decided to take advantage of the great light in our meeting hall (the Community hall for Gordon/Barrie Island) and teach some hand embroidery and appliqué.
Some of the old embroidery pattern books available.
First up…hand embroidery (because one of us had obtained a bunch of little booklets from a garage sale).  I used a dry iron to press about a dozen of the patterns on to scraps of fabric I had (you can press one design several times), and threaded about 40 needles with different colours of thread.    No sooner had we planned this session and talked about it, that we found out just how many of us have embroidery floss sitting in a drawer at home!

I started with a butterfly, but wasn’t happy with the results, so I went on to a teapot (good memories of tea with Mom) which I finished and coloured with Inktense pencils (Derwent Inktense )then clear aloe vera gel to intensify the colours.  I’m using in a small box in my sewing kit to hold needle threaders and other small items.  Then I went on to a dragon and I am pleased with this one – more Inktense and gel and it will either be a cover for a sewing machine booklet or my regular needles.  I’ll show it off later.



Our year is off to a great start, with members showing off table toppers, table runners and small quilts using these patterns.





What would you choose as a project that would suit all your quilting group?  
If you are interested in seeing the calendar we use in our quilt club, let me know and I’ll send you a copy!



No comments:

Post a Comment