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