alamancepiecemakers

Artsy, Challenge, Committees, Programs, Uncategorized

2024-01 – Welcome & Introductions

January 17, 2024January 19, 2024 alamancepiecemakers

Welcome to a new year with Alamance Piecemakers! New Board members starting their terms this month are President, Deborah F (standing), Nancy E (right) as Vice President, and Judy B (absent today) as Secretary. Susan H (left) is returning as Treasurer.

Introducing… Committee Chairs

You may know these ladies well, since they are continuing in their jobs. They summarized their roles at today’s meeting (which gave me a good opportunity to take their pictures!) Please note that most of them serve as part of a team of volunteers, which may include YOU!

Each committee chair is identified in the caption of the photo.

Taking Care of Business

Deborah F, our President for 2024, began her comments by sharing her goal of “Inclusion.” If you know Deborah, you know that she wants to know about it if you have a concern or unmet need. She then opened the business meeting by suggesting a few changes and making a few requests of our members. Requests include – letting her know if you are holding any inventory belonging to the guild, and who has keys to Elmira and the storage cabinets there. She also suggested (and members approved her idea) that Guild members provide “In Case of Emergency” information. It will be protected by a signature-seal and lock, but available “just in case” it is needed.

Member-approved operational changes for the coming year include:

Meeting time moves back to 9 AM, with Fellowship from 8:30 to 9 AM.
Make permanent the addition of June & July meetings to our annual schedule.
Add to our monthly newsletter links (and passwords) to our electronic files online (like the private Facebook Group, and our Google Drive archive).
Use of the microphone (which helps make sure we don’t miss anything!)

Program Topic: ”Quilting On the Cheap” and introducing the Cheap Challenge

You may have heard the adage, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without” – which Connie credited to http://www.seasonedhomemaker.com. In her presentation today, Connie contrasted that mindset from “the old days” with her definition of “Quilting on the cheap.”

Quilting “On the Cheap” = A thoughtful use of materials, time, and energy to produce quilts that you love at a price you love.

Attached here are a couple of resources from today’s presentation by Connie G, who happens to be our guild’s Programs Chair. She set a Challenge for all of us, to be completed by the May meeting, to make a quilt for ZERO dollars (or as cheap as you can), with the help of shared resources from your quilting friends, of course.

Follow Ups Email – Contains links to John Flynn’s method of diagonally piecing a 42-inch wide cut of fabric to make your backing “wide enough.” See worksheet. This document also includes links to online sites offering Free Patterns. (Thanks, Sheila!)
Options for the Cheap Challenge (Click here to see Connie’s handout on the various ways to participate.)
Connie’s notes and suggestions were extensive! (If she shares her notes, I’ll archive and link it here.) She started by sharing a photo of her own fabric stash – Very Impressive! From talking about Fabrics, she moved to Patterns, then Batting, Thread, Backing, Classes, Sewing Machines, Quilting options, and even covered Irons!

Break Time

Our celebration of “Birthdays of the Month” today included cake pops! Taking a “potty break” at our monthly meetings includes the opportunity to share delicious snacks, pick up fabric from the Free Material Table, buy raffle tickets for the monthly drawing of (donated) prizes, sign up for events, suggest an Outreach Opportunity for the year, turn in charity quilts or items for raffle baskets, network about current projects or anything else. Please note that Maria asked for FOUR members each month to sign up to bring snacks. (See Maria if you didn’t get a chance to sign up today.)

Show and Tell

Members get to share their completed quilts at most every meeting. Today we met a new-ish member, Kathy L, and heard about her recent quilting cruise! Another quilt (of many shared today) was made by Joanna I for her grand-niece, using fabric that she had picked up from the Free Material Table at a guild meeting! Lovely!

Janis H shared some interesting projects she had made and recently re-discovered during her unpacking into a newly-renovated house. Also, as you can see on the far wall, we had a chance to view “up close” all the wonderful details included in the 2023 BOM series Connie called “Christmas Village Play Time.” These quilts had been showed in December, but today we got to really appreciate the creativity of these quilters who brought theirs back to be hung: (from left to right) – Connie G, Maria W, Ginny C, Susan H, and Carolyn F. Thanks for sharing!

Quilt Show Update

Quilt Entries – Connie reported that she has received entry forms for 100 quilts to be in the March show! That is GREAT news!
Volunteers – That’s YOU! Next month, look for the volunteer sign up sheets (coordinated by Phyllis).
Aprons – Thanks to Gail vH, who has embroidered our new “Art Feeds the Soul” LOGO on each and every red apron!
Publicity – Pick up a flyer or two to advertise for the upcoming Quilt Show – March 6-9. See Tanya if you need more flyers, or Joanna if you need more business cards.
The “Artsy Challenge” for the 2025 Quilt Show was kicked off at the Artsy Group’s meeting this month. Each participant drew random criteria from brown paper bags to specify items in 7 different categories! It’s called the “Recipe Challenge” and it’s not too late to be included. Categories include color, block, quilting style, fabric type, and Connie’s favorite: the ZINGER. If interested, see Stephanie S for your “ingredients.” Plan to have your challenge project ready to share at the Artsy meeting this coming September.

Programs Preview

Here are teasers about upcoming programs for 2024:

February Artsy Topic is quilt labels. Note that date may be shifted from 1st Tuesday because of a conflict with a Quilt Show Planning Meeting. Connie will let us know.
February 21 – Program Speaker is Lynn Christianson of Emerald Falls Quilts, who will enlighten us about the process of making a Laura Heine collage quilt.
March 8 (Friday night of the quilt show at 6 PM) – Hollis Chatelain will speak on “The Emotion of Color.” Free to guild members. At Elon Community Church.
March 20 – Program Speaker is Charles Cameron, a maker of modern quilts, will present on the topic of “An Engineer’s Guide to Color.” A workshop will be offered the same afternoon on his quilt pattern “Crooked Crosses and Bent Boxes.”
April 17 – Program Speaker is Lisa Alley. Her topic is “Reclaiming Your Sewing Room.”
May 15 – Program is our Mini-Show of “Cheap Challenge” Quilts, including sharing what we have learned!
September 18 – Program topic is “Machine Embroidery and how it relates to quilt making.”

Other Announcements

Karen G inquired to find out who had made a large wreath for the Merry Market. Her contacts at the local VFW would like one similar in size that is made with patriotic fabrics. (I think it was Lisa R.)
Lisa R notified us to expect a sale of items that will be a fundraiser for our beloved member who recently passed. (Joint effort with the evening guild.)
We heard from Linda A about a project her granddaughter is continuing – sewing Christmas stockings for those in need. She would like donations of Christmas fabric for next summer’s effort. Last year, she had completed 160 stockings, stuffed them with small gifts, and distributed them to great causes. Awesome!
Finally, the winner of the monthly raffle drawing of the Accuquilt cutting system was Linda A. It was her lucky day!

Happy Sewing! – TG

Artsy, Community

Mystery Quilts

May 16, 2023May 16, 2023 alamancepiecemakers

Two different quilts have come to our attention recently whose “back stories” are missing. We’ve already asked our Guild members, but so far found out nothing.

Can you help solve these mysteries?

Embellished Beauty

The wall hanging below just “appeared” in the Guild’s storage room at Elmira with no explanation early in 2023. Do you know its history? If so, please let us know! We would like to honor this quilt-maker by returning it to her family (or at least connecting it with its story).

Alamance Rose (and variations)

This quilt belongs to Michelle Owens. She asked us to display it at the 2023 Quilt Show in order to help her find people who might know something about the origin of the Alamance Rose pattern and/or the yellow dyed fabric.

Next is a flyer Michelle Owens handed out when she came to visit the BCQ Guild in 2022 to tell us about her search for the origins of the Alamance Rose:

Here’s what the book North Carolina Quilts has to say about the Alamance Rose mystery:

The brief text highlighted below can be found on page 95, referring to Plate 3-25, which looks very similar to the quilt above. The version in the book was made by Nancy Stafford Spoon Shoffner, who died in 1906. (She is pictured below).

“The vibrant colors in this quilt include the “Alamance yellow” also seen in Plate 3-13. The pattern may be original; it has been documented in only four quilts, all made in Alamance County or adjacent Guilford County.”

Edited by Ruth Haislip Roberson, published 1988 by UNC Press, to document the North Carolina Quilt Project.

Thanks for any hints you can provide about either of the “mystery quilts!”

Artsy

Artsy Group – Improv Piecing

April 5, 2022 alamancepiecemakers

Connie welcomed the group of 11, and asked us to introduce ourselves. Ten attendees were members of APQG (including two who were inspired to join the guild because of the “Art Feeds the Soul” quilt show last month). One member of BCQG also attended. Connie and Linda had conspired to revive the Artsy Group while sitting together during the quilt show.

What is the Artsy Group?

As part of her introduction, Connie answered the question of “What is the Artsy Group?” It is not a class. Think of it as a series of cooperative workshops, where guild members bring ideas and/or techniques that may “spark” the others to try something new. The goal is to make people more confident in what they are doing as quilters.

Meeting Schedule

Artsy Group will meet monthly on the first Tuesday of each month. (APQG has Elmira Community Center reserved every 1st and 3rd Wednesday, as well as “the Tuesday before.”) Typically, our start time will be 9:30 AM. Our next meeting date is May 3rd.

We can decide whether to meet or break during the summer. Fall meetings will fall on

September 6 (unless we delay until Sept. 20 to work around Labor Day week)
October 4
Nov. 15 (3rd Tuesday), since we can’t meet on Nov. 1 (Elmira is used as a voting precinct.)
December 6.

General Expectations for Attendees

Attendance – There is no expectation that the same people attend every month. Artsy Group is open to all members of APQG and BCQG. Come when you can!
Projects – Connie hopes we can all take what we learn today about “Improvisational Piecing Techniques” and turn it into a finished “something” to bring in to share at the May meeting. Overall, she and Linda hope that the Artsy Group will “make a big splash” at the next quilt show!
Programs – Members are invited to suggest topics to be explored. (One possibility suggested today was to learn about Faced Edgings, which tend to be preferred over traditional binding for art quilts.)
Yearly Challenge – In the short history of the Artsy Group’s existence, we have found that having a “Challenge” (leading to some sort of “show and tell”) has been a great way to share what we are learning with the larger guild. Past challenges have included
- Combine a randomly-assigned collection of adjectives into a quilt.
- Take a traditional quilt block and make it “artsy.”
- Make a quilt that reflects your favorite song.

2022 Tentative Programs

Blue Stripe Challenge – As a Challenge option for this year, Tanya and Phyllis told about seeing a fascinating display of small quilts at a recent show of the Capital Quilters Guild that required use of a 3-inch wide strip of solid blue fabric. Today’s group liked the idea, so the “Blue Stripe Challenge” has been issued! We will aim to have our quilts “almost ready” by the Artsy Group’s meeting in January. That way, we will have time to consider how to display them in our 2023 quilt show next March.

Topic for May 3 – For May’s meeting, today’s group agreed to have Linda teach us how to make her tiny foundation-pieced lapel pins. (A couple of people “opted out,” which is fine). Linda will be making up 20 kits that will fulfill an order placed by a Boutique customer at the recent quilt show! (These will be used as Christmas ornaments.) She suggests that the income from the project be used to support Artsy programs.

Program – Improvisational Piecing Techniques

Connie started out by saying that Improvisational piecing is not new! The best example is a crazy quilt. She showed us a quilt from her collection that had probably been made during the period 1885-1900.

A “Crazy Quilt” bought for Connie at a church rummage sale.

Connie referenced a book called “15 Minutes of Play,” by Victoria Finley Wolfe, where the author uses the term “made fabric.” Connie had used this technique in her “Wrinkly/Irony” quilt (note background on the left) to add to the contrast between chaos and order.

Connie next told about a class experience she had with Irene Roderick, who wrote the book, “Improv Quilting: Dancing with the Wall.” From that class, Connie had created a two-color quilt she calls “Galactic Grasshopper,” which will be exhibited at a show in Mancuso, SC this summer. “Made fabric” can also be incorporated into more traditional quilt blocks.

Connie passed around several other items of reference material regarding Improv Piecing.

Two other members of the group shared improvisational piecing projects. Tanya showed her collection of “I Spy” blocks, where she had combined various fabrics (of non-standard sizes and shapes) into “themed” blocks – to make them all the same size.

Also, Linda demonstrated a project where she plans to incorporate curved stems into a piece of neutral fabric, then overlay flowers on top.

This is a challenge for a fundraiser to support the people of Ukraine. (Linda, we hope to see the finished project at our May meeting!)

Later in the meeting, Linda had sewed in her first curved stem.

Next, it was our turn to practice this piecing technique! We had brought scraps to share, so our first step was to sort through the fabric for inspiration!

Then get to work cutting and sewing!

Here are a few projects coming together by the end of the morning.

It was a fun morning’s “play.” Thanks, Connie and Linda, for reviving the Artsy Group! We were all inspired!

Artsy

Artsy Group – 2019 Archives

April 1, 2022May 30, 2022 alamancepiecemakers

In 2019, a smaller group of guild members began meeting an extra day each month to learn about more “artsy” or modern techniques – that may or may not actually lead to quilts! We learned about designing with basic shapes, painting on fabric with Inktense pencils, making our own stamps to make printed designs, using a computerized fabric cutting machine to prepare designs to for “applique” quilt projects, etc.

Workshop with Roxanne Lessa

In April of 2019, we participated in a workshop called “Teeny Tiny Art Quilts.” Here is a photo from that workshop, taught by Roxanne Lessa. She even taught us basic elements of design! By the end of the day, we had designed our shapes, fused fabrics onto a background, and made a small quilt that was intended to be mounted on a wooden-framed canvas and hung on the wall as “art!”

Mini Quilt Show – block variation

In October of 2019, we held a mini show during our regular Piecemakers meeting to share with the guild the results of an “artsy challenge” – to take a basic quilt block and make it “artsy.” Here are several of the resulting mini quilts. Can you see basketweave, flying geese, monkey wrench, bear claw, Jacob’s ladder, bow tie, 9-patch? What else?

Song Quilt Challenge

Just before the pandemic, the next challenge was issued – to make a quilt that illustrated our favorite song! I think we may see one of these song quilts in the “Art Feeds the Soul” Quilt Show. That would be appropriate, don’t you think?

Programs

January 2022 – Quick & Easy Quilts

February 27, 2022April 5, 2022 alamancepiecemakers

Welcome to APQG in 2022

Our new President, Lovely Leona, welcomed us with “Happy Scrappy New Year!” And introduced the President’s Challenge for 2022. Bring your completed challenge projects for the “Scrappy September” mini-show, and possibly win a “fabulous prize!”

Appreciation to Outgoing President, Carolyn

We had planned to honor our out-going president at our Christmas Party in December, but due to unforeseen circumstances, we presented our gifts to her at January’s meeting. This is a memento for her sewing room.

A small token of appreciation for our outgoing president

Quilt Show Updates – “Art Feeds the Soul”

Linda shared with us all we needed to know about preparations for the upcoming quilt show March 9-12. Quite a few entry forms were turned in at today’s meeting! We are hoping for 100 quilts! Don’t forget to sign up to help with all the quilt show tasks!

Program – Quick & Easy Quilts

For our program in January, members shared ideas for “quick and easy” quilts. When you need to make a quilt in a hurry, what pattern do YOU use? Leona and Joanna both brought examples of quilts made by the “Disappearing Nine-Patch” technique.

Joanna had prepared an illustration of how to make the 9-patch block “disappear” into four equal smaller blocks, that can be rearranged for an effect more interesting than the basic nine-patch.

Another interesting “easy quilt” technique is to make “string blocks.” Leona taught this in a workshop last fall, and she has asked her “students” bring their completed string quilts for “show and tell” at our April “Picnic in the Park” meeting at South Graham Park.