CMQG retreat

As I've mentioned before, my guild is totally awesome.  We had our first ever quilt retreat the first weekend of March.  It was super fun and I'm so glad I went, as I imagine I'll be pretty busy soon and won't be able to have a carefree weekend.

It was a very unstructured retreat, so everyone could work on whatever they chose.  It was fun to see what everyone was working on, and just to have dedicated quilting time. It was great getting to know people better--sometimes you don't have a ton of time at a meeting to hang out and chit chat, so it was great to have that. We had a few "10 minute tips" where a member would show a neat trick/tip that they know.  We also had a charity challenge where we divided into teams and raced each other to see which team could make the blocks for a rail-fence type quilt the fastest. My team won! What did we win? Bragging rights, glory, fame...

Here is the "official" write up of the weekend on the guild blog.  Here is Emily's post with her take on the weekend.

I worked on a table runner and a baby quilt (future posts as they are so close to DONE), and got to use Ebony's AccuQuilt Studio Cutter, "Mr. T".  Wow. Who knew that a die cutter would be so popular? There was a sign up sheet and I'd say Mr. T was in high demand all weekend! 

I got a ton of pieces cut for a drunkard's path quilt.  I've wanted to make one for the longest time but the prospect of cutting out all those curved pieces using a template made my head spin.  With the die cutter, I did 80 blocks in about 40 minutes. 

I still have to sew them together, but my initial tries at sewing the curves has been great--they fit together so perfectly that I don't need pins!  Can you believe it? No pins for curves.  I told Ebony that she should rent time on the cutter--it saves SO much time that it would be worth it to pay $10-$15/hr just to use it. Seriously, if there was a quilt store with one, I would totally pay to rent it.

Overall, a fabulous weekend--and I didn't feel guilty leaving DH at home because he was at a conference in DC! We had such a great time that we'll be doing it again in the fall and next spring--the dates are already confirmed!

my guild ROCKS!

I'm a proud member of The Chicago Modern Quilt Guild.  They know that I'm expecting (any day now!!!) so at our last meeting they presented me with a quilt they made together. It was a total surprise--I had no idea they had planned something. Various people contributed blocks, Ebony did an AMAZING job with the quilting, Jen, Beth, and Sarah pieced the blocks together, and Sarah did the binding.  I love love love it.  It is so bright and happy. I know our baby will love it too.

Ebony quilted each person's name into the block that they made, including the ones on the back.

See how she made each one radiate out like a sunburst? Very cool.

Seriously, if you need someone to do your long-arm quilting, Ebony is your woman!

More ICE at CMQG

At last month's meeting of the CMQG, we started our ICE challenge (see my block here).  Each person who puts in a block got to take one home.  Now comes the hard part--we build on the block we got and make a mini-quilt.  I got Manuela's block.  I really love it, but I am having a hard time doing it justice.  I've made at least six sketches, and I've got ideas for a few more.  If  you had this lovely block, what would you do with it?

And you can only use the fabric in that little pile there...

ICE at the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild

YAY! Today is our monthly meeting at the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild.  We have a color workshop by Ebony, and the beginning of our ICE challenge.  I think it stands for "Inspiration Challenge Event" so it probably doesn't need the "Challenge" at the end.  That's me and my redundancy meter going off!

So the idea with the ICE is that we make a block with four fat quarters.  We include the block and the leftover fabric in a bag.  At the meeting, anyone who brings a back gets to take a bag home (from another person).  Then in July we bring back the mini quilt we made with the block and the extra fabric.  I'm excited to see what people come up with!

Here is the block I made.  I used the tutorial at Modify Tradition.  Of course, I didn't follow directions and cut my blocks too small--so I ended up cutting all the blocks to fit.  It seems ok now but those triangles are going to get lopped off.  Oh well-I am not trying to win any prizes here.  Speaking of prizes....come back tomorrow for Giveaway Day!

Ticker Tape Finished

I finished my ticker tape quilt!

Rather than starting and stopping for each bit, I just sewed between them.  I know some people have thread cutters on their machines.  Alas, mine does not, so without it, something like this would be incredibly tedious.  It was a fun exercise and I can't wait to see everyone's at next month's meeting!

April Chicago Modern Quilt Guild Meeting

We had a really fun meeting today.  Angela led a fun workshop where we each made our own "ticker tape" quilts.  Everyone brought in a pile of scraps and boy, did we have a lot of scraps!!  It was really fun to see what everyone chose as their background colors, and then how they laid out scraps, or chose different color schemes.  I went with the "I'll choose what I like" scheme.

After I put it together, it reminded me of Freddie Moran's motto: "more is more".  I can't say that all the fabrics go together or complement each other, but in a weird way, it works.  I like it! Now I need to actually do the quilting, and do it by the next meeting on May 16th. I also have to prepare my block for our challenge.  I better get back to work, as I've got a couple quilting bee blocks to take care of too.

Quick note: I went to the International Quilt Show Chicago yesterday and it was fabulous!!! I'll be spreading out my posts over the next week or so because there is so much to say!

Chicago Modern Quilt Guild meeting

Whew! I have been super busy. In February, I went on trips to Indianapolis, Knoxville, and Milwaukee. I'm just glad to be home again. I'm definitely counting down the days though, before my trip to Spain with my husband. We'll be taking cooking classes and sightseeing, but mostly just relaxing--which is exactly what we'll need by the time we get there!

Anyway, I apologize for my absence. I realize I never followed up on how our first Chicago Modern Quilt Guild meeting went. It was a good crowd. Everyone seemed excited about getting started, and we did a bit of brainstorming to discuss ideas and what we'd like to get out of the group. Kate took some pictures and you can see them here.

I'm hoping that as we have regular meetings, we'll get even more folks coming. It's great to find other people who have similar interests, and to meet them in person. I love reading blogs and looking at Flickr, but there is something really great about meeting people face to face.

If you don't live in the Chicago area, you can see if your town hosts a modern quilt guild here.

Happy Quilting!

Chicago area quilters?

With the success of the LA Modern Quilt Guild, I was wondering if there were people out there interested in starting such a group in Chicago. Please comment here or send me an email. Once I get enough folks interested I'll start figuring out days/times/locations.

EDITED TO ADD: Please leave me a way to contact you.  Sara and ModQuilter, you are "no reply" comment bloggers so I don't have any way to keep you updated.   If you use Blogger, to change this, go to Edit Profile, check mark in front of Show my Email, then SAVE. This will only show the word email on your profile page. This way if you leave a comment there is an email address that comes with the comment to my inbox. Alternately you can reply again and leave an email. I'd love to include you!