Visiting a Guild

I visited the San Francisco Quilt Guild on Tuesday of last week because Mike McNamara was going to speak. I haven’t been a member of that guild for a long time, bu I recently started getting notices of upcoming speakers. I was pleased that they are now meeting closer to where I live and that the group seems to have lightened up a bit.

I was amazed at all they do. They gave over 100 quilts to the local public nursing home. They are having a Quiltaway next year and have lots of activities surrounding that.

I spent some time talking with Mike McNamara (called Mac) about his quilts and his working style. He lives in the City and also has a studio. I tried to question him closely about how he works that style of working. I have thought about getting a studio, but can’t quite figure out how I would have all the supplies I needed in the location I was working in at the time.

I saw one of Mac’s quilts at PIQF and it stuck in my mind, which was part of the reason I wanted to go to the meeting. I also just needed a jolt of some other quiltmakers. The holidays demand more of my time and that time usually gets taken away from my quiltmaking time. My mom came with me.

The scissors were added using a Thermofax machine.

Mac stepped in front of the quilt at one point and said that one thing he didn’t realize until he was giving a trunk show was that if he stood in front of the quilt it looked like it was raining scissors.

Mac has a series of Double Wedding Rings that he has been working on. He has made 13 or 14.

You can see the rings really well in this version of the DWR. Above is the detail of the gold rings and how he combines fabric.

I don’t remember the name of this quilt. He uses a block called the ‘Magic Block’ quite often. You can see it in the upper left hand corner. It has a black kind of cross in the center.

Love the coffee fabric. This is also a good example of the curved piecing techniques he uses frequently.

You can also see the cool bamboo fabric in the above detail.

This is another one of Mac’s DWRs. It is actually a straight block quilt. Some of the blocks were made from different fabrics then trimmed to make a block.

Elvis fabric in the DWR quilt.

Each of Mac’s quilts are made for a friend with the understanding that he gets to use the quilt for his trunk shows for 5 years. As a result of making quilts for friends, each of his quilts have stories associated with them. Because of the stories, he finds and uses a lot of interesting fabrics including the skull fabric above.

I liked this Ohio Star quilt. Actually l really liked the movement of the Ohio Star blocks. I also like that tree fabric he used.

I like the swirly fabric around the upper Ohio Star.