I went to the Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild Meeting on Monday night. It was a perfect confluence of events that allowed me to go. Thanks to DH who picked up the slack at home!
We did show and tell. The quilts were very modern, for the most part, and there was a wide range of experience and styles. I should have brought the Zig Zaggy top. It would have fit right in. I want to quilt it or get it quilted before I drag it out into the world. I don’t want people to be sick of seeing it. I brought It’s a Merry & Bright Wrap, because I wanted to work on the sleeve. I think I put in about 2 stitches. People admired it.
Mostly, the members seemed like people who had just started sewing again after a hiatus or were new to sewing/quiltmaking. There was some discussion of the tube method of binding and various shops – two I hadn’t heard of! One is along my beaten path, so I will have to check it out and take TFQ there when she visits again. It was a great group. I really enjoyed the people.
Someone brought some great books. I was able to take a look at the new Amy Butler bag book, Style Stitches, which is a beautiful book. There were two bags in it that sorely tempt me, though I am a bit scared to take on another Amy Butler pattern after the Sweet Harmony bag. I was also able to look at Elizabeth Hartman’s new book, The Practical Guide to Patchwork: New Basics for the Modern Quiltmaker (yay! quiltmaker in a title!). I liked the look of it and found some tips and tricks that might make it worth a purchase. I also took a quick look at I {heart} Patchwork, which I had never heard of. There was so much going on that I really only had a minute to look at it. I don’t know what Zakka is, but what I saw was interesting and worth another look.
Everyone was really friendly and welcoming. One person, Adrianne of Little Bluebell, went to Quilt Market! She has great pictures on her blog about the experience. I can’t believe that they accept bloggers as press! You have to show some effort at a business, but she said it wasn’t that hard to register. WOW! A whole new door has opened to me!
I saw Chris, again, and still didn’t get much of a chance to talk with her in person! I hope to see her again!
There was a guy there! George magically appeared at the beginning of the fabric exercise. I don’t know if I just didn’t see him or if he came in late. I liked hearing his perspective, partially because of all the press about guys and lately, but also because I am never around quiltmaking guys. He talked about his experiences in fabric stores. As a result, we asked him what fabrics he gravitated towards, which spawned an interesting discussion.
We did a GREAT fabric exercise. Ruth, who is the owner/convener/president/quilt maven of the group asked everyone to bring 20 pieces of fabric. She promised we would get them all back unscathed. I was reluctant, but threw a stack of reds and aquas into the bag just before I left.
There were a huge variety of fabrics. Laying on the tables, a lot of the fabrics looked like the old Hoffmans. As people started digging around, I could see that they were what people consider to be modern. Without the Kona Snow, they look really different.
The first exercise was to pick one fabric, get together with someone (great ice breaker as well) and pick 6-8 additional fabrics for a quilt. Subsequent versions of the exercise ensued.
There were a number of great things about these exercises:
- no cutting = no fear. We weren’t actually going to make the quilt.
- working with fabrics that weren’t mine opened my eyes to different possibilities.
- working with someone gave me different ways to look at fabric combinations and learn from them.
- reminded me that a fabric avalanche might be an opportunity to see fabrics in a new way.
- there is always more fabric, so put the fabrics together in interesting ways.
Above is the last group I put together with another quiltmaker. The grey is something I never would have added, but the exercise was to pick two fabrics and they had to be touching each other. I picked that lovely turquoise/aqua and white in the upper right hand corner next to the red/white plaid. It was touching a grey. I picked a couple of other greys and more red and aqua and I think the group works.
I think this is a group I could really feel comfortable with. The meetings are not convenient, which is a real shame. I am going to try and go again and see where my attendance and participation on the Ning part of the guild lead.
Sounds like a great group/meeting. I am a little jealous. The individual Modern Quilt Guilds seem to really take their character from the person who took the initiative to start them and the Seattle guild was organized by a woman who is mainly interested in “sew-ins” — all the meetings are about bringing your machine and a project and working on it in a room full of other people sewing. She’s not particularly interested in a formal guild structure. I think there nominally is a president and vice-president, but not much organization of activities — certainly no show and tell or book/info sharing, or fabric choice exercises such as the ones y’all did. It’s more a sewing bee than a guild.
I think the make-up of the Seattle group is much like the younger/newer quilters of the Bay Area guild — I have always been the oldest/most experienced quilter at the meetings, which is rather an odd feeling. I like the idea of sewing with other people occasionally — went to one meeting and took a handwork project which works better for me than hauling my sewing machine and enough stuff for a project around on a bus — but would engage with the group more if there was more to it than that. It is nice to see all the energy around quiltmaking, though.
re: Zakka – I looked this up when I heard the CraftSanity interview with Rashida Coleman-Hale. Zakka is basically household goods, necessities, miscellaneous stuff – I think the word actually means something like ‘many things’ — but it’s come to mean a style that is charming and simple, often (but not always) handmade. I’m not surprised that it would be popular with people interested in a simpler, less complicated style of design, which a lot of “modern” quiltmaking seems to be about.
Great comment! Thanks for writing so much! I listened to that CraftSanity episode, but must have let the Zakka part go in one ear and out the other. I usually listen at the gym and forget to look things up by the time I get home.
I haven’t heard reports of any other Modern Quilt Guild meetings. I found the one I visited to be a nice mix of activities and show and tell. It was a long meeting – 3 hours. I really liked the fabric exercise. Perhaps you could share that next time you attend?
I am still wishing there was a group in DC or the southern part of the City. It would nice to have a 5 minute commute to a meeting.