BAMQG February Meeting

The Bay Area Modern Meeting was yesterday and fun as usual. There is much talk of the upcoming retreat and also of the recent Sew Day. 46 people, the most EVER!, attended the meeting and the group had its first ever speaker. Lots of firsts.

A-B-C (A-Z) Challenge

We displayed our A-B-C Challenge blocks. Mine are Jewel Box and Indian.

Jewel Box
Jewel Box
Indian
Indian

There are about 7-8 participants. Diana just joined by doing one block and Jennifer joined, doing a-J (minus I). I really like this challenge. It is great that I have a  reason to make a block every month (not that I really need an excuse).

A-B-C Challenge - All blocks
A-B-C Challenge - All blocks

Angela brought two Hawaiian blocks (far left). I love it that she is doing these blocks in Hawaiian fabrics. Most people don’t use Hawaiian fabrics as regular fabrics for regular blocks.

Michelle is doing her blue and white blocks (also far left). We are getting so far along in the project that not all of us were able to put up all of our blocks and Michelle was one of them. It occurred to me that she might have the hardest job of all since not all possible blocks are suitable for two colors.

Kathleen’s blocks are still the black, white and red ones. She is doing a good job choosing how much print to put into each block.

Jennifer's blocks
Jennifer's blocks

Jennifer is using the Lazy Girl ruler for her blocks (middle with all the points). She has just started the challenge and is catching up.

My blocks
My blocks
Lynnette's blocks
Lynnette's blocks

My blocks are on the top right. Lynette’s are the grey and green on the bottom right. I like the way Lynnette’s blocks have an on point sort of look. Many of them have half square triangles in the corners. She made a Glacier Bay block as well and it is really great to see how different it looks from mine. She uses fussy cutting in her blocks and the technique in Glacier Bay is particularly effective.

Speaker

Joy-Lily Prep
Joy-Lily Prep

Joy-Lily brought books, Carefree Quilts, and quilts to her talk. The quilts she brought were all from her book, so we didn’t get a sense of the evolution of her work. She organized the talk to coincide with sections of the book, which was a good idea, especially if one had the book and could follow along. A clever portion of the book is that if you make all the blocks you end up with an extra block from each of the projects with which  you can make a sampler quilt. Joy-Lily had someone else make the sampler quilt and the maker did a great job. I really like the colors.

Joy-Lily Sampler
Joy-Lily Sampler

All the quilts from the book are all kind of wonky. Joy-Lily doesn’t think that people can do perfect matching seams and has written her book to that end.

Leaf quilt
Leaf quilt
Leaf quilt
Leaf quilt

The Leaf quilts are very inspired and I think that that block is one of my favorites from the book.

Crayon quilt
Crayon quilt
Wonky disappearing 9 patch
Wonky disappearing 9 patch
Flying Geese
Flying Geese

Sewing Time
Adrianne was a madwoman (in a good way!) on getting us to our sewing time. We were done with show and tell at 3:05 and everyone started moving tables, setting up machines and working away. I sat with Chris and TFQ and worked on the border test I have been wanting to do for a long time. Chris and TFQ were both working on hand projects. TFQ is handquilting a lovely quilt (which I forgot to photograph) with Perl cotton. Chris is working on an art piece where she is couching down some threads that have, what look like, little flowers on them. Again, I was so wrapped in my own project that I didn’t take a photo. Perhaps she will post to her blog.

I wish I had gotten a photo of the little sewing pod in the middle of the room. Ruth, Adrianne, Kathleen and bunches of other people were set up there. Such a buzz of activity! It was wonderful.

Charity Quiltmaking

Deborah and Jennifer collected bunches of more fabric and quilts and other necessities for the charity quilts the group is making for the NICU at Stanford. I can’t be too upset about the lack of a Cal connection, because it feels good to be helping children and their families in need. I posted the 16 patch blocks I made yesterday. The selection of fabric packets wasn’t stellar, but I retrieved 4 more batches of fabric, but I also spoke to Jennifer about the background. She said any white is fine. I have some white-on-whites that I will use with some of my scraps to make my own blocks. I gave them most of the Pineapple blocks that were the wrong size, so I can, now, cross that off the 26 Projects list.

I realized that one reason I enjoy working on this project with the BAMQG people is that Deborah and Jennifer are so kind and serene about the whole endeavor. I am not sure if those are the right words, but I know that they express genuine gratitude with donations and they do not harangue or guilt people into participating. They are also really well organized and the 16 patch block they selected, as I am sure I have said before is a stroke of genius. I have never felt like I am really contributing to a charity project as I do with this one. I also feel like it is fun. All in all a very good experience.

Jennifer and Deborah have a goal of 24 quilts in mind for this year, but they think they will surpass that. They already have 6 quilts, including one that I donated, the Crazy Quilt Test. I meant to send it to Japan after the earthquake, but somehow it never made it.

More on Show and Tell later

Author: Jaye

Quiltmaker who enjoys writing and frozen chocolate covered bananas.

5 thoughts on “BAMQG February Meeting”

  1. Is the book self published? I enlarged the pix so I could read the title, but was wondering about publisher. I like her take on the flying geese, and the crayon quilt.

    S

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