CQFA Meeting

Due to circumstances beyond my control, this was the first meeting I attended since April. The meetings are only every other month, so if I miss one, time passes quickly. I like these meetings, because I always go home wanting to sew. I also feel like people genuinely like me and that is always good for my ego.

There were no new members this time, but lots of new faces that were new since I last attended. I also re-met Lynette who I know from back in the dark ages when I first got on the Internet. She hosted a local Bay Area quilt listserve and we met up a few times to put names and projects to faces. Back then we could only describe our work. There wasn’t really any economical way to post photos.

Maureen's Strata Quilt
Maureen’s Strata Quilt

A number of the members have quilts in shows: Maureen has a quilt in Strata, which I think is an SAQA related show. Maureen started her piece at the most recent retreat, so I was glad to see what happened with the work. Ann M. will be at PIQF. She has a one woman show there. Dolores has a quilt coming back from a show in Brazil and also sold a piece!

A number of the members are selling their pieces at various local events, too. One is the Book Arts Jam. Because of the bookmaking I have done (and want to do more of), I would like to attend this event. We’ll see if I can fit it in.

As usual, Show and Tell was awesome. This part of the meeting is what makes excited to go home and sew. People in this group are so unbelievably creative! I also sort of feel, sometimes, that I couldn’t do what they are doing. Don’t worry, I don’t let that stop me!

Gerre & Dolores with Peace Monument Quilt
Gerre & Dolores with Peace Monument Quilt

Dolores brought a quilt that was inspired by the Peace Monument in Paris. Some of the fabric for the steps is hand-dyed fabric. She told us that she made a conscious decision to use commercial fabric for the other parts of the quilt. I was really impressed with her people. They are simple, but clearly people, too. The whole piece is simple, in a way, but encouraged me to look and look. She did a great job.

Jen made a piece that made me think of my Change of Seasons piece. I have wanted to do more pieces like this where there are 4 parts of one image. It is on the list. 😉

Jen's piece
Jen’s piece

Jen’s piece was inspired by a call for quilts for a show. I am not sure what show.

Jen does spinning so there is often yarn type fiber attached to her quilts. She also does a lot of fabric manipulation: painting, stamping, couching, etc. This quilt is no exception. She painted part behind the tree and the pipes on the left are twisted newspaper, a fair trade product from India. The aerial views behind the tree and the building relate each other IMO, but are not traditional backgrounds. I think the whole piece works really well and it makes me think of my own piece again.

Amy brought one of her nature pieces, this time an abstract artichoke. She had an interesting idea for machine quilting practice: copy part of your piece on to fabric and machine quilt that as practice. Later you can use it as a small wall hanging, cubicle art or cut it up and make ATCs. I never thought of that and thought it was a great idea.

I accidentally agreed to run the ATCs swap. Oops! It went fine and Maureen, who is a real pro, had to do some treasurer stuff, so I was happy to do it.

I was sad not to get one of Nancy’s flowers, but we can’t have all of them when there are more than 4 swappers. People did nice work.

The December meeting will, again, be at FabMo. Guests can attend for $5. We will bring all of our challenge pieces to show. I really need to get on the placemat challenge and do it. While Maureen was talking about this part, I had a flash of what to use for the actual placemat part of the piece. I hope that means I am closer to making the piece.