Guilds – Page 8 – Artquiltmaker Blog

BAMQG Retreat Projects

If you want to see how the retreat was set up, some in process and fun shots, check out the post I wrote a few days ago.

Mystery Quilt

I won’t tell you what mystery quilt we did, in case your guild does it. I don’t want to spoil the fun for you, but I will show you some of the examples of what came out of the blocks. Please note that most people basically threw the last two clues (after the blocks were made) out and did their own setting. They did great. All of the tops are really their own. The mystery quilt designer might have a heart attack, but I love the diversity and the creativity. The most of the mystery quilt was that everyone was working together on the same project.

The Boss took all of her blocks apart and rearranged them into this piece. She had to add fill-in pieces to complete the background.

They became the retreat twins in my mind. They sat across from each other (behind me) and it was fun to see them bounce off each other. Cheryl was the fantastic retreat coordinator and she actually got work done. I borrowed pins from her since I forgot my pincushion ALL THREE DAYS.

It was pretty amazing how Lynnette used different fabrics, but they are really cohesive. I didn’t think they were a line, but I could be wrong.

I am not sure Rhonda actually put hers together like the photo, but I wouldn’t be surprised. There was a quite a lot of hilarity going on and the above photo might have been part of the hilarity.

Ruth‘s piece is on top and she did a fabulous job with her final result. I wasn’t fast enough to get a photo.

I can’t even believe that Michelle made this quilt out of the mystery pieces.

Angela would not give me her quilt even though it is in my colors. I was mad at myself for not thinking of this color scheme. I love what she did and the photo doesn’t do it justice. The blues are more turquoise.

Gerre started and got this whole piece quilted. She only lacked a binding and a label. Amazing!

Diana was working on a couple of different projects and the ones I saw were made from Autumn-y colors. Isn’t this version cool?

Buff made this adorable baby quilt. I love the bunny peeking out of the top of the fabric strip.

Charity

People worked on donation blocks as well.

To the left is the only donation block I finished, but I had half of another parts of two others done as well. I’ll finish them this week.

My block is only one of a giant stack of blocks that piled up throughout the weekend. I was amazed that every time I went into the cutting room, more blocks were in the pile.

The great thing is that people just did them. There was no big drama; they just did them and the pile grew.

Peggy's donation top — Peggy’s donation top

Peggy is working on a series of half square triangle quilts. Her latest top was finished at the retreat. She said she is enamored with the diamond offset on the top. I am really glad she is playing with the blocks. It makes me happy to see people having fun.

I saw that a few fish blocks were made as well. There were a lot of kits available for those. I couldn’t make any as I didn’t bring any blue fabrics that would have been suitable.

Did you see the patterns for these blocks? If you want to make a small quilt and donate it, please do. The guild will be happy to accept it and I am happy to facilitate. They would make a fun baby quilt as well.

Personal Projects

In between the charity quilts and blocks and the mystery quilt, people worked on their own projects. There were finishes (Gerre, Bonnie, Angela, Diana, etc) and major progress that happened. It was fun to see all the projects where people made major progress.

Angela finished her mom’s Mother’s Day quilt. She did some lovely embroidery on the back as her label. You saw the quilt on the post where I talked about the BAMQG meeting.

Diana finished an auction quilt. It is a good thing as the auction already took place and she just needed to finish the quilt! What a hero for making such a big project for a school auction!

Diana's Auction Quilt -front — Diana’s Auction Quilt -front

Diana's Auction Quilt -back — Diana’s Auction Quilt -back

Rhonda's Round Robin — Rhonda’s Round Robin

Rhonda worked hard on quilting and binding her Round Robin piece. I love the spiky border on this one. The quilt is actually a lot brighter than the photo shows.

Cheryl's Giant Feather — Cheryl’s Giant Feather

Cheryl brought out a giant feather quilt. She said that she wondered what the Anna Maria Horner feather would look like super sized. If you were wondering that, too, now you know. Isn’t it cool? I almost want to make one of those feathers (in a much smaller size)!

Cheryl's Table Runner — Cheryl’s Table Runner

Finally, Kelly made a thank you for Cheryl while at the Retreat! It uses Cheryl’s favorite Tula Pink fabrics.

BAMQG Quilt Retreat

I am not sure if I will get through all of the retreat info in one post. It might just be too much. We’ll see.

The retreat started on Friday, but I didn’t get there until mid day on Saturday as we were traveling for the Native Sons back from Grand Parlor. I was a commuter, so I drove back and forth. It is about an hour each way, but after the intense people time of Grand Parlor, some quiet time in the car made me more human at home and at the retreat.

Two things that happened right as I got there, practically before I got set up, was that I got a bag of goodies and I won a prize! The CQFA Retreat does not include goodie bags or prizes (someone has to organize all that). It was fun.

People were working on the mystery quilt and I was 3 clues behind, but they had just gotten Clue 3 when I arrived, so I made those units and used Clue 1 as leaders and enders, so I had most of Clue 1 done as well by the time I got finished with Clue 3. I had my fabric and I had cut out all the pieces, thus I was ready to dive right into sewing, so I got busy on that.

I really liked all of the different fabric choices that people came up with for their mystery quilts. People admired mine, but by the end I wasn’t liking the combination very much. the funnest part of the mystery quilt was working on the same project as everyone else. I enjoyed that with Scrapitude as well.

I have only been on CQFA retreats, which are very basic. This retreat was kind of the deluxe edition!

There were 3 rooms we could work in. One room was set up as a cutting and ironing room. We also gathered there for Clues and prizes and the donation blocks were as well. People put their finished blocks there and kits for blocks needed were also available there.

It was great to have those high tables for cutting out large pieces. I used them when I was working on my bag.

There were 6 tables set up on each side of the two rooms (room were linked by a very large opening). Ruth set up a design wall at the end of the room (I believe the Steampunk blocks belong to Cheryl). My spot was the spot from where I am taking the photo. People were pretty diligent, but there was a lot of laughter as well. Some of the laughter was fairly crazy.

I sat across from Corky. I don’t think Corky and I had had a chance to talk at a meeting, but we were chatting and borrowing tools like old pals. It was nice to get to know her a little better.

Quilts and quilt parts were everywhere. Any open space was fair game and people just hopped over them and continued on their way. It was awesome, in a way, that people would just take it in stride that quilts were everywhere.

I had my mystery quilt on the floor for awhile while I laid it out.

The whiteboard was right across from my workstation. Right after I arrived, Kelly added me to her list of Instagram names. Somehow after that, the Instagram names morphed into IQ. I didn’t say anything about my IQ; I just watched the points increase.

I couldn’t sleep and got up at 5:30. After doing a few of my morning things, I got on the road and was at the retreat by about 8:30. Monday morning found us all a little more punchy than the previous 2-3 days. References to music started coming up and Amanda played songs for us on her phone. One got Peggy and Amanda up and rapping together.

Anyone who thinks that Modern Guilds are for young people only should meet Peggy. Peggy is the most ‘modern’ of anyone in the guild and she has only been quilting for about 5 years. She has a great and inspiring and practical attitude and is also the most prolific charity quilt maker. I would do well to take after Peggy.

We took a group shot. I am pretty sure not everyone was in it, as ‘everyone’ was hard to wrangle. It was a fun shot, especially that Kelly got herself, or part of herself in it. I stole this version from Kelly’s Instagram.

I am always on the lookout for inspiration and I have to say that I was overwhelmed by my choices. there are so many creative people in the group that everywhere I looked, there was something I wanted to try or make or know more about.

I’ll write about actual projects in another post. This one is long enough. I would love to hear about retreats you have attended.

May 2014 BAMQG Meeting

I had a great time at the meeting Saturday. People showed some really great work and everyone seems to be looking forward to the Retreat.

The next Sew Day is June 7, 10am -11pm. Once again, I can’t make it as I will be in Vancouver for work. My trip will be fun, but I’ll miss Sew Day.

I will also have to miss the next general guild meeting, which is on June 21, as I just made plans to go to Disneyland. Shhhh! Don’t tell.

Show and Tell is my absolute favorite part of the meeting and I wish that people would bring more stuff to share. Angela showed a great quilt from a workshop with Joe Cunningham and I just love it! It isn’t gradated, but it really gives the impression of being gradated. She was finishing up the binding so she could give it to her mom for Mother’s Day. She said that her mom loves it.

I showed Fresh Fruit and Fabric of the Year 2012. that was an exciting experience as people wanted me to tell the story of doing a quilt every year again for newcomers. I was a little embarrassed. Allison asked if I would bring all of the FOTY quilts sometime. As I said, I would love to have an exhibit of all of them, but, perhaps, showing them off to an appreciative audience would be the next best thing?

San Mateo County Fair: Lynnette kindly offered to take our quilt entries to the San Mateo County Fair intake day. She left with a pack of quilts. We will arrange pick up at a later time. I had a crazy morning when I realized that the Whole Cloth Quilt, which I entered without looking at it, didn’t have a sleeve!!!! I quickly made the sleeve using Robbi Joy Eklow’s directions in her Free Expression book (a book which you should have if you don’t already!)

I am really slow at putting on sleeves and the two recent quilts, Fresh Fruit and FOTY 2012 took me forever. I didn’t have confidence that I would have the sleeve done by the end of the meeting, but I worked towards that goal. The sleeve was pinned on to the quilt when I left the house and I started sewing as soon as I sat down. I did get it done! I sewed on the entire sleeve, gave the quilt to Lynette and home I will see it at the county Fair.

The group will be participating with other Bay Area Modern guilds in an Amish Exhibit: November 2014 at SJMQT. Joe Cunningham will do jurying. Entries are due October 1, but I don’t think I will apply. I am not inspired. Kelly decided to organize a small group to encourage people to work on their projects and get them ready for the exhibit. I don’t know how she will split herself between the Tula Pink City Sampler group and the Amish Exhibit group.

Jackie Gehring Workshops: July 26, 27 – there are still spaces available, so if you want one for a friend or haven’t signed up yet. I am surprised that these are not full.

Charity: I have been kind of a charity slacker lately. I haven’t worked much on the black and grey donation quilt, though I have also not abandoned it. I don’t know why as I got a lot accomplished last year and was busier.

It could be that all the other projects have been overwhelming me. Michelle, one of the Charity Girls has designed a new block for this quarter – the fish block. There are actually 3 fish blocks (Block A, Block B and BBlock C), which are the same parts in different configurations and sizes. Directions and handouts have been posted to the BAMQG blog. Take a look, because the blocks would make up cute baby quilts as well.

Enough about me and my excuses. Despite my slackness, 60 finished charity quilts will be taken to the NICU at Stanford this week. Peggy finished a number of them since the last meeting, using some time on the last charity sew day.

From the Cat Bed department: Amanda couldn’t make the meeting, which was a shame, because I couldn’t get any cat beds to sew together. Next time.

Small Groups:

Hand quilting and hand piecing – the group has been expanded to include other kinds of handwork. Angela worked on a binding while Rhonda stitched hexagons together using the English Paper Piecing method. She bought a Tula Pink kit to get started. Perhaps I will try to remember my half hexies to bring a long and work on.
Jaye brought blocks for the Tula Pink City Sampler small group, but the rest of the members were curiously absent.
We saw Nicki’s finished Round Robin and Cheryl’s almost finished Round Robin in Show and Tell, but no groups met.
Nobody in the Color groups met.

I did not do the Personal challenge for this month, which was to make a tote bag using Kelly’s directions (or others as desired) out of the piece I free motion quilted last month. Next month we are supposed to bring a hand quilted or hand pieced project to the next meeting. I am thought of bringing the Sampler, but I won’t be there.

BAMQG and the St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild are participating in the Swap Challenge Swap Extravaganza. I decided to do it, even though I didn’t know anything about it until I showed up at the meeting with an orphan block. People who brought orphan blocks could sign up to make something that will be exchanged with someone at the St. Louis Guild. All orphan blocks were turned in. They will be doled out by Angela to anyone who signed up. People will not get their own block back, but will receive and need to make something out of someone else’s orphan block. Then the projects will be turned in and sent to St. Louis and the SLMQG will send us a package back and those items will be doled out. We can make anything and Angela solicited ideas, some of which are:

placemats
coasters
tote bag
zipper pouch
lanyard
wall hanging
etc

May 2014 CQFA Meeting

The CQFA meeting was last Saturday (May 3) and was quite lively.

Jennifer is a graphic facilitator/graphic recorder and she led a workshop about “from drawing to art quilt.” I did a graphic recording course with hopes of moving into that profession, but I didn’t pursue it and wish I had the opportunity to do so. Still, my skills came in handy in this class because I can draw basic shapes relatively quickly. I am not sure I got what was intended out of the class, but I did get some inspiration. I have been thinking of the ongoing placemat challenge and I drew out a design that has been in my head for it.

We did some work in our art journals/sketchbooks as part of the workshop and that was fun. I got some ideas down that have been in my head. They are not perfect or fabric ready, but they are down and I can see them with my eyes and not just my mind’s eye. I have a start and can see a little way down the path. Also, I just found it fun to work in my journal. I don’t do it enough.

Jen gave out some handouts and one of them had a quick sketch of mountains, which I found interesting.

She suggested working with fat markers (e.g. see the round arrow) and I found that hard, so I switched to the pens with which I normally write (see purple drawings on the right). She had a point about the fat markers, which was you couldn’t put in a lot of detail and you filled the page faster. Both are true. I still like my thin pen better. I wonder how I would feel with a fat pen if the tip was different?

Of course, we had the ATC exchange, which I talked about.

Marie told us about some upcoming events at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles:

May 18 – Quilt National Opening

May 24 – Royal School of Textiles speaker on dyeing, but not the how-to. She will speak on the societal, social and the geo-political effects on dyeing, how colors came about etc.

June 14 – beading lecture by a pre-eminent beadist (is that a word?).

Marie reported that these events are a way to engage more with members. Some of the CQFA members said that, while they couldn’t always attend the lectures and events, they went to the website more and read more of the emails, which is a good thing. Check the website for more details.

The Library show planning is in process. I have been out of the loop for a few months due to some personal issues and am not quite sure what is going on. I may withdraw my piece. We will see.

Show and tell was great. Maureen is using a gelli plate to print on fabric and some of her prints were gorgeous. Diane did the placemat challenge and I like the way the pieces stand up from the background.

Virginia is working on her piece for the show and the piecing is amazing. It is large, too.

I showed Fresh Fruit and Fabric of the Year 2012. I worked on FOTY 2012 at the retreat last year and people gave me some nice compliments. Someone suggested that I have a show of all the FOTY quilts when I get a few more under my belt. I would really like to do that. I’ll have to work on it once I get a larger stock of quilts.

May ATCs for CQFA

My ATC work this month didn’t go as smoothly as I would have liked, but I am disavowing responsibility, because my Janome 9K is acting up again. I was able to finish them on the backup machine, but there are some differences so they don’t look as professional as I would like. I might do a special whine post later abut the &^%$* machine, but now I just don’t want to get into it.

I decided to do some more leaves, similar to last meeting’s ATCs, so I could donate one to the ATC collection for the guild show. I had enough time and enough interfacing cut, so I went for broke. There are some similarities to last month’s leaves, but some differences as well.

I used my last of a piece of thickish thread for the stems. Someone told me it was from saris, but I don’t remember where I got it and don’t know. I had to couch it on the cards.

I am really pleased that I had enough time. I didn’t start until Friday at midday. Friday is kind of last minute and I don’t know why I wait that long, but I felt like I wasn’t racing the clock. I just worked along and the cards came together well. I didn’t do any embellishment, but I also didn’t feel like the pieces needed it this time.

There were a lot of participants in the ATC challenge this month and I got a nice group of cards to keep.

The most unusual award goes to Sue who is experimenting with cookie decorating (lower right). The cookie decorating description doesn’t even begin to do justice those these mini-works of art. I didn’t take any because I would have just been tempted to eat them.

Angela is doing some interesting things with mixed media. Her work (cards directly to the left of my leaves) is on fabric, but she is painting or dyeing and stamping.

Bron did some renditions of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I love Maureen’s spirals as well (far right).

Everybody did a great job.

All in all it was a really great exchange and I look forward to the next one.

ATCs are 2.5″ x 3.5″. You don’t have to make them out of fabric. Some of the cards the CQFA people trade are partially paper. I like mine stiff, thus all of the interfacing.

CQFA ATCs

I made some ATCs for the CQFA meeting, leaving it, again, until the last minute. I worked on them on Friday in between starting the process of renewing the Young Man’s passport and some other chores. I really didn’t have an idea, but then I hit on the idea of a leaf and the design went from there. I ended up with something with which I was very happy.

The step is a piece of thick thread or yarn. I only had about a yard of it and now I have, perhaps half a yard. Maureen thought the thread was sari thread. I hadn’t heard of that before and she explained that threads from saris are wound together to make the thread. It is colorful.

I couldn’t find my couching foot, so I used a zig zag to keep the thread on the ATC. It worked pretty well, but I need to practice more.

The background is from the Infinity quilt. It is leftover from the quilter cutting off the sides of the backing. I am sure you will see a journal cover or two along the way as well. 😉

Inside the ATC, I use 2 layers of tearaway stabilizer on both sides. This allows for no wrinkling when I zig zag.

First I make the backs and put the labels on. I do this first, because it doesn’t really matter what the back looks like. It gets me in the mood and gets everything cut. In this case, I used the same fabric – or group of fabric – for the back, front and leaves. You might be thinking that you see different fabrics ont he finished ATCs and you would be right. When I say ‘fabric’ I mean that which has been cut off the sides of the backing of my quilt. Even though there are different fabric designs, technically, it is one piece of fabric to me. I used what was on the end of the leftover backing fabric.

I tried, really hard, this time to make the corners of the stitching around the labels look really nice. I had to slow down.

They are a little easier to work with when I make them in a group and then cut them apart. I had to take care when lining up the motifs for the front and the back.

ATCs are 2.5″ x 3.5″. You don’t have to make them out of fabric. Some of the ones the CQFA people trade are partially paper. I like mine stiff, thus all of the interfacing.

BAMQG Gifts

We give bags of gifts to the officers of the guild. Some of us make tote bags and then all the guild members bring a gift for each officer. It is a lot easier than making a quilt. It also allows people to contribute in a way that makes them comfortable.

We encourage people to bring small gifts, such as spools of thread, packs of pins, needles, Pigma pens and WonderClips. We also encourage people to make small gifts, like zipper pouches. Some just write heartfelt cards and I know that is appreciated.

This time I made needle cases. As I mentioned in previous posts, I found the needle case pattern in a magazine and modified it to suit my needs.

I used, mostly, scraps for these needle cases. I like this project and am pleased with the modifications I made to the pattern. It is something I can make quickly as a gift.

I wasn’t able to make the meeting yesterday as I just returned from a work trip. I hope the officers liked them.

ATCs for CQFA

ATCs are small bits of art that can be traded.

ATCs are 2.5″x3.5″ – the size of baseball or other trading cards. They are made using discarded bits and are not limited to being made from fabric. Paper artists make them from paper and other materials are suitable as well.

As you read this, CQFA is meeting (or will be if you are reading this at 6am ._. ) and part of the meeting is trading ATCs. It is fun to see what other people have made and I love it when a lot of people participate. I am always sad when I can’t one of each example of the other members’ cards.

I had a mosaic pieced fabric in turquoise already made and decided that I would use it since it was a start. I stitched out some of the stitches on the loaner machine over the seams and called it good. The flower on the right hand card is my favorite of the few decorative stitches on this machine.

Round Robin Round Four Complete

I spent some time with Kelly’s Round Robin over the past week. I finished my portion on January 1 and was pleased to be able to move on to the Attack of the Hexies.

I saw Camille Roskelley’s Round and Round quilt and liked the basic block so much that I wanted to make it. The version from Around the Blocks blog really inspired me. I love the way the triangles seem to flutter or twirl on the background. The basic component is a Friendship Star, a block that I always thought had potential, but never quite liked. Now I know that making it smaller and combining it with others like it was the ticket. Camille Roskelley is a genius.

I didn’t think the block was the right size for the piece, but I decided the piece could use something bold. I resized the block and worked on the whole piece in EQ7. I could only get an idea of the outcome. The piece has special fabric and I didn’t feel like scanning and uploading it. From what I could see, I thought it would work.

Round and Round - one block — Round and Round – one block

The block has 85 pieces. I reworked the piecing as well as resizing it, because some of the pieces didn’t need to be small squares. Also, I didn’t want, for example, to piece 4 squares together to make a larger square.

This made the final piecing of the block a little different than just piecing the block together in rows. I was able to chunk it. Once I was able to see how to chunk the piece, the piecing was no problem. I used the Triangle Technique to make all of the triangle squares (half square triangles).

SIL suggested that I fussy cut the special fabric and use that for the center rectangle in order to echo the original focal point of the piece. I thought that was a good idea and fussy cut different portions of the special fabric for the centers.

I think it came out well and I hope that Kelly is happy with my work. I was really pleased with the block. I can’t make it to the meeting in January, so I sent it off to Kelly.

Related Round Robin Posts

Round Robin Round Three – 11/14/2013
More Round Robin Progress – 11/11/2013
Round Robin Progress – 11/6/2013
Round Robin – 8/10/2013
Round Robin Start – 6/23/2013
Round Robin Fabrics – 5/29/2013
Round Robin Ready – 5/18/2013

BAMQG Meeting Report

As I mentioned earlier in the week, the BAMQG meeting was on Saturday. I can’t tell you how happy I was to attend the meeting. It was a surprise, because I thought the meeting was on the 8th. Angela told me that it was on the 14th and when I checked, I realized I could attend! I declined the invitations of several Christmas parties this year, because, as a friend aptly described, mustering merriment just wasn’t in me. I didn’t feel like I had to muster merriment to attend the quilt party. There were quilts! What more did a person need?

One of the show and tells was Cheryl’s quilt (above). She won the blocks and added the aqua/greeny-blue. I love the way this quilt looks. It isn’t stark like all-black and white quilts can be. The gold isn’t depressing. There is a lot of movement, which made my eyes move around the quilt and every time I looked at it, I saw something interesting. This is a fabulous quilt and one that makes me think, again, about the ratio of black to white in a black and white print.

See the full quilt on Flickr in the BAMQG pool.

One of the small groups that the president created this year were meeting with their round robin quilts.

This is a great shot – I wasn’t being diligent about taking photos.

Trust me when I say that their round robins LOOK fabulous. The one that really caught my attention has the pinky-red and green. the contrast of the two colors is wonderful.

This group has done a great job. Their centers started out interesting and a strong start clearly set them all off to do their best work.

Cheryl also finished a quilt for her nephew who will receive it as a Christmas gift. I took a close-up, because I missed my chance to take a full photo. Fortunately, there is a full photo on Flickr (say that 3 times really fast!).

She did a great job using mostly the same darks, but interspersing a few others in to add interest. I also liked the background.

BFSI Question #3 Review

As I mentioned on Sunday, a few weeks ago a group of us had a Black Friday Sew-in, mostly on Twitter (you can read the old tweets by searching for the #BFSI hashtag). I asked you a bunch of questions in order to give you the opportunity to win a bunch of books compliments of Lark Crafts. I thought it would be fun to recap your comments and you, dear readers, reacted well to the first review (posted on Sunday). You can find the original post that coincides with this review on Friday November 29. You can also find more about the Black Friday Sew-in on the introduction post.

In Question #3, I asked you about guilds and groups. These answers were a lot harder to distill down to one line answers. Reasons for belonging and not belong are complicated and I share some of the thoughts and feelings that you wrote.

Tell me about the guild or guilds to which you belong. Why do you belong? What do you like? What would you change?

“My “main squeeze” guild is wonderful. Smallish–we have something like probably 60 people on the rolls but about 40 show up regularly, and about 25-30 of us go to a lot of the retreats. I love it. We’re very loosey-goosey, rules-lite. We’ve never really elected our officers–once in awhile they ask, “Hey, anyone else want to do this?” We all say, “No, you’re doing great,” and we move on. Anyone who wants to lead something pretty much can. When someone has an idea, they stand up and ask, “Would anyone like to…” and if people do, that person organizes it. If no one does, we move on. We’re good at basically moving on. No drama. Love it. Lots of laughing and goofing around during meetings, and everyone’s show n’ tell is appreciated. I do technically belong to two other guilds but never make meetings. But I do my best not to miss meetings of my main guild!” (SandyH)
“I’m a member of two guilds – the Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild (name soon to be changed) and the East Cobb Quilters Guild. AMQG has <50 members, and I consider it my “main” guild since I know everyone in it. The ECQG has over 300 members, and I go there mainly to show off stuff and get access to national teachers.” (Pam)
“I belong to a local guild of about 140 ladies. I was a member years ago, and returned to the guild in May. Twenty years ago, I was part of a large young(ish) group of members, we had young children and still were able to be active in the guild. We held offices and chaired committees. The older members from before are, well even older, as are we ‘youngsters’. There is no young group now. The meetings are marked with strident, almost desperate requests for volunteers. The obit emails come more than once a month.The guild needs new members, and I don’t know how to help. I rejoined to find a community, and am unsure if I will continue.” (Carole)

I think Carole describes the problem that a lot of guilds end up with:

guild starts

lots of enthusiasm

Enthusiasm turns into projects

Lots of people work on projects

More people needed as projects become more successful

Guild becomes about the projects and not the people

People drop out, because of demands

Guild falters

Pleas for assistance

Nobody is willing to cut programs and focus on the people.

I don’t think this is limited to quilt guilds. I really think that successful guilds look at each project every year and compare it to their membership and make sure every projects contributes something to the guild. I don’t think guilds can be successful if there isn’t enough time for socializing. For a lot of people, visiting a quilt guild meeting is one of the few times they can get out without husbands/wives and children. Such meetings needs to be worth their while.

“SCVQA is my guild. It’s the first guild that I gave belonged to and I think it’s great. The quilters are friendly, helpful, and informative. It’s well organized. There are classes and guest artist, as well as small group meetings throughout the month. Each meeting has fabric and books for sale. Plus there are other fun activities and community outreach opportunities. I will always stay a member.” (Polly)
“I belong to an online guild that I have belonged to for over 20 years. I can always make the meetings but it wish it was a touch more active.”(Cathy)
“I belong to the Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild, and consider myself an active member. It was the first quilt guild I’ve ever joined, even though I’d been quilting for a few years before moving here. Pretty sure the reason I joined was to meet other quilters and hopefully make friends. (Done, and Done! lol)
Likes: the other members,;being inspired by other members’ work; this year we did small groups, and it was kind of nice getting to know a few members at a time; I’m participating in an intermediate/advanced round robin project which is *amazing*; and I’m looking forward to more national speakers/workshops in the future.

I also belong to the SCVQG, the local Art Quilters Guild, and the South Bay Area MQG (sadly, I’m not terribly active in any of those, sorry!)

Being very active in one means sacrificing the others. I have enjoyed the meetings I’ve attended at the other guilds, just haven’t been able to get to them as regularly as the BAM meetings.”(Kelly)
- “I belong to the Wenonah quilters and I like to talk Quilty with like people. I also like when we have guest who talk about how they quilt. I would have a committee to make each meeting more interesting to all of the members. And more fabric exchanges.”(Ethel)
- “I do belong to guild, however, I am not able to make the workdays or the monthly meetings since the group meets during the day. What I do take advantage of though is the fabulous library that the guild has. The books can be signed out for several months at a time.” (Janet)
Janet brings up an excellent point about guilds. Many of them still have libraries of books. This can be a huge benefit if the Library continually gets new books, especially if you do not have the space or money to buy books of your own.
“I belong to a guild of about 150 members. I have made lots of great friends who understand why we like fabric and quilting and know that it is OK to have a stash and not to finish a project every week. They provide inspiration and support. We enjoy and learn from each other and from the programs presented.” (Beth B)
“In 1999 I visited my local guild. DS had just moved out, and I was empty nesting again. Yes, one can do that twice. The guild is large, 225 or so strong. What drew me in were Show and Share, friendly people, the whole comment interest business. I like those aspects, speakers and the lovely inexpensive workshops. What I don’t like: not as interesting speakers or workshops. The powers that be work very hard, but don’t seem to want input without full on participation, for example board office or committee chairmanship.” (Diane Rincon)
“I belong to the Johnston County Quilters, which is sponsored by the County Extension Homemakers. I go to the night meetings (since I work days), which has a small attendance. We do show and tell, learn a new technique, and talk about quilting. We have a small quilt show once a year in the fall. We’ve been making lap quilts for the meals-on-wheels participants & we’re looking for a project with kids.” (Joyce)

It looks like Joyce’s guild has a small, but manageable group of activities that benefits the members. I wonder if there is a database of quilt guilds with descriptions of their activities?

“I belong to a small traditional guild in the mountain community where we have a vacation home. I joined for 2 reasons – 1) to get to know more ladies in the community, and 2) because the guild at “home” is large and at some point I got the feeling it was stuffy and unfriendly. The ladies in the mountains are very nice and welcoming.I would love to have a little group of stay at home mommies near me to get together with on a regular basis and sew with, but everyone seems too busy or they don’t sew!” (Jen)

If you do not belong to a guild or quilt group, why not?
The major factors for not belonging to a guild seem to be the timing of the meetings, shyness, getting to the meetings, feeling unwelcome or awkward when new at a meeting or not being able to get to the meeting, because of physical or age related reasons.

For the first time since I became a quilter, I do not belong to a quilt guild. I plan to join the local guild in January.

Sophie, who wrote the above, did not say why she didn’t belong to a guild at the moment, but it is nice to hear she will be trying one out. I find belonging to a guild something that I value. I do have to moderate my tendency to jump in and do everything asked of me, but I do that by picking something I can manage and doing that.

“I’m not currently a guild member even though I have several available. This is mostly due to the day or time of the meetings not being convenient and my own forgetfulness. One guild does meet at a time that is perfect for me. Unfortunately, when I visited that guild the members were not at all friendly or welcoming.” (Jane)

One of the guilds I visit is very clique-ish. I have tried to join a couple of times, but never got anything out of it, so I usually don’t renew when renewal time comes around.

“The one guild in my area meets once a month at night a fairly good drive away and I have trouble driving at night . Plus I work early in the morning. I know I should be able to make it work and some of it is laziness on my part. I do miss and need friends that like the same things I do.” (Carol)

I think getting to meetings will become more of a problem and wish there was some kind of video conferencing that would be effective as we age.

“I do not belong to a guild. The reason why not is I’ve been to a guild meeting sort of a try out and was totally disappointed. My imagination of a guild was people get together to sew so I took my grandmother’s flower garden with me to work on. I was the oddball in the room as no-one else brought anything with them.”(Kati R)I don’t belong to a guild yet. It’s something I’m planning to look into in the coming year because I’d really like to connect with local quilters. I haven’t yet mainly because I tend to be very shy with new people, so it takes me a while to work myself around to doing a thing like going to a group meeting where I don’t know anyone for the first time. But I know once I go and break the ice, I’ll most likely wonder why it took me so long! There are I think at least groups that meet close enough for me to have an easy drive to (including one that meets at my LQS less than 3 miles away) which amazed me when I started searching.”(DaisyW)
“I do not belong to a quilt guild. The one closest to me meets during the day, when I am at work.
I have a small group of sewing friends that meet informally, and this, along with online interaction and classes, is enough for me.” (June in AZ)
“Currently I don’t belong to a guild because of my environmental/chemical allergies. I do attend sewing club once a month as its a small group in a large room on a Saturday morning and I have the rest of the day to crash if I need to. It is not just quilting related but lots of ideas. no fuss, just a group that meets for fun. We also have a mini retreat in the afternoon where we take turns showing each other different projects.” (Jackie)

Jackie has a unique issue that is probably more common than we think. I eat a special diet and there are snacks at every meeting. Unless I can see the package to read the ingredients, I don’t eat anything. I do contribute some items that fit with my diet. Jackie’s issue is a reminder to go easy on the perfume when you attend events and meetings.

“I don’t belong to a guild anymore. I got tired of the long drive only to have to deal with silly political games. I wasn’t having fun anymore, so I stopped going. I do belong to a bee, though, and have a great time at our monthly meetings. There are about a dozen of us that have been together for about 15 years and have retreats twice a year.” (Sandi)

“I don’t currently belong to a guild (and never have) I have only lived in my area for a few years and am a little shy when it comes to meeting new people. I am intimidated by the thought of a guild, especially given some of the horror stories that I have heard. I feel much more comfortable hiding in my house doing my thing,,,but have started to wonder lately if it is time to branch out…” (Julia P)

Julia brings up a point that I have thought about. What is a good way to reach out to people who may want to come and are shy. Katie, of Katie’s Quilting Corner, talks about the open house her local shop has to advertise new classes. What if a guild was there to encourage new members?

I did notice that a lot of people have bees to which they belong that take the place of guilds. That is a good way to solve the problem if, for whatever reason, you can’t attend a meeting.

In case you are wondering, I belong to three guilds:

Contemporary Quilt and Fiber Artists, a local art quilt guild. I haven’t been making many art quilts lately or working at all on showing my quilts in galleries and such, but they let me stay anyway.
Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild, a local ‘modern’ guild where I can find a lot of women my age, energy and fun activities.
QuiltNet, an online guild of which I have been a member since the early 1990s.

There are a number of other guilds in the area and I visit them sometimes, if they have an interesting speaker and I have the time. The thing I would like to have is a group of ladies who meet regularly to stitch and talk.

BAMQG Gift

Yesterday was the BAMQG Holiday Party and Meeting. The meeting part was relatively short, then we had the gift exchange and Show & Tell.

I mentioned that I had made a gift for my Secret Santa and showed it a week early, which led to the realization that I was able to make the meeting. The recipient, Laura was really pleased with the tote bag and needle case I made. I really should have put pins and needles in it as I think she was a little confused about what should go where. I showed her and I think it ended up okay.

Jen was my Secret Santa and she made me this Iron Caddy. Didn’t she do a great job?

Iron Caddy - half open — Iron Caddy – half open

Jen said used a free pattern she found somewhere on Ning. She said she made two of them alongside each other so she could test the pattern. I thought that was really sweet; it made me feel like she really cared about the gift to me

The pattern she used didn’t sound like the same one Julie told me about that so frustrated her.

Jen did say that there was one measurement off — the 7″ measurement in the middle should be 6-1/2″. I haven’t tried it so, pay attention if you make this pattern.

I still have not yet made the Iron Caddy pattern I bought at Quiltin’ Cousins, so perhaps I am off the hook?

Thanks to Jen!

Round Robin Round Three

I also have Kelly’s piece and it is time for me to work on it. As soon as I tidied Kathleen’s piece out of the way. I need to keep Kathleen’s piece for a little while as Kelly is still working on setting up her studio.

I put her piece up on the wall so it has a chance to speak to me. Nothing yet. I thought Chris’ piece needed space. I wanted to retain the freshness of Kathleen’s piece and Kelly’s piece…..

I don’t know. There is definitely personality. There is definitely movement. Kathleen’s Flying Geese really add a lot to this piece. This is a rich piece as in it has a rich look. The idea of a Persian rug comes to mind, though it doesn’t look like a Persian rug, and that isn’t quite right, but I think the closest I can describe is that it just has the feel of a Persian rug.

There is also an element of a royal banner. i can see this piece on a long pole being carried in front of a large group of men on horseback wearing the royal colors.

I don’t think it needs space. I think the richness needs to be continued, and perhaps some more points. I am just not sure how. I’ll keep looking at it and see what I think about.

What do you see?

More Round Robin Progress

After recent events keeping me away from my machine and last weekend’s fiasco of sewing and ripping, I decided that I would make progress this past weekend. I decided I would sew and make progress.

I did make progress. Small progress, but we have to rejoice in the small successes, right? I finished my part of Kathleen’s Round Robin piece. I am really pleased with how it looks. For one, I am pleased I was actually able to do something. Two, I think I did a good job echoing the shapes from the center.

I hung the piece I got from Chris up on my design wall so I could look at it. It spent a few weeks up there and as I was looking at it, the Kaleidoscope shape in the center stood out, especially those long thin triangles. Also, the fabric with that jade green in the Kaleidoscope in the very middle caught my attention. From those two thoughts, I worked on my design and fabric choices.

Kathleen's Round Robin in Progress — Kathleen’s Round Robin in Progress

I used foundation piecing for the blocks for the corners in my round. I designed the corner blocks using EQ7 and then printed the foundations out. The Carol Doak paper I got some time ago is great. I printed right on to it and it worked like a charm. I was able to rip out paper with a minimum of torn stitches. It might not be the most cost effective (I don’t know) but for the limited foundation piecing I do, it worked great.

You can see from the ‘in progress’ photo that I used three blocks to make up the corners and then filled the middles of each side in with white. I had a hard time figuring out the measurements. They weren’t standard so the center white piece is different than the blocks. Not everything lines up nicely either, but I think that can be the nature of round robins. I think it will look fine once finished and quilted. I don’t think Kathleen will mind. At least I hope she won’t

Kathleen's Round Robin detail — Kathleen’s Round Robin detail

The detail shows the fussy cutting of the green, gold and white fabric very well. After I finished, I thought that replacing the green (closest to the white) with white might have kept it fresher, but I think it would have had the problems I mentioned above.

After doing all the piecing, I decided I like the way, viewed from some angles, the center piece looks like it is on top of the part that I added. I also think the corners look a bit like stylized flowers.

I think that the next person will need to get back to the orange – well, I should say that if I were doing the next round, I would use some more orange. I can’t tell you how tempted I am to add some orange.

It didn’t turn out exactly as I imagined and I am thinking that that green makes it look a lot more 1930’s than anticipated. I also think that more white might have been better, but I paid special attention to fussy cutting the alternate fabric in my corners and I wanted it to show. If I had added some white to the corners, that gold, green & white fabric would not have stood out as much as it does. I am pleased with the way it came out.

Now on to the brown one.

Sherri D on All the EnigmasFriday, February 20, 2026
I am so in awe of your bag works! Yes, I know I could probably make some too, but it's…
JulieZS on RivetingWednesday, February 18, 2026
This was fun to see how the whole riveting process works. I love that leather punch.
JayeL on Lupine Blocks DoneTuesday, February 17, 2026
Thanks! I am so relieved that the quilt doesn't look awful.
Mary Carroll on Lupine Blocks DoneSaturday, February 14, 2026
It is amazing how your colors all work together. I love it!
JayeL on Amazing Sew DayFriday, February 13, 2026
It was completelly unexpected and really great. We missed you.