Turkey Day was a fun meeting. The "Sew Fine Quilt Group" sponsored a program, where members were all invited to bring in their "Turkeys". Turkey-meaning quilts that had problems. They could be finished quilts that you had alreday found a solution to, or works in progress, that you wanted help solving. There was a lot of audience participation. Shouting out solutions, laughter, & just having a grand time.
Barbara Clinton started the show, with a Christmas quilt, that started out as a table runner, but Barbara apparently can't control herself when it comes to piecing, & she got carried away making blocks. They were quite busy with the crazy pieced backgrounds, & after thinking about it for a while, she put in the saner shashings. She said it was still too busy & needed more deffinition so she also outlined each package with a small ribbon, to make them show better. The quilter who quilted it for her, quilted only the background & left the packages puffy to help too.
Jetta Huber-Brewer had a problem with a skirt she had made. The tie waist didn't slide easily enough, making it difficult to sinch. Members suggested Rat-tail cord to replace the cotton one, & it was also suggested to place some elastic in to the waistband.
Her secon dilemma was a small piece that she was short 10" on material for binding. It was suggested that she do a single fold, instead of double, or that she find a coordinating fabric & piece a couple of pieces to give the binding more interest, or cut the binding up the center lengthwise, & piece a different material on the half that would fold to the back.
Her secon dilemma was a small piece that she was short 10" on material for binding. It was suggested that she do a single fold, instead of double, or that she find a coordinating fabric & piece a couple of pieces to give the binding more interest, or cut the binding up the center lengthwise, & piece a different material on the half that would fold to the back.Jetta also shared her clever binding on a rol. worn around her nect, for sewing it on to your quilt, so that you don't have it laying in a heap on the floor, when you are putting it on your quilt.
Ruthe Rassmuson had a quilt that was almost complete, & she wasn't happy with how it was looking. It was part of a group challenge, & there were 3 fabrics that she was given, that had to be used to make a quilt, for the owner of the fabrics. Several Applique' solutions were suggested. Ruthe wasn't thrilled with "the A word". Embellishing with buttons was another suggestion. I'm not sure we helped her much. We think this just isn't Ruthe's color pallette.
Rena Brinker pulled some turkey fabrics from the stash, & came up with a Teddy Bear quilt, for the next "Teddy Bear Tea",
& of course a Comfort quilt for donation.
Linda Postelwaite had a top that she hadn't been happy with, until she added some leaves to her "Grandmother's Flower Garden". We all agreed it was working beautifully.
She also had the start of a watercolor quilt (background) that she wasn't happy with. The iron-on pellon was coming loose, & that really bothered her. Her solution for this top was to save it for her Grand-daughter's next visit, & let her do some applique' flowers over the surface of the quilt top.
Pam Harris was MIA today due to a surgery this past week, but she sent her Turkey-top solution. She had done a block exchange with a group when she was living in Fairbanks, & the blocks ended up being different sizes, & not entirely to Pam's taste. Her solution was to slash the blocks, Sewing in strips while still preserving the background blocks & letting them shine through. While we all thought it was a brilliant soulution, her Fbx group wasn't very happy with her. Maybe that's why she moved to Anchorage! Lucky us!
Marie Fugimura had a top that she made for friends who visited from Japan. She wanted suggestions on how to quilt it. She also complained that her husband didn't like it. We all agreed that he has no taste. For the plain squares we all thought a circular Japanese symbol, done in a gold metallic thread would be lovely. Several other suggestions for the pieced parts of the top were given. Marie quilts her own quilts on her home machine. Good luck Marie!
Marilyn Moreno had a vintage Dresden plate from her family, that she didn't know what she wanted to do with. We all shouted "Quilt it!". She also said she thought about deviding it in half & sharing it with her sister. Other applique additions were suggested too, if she just can't live with it & quilt it as-is.
Barbara Clinton had this Teddy Bear panel that she is working on. She simply added the borders, & binding, but is doing a single fold binding because she didn't have enough red for a double.
Deb Hardman shared her "Aurora Dance " quilt, which she realized as she was placing the green strips in the corners that the center picture hadn't been cut square. With strips in each corner is was really obvious, so Deb placed the fish in the lower left to fool the eye. (It was easier that taking the border off & cutting it straight). It worked well, because the quilt won 3 blue ribbons, & was accepted into APNQ's show in Seattle before a judge noticed it's fatal flaw. Deb now hangs it on her wall, & shares it at her classes as part of the lessons learned.
Deb also showed he "Tre of Life" quilt, which started out as a paint rag for cleaning up after fabric painting. Deb free-motion quilted the tree design on the piece, but felt it wasn't visible enough once she was done quilting, so she used her fabric pens & crayons to color the design & make it show better.
Deb's last trukey quilt was undoubtedly the "Biggest Turkey of the show & tell". It was her first quilt, made from blocks colored by members of her family using Trichem & Artext fabric paints, back in 1978. Deb used sheets from Sears for the backing & surrounding fabrics, & the fattest batting she could find. She pieced & quilted it on a tiny portable machine, on a vanity dresser with only 14 inches of space. It was quilted using a zigzag stitch (as Deb had only ever seen her matress pad quilted, & that's what they used on it). When she gave up machine quilting on it, she used fat yarns to tie spaces between the blocks. Years later she sent this quilt to Ami Simms, for the "World's Worst Quilt Show", & won an "Abominable Mention". One of the prizes was a complete set of Omnigrid Rulers, which helped improve Deb's quiting by a long shot!
Ruthe Rassmuson had a quilt that was almost complete, & she wasn't happy with how it was looking. It was part of a group challenge, & there were 3 fabrics that she was given, that had to be used to make a quilt, for the owner of the fabrics. Several Applique' solutions were suggested. Ruthe wasn't thrilled with "the A word". Embellishing with buttons was another suggestion. I'm not sure we helped her much. We think this just isn't Ruthe's color pallette.
Rena Brinker pulled some turkey fabrics from the stash, & came up with a Teddy Bear quilt, for the next "Teddy Bear Tea",
& of course a Comfort quilt for donation.
Linda Postelwaite had a top that she hadn't been happy with, until she added some leaves to her "Grandmother's Flower Garden". We all agreed it was working beautifully.
She also had the start of a watercolor quilt (background) that she wasn't happy with. The iron-on pellon was coming loose, & that really bothered her. Her solution for this top was to save it for her Grand-daughter's next visit, & let her do some applique' flowers over the surface of the quilt top.
Pam Harris was MIA today due to a surgery this past week, but she sent her Turkey-top solution. She had done a block exchange with a group when she was living in Fairbanks, & the blocks ended up being different sizes, & not entirely to Pam's taste. Her solution was to slash the blocks, Sewing in strips while still preserving the background blocks & letting them shine through. While we all thought it was a brilliant soulution, her Fbx group wasn't very happy with her. Maybe that's why she moved to Anchorage! Lucky us!
Marie Fugimura had a top that she made for friends who visited from Japan. She wanted suggestions on how to quilt it. She also complained that her husband didn't like it. We all agreed that he has no taste. For the plain squares we all thought a circular Japanese symbol, done in a gold metallic thread would be lovely. Several other suggestions for the pieced parts of the top were given. Marie quilts her own quilts on her home machine. Good luck Marie!
Marilyn Moreno had a vintage Dresden plate from her family, that she didn't know what she wanted to do with. We all shouted "Quilt it!". She also said she thought about deviding it in half & sharing it with her sister. Other applique additions were suggested too, if she just can't live with it & quilt it as-is.
Barbara Clinton had this Teddy Bear panel that she is working on. She simply added the borders, & binding, but is doing a single fold binding because she didn't have enough red for a double.
Deb Hardman shared her "Aurora Dance " quilt, which she realized as she was placing the green strips in the corners that the center picture hadn't been cut square. With strips in each corner is was really obvious, so Deb placed the fish in the lower left to fool the eye. (It was easier that taking the border off & cutting it straight). It worked well, because the quilt won 3 blue ribbons, & was accepted into APNQ's show in Seattle before a judge noticed it's fatal flaw. Deb now hangs it on her wall, & shares it at her classes as part of the lessons learned.
Deb also showed he "Tre of Life" quilt, which started out as a paint rag for cleaning up after fabric painting. Deb free-motion quilted the tree design on the piece, but felt it wasn't visible enough once she was done quilting, so she used her fabric pens & crayons to color the design & make it show better.
Deb's last trukey quilt was undoubtedly the "Biggest Turkey of the show & tell". It was her first quilt, made from blocks colored by members of her family using Trichem & Artext fabric paints, back in 1978. Deb used sheets from Sears for the backing & surrounding fabrics, & the fattest batting she could find. She pieced & quilted it on a tiny portable machine, on a vanity dresser with only 14 inches of space. It was quilted using a zigzag stitch (as Deb had only ever seen her matress pad quilted, & that's what they used on it). When she gave up machine quilting on it, she used fat yarns to tie spaces between the blocks. Years later she sent this quilt to Ami Simms, for the "World's Worst Quilt Show", & won an "Abominable Mention". One of the prizes was a complete set of Omnigrid Rulers, which helped improve Deb's quiting by a long shot!
In the end, Linda Postelwaite, Deb Hardman & Pam Harris were awarded thedubious honor of the chef's hats & trukey basters for the biggest or best turkey quilts & soulutions. Linda & Deb accepted the honors with some chagrin. Pam's will be delivered to her this week.
The next round of Show & Tell was Fall themed quilts. Harmony Mosher showed a group quilt, block exchange she did. Each person got to pick the block they wanted. Harmony bypassed the usuall difficulty of piecing different sized blocks made by different people, by just asking them to cut the pieces for each block, then she did all of the piecing herself.
The back was pretty too!
Marie Fujimure showed a comfort quilt that she parcticed her quilting on, &
a Pieced fall leaves, quilt & table runner that she made.
She also brought a phot album, from a trip, that she made a quilted cover for.
Linda Postelwaite shared her Log Cabin Corn quilt, &
her first paper pieced project, an Autumn Cornucopia.
Jetta shared a series of bags that she is working on.
Margareet Sharrow showed her "Magic Bag".
Other members of her small quilt group got up & showed their's too.
Barbara Clinton showed her bag, that she couched embellishments on.
This is a comfort quilt made by Mary Lee.
The next round of Show & Tell was Fall themed quilts. Harmony Mosher showed a group quilt, block exchange she did. Each person got to pick the block they wanted. Harmony bypassed the usuall difficulty of piecing different sized blocks made by different people, by just asking them to cut the pieces for each block, then she did all of the piecing herself.
The back was pretty too!
Marie Fujimure showed a comfort quilt that she parcticed her quilting on, &
a Pieced fall leaves, quilt & table runner that she made.
She also brought a phot album, from a trip, that she made a quilted cover for.
Linda Postelwaite shared her Log Cabin Corn quilt, &
her first paper pieced project, an Autumn Cornucopia.
Jetta shared a series of bags that she is working on.
Margareet Sharrow showed her "Magic Bag".
Other members of her small quilt group got up & showed their's too.
Barbara Clinton showed her bag, that she couched embellishments on.
This is a comfort quilt made by Mary Lee.Deb Hardman showed a customer quilt that you can view HERE.
