West Michigan Art Quilters Group September Meeting-Post 1

Hi Everyone!

Wow, are these days flying by as fast for you as they are for me?!  I can barely keep up with everything!

Last week, the Michigan Art Quilters Group met.  You might recall that they invited me to join them last spring, and I went to a meeting.  I haven't been able to go since then, because I've been out of town for so many of the meetings.  I'll be out of town again next month when they meet.  But I did get to go this month.  And let me tell you, my brain felt like it was going to explode with all the incredible creativity and talent around the table.  I think I have something like 78---yes you read that right, 78!---photos from that night!  I will break this up into several posts for you.  I simply can't post it all at once.  It's too overwhelming!

Sweet Pea went with me to the meeting.  She sat and watched a movie on my iPad while we were meeting...that is, until show and tell started.  Then, she came over to the table and wanted in on that action!  Let me tell you, you would have done the same!  It was pretty fun to see an almost-7-year-old girl get so excited about all of it though.

I'll just go around the table and show you what everyone showed.

We will begin with Holly.

Holly has been traveling and buying some cool new yarns.  She showed us a pair of socks she recently made for herself.  So pretty!  I love wearing hand-knit socks.  I feel so special and pampered when I have them on!  These would really make me feel pampered!

She's now working on this pretty scarf.  She showed us her method of keeping track of her rows.  She writes them on notecards and uses a hairpin to keep track of what row she's on.  She slides it up and down as necessary.  Very good idea.

She showed her miniature quilt she had finished.  I may have shown you this before, but I never get tired of looking at it.  She used her own color scheme and her own fabrics.  I think she also changed up the design a bit.  She didn't use a kit.  This was from the George Siciliano workshop that was offered through our guild.  You may remember I blogged his visit to our guild here and here.  This little quilt is about 14" square and has 704 (corrected from my previous post to reflect Sequoia's comment below) pieces in it.  Those little center squares in the log cabin blocks are about the size of your pinky fingernail.  SMALL!  Just a great job, Holly!

Holly's husband is a biologist.  He gave her these pipet (sp?) trays he uses at work.  These usually get thrown out.  She brought them for us to play with and experiment with to see what we could do with them.  Some were thinking of stamping with them.  I thought they'd be good to rub on over fabric...with paint sticks.  Lots of ideas flowing.  Should be interesting to see what comes of this.

  Next up was Nelia.  Nelia, I hope I spelled your name right.  This is a beautiful little swallow she made that was for a previous challenge...a "sky" challenge.  I wasn't around for the challenge, so I can't really say more than that.  But Nelia said she wanted to make a swallow (by the way, one of my most favorite birds...I think they are so graceful and beautiful), but she was having trouble finding a medium for allowing her to get enough detail.  I would say she found it!  How about you?!  I'll show you what she used to paint it in a moment.  All the black on this is threadwork.  Wow.  This was so beautiful.

She said she used these Water Soluble Wax Pastels.  She said she got this set at Dick Blick for $10!  She said there were other brands that were higher quality and more expensive, but these worked well for her.  So, probably no use buying the more expensive ones.

Here are the colors that come in the set.  Great variety for only $10!  Really neat.  She said she found the best way to apply them to fabric was to wet the brush, go onto the crayon, and then paint on the fabric.  She said she liked this because it didn't change the hand of the fabric at all.  She's right.  I played with the bird a little, and it did not feel stiff or anything.  Oh, and she said that heat sets the color in....either fix it with a hair dryer or with an iron.  Then the color appears to be permanent.

Then, Nelia pulled out this beauty.  She said this is a quilt she had worked on a while back and had everything done except the stems of the bleeding hearts.  She said she couldn't figure out how to keep them dainty looking.  She said she thought that applique would be too "thick."  So she sat on it for 2 years.

She said she had an "aha" moment and decided to thread paint them.  Wow, does it look good.  She said once she made that decision and did it, it only took her about 10 minutes to finish the piece!  Isn't that how it goes?!  Look at how puffy the bleeding hearts are, too.  This was neat.

I wanted to give you some close ups of Nelia's quilting.   It is so exquisite.  Look at the small, detailed stippling she did.  And I like how she used the pink thread on the green border.  And how do you like that little bit of narrow, flat piping she put in between the greem border and the background fabric?  I think it's the cat's meow.  Remember in my post yesterday about the Pam Damour workshop, where we learned flat piping?  See, this is one place you can use it in your quilts.  Love it.

Here is some more of her quilting.  I want Nelia to give me some FMQ lessons!!!  Holy cow.  She is really good at it.

Okay, well that was the first 10 minutes of show and tell.  We were all astounded already at what we had seen, but there is so much more to come.  I think there were at least 8 more people to share.  And Kathy's show and tell will take a whole post in and of itself, she had so much stuff with her.  That's all I have time to write about now.  So, the rest will come in subsequent posts!  Honestly, this may take me about 5 posts!  Hope you can hang in there for that.

Hope you are having a great evening.  I'll see you all tomorrow, I hope.  Another busy day, and our guild meeting is tomorrow night.  I'll try to get another quick post in about art group.

Until next time,

Mama Pea

Comments

[Melissa]

Totally taking the notecard/hair pin idea. Genius! Just bought some light pink baby alpaca yarn. Gonna start knitting again!

[Linda]

Wow, that Bleeding Heart piece is amazing!! Holy moly!! LOVE it!

[Jana]

What a talented group!

[Brooke]

Amazing!!! Loved the socks and the quilted postcard - wow!

[Maggie Szafranski]

I would have to stop everything to watch that show and tell! I need to get back to knitting my socks!

[Sequoia]

The photos looks great! Thanks for posting this. The miniature piece is definitely more than 100 pieces: it has 704 pieces in it. Each 2 1/2" block has 42 pieces!

[Lynn]

What a talented group you have found!

[Allie]

Man- what beautiful, beautiful things these ladies create! The bleeding hearts are so impressive, and the swallow. I can see there's a box of pastels in my future...

[Linda in Calif.]

Wow! Where to start with all the talent presented in this post. I'll be using the card/bobby pin idea; such a good idea. The miniture quilt is exquiste. (704 Pieces!! Yikes!) I really want to try the wax pastels - beautiful work.

[Account Deleted]

Amazing!!! The photos looks great! Thanks for posting this. Loved the socks)hedelmäpelit