Arts in the Park Festival in Highland Park!

Inspired by Rayna's call for more sharing I thought I would send out a 'better late than never' notice that I will have a booth at tomorrow's Arts in the Park Festival in Highland Park.  So, if you are looking for some art, music and festival food come out.  And be sure say hi to me at my booth...I'm 'a happy stitch'.

Hope I see you!
-Melissa

My new DVD from Quilting Arts is out!!

My copies of the "no rules" DVD, Free-Form Fabric Art, arrived today and I haven't opened them yet.  I'm not that eager to watch myself - LOL.

You can't tell from the clip on Quilting Arts' website, but I really had fun making this video. It's really an hour workshop of process - from printing to slicing to designing on the wall, if I remember correctly<g>.

Quilting Arts TV runs on Public Television but unfortunately we don't receive it in this area of the country.  I was a guest on the show and they asked me to film a workshop DVD afterwards, so this is it.  It's my second DVD for Quilting Arts - the first one was on gelatin printing. But honestly, this one is better -- and longer.

I really wish more of you would post on the blog and share your work between meetings.  Remember - OCTOBER 18TH is the next meeting!

Bring your scrap lunch-bag, something to share, and your ideas for actiivities/challenges you'd love to do. See you soon.

Lonely crayon blocks

On Sunday, four of us gathered at Rock Paper Scissors, Lonely Crayon blocks in hand, prepared to do something with them.  We had a great afternoon, and the results were entirely different than we had anticipated.

We laid out all of the blocks and it became obvious that there were vast differences in color and style to such a degree that there was no way to make a cohesive quilt no matter what we did, how we arranged the blocks, or what color we tried to pull it together with. 

While the original intent was to send it to QuiltCon, this would not be anything close to a modern quilt, despite the use of white in most of the blocks. So...the put-it-together committee decided that we should plan ahead for next year and think differently about the parameters if we are going to submit a quilt to QuiltCon.

Meantime, we had a collection of 35 or so blocks. So - we decided to divide up the blocks that would work together and use 24 of them to make two terrific charity quilts for children.  What fun!  Once we got started, we put together the puzzle pieces, trimmed them all to the same size, picked out sashing and border colors, and  cut/sewed.

Margy contemplating the arrangement.

Peggy about to sew.

These looked so contemporary together that we decided they didn't want sashing -- just a border.

We auditioned a bunch of fabrics and decided to be playful with the border. Here's Courtney, slicing away.

                                           Isn't this fun? It will look fabulous once it's backed and quilted!

The other quilt will have sashing; Margy took it home to finish the top, but here are the blocks laid out.

We'll bring the tops to the October 18th meeting and will need fabric for backing.  Along with your scrap bags, if you have any yards, half-or quarter yards you want to donate for backing, we'd be delighted.

Honestly, the whole collaborative project was so much fun and the afternoon just flew!  The four of us got to know each other and it was a great bonding experience.  We'll talk about it in October.  See you then!

September miscellaneous

Hi everybody,

Reminder for those who missed the last meeting: next meeting is Thursday, Sept 20th.

A few other things...

• If you have redone a UFO block, please bring it.  We're collecting them for a future charity quilt. 

• Kelli Puryear is spearheading the QuiltCon charity project -- which will happen we we receive the 7 leftover QuiltCon blocks we signed up for.  If you want to add yourself to the group who is contributing extra blocks and helping on this, let her know at the meeting or email her so she can put you on the list.

• If you want some ideas and a gorgeous eyeful of modern blocks, go to the MQG site  or the QuiltCon Block Challenge Flickr site and scroll down to see all the incredible and varied blocks they have received as entries for the QuiltCon quilt.  The link to the MQG blog is on our sidebar, just to make it easy.    

• If you have a book or tool to share, or something you want to get rid of (like magazines, UFOs or (heaven forbid) fabric or blocks you are tired of, why not bring it here to exchange?? It is amazing what somebody else can do with your old, tired, "what was I thinking?" stuff! Maybe even we could have a group challenge using your unwanted stuff:-)  Or - use your rejects in a charity quilt.  Hoarders - here's your chance to start cleaning up! LOL

Look what you can do with reject blocks and a little bit of spare fabric!

Looking forward to seeing you all on Thursday night next week, Sept 20.

Southern Jersey Quilt Exhibit

I noticed a little blurb for a quilt exhibit in Southern Jersey and thought I would share it, in case anyone was interested.  It's called 101 Quilts and it's at the African American Heritage Museum of Southern Jersey through December 15th.  The museum looks to have pretty restricted hours, especially on the weekend, but it sounds like it could be a very inspiring visit!

-Melissa