Kona Solids Challenge Reveal!

The ECMQG finally had the much-anticipated reveal of our Kona Solids Challenge quilts at our March meeting. Out of the 14 people that took on the challenge, we had 9 finished quilts. Two people brought in their WiPs, and we had a couple people who couldn't make it to the meeting.  Back in December, we received the Brights Charm Pack.  During the reveal, a few people questioned whether or not we all had the same colors in our charm packs.  Of course, we did, but it's amazing how different everyone's quilts turned out, despite starting from the same place!

Here's Melanie's star using lots of half square triangles

And Daryl's WiP

Cindy's cute fishy WiP, inspired by a quilt that was made by a friend for one of her kids

 Another great HST quilt brought to us by Marcy

Gina's "Dashing" quilt

Kira's amazing swirling hexagons

Betty's Tetris-y quilt

This is the beautiful quilt that Kathleen made

Kassie's heart quilt, made in honor of her and her husband's 10th anniversary

Yet another HST quilt by Kelly S.

Last, but not least, Kelly B's Rainbow cross quilt

And here's a group picture with (almost) everyone!

As everyone was revealing their quilts, we heard several times that this really was a "challenge."  A lot of us had never made a quilt using nothing but solids, and some of the colors were out of our comfort zone.  But that's the beauty of this particular challenge - it pushed us to try something new, and the results were beautiful. 

A special thanks to Robert Kaufman for providing not only the charm packs for the challenge, but also FQ bundles to hand out as prizes.  We're a new guild, and a little late to join in all the Solids Challenge fun, so we're very thankful for the opportunity!  If you want to see what other guilds who participated in this challenge have created, check out the Flickr group.

February Meeting Wrap Up

The February meeting of the ECMQG was great! Our attendance was up to 14 people (the most ever), and we had 7 new members, which means we're up to 16 dues-paying members! We're growing!

During the meeting, we talked about QuiltCon, which is the first-ever Modern Quilt Guild convention coming up in February of next year. It's very exciting, and will feature some really amazing instructors and lecturers like Denyse Schmidt, Malka Dubrawsky, Elizabeth Hartman, Anna Maria Horner, Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr, and Ellen Rushman.

Kelly S. did a demonstration on improvisational piecing. There are many different takes on improv piecing and really, it can be whatever you want it to be. But Kelly featured two different kinds of improv blocks.

The first was a block using improv curves to make a kind of wonky circle. She used a tutorial by Penny, who blogs at SewTakeAHike.





She finished the block after the meeting, and this is what it looks like -


The other block Kelly featured was a wonky log cabin, using a tutorial by Jacquie of Tallgrass Prairie Studio. Here's the finished result of that block -


Improv piecing is all about having fun and letting go. If this is new to you, and you'd like to try it, take a go at either of these tutorials - or any of the many other tutorials you can find online. Or just try it without a tutorial and see where it takes you! There is no right or wrong way when it comes to improv. For some other tutorials, The Modern Quilt Guild did a tutorial round up during the 100 Days of Modern Quilting, found here.

After the demo, it was time for Show and Tell.















We're getting together to sew on Saturday, March 17 at First Baptist Church in Crestview from noon to 6 pm, so bring your sewing stuff and a project (or two, or three) and sew with us!

Our next meeting will be on Friday, March 30 at Lynn's Sewing Center in Fort Walton Beach at 10 am. This will be the reveal of our Kona Solids Challenge quilts, and we're all very excited about it! Hope to see you there!

No Sew this Saturday and Meeting Reminder

For those of you not on the email list, there will be no sew this Saturday. We were supposed to meet up at Martelli's in Pensacola to sew, but had to cancel it. Our sew for March is still on, at First Baptist Church in Crestview on Saturday, March 17 from noon-6 pm.

Our February meeting is coming up next week, on Friday, February 24 at 10 am at our new location - Lynn's Sewing Center in FWB. Kelly S. will be doing a demonstration on improvisational piecing.

Hope to see you there!

January Meeting

Well, the ECMQG started 2012 off with a bang! First, with our very first sew day, and then with our first meeting of the year! It was our biggest turnout yet, with 11 people coming. We started taking dues at this meeting and 9 people became dues-paying members! I can't wait to see what the rest of the year will bring.

At our meeting, Kelly B. did a paper piecing demo. She used a block from The Quilter's Cache as her example. Quilter's Cache is a great resource full of free blocks available for download, and also a great paper piecing tutorial. I think the biggest lesson we all learned was that until you really get it, paper piecing can be confusing and difficult. So stick with it, have your seam ripper handy, and don't be scared to try!


Kelly mentioned that coming up this Tuesday, January 31, Fat Quarterly will be coming out with Issue 8 of their e-magazine, that will focus on paper piecing. This issue is sure to be very educational, and have plenty of well-written tutorials, so if paper piecing is something you're really interested in, consider purchasing that issue - or even a yearly subscription! You won't be disappointed!

She also talked about a series of block tutorials that Faith at Fresh Lemons Quilts is doing. It's called the Solstice Stars Series. Some of those will be incorporating paper piecing.

After the demo, we had Show and Tell, which is always fun. Here are some pictures from that...

Then it was time for door prizes! The very talented and very generous Laurie Wisbrun was kind enough to send some of her fabric to us to give away. Two lucky people won a fabric bundle of Laurie's latest (and by the way, organic) line for Robert Kaufman, Modern Whimsy, and two other lucky people won a fabric bundle of one of her other lines for Robert Kaufman, Pooches and Pickups. Here's a picture of the winners with their loot. Thanks, Laurie!

By the way, Laurie just announced on her blog that her newest fabric line, Jack and Jenny, is about to ship to stores in February. It's super cute - donkeys wearing rain boots in three colorways!

Now onto some bittersweet news...

We were so happy to have so many people come to this meeting. However, we were pretty tight in our space. So after the meeting, we made arrangements to start meeting at Lynn's Sewing Center. They were even able to accommodate our same meeting time, which is awesome! so the only thing that's changing is the location, which is just down the road from our other location. We're sad to leave Sheri and everyone at The Sewing Center Around the Block and we've enjoyed our time there, but we are excited that we're growing as a guild! Growing out of a meeting space is not a bad problem to have!

Our next sew is coming up Saturday, February 18 from 10-3 at Martelli's in Pensacola, and the next meeting is at Lynn's on Friday, February 24 starting at 10 am. Hope you can make it!

Our First Sew Day!

The ECMQG just had our first sew day, and what a day it was! Six hours to do whatever you wanted to do - a quilter's heaven! We had a great turnout, too. Four of our regulars came, and three new faces came, as well. Here are some pictures from the day...

The thing that's really great about these sews is the input you get from fellow quilters. If you're questioning something, you've got your very own sounding board to bounce ideas off of. There's also plenty of talk about fabric lines and designers, quilt alongs, Flickr, etc. Not to mention being able to spread all your stuff out and just get alot done! If you think you missed out, well, you did! But don't worry - these are monthly! Check out the "Meeting and Sewing Schedule" tab above for upcoming dates and locations.

In other news, the January meeting is coming up this Friday, January 27 at 10 am, at The Sewing Center Around the Block in Fort Walton Beach. This month, Kelly B. will be talking about and demonstrating paper piecing. We'll also have show and tell and door prizes, so come check us out!

100 Days of Modern Quilting

If you don't frequent the main MQG blog, then you might not have heard about "100 Days of Modern Quilting," which starts today. Every day for 100 days, The Modern Quilt Guild will be featuring modern quilts, broken up into weekly categories. Here's the breakdown of all the categories that will be featured:

Week 1: Week of Shapes

Focus on quilts featuring different geometric shapes (squares, hexagons, circles, etc.)

Week 2: Week of Colors

Focus on color schemes, rainbow quilts, etc.

Week 3: Week of Blocks

Focus on block-based quilts and reinterpretations of traditional blocks

Week 4: Week of Improvisation

Focus on improvisational piecing techniques

Week 5: Week of Inspiration

Focus on different sources of inspiration and how they’re interpreted into quilts

Week 6: Week of Composition

Focus on different kinds of compositions, use of negative space, etc.

Week 7: Week of Prints

Focus on quilts that effectively use print fabrics

Week 8: Week of Solids

Focus on quilts that effectively use solid fabrics

Week 9 : Week of Using What You Have

Focus on scrap quilts and repurposed materials

Week 10: Week of Techniques

Focus on quilts made using different popular online tutorials (Ticker Tape, String Quilts, Mod Mosaic, etc.)

Week 11: Week of Collaboration

Focus on quilting bees

Week 12: Week of Participation

Focus on challenges and quilt alongs

Week 13: Week of Tools 

Focus on tools that make modern quilting easier

Week 14: Week of Machine Quilting

Focus on different styles and techniques including long arm vs. finishing at home

In addition to featuring 7 quilts a week, there will also be tutorials related to that weekly topic. You can read more about the details of "100 Days of Modern Quilting" here.

They've already posted twice today - an intro into shapes and the first featured modern quilt.

I won't be posting these every day, so if this is something that's of interest to you, make sure to go to The Modern Quilt Guild every day to see what's new!