Show & Tell May 2015

We had a great meeting the other day with lots of chat and laughter going on, as well as lots of sewing.  At lunch time we had our traditional show and tell session, and here is the slideshow, which, for some reason, blogger will not let me  put in the centre of the column.  Grr.

Free picture slideshow made with Smilebox

Sew and Tell 18th April

We haven't had any Show and Tell photos for a bit and I thought we needed some to keep the blog lively. I took some photos on April 18th and hoped to perform digital miracles by getting them on the blog
Sue Abrey has been trying to instruct me in the finer points of  doing this ,but I am a very slow learner , digitally inept ,and no use to man nor beast. Subsequently if you would connect manually to the link below you may behold the pictures . (there again you might not ).
Sorry the pictures are nameless but they were all smashing.
Thanks to Liz for the pencil roll  tutorial.

http://www.smilebox.com/playBlog/4e4449314d44457a4d446b3d0d0a&blogview=true

Here's a question for you ...

... but first, I apologise for the silence over the last couple of months.  I will try and do better from here on.

Now, to the question.  This is something that has been exercising my brain a lot lately. What exactly IS a "modern quilt"?  I have seen various suggestions as to what constitutes a modern quilt, ranging from quilts not having borders, quilts with a lot of white in them, quilts that only use plain fabrics and various other suggestions.  I have already posed the same question on my own blog, here and received some interesting answers, so I thought I'd throw this one out to you lot.  Who can define modern quilting for me?

I'll see some of you tomorrow at our meeting.

Oh yes, and don't forget our challenge.  To make a fabric postcard on the theme of Spring.  The entries are due at our March meeting.

It's Christmas ...

... well it nearly is, and yesterday we had our Christmas party.

There were about 20 of us, and Liz decided we needed a Christmas tree, so she brought her own, which she decorated with very appropriate baubles.  If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you'll see what I mean.

In order to have room for everyone, this meeting was declared a sewing-machine-free zone and Hazel provided a super handsewing project for us all. We all made little key-fobs, and here you can see some of the finished ones.

This was a great project, which also allowed plenty of time for chat - always good at a party. They are very addictive, and I can see more of these in my future for sure. Thanks Hazel for doing this for us.

Of course, a party wouldn't be a party without food, and boy was there food. There was mock-mulled wine too, which Sue provided (and I have to say, in all modesty that it was lovely) with not a drop of alcohol in it, so all drivers were able to enjoy it too.  I was going to show a photo of some of the food, but it seems I was too busy eating to remember to take any photos of it, sorry.  Take my word for it though, it was all yummy.

After lunch we had our show and tell.

Anne had made a lovely cushion cover.  I loved the back just as much as the front, and a great pair of flanelette Christmas lounging trousers.  She also made a great table runner, but I'm not showing that cos my photo did not show her best side, and trust me, she would not be happy with me if she saw it!

 Muriel showed us her hexagon quilt and, as always with Muriel, the back was as wonderful as the front, and she also brought along her finished Christmas stocking which she started at the last meeting.

Drew brought along his quilt, and told us that he made all the bias bindings himself, and hand appliqued the whole thing.  He has marked it for quilting and plans to hand quilt a one inch diamond grid on it.

He also brought along a stunning quilt with something over 100 blocks in it, but I seem to have lost the photo of that one, sorry Drew.  Anyway, the photo below shows what he is doing with the left over bits from that quilt.

I also had a quilt to show, but, since I was showing and telling, I didn't take a photo of it!  So, moving swiftly on, a couple of months ago Helen suggested we did a name badge Secret Santa swap, which she organised for us and here are some of the badges. I love how different they all are. 

We had a little party game too.  I scrambled up the names of 20 quilt blocks, and people tried to unscramble them.  Some were easy, some were not! The winning team was Lis, Pauline and Drew.

The Secret Santa swap was so popular that it was suggested we had another group activity.  Someone who shall remain nameless (ie, me) suggested we made quilted postcards on the theme of Spring, so come on YMQG members, get your thinking caps on and start sewing.  The plan is to display them all anonymously in March, and I think we may even vote (also anonymously) for our favourites, and who knows, there might be a prize involved too.

Finally, as we were clearing up, Hazel announced that she had bags of scraps that she did not want to take home.  I couldn't resist this photo - they're going to kill me!

Firstly, I must apologise for the lack of posts here for the past few weeks due to circumstances beyond my control, as they say on TV when something goes wrong!  Now here is a brief summary of both our October and November meetings.

During the October meeting Anne showed us all how to make Christmas stockings with a Seminole border at the top, like this one

and afterwards many members had a go at doing their own version.  Thanks Anne, I think everyone enjoyed making them, and found the technique was fun.  We also had our usual show and tell session at lunch time and here is the slide show of everything members have been up to.

This slideshow design generated with Smilebox During our November meeting Janet showed us a great way to make a journal cover and I think I know what many people will now be finding in their Christmas stocking this year.  Now, here's another slide show of members' creations during this month.

This free picture slideshow generated with Smilebox Next month is our Christmas party, so don't forget to bring your mystery badge along.

and the winner is ...

Oh hang on, just let me explain first how I chose the winner of this e-book.  The review was posted on this blog, and also on my blog here.  All the comments on my own blog are numbered, but those here are not (yes, I know I said I would get that sorted, but I forgot!).  So all I did was allocate numbers to the comments here running straight on from those over there.  That gave a total of 64 for Mr Random.org to chose from, and the number he chose was comment number 53

and number 53 is Pauline, who said

Congratulations Pauline and thanks to everyone who entered.  Don't forget to keep an eye on both blogs as there will be another giveaway soon.

Giveaway ...

(This book is published by Martingale Publications, and all the photography shown is by Brent Kane.)

Simply Modern Christmas by Cindy Lammon, has some great patterns which will allow you to dress your house for Christmas.  It includes 14 projects ranging from bed quilts and wall hangings, to Christmas Stockings and a table runner and a tree skirt. 

Although most of the patterns are shown in traditional Christmas colours, ie red and green, I think they would all work in other colours for other times of the year.  Imagine this one, for example, 

 made up with that  special fabric you can't bear to cut up, and this one, with its many pieces, would make a fantastic I-spy quilt for children.

As I would expect from any book published by Martingale, the instructions are very clear and each pattern has many diagrams. I also enjoyed the photography in this book.  Each quilt is shown in a styled shot (I love the Christmas tree they used on the front cover too) and as a full-face shot so you can see exactly what you are getting into before you start. 

My favourite project?  This Christmas Tree skirt, which I might just have to make before I put my tree up this year.

Now, I think I may have mentioned a giveaway in the title of this post?  Well, Martingale Publications are offering an e-book version of this book to one of you. All you have to do is leave a comment below telling me what colours you use to decorate for Christmas.

The giveaway small print:

1.     This giveaway is open to everybody, wherever you live, BUT please remember to make sure I can contact you if you are the winner.

2.     If you are a no-reply person, you will not be entered unless you leave an email address in your comment as I will not be able to get in touch with you.  (Note, if you are a Google+ person, you will be no-reply).

3.     This giveaway will also be available on my blog at Quilt Times.
4. If you are a member of Yorkshire Modern Quilters, leave a separate comment telling me so for an extra entry.

4.     The giveaway will close next Saturday, 25 October.

5.     The winner will be selected using Mr Random Generator.