Author: OCMQG

Orange County Modern Quilt Guild Orange County, California The guild is a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization

April 2016 Block Lotto

At April’s meeting, we introduced Block Lotto.

Here’s how it works: We provide some/all of the fabric (quilt cotton quality) and you pay $1 for each block’s worth of fabric. You make the block and bring it to the next meeting, then names will be drawn to see who gets all the blocks!

Big Thank YOU! to our President, Janet, for pulling the directions together and making the sample blocks.

Here are the  fabric choice guide lines  and directions for making the blocks.

April Block Lotto – Flip Flop Block

Screen Shot 2016-04-30 at 9.46.48 AMScreen Shot 2016-04-30 at 9.47.26 AM.png

March 2016 Meeting

Here’s the recap from March’s Meeting.

Once again we had a great turnout for our March meeting – Thank you to Cecile for hosting us at the Sewing Party! (Reminder – The Sewing Party Studio Open House is always the 2nd Saturday of the month – Next one on May 14)

Block Lotto

Screen Shot 2016-04-10 at 8.11.00 AM
Snapshot of Block Lotto Gallery

We talked about the Block Lotto – and passed around an interest list.  If you weren’t able to make it to the meeting and would like to participate, please let us know.  We will have fabric at our April meeting, a block to make – those participating bring a $1 for every block you want to enter.  And in May – we will draw for all the blocks and hopefully someone will walk away with a quilt. (photo above is from Block Lotto Gallery and shows what you can do with the blocks!) 

Congrats to our March Challenge Winners

1st Place: Shellie
2nd Place: Kathy
3rd Place: Gail

Left: 1st Place went to Shellie Rancilio for a Modern Star and Modern Log Cabin Combo. Middle: 2nd Place went to Kathy Schwager
Right: 3rd Place went to Gail Sevilla

July Challenge

Our July Challenge is an 18″x18″ Mini Quilt. It must be modern and it can be anything you want. Please see the Challenge Page for more details. Looking forward to seeing all the wonderful Mini Quilts!

IMG_0122.JPG

QuiltCon 2016 Charity Quilt

We decided as a group to donate our QuiltCon Charity quilt to PCRF – Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation!  Thank you Susan for assisting us in getting our quilt to this amazing organization.

Give Aways!

Gail and Kathy were double winners! Thank you to JayBird Quilts for donating some beautiful patterns and to Art Gallery for donating fabric.

Gail & patterns from JayBird Quilts
Kathy & fabric from Art Gallery

ANNOUNCEMENTS!

Our Social Chair (Butterfly) Margie brought us a lot of great information from fellow guilds (thank you, Margie!)

Our next Sew is at Cosmic Quilting on April 10 – that’s a week from today.

Our next Meeting is on April 28th at Charrisse Consign Design

Looking forward to see everyone soon and Keep on Quilting.

February 2016 Monthly Meeting

What a great meeting! We had about 25-30 people and a few new members have signed up! Welcome, ladies. We also had a wonderful new meeting space at Charrisse Consign Design in Laguna Niguel – thank you, Charrisse!
Screen Shot 2016-02-26 at 6.14.38 AM.pngHens and Chickens, an auxiliary of the Golden State College Foundation, came by to show us their opportunity quilt. They are raising funds for the college – past giving has gone to scholarships and campus improvements.

This is the opportunity quilt – It’s 88″ x 103″ and was designed, constructed, and quilted by the members of Hens and Chickens. Tickets on the drawing of this quilt are available through any Hens & Chickens member or can be purchased through the Golden West College Foundation (714) 895 8316 ($1 for 1, $5 for 6)

Helen did a great demo showing us her One Block Wonder (stack and whack) quilts and how she created them. She really enjoys how you don’t really know what the blocks/rows will look like until after you’ve pieced them together. She is sometimes surprised out certain colors in the fabric will “pop” in the quilt when this method of cutting and piecing is used. Thank you, Helen!

Choosing where to cut
Piecing to keep the piecing correct
Pieced blocks

We then moved onto SHOW AND TELL, which lasted the entire night. Pictures are up on our Instagram and Facebook; details will be coming out shortly on each of the photos. Get ready for an overshare on the feeds. Here are a few of the lovelies!

The Splendid Sampler Block Station by OCMQG Member
Block 2, The Splendid Sampler by Kathy S.
Block 4, The Splendid Sampler by Kathy S.
QuiltCon class Making Faces, by Barbara
QuiltCon class Color Theory by Bunnie
QuiltCon Class Sizzix Curves by Monica
QuiltCon class Stretch Hexi and Tumbler by Monica
QuiltCon class Needle Turn Applique by Susan
QuiltCon class Facing East by Janet
QuiltCon class FMQ by Karen M.
QuiltCon class hand applique by Janet
QuiltCon class Block printing by Monica

Other Announcements:

We now have a Facebook group called OCMQG Quilters. This is a closed group for our members only, so please keep what’s in the group in the group. Click on “Join” and you should be accepted within 24 hours.

March 13th: Weekend Sew at Cosmic Quilting. Bring whatever project you’re working on.

March 22nd: The MQG is having a free webinar: Freedom from Perfection & Procrastination. This is FREE if you are an OCMQG member; log into the MQG site and sign up!

June 16th-19th / June 23rd-26th: Southern California Quilter’s Run

QuiltCon 2017: If you’re thinking about going, now is the time to get hotel reservations if you want to be close to the convention center. Please check the website for hotel blocks and room rates. Also note that Savannah is pedestrian friendly, so if you’d like to walk or bike to the convention center, you can do that!

June 1: QuiltCon 2017 Catalog is published. Figure out what classes you want to take and make a list of backup options.

June 15: Deadline for quilt entries. Ontario Museum of Art and History is accepting entries for their “Modern Quilts: Redesigning Traditions” show, which starts on December 1, 2016.  Please contact Georganna Hawley for applications and addition information (ghawley@ontairo.ca.gov)

June 25: QuiltCon 2017 Member Registration opens. KNOW WHAT CLASSES YOU WANT TO TAKE.  MARK YOUR CALENDAR. SET AN ALARM. Popular classes fill up fast.

Modern Star and Modern Log Cabin Challenge

The OCMQG holds a challenge once a quarter for its members to show off their creativity and have some fun. See the Challenges Page for our current challenge and challenge details.

For the first quarter 2016, the challenge is about taking a traditional state star block or log cabin block and making it modern.

Take 30 seconds and think about / write down what “making it modern” means to you.

Below are images from Google Image searches on “California Star Quilt Blocks” and “Log Cabin Quilt Blocks” – which are showing mostly traditional ways of creating the blocks.

Screen Shot 2016-02-07 at 9.46.24 AMScreen Shot 2016-02-07 at 9.47.27 AM

How can the modern aesthetic be brought to these blocks to create a modern quilt? Well, first – what the heck defines a quilt as “modern?” This question is hotly debated and is as controversial as “should you prewash your fabrics?”

Basically, modern quilting has no rules. The individual quilter decides what rules to follow or not follow. For example, in traditional quilting, there’s usually a standard sized block that is repeated in rows and columns, has one or more borders, and uses traditional fabrics.

What rules do you “break” or “bend” when translating traditional into modern?

One way to make the block modern is to use a solid “background” fabric to create negative space and to use modern patterned fabrics (right) or to use only solid fabrics (left).

quilt by Shea Henderson’ (photo on MQG site)
Ingrid, by Kristen Fleckenstein (photo on MQG site)
Screen Shot 2016-02-07 at 10.11.39 AM
Made in 2013 by an OCMQG member

Another way is to super size the block and show off one block or a part of the block. The quilt to the right is a traditional block called Ohio Star. The OCMQG member who made this blew up the block to the size of the quilt and used saturated solid fabrics.

These three example all use precise measuring and piecing, but move away from the traditional in the fabric choice and block size.

Other ways to make it modern:

  1. Use only scissors to cut the block pieces (no rotary cutters or rulers)
  2. Make the pattern “wonky.” In a log cabin, the sides of each strip are usually parallel to each other – What would it look like if they weren’t? What happens when a star block made with 60 degree triangles now has triangles that vary between 45 degrees and 90 degrees?
  3. Use “found” fabric. Old jeans, ties, button down shirts, slacks, bedsheets, towels, curtains can all be used to make a quilt. How do different fabric types affect the look and feel of the quilt?
  4. Create blocks and align them so a large amount of negative space is created

Join the conversation – Tell us your favorite ways of making traditional patterns into your version of “modern.”

Follow our hash tags for this challenge on Instagram #ocmodernstar and #ocmodernlc

OCMQG 2014 Holiday Party

This year’s holiday party was hosted at Bunnie’s home. Each year at the holiday party, we take time to sew a quilt together which will be donated to charity. We also had a Yankee Swap of handmade items. The handmade items included mini quilts, bags, aprons, and more! Our holiday parties are always fun opportunities to get to know fellow guild members better while celebrating the joy of the season. Here are pics from this year’s amazing party!

2014 Philanthropy Recap

(written by Lisa Handley, 2014 Philanthropy Chair)

Once again- I want to thank you everyone for their philanthropy efforts this year.  It was a great year!  

To recap, in March we presented over 25 quilts to Casa Teresa for those in need of a temporary home and on-going support for pregnant women who are alone.

Thanks to Janet and our members for all of your hard work over the prior 18 months to delivery such beautiful quilts to these mothers.    

From March through Oct, we worked hard to hit a goal – our goal was to have quilts ready for the holidays for those in need.  And WE DID IT! We completed 32 quilts in a very short time and 3 local organizations benefited from our efforts – Women’s Transitional Living, Inc., Interval House and Human Options.

Each of these organizations help those affected by domestic violence and sexual abuse.

I am grateful to each and everyone of you for your participation.

XOXO

Lisa