St. Clare Convent
President Michelle Kirby presiding
Business
2016 Officers: E-mail Michelle if you're interested in being a board member in 2016. Officers include: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and Member at Large. We're also looking for committee chairs for Education and Charity.Guild Library: Gillian reminds us that the books in the guild library are available for borrowing. Sign out each book and bring it back the next month.
Thank You: To Sister Anne for donating the goodies that were free for the taking.
November Meeting: Bring your Round Robin blocks—it's the last round of this session!
Make-It-and-Maybe-Take-It Plus Modern Ohio Star Challenge
For last month's education challenge, members made modern Ohio Star blocks. Those who participated in the Make-It-and-Maybe-Take-It also made Ohio Star blocks.Ellen2 was the winner of the Ohio star blocks! And Julie from Sewn Studio donated charm packs for the winner of the Education Challenge, which Michelle C. won. Thank you, Julie!
Show and Tell
Education: Free Motion Quilting
Holly took
a class to learn free-motion quilting and techniques. She found it great to see how other
people quilt, and she learned their tips and tricks.
Holly sketches
her quilting ideas first. She's found that if you can draw it with a pencil you can
quilt it on a machine. She uses drafting tracing paper rolled out on her quilt top
and sketches the design, using washable crayola markers (just in case the paper
tears).
Holly showed us some different quilt designs, and we practiced
drawing them.
Holly practices drawing curves over and over on tracing paper then she moves
to a practice quilt sandwich. She finds it's also a good idea to use practice sandwiches
to warm up before free-motion quilting.
She starts in the middle of the quilt and works outward. She does not bury her threads. She takes a few stitches, pulls out thread and clips it.
Holly uses quilting gloves (actually gardening gloves) to help grip the fabric as she free-motion quilts. She also recommends an extension table to help move the quilt around.
She
usually free motions straight lines to allow quilting on a diagonal
unencumbered by a walking foot.
Coming
up with a design can be the hardest part. Holly gets a lot of her ideas from
blogs, magazines, pictures and other quilters (copy designs as you
begin to get comfortable with ideas). One of her favorite magazines is Machine
Quilting.
You need to learn new muscle memory with free-motion quilting, and it just takes practice, practice, practice to achieve that.
Education Challenge: Practice free-motion quilting and bring your work to the November meeting for a chance to win a prize!
