Quilts for Gatlinburg Relief

The Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild will be collecting finished quilts, ready to use, for donation the Town of Gatlinburg. We will collect completed quilts through January 31, 2017, and they will be distributed shortly after that. We have contacts in the area with whom we will work to distribute the quilts to people in need. If you are interested in sending finished quilts for distribution, email modknoxville@gmail.com for a shipping address. Thank you for your help!

December Meeting Reminder

We will be having our monthly meeting this Saturday, December 17. We will be celebrating the holidays with light snacks and drinks as well as a gift exchange and games. Please bring a handmade item for our gift swap, or if you don't have time to make an item, you can bring a gift around $20 value in notions or quilt-related goodies. Please bring a food or beverage to share, as well as anything you'd like to share for show and tell. We will also discuss how we can help with Gatlinburg fire relief efforts. Hope to see you all Saturday for some fun! 

Where: Westminster Presbyterian Church, 6500 Northshore Dr.

When: Dec 17, 10:15 arrive, 10:30 meeting and games! (with prizes!)

RSVP: on Facebook

Supporting Gracie's Gifts

The Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild has voted to support Gracie's Gifts, a charity that provides specialized clothing and swaddling blankets for premature babies at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. You can find out  more about Gracie's Gifts here.

At our meeting on November 19, we will be collecting swaddling blankets and NICU smocks to give to Gracie’s Gifts for delivery to the NICU.

• Blankets are made by finishing any soft cotton flannel or flannelette in a square around 40" (width of fabric). You may hem, surge, or use any method of finishing you choose -- just keep in mind it should be soft to protect the babies' delicate skin. The blankets will all be washed before they are distributed, but if you pre-wash your fabric, please don't use detergent.

• NICU smocks should be made with soft, 100% cotton according to the free pattern available on Craftsy (https://www.craftsy.com/sewing/patterns/nicu-smock-for-micro-preemies-newborns/164312 and at http://www.eymm.com/product/free-nicu-friendly-smocks/. As with the blankets, please do not wash your fabric or finished smock with detergent, and also do not add any Velcro, snaps, or clasps. Gracie's Gifts will provide a special gentle Velcro that doesn't harm the babies' fragile skin. We will add this Velcro either at the meeting sew-in or prior to delivery.

Please contact modknoxville@gmail.com if you have any questions about this project. Thank you for helping support this worthy cause!

4-Patch Hourglass Blocks for The Restoration House

Hello KMQG members!

It's time to work on blocks for our next quilt for The Restoration House, and we're going with a 4-patch hourglass block that is 12.5 inches unfinished.

4-patch hourglass

I had a lot of fun making (four of) this block, so I wrote up a tutorial for it, available here: http://www.inspiremegrey.com/2016/09/4-patch-hourglass-block-tutorial.html

We ask that you pair Denyse Schmidt prints (bright ones preferred) with solids. If you don't have any Denyse Schmidt fabric in your stash, Marybeth has offered to share hers. You can get some from her at the meeting on Sept 17, or if you can't make it to that meeting, email modknoxville@gmail.com and we'll make arrangements to get you the fabric you need.

Blocks are due at our meeting on Nov 19.

August Meeting Recap

Thanks to everyone who joined us for our August meeting and sew-in. In addition to an inspiring round of show and tell, we covered a lot of business and looked ahead to our activities through the end of the year. Here's the rundown:

• Quilts for Pulse: It looks like the KMQG will have 4 finished quilts to send to the Orlando guild for distribution (that's a finished quilt top pictured above). A few of our members took the quilts in progress to work on -- if that's you, please email modknoxville@gmail.com to arrange hand-off to Melissa so that she can ship the finished quilts by Sept 10. If you're quilting but not binding, be sure to allow us time to get the binding completed.
• Next quilt for The Restoration House: It's time to work on blocks for our next donation quilt to The Restoration House. Instructions and a link to a tutorial are located here. Blocks will be due at our November meeting.
• Gracie's Gifts: We welcomed Cynthia Barreira, founder of Gracie's Gifts, a nonprofit that provides smocks and swaddling blankets to the NICU at East Tennessee Children's Hospital. Cynthia told us all about Gracie's Gifts, and we're excited to support her efforts. We're working out a plan for the best way for our members to contribute our talents and resources. We'll have more information on this soon.
• September meeting 9/17: This will be another sew-in meeting, and we hope to get a start on our project for the QuiltCon 2017 charity quilt. We'll also play Left-Right-Center, so bring 3 fat quarters in solid colors if you want to play along and maybe boost your stash of solids.
• October: No meeting as we will have our annual retreat.
• November meeting 11/19: This will be a sew-in meeting, and blocks for Restoration House will be due.
• December Holiday Party 12/17: Don't miss out on the food, fun, and games! More info to come...

The guild's contribution to the Quilts of Valor project

Taylor Opel

Sarah Elliott

Sarah Elliott

Sarah Elliott

Pat Pike

June Meeting Recap

At our June meeting, we welcomed quilt historian (and recent Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild member!) Merikay Waldvogel for a lecture on 200 years of Tennessee quilts. A 2009 inductee in the Quilters Hall of Fame, Merikay was one of the key players in the late 20th century quilt history revival. Merikay discussed her research of Tennessee quilts with coauthor Bets Ramsey and their discoveries as they traveled and evaluated thousands of quilts originating in Tennessee, including surprisingly sophisticated applique work and the proliferation of scrap and crazy quilts. Merikay also encouraged us all to explore the Quilt Index at http://quiltindex.org/, a vast resource on information about quilts, quiltmakers, and quiltmaking.

And it's not a KMQG meeting without a little show and tell. Here are some highlights:

Taylor used her mother's collection of Japanese fabrics in this masterpiece.

Sarah's strip quilt featuring fabrics by Carolyn Friedlander

Sarah's hashtag baby quilt

Another quilt by Sarah (she had a busy month!)

May Meeting Recap

Our May meeting was all about color! We welcomed Ashley Pace, instructor of Color Theory at UT, as a guest lecturer. Ashley condensed a semester's worth of syllabus into just a few hours to teach us news ways of thinking about colors and the interactions between them. We learned about Josef Albers and his Interaction of Color and even got to play around a little with swatches to explore hue, saturation, and value.

Members who participated in the "Thoroughly Modern Minis" TN Modern Mini Quilt Swap also brought in their minis for show and tell before mailing them to the recipients. We had a little fun with the minis, giving everyone a chance to vote for their favorite. Jennifer Grace was the winner with her crisp white mini with improv color bars. Congrats, Jennifer!

Jennifer's guild favorite mini quilt - and Melissa Everett's on the table at left

Emily Doane's color wheel mini quilt, a sample for a class she taught recently

Quilt by Sarah Elliot

Quilts for Pulse: Charity Block Drive

The Orlando MQG has organized a quilt and block drive to benefit the survivors and victims' families following the tragic event at the Orlando nightclub Pulse. You can find more information about the heart blocks they're collecting here and here. In addition to these heart blocks, the Knoxville MQG will also collect 16.5" unfinished stacked stones blocks to turn into complete quilts. We will incorporate some similarly stacked heart blocks to continue the charity drive theme, but we are not soliciting those blocks in our drive. We plan to finish 1 or 2 quilts and send them to Orlando to ease the efforts of that guild.

For our block selection, stacked stones, you can reference the tutorial found here. But remember, the blocks need to be 16.5" unfinished, so make your blocks wider and longer than the tutorial and then trim down to 16.5". We would like the colored portion of the block to start with red or pink at one end and proceed in rainbow order (ROY G BIV), ending with purple or pink at the opposite end. Use low volume or white for the pieces on either side of the color, and feel free to mix different low volume fabrics together as shown above. This is a great block for your scraps! If you would like to donate batting or backing, please email modknoxville@gmail.com.

Both heart and stacked stone blocks are due at our July 16 meeting.

Traditional Craft, Modern Perspective: A Quilt Show

(photographs by Alison McQuain Photography)

KMQG 2016 QuiltCon Charity Quilt (l) inspired by Sarah Shebaro's original print artwork (r)

After last year's artistic collaboration with Knoxville letterpress studio Striped Light in which the Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild was inspired to create our 2016 QuiltCon Charity Quilt (read all about it here), they were kind enough to offer us a First Friday spot in their gallery for our first official quilt show. An honest-to-goodness modern quilt show had always been a goal of our founding members, and our show, entitled Traditional Craft: Modern Perspective, would not have been possible without the support and guidance of the artists at Striped Light.

wall of mini quilts

Quilt entries were open to all KMQG members and we were able to include all 13 submissions in the show. We also filled a wall with any and all mini quilts made by our members. The quilts featured in the exhibition represent a wide and beautiful range of talents and perspectives within our organization.

created by Melissa Everett (l) and Emily Doane (r)

created by Taylor Opel (l) and Sarah Elliott (r)

A month before the show, members attended a class at Striped Light on modular linoleum block printing using the letterpress. We made geometric block shapes on linoleum and printed beautiful transparent colors to create the background design for our posters. In a second class, we applied the text for the posters, which were posted and distributed around Knoxville. One-of-a-kind posters and prints were available for sale at Striped Light during the show, and the remaining posters and prints will be available for sale via Striped Light's Instagram account (@striped_light) on Thursday, June 9 at noon.

2015 QuiltCon Charity Quilt

The show was advertised through social media, local newspapers and our beautiful posters. We had an amazing opening night for First Friday: May. We received so many encouraging comments throughout the evening, including one visitor who encouraged us to apply for an exhibition at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg.

created by Christy Cooper

created by Michelle Bolt

Unlike many shows, our quilts were not judged. Instead, each participant received a beautiful handmade ribbon made by members Elizabeth Rea and Emily Doane. Our goal is to make this show a true celebration of modern quilting in Knoxville rather than a competition.

Given the success of the First Friday opening and weekend, the exhibition was extended for another weekend to take advantage of Knoxville's Open Streets event, in which Central St. was closed to traffic and people came out to enjoy the arts and local businesses.

created by Pat Pike

created by Emily Doane

We can't say enough about the hospitality of Striped Light founders Sarah Shebaro and Bryan Baker. They have so much knowledge and generosity to teach and help others. Our quilt show would not have been possible without them, and their creativity lit a fire in us for next year's show!

Before the closing of our show, we were already talking about and planning next year's show! You won't want to miss it.  

(l-r) created by Mary Beth Meadows, Jennifer Grace, Michelle Bolt, Rosaline Woodard, Pat Pike

created by Carol Matlak (l) and Elizabeth Rea (r)

Thanks to everyone who came and supported us, who left their email, who told us they loved it, who said that it was the best art show they have seen in Knoxville. Thank you. It feels amazing to have our work be shared with the public and for people to see quilts in a new light, from a new perspective.

KMQG Happenings and Upcoming Color Theory Lecture

We've had an amazing response to our first quilt show. It was such an inspiring evening and day, and if you weren't able to make it down to Striped Light, we are happy to announce that the show goes on! Our quilts will remain on display through the Open Streets celebration in North Knoxville this weekend. You can visit Striped Light Saturday, May 14, 12-5 and Sunday, May 15, 12-6. Please come down and support our beautiful show. We're also going to make this a yearly event!

At our May 21 meeting, Ashley Pace will also be joining us from the University of Tennessee with a lecture on Color Theory. We have invited guests from the quilt show to attend this meeting and join in on the fun. We'll also collect payments ($75) for our July Workshop with Shannon Brinkley. All payments for this workshop are due at the May meeting (paypal to modknoxville@gmail.com also accepted). We will vote on our favorite mini quilt from the TN mini quilt swap, and the winner will receive a gift card! Remember that the minis made for this swap need to shipped before the end of May, so show them off and then mail them out.   

During our meeting on June 18, Merikay Waldvogel will lecture on 200 years of Tennessee Quilts. You can find more about her here. Her lecture will be $6 per member and $10 for non-members, so bring your friends! The weekend of our June meeting coincides with the Smoky Mountain Quilters Quilt Show at the Expo Center.

And finally, July 16 will be our workshop, Scrappy Skyline with Shannon Brinkley. There are still spots available to all interested parties (click here to reserve your spot). The Knoxville Skyline pattern, available here for $8, must be purchased before the workshop.

We're excited about all of these amazing learning experiences coming down the line and hope you will take advantage of these great opportunities!

April Meeting Recap

Carving linoleum blocks

We had a wonderful workshop Saturday and enjoyed our printing time with Striped Light's Sarah and Bryan. We're excited to show off the handcrafted posters for our upcoming quilt show - stay tuned! If you are interested in learning more about the printing process or taking a class with them, their class schedule is available on their website, www.stripedlight.com. They've been so kind and generous sharing their time, supplies, tools, ink, paper, space, and expertise.

 

Sarah explains how to operate one of the presses

Sarah and Bryan get us started

The new QuiltCon East Charity Challenge for 2017 has been announced. You can find all the information here. Please start thinking about design ideas. We will be accepting design ideas through our June meeting. Please email us your ideas, with a sketch, so that we may put these in our meeting presentation. Then we'll vote to decide on which we'd like to become our quilt!

 

 

Local quilt shop Mammaw's Thimble continues its going-out-of-business sale, with 40% off and, at last check, still a good supply of solid fabrics.

Our quilt show, Traditional Craft, Modern Perspective, is just a couple weeks away, so be sure to get your hanging sleeves on your quilts. Mini quilts don't need sleeves, and we'd love to have as many minis on display as we can get. We want to fill a wall with minis! If your TN mini swap quilt is finished, it would be wonderful to have those as well! Quilts need to be delivered in a plastic bag or pillow case to Melissa's home or Emily's workplace (Educational Outfitters on Cedar Bluff Rd.) on Tuesday, May 3. (Contact Melissa at modknoxville@gmail.com for her address if you need it.) After the show, quilts need to be picked up Monday, May 9, from Melissa. Help us spread the word about the show so that we can share our quilts with a large audience! We'd love to turn this into an annual event.

Next meeting: Our next regular meeting will be May 21 back at Westminster Presbyterian. Bring your finished TN mini swap quilt for voting!

March Meeting Recap

Melissa's medallion quilt

We had a lovely meeting in March with a good size crowd sticking around afterward for the sew-in, during which Taylor assembled our 24" blocks for our long overdue Quilt of Valor.

KMQG Quilt of Valor

 

Jennifer reviewed the winning quilts from QuiltCon 2016. You can find that list with pictures here.

Pat's Gypsy Wife quilt in progress

The Smoky Mountain Quilters of Tennessee Quilt Show is coming up soon -- June 17 and 18. The deadline for entries is May 3; here's the form and more information. Unfortunately, there will not be a Modern category this year, but we will continue to show support by sponsoring one ribbon.

Rosalind's Crackle blocks (pattern by 13 Spools)

We've booked Shannon Brinkley for the Knoxville Skyline: Scrappy Applique Workshop on July 16 11:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. Spots are still available and open to all interested parties. Please use the form here.

Melissa's king-size quarter log cabin quilt

NEXT MEETING: Our next meeting will not be at the usual day and location but rather will be on Saturday, April 9 at Striped Light in North Knoxville. We'll work on a project for our upcoming Quilt Show. Please arrive no later than 10:30 and plan on staying for 3 hours. Bring water and snacks (if you think you'll get hungry) and a jacket if it's supposed to be cold. This will be a free, creative class for KMQG members that we hope everyone will take advantage of.