December 2022 Meeting Recap

The Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild met on December 10 for our December meeting and Holiday Party.  A great spread of food, and a lovely selection of mug rugs in the mug rug swap.

2022 Block of the Month Quilt Along

No block of the month announced this month - all 10 blocks have been announced now and we are looking forward to seeing the completed quilts.  We saw our first two examples:

Jo's completed 2022 Quilt Along Quilt

Michelle's completed quilt top

KMQG Show 2023

We are now accepting applications for members' quilts to be included in the show which will run at the The Arts and Culture Alliance's Emporium Center on Gay St. in Knoxville throughout March 2023.  Details of how to apply have been emailed out to members.  We look forward to showing a selection of modern quilts.  We will also be showing Mystery Purple Mini Quilt Challenge quilts to see how members use the solid purple fabric provided and incorporate it into a 20 x 20 inch mini quilt.

Sewing Resolutions 2022

We did an end of year recap on how many resolutions had been achieved.  Sherry earned a prize for having completed the most with 4 1/2 out of her 5 resolutions done.  Everyone is encouraged to come up with some new resolutions for 2023 (or maybe roll over some from this year)!

Board Elections

Elections were held for the board officers for 2023.

Show & Tell

A number of inspiring finished and in progress projects were shown.

Michelle showed a thought-provoking wall hanging in which she had used color to document daily Covid case numbers and deaths in Knox county from March 2020 to October 2022. 

Jo showed a memorial quilt made from a gentleman's ties

along with an accompanying mini

Kelly's FPP Christmas bunting

Nancy

Erin and Janne showed their Mystery Purple Challenge Mini Quilts

Janne

Erin (inspired by an amethyst geode)

Merikay and Annie both got into the mug rug making and showed extra examples on top of the ones they swapped.

Merikay

Annie

Wishing everyone a happy and peaceful festive season.

We look forward to seeing you next year at our first meeting of 2023 on January 21 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 10:30am.

QuiltCon 2023 Community Outreach Challenge: Radiata

The Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild is thrilled to reveal our submission for the 2023 QuiltCon Community Outreach Challenge! This quilt is called "Radiata," and it will hang at QuiltCon in Atlanta in February 2023.

In the summer of 2022, the MQG released the design and color prompts for the annual Community Outreach Challenge quilt. The design theme is Color Shift, and there was both a cool and warm color gradient to choose from. A committee of KMQG members began brainstorming design ideas for the challenge. Committee leader Emily reached out to Melissa, the guild's source of quilt inspiration for previous QuiltCon challenges, and, once again, she didn't let us down. Turns out she was exploring the Knoxville Zoo when she received Emily's text, and she had just seen a radiated tortoise sporting some striking shell markings.

With these images and a sketch from Melissa, Emily switched on her design brain, zeroed in on the cool color gradient provided by the MQG, and drafted an idea involving circles and rays:

Nancy drafted a foundation paper piecing template, Emily and Pat prepared solids, and members stayed after a monthly meeting to piece the components with a controlled improv approach to color placement (lights, mediums, darks).

The blocks were sewn together, and then Nancy sewed on the applique circles. The finished top and backing went to Pat for longarm quilting -- Karlee Porter's Wiggle Worm pantograph -- and Sandy sewed on the binding. The finished quilt measures 64 x 86 inches. We've named it "Radiata" in honor of its inspiration, Astrochelys radiata (aka radiated tortoise).

We are very happy with how our quilt turned out. Because QuiltCon 2023 is in Atlanta and within driving distance of Knoxville, many of our members plan to attend, and all look forward to seeing it hang with the other Community Outreach Challenge submissions.

November 2022 Meeting Recap

Recently finished charity quilt for The Restoration House

The Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild met on November 19 for our monthly meeting. Here's the news and what happened!

Upcoming quilting events

• Currently: QuiltCon 2023 member registration discounts (for lectures, workshops and the free 4-day show pass) end Nov 30. QuiltCon is February 23-26, 2023. https://quiltcon.com/

• Currently: Sign up for QuiltCon 2023 volunteer positions. https://quiltcon.com/

• Wed, November 23, 2 pm: Textile Talks -- Interview with Bonnie K. Hunter. Register at https://quiltalliance.org/events/textile-talks/

• Wed, November 30, 2 pm: Textile Talks -- Sacred Threads, Expressing Life’s Journeys. Register at https://quiltalliance.org/events/textile-talks/

Election News

Nominations are open for our December election. Positions are: Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer, Education Coordinator, Programming & Special Events Coordinator. Interested members should contact modknoxville@gmail.com.

KMQG Block of the Month 2022

We revealed the final block in our 2022 series, the Mosaic block. Information has been sent to members and is also available here.

KMQG Show 2023

A reminder and call for quilts for our Quilt Show which will showcase modern quilts by Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild members and will run March 3-31, 2023 at the Emporium in downtown Knoxville.

KMQG Charity Quilt

We will be collecting the latest charity block, Almost an Echo, again at the December meeting. Tutorial here. Please use the following color palette.

Quiltcon 2023 Community Outreach Quilt Challenge

The guild's entry for the next Quiltcon Community Outreach Challenge is complete! Watch the blog for an exclusive post, but we agreed on a name for the quilt at this meeting: Radiata. The inspiration for the quilt design was a Radiated Tortoise (species name Astrochelys radiata) at the Knoxville Zoo.

Mug Rug Swap

We'll swap mug rugs at the next meeting/holiday party. Members should bring a completed mug rug to participate.

Mystery Purple Mini Quilt Challenge

Members are asked to make a 20-x-20-inch mini quilt using the purple solid provided by the guild and featuring at least one MQG-specified characteristic modern quilting. Minis are due February 18 and will hang in the quilt show.

Show & Tell

A bunch of members brought their blocks from the Block of the Month series:

Christy

Erin

Erin

Jane

Nancy

Annie and Jo shared their mini quilts for our Mystery Purple Mini Challenge -- all quilts will hang in our quilt show in March 2023:

Annie

Jo

Betsy and Pat shared their quilt coat progress:

Betsy

Pat

There were also a lot of finished and in-progress projects to admire:

Pat & Annie

Christy

Elizabeth

Erin

Jo

Sandy

Sherry

Next meeting: Saturday, December 10 @ Westminster Presbyterian Church (10:30 am)

KMQG Block of the Month 2022: Block 10, Mosaic

 

Congratulations to everyone who has been quilting along with our 2022 block of the month series -- we've made it to the final block! We're keeping things nice and easy with the Mosaic block, which consists of just 16 HSTs!

If you would like to make 8-at-a-time half-square triangles, you can follow this tutorial. The HSTs need to be trimmed to 3 1/2" before assembling the block. If you would rather make 2 at a time, cut 4 1/8" squares to start with and you'll have enough extra to trim the HSTs to size.

If you're following the two-color prompt, the only adjustment you'll make is in how you position the HSTs to get the opposite layout.

KMQG Block of the Month 2022: Block 9, Geese in a Row

 

We're finally approaching the end of our block of the month series, and the penultimate design is Geese in a Row. This block is unique in that the geese are pieced in rows the width of the block, with no half-square triangles.

***When sewing this block, it's important to take care with your seam allowances. They should be a scant 1/4" -- and if you're really worried, I'd shave another scant off of that! There is no excess built into the vertical measurement of this block, although you will have a little extra width to trim it to 12.5" unfinished at the end. You may want to sew two practice strips and piece them together, making half a block, to check your seam allowance and sizing. 

Cutting Instructions for ONE BLOCK:

Color A: Four pieces 3.5" x 6.5" -- these are the center geese

Color B: Eight pieces 3.5" x 7" -- these go on either side of the geese

Piecing Instructions

1. Lay out the 4 color A rectangles and position 1 color B rectangle perpendicular on the right-hand corner, and extending up as pictured. Draw a line from upper right to lower left where the two pieces intersect, as pictured.

2. Sew on the line and then trim the corner off with a 1/4" seam allowance.

3. Open and press toward the color B strip.

4. Flip the pieces around so that the color B strip you've just sewn is on the left. Position the other color B strip on the opposite corner of the color A strip, perpendicular but extending down this time. *** It's important to get the positioning correct or else you won't achieve the flying goose shape. Draw a line from upper left to lower right where the two pieces intersect, as pictured. You can start to see the goose shape at this point.

5. Sew on the line and then trim the corner off with a 1/4" seam allowance.

6. Open and press toward the color B strip to reveal your 4 flying goose strips.

7. Fold each strip in half to find the center and finger press. Then align the centers and sew the strips together. Press seams toward the top of the block, as pictured.

8. Your block should be 12.5" x 13-ish". Trim the width for a 12.5" square unfinished block.