January 2023 Meeting Recap

The guild met on January 21 for our first monthly meeting of the year. We set our Sewing Resolutions/Goals for the year, which we will revisit in July for a check-in and then again in December to see how much we accomplished. We also covered some quilt news and business before sharing for show & tell.

We will begin a new quiltalong for the year in February, and we'll also have a new charity block assignment for our partnership with The Restoration House.

The KMQG Quilt Show 2023 is coming together, with accepted quilts due to be turned in on Feb 18. The show is free and will be available for viewing at the Emporium in downtown Knoxville for the month of March.

Some other upcoming quilt shows in the area include:

• Farragut Quilt Show: Farragut Community Center, Feb 18 (8 am - 7:30 pm) and Feb 19 (10 am - 4 pm)

• QuiltCon Atlanta: Atlanta Convention Center at AmericasMart, Feb 23-26

• A Mountain Quiltfest: Pigeon Forge, June 5-8

• Smoky Mountain Quilters Quilt Show: Knoxville Expo Center, June 23-24 -- Deadline for entries is April 22

And then it was time for show & tell:

Betsy

Elizabeth

Elizabeth

Merikay

Jo

Sandra

Paulina

Laura

Laura

Diana

Erin

Erin

Sherry

Kelly

Kelly

Next meeting: Saturday, Feb 18 10:30-12pm

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.

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.

KMQG Block of the Month 2022: Block 8, Circle in a Circle

This post is a little belated (sorry!), but September's design for our block of the month is a circle in a circle, or a ring, or whatever you want to call it! This block can be cut using templates (if you have them) and pieced in quadrants, appliqued onto a solid background (like shown above), or created using any other method you may like. Choose your own adventure!

We've provided some instructions for the pieced method here, but you will need to buy or make your own templates.

KMQG Block of the Month 2022: Block 7, Crossed Canoes

Ready for Block 7 of our block of the month quilt-along?? This is a fun one that uses foundation paper piecing for precise results -- it's bold and graphic and so easy to make because ALL 3 BLOCKS ARE EXACTLY THE SAME! That's right, no figuring out how many of this color for this block vs. for that block. Nope, just make 3 identical blocks and admire your handiwork.

It's called Crossed Canoes, and we're using an FPP template (and instructions, if you need them) from Art Gallery Fabrics.

Here's the link to download and print the templates: https://liveartgalleryfabrics.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/AGF-QBC-Crossed-Canoes-Block_1.pdf

NOTE: When printing off the templates, make sure that your printer is set at 100% -- you don't want to enlarge or reduce the template at all or the blocks won't fit together properly and your unfinished block won't be 12.5".

I've done a little of the prep work for you to hopefully make this block a little easier to make in our two-color format.

1. Print/copy 12 paper templates. (Each block requires 4 templates, so 4 x 3 blocks.)

2. Mark the templates with color codes so that you can keep track of what color fabric goes where. You can see in the photo below that I used a B for blue and G for green. For each block, you'll have two templates marked one way and two templates marked in the opposite way. It's easy to get confused as you go along, so the marks will help.

3. To make all three blocks, cut the following from both of your two fabrics:

• Six pieces at 3.5 x 8 inches (that's six of Fabric A and six of Fabric B)
• Twelve pieces at 5 x 8.25 inches (that's twelve of Fabric A and twelve of Fabric B)
• The scraps you remove from the two side pieces (2 and 3 in the template) can be used for piece 4 in the template. You may also have some scraps left over from previous blocks that will work here too.

4. Reduce the stitch length on your sewing machine for sewing the fabric to the paper. Mine is less than 2. The smaller stitches will make it easier to remove the paper at the end (more perforations) and cause less stress on your stitches.

5. I recommend leaving the paper on your blocks until we're finished with the monthly block releases and ready to sew everything together. The paper will stabilize the bias edges for now.

I took some process photos as I made my blocks, if you prefer more visual instructions.

Piece 1 on the back side of the template. Use a dab of glue stick to hold it in place.

Lay piece 2 on top of piece 1, aligning that right edge where you will sew the first line.

Flip the paper over to sew on the line between pieces 1 and 2. Flip it back over and it looks like this.

I like the fold the paper back along my stitching line and trim the seam allowance to reduce bulk and any shadowing on the front side.

Flip piece 2 over the stitching line and press.

Before adding the other side piece (it doesn't matter if you do 2 and 3 in order), I like to fold back the paper along the line I'll stitch and trim the piece 1 seam allowance to 1/4". This reduces bulk and lets you line up the side piece exactly with the edge.

Place the next side piece along that trimmed piece 1 edge.

Flip the template over to stitch on the line. Flip it back and it looks like this.

Press the side piece open like you did with the first one (I missed a photo of this!)

Again, I like to fold back my next piece and trim to 1/4".

Put the small triangle for piece 4 in place. (If you want to trim some of the excess side pieces away, you can use them for this piece.

Stitch on the line, flip it over and it should look like this.

Flip and press

Trim to the outside line

Lay out the four blocks and sew together in pairs. Press the seams open for the flattest result. Then sew the two rows together.