January Meeting Reminder

Our next monthly meeting is this Saturday, January 21. Please join us as we kick off our 2017 programming! An updated list of meetings and special events are available on our blog, http://knoxvillemqg.blogspot.com/p/event-calendar.html, and we're collecting 2017 membership dues of $40 for the year (payable via PayPal to modknoxville@gmail.com or by check or cash at any meeting). With paid membership, you get to join in our challenges, charity projects, and special events, and you also get access to a lot of great free stuff from our national organization, www.themodernquiltguild.com! We hope many of you can join us for a great year of learning and sewing.

When: January 21, 10:15 social, 10:30 meeting begins

Where: Westminster Presbyterian Church, 6500 Northshore Dr., Knoxville

Agenda:

• Show and tell
• Left-Right-Center game -- bring 3 fat quarters of Cotton and Steel manufacturer fabrics if you want to play!
• Voting on 2017 guilder leadership and budget
• Setting our quilting resolutions for 2017
• Annual Yard Sale -- bring items you would like to destash and sell to others plus cash to shop!

Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild's QuiltCon Charity Quilt Challenge 2017

For the Modern Quilt Guild's QuiltCon East 2017, the QuiltCon Charity Quilt Challenge for member guilds was "to work collaboratively to create completed quilts using a predetermined color palette while crafting a design that plays with scale." Here's the palette:

We were delighted that this challenge was open to prints and other fabrics within this palette, and so inspired by the watercolor print below, we decided to set out on a process that involved painting our own textiles as a group.

Project managers Melissa Everett and Emily Doane began to develop a macro/micro pattern that proceeded from large stripes to smaller stripes, and then group members tinkered with the design to add color and movement.

After testing dyes to achieve the desired palette, Melissa and Emily led members through a fabric painting process at our September guild meeting.

We laid the fabric out in the sun to help speed up the drying process, and as it dried, the color variations and shades of the dye started to reveal themselves.

After the fabric was dry and the dye was set, guild members gathered at our November meeting to start piecing the stripes together. Each person was responsible for a different section of the quilt in order to keep all the strips and stripes straight according to the pattern.

Throughout the process, members remarked on how the colors played off of one another and expressed interest in more experimentation with fabric dyeing, so we're planning a workshop on fabric dyeing as part of our 2017 programming. We look forward to sharing our finished quilt with attendees at QuiltCon East 2017.

 

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