Monday, June 20, 2011

Sew Day Fun, June 18, 2011

We had great attendance for our June Sew Day.


Beth gave the demo on machine binding.


We had a wealth of food to share and an abundance of quilt projects to share as well.








Thursday, June 16, 2011

June Sew Day

Don't forget this Saturday, June 18th is Sew Day!  Again, we will meet from 10am to 4:45pm at Dr. Phillips/Southwest Branch of the Orlando Public Library.  Beth will demonstrate her method of machine binding a quilt.  If you would like to participate, please refer to her email regarding suggested supplies or leave a comment here with any questions.

Leave a comment if you plan to attend and what shared item (iron, ironing board, extension cord, cutting mat, food, etc.) you will bring.  See you Saturday!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

String Quilt Donated

I want to share with you an email and photo sent by Julia regarding the charity string quilt made by members of the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild:


After several weeks of phone tag and a re-schedule we have gifted our string block quilt. Susan and Julia visited the VA community living center in Orlando on Wednesday,June 8th. We met with a resident named Joann, she is a reitired Army Colonel and served our country as a nurse. She is a very sweet lady and doesn't have any local family at all. She was THRILLED with our quilt and when she opened it she said that red, white and blue are her favorite colors:) The meeting was set up by Natalie, a patient representative at the living center. For privacy reasons we were unable to take a photo of Joann, but we did get this shot of Julia, Susan and Natalie. Thanks to all the members of the Quilt Guild who contributed blocks, and especially Beth, who provided our supplies and did the quilting! Joann said that she had been feeling sad that morning, but we had made her day and she felt very happy.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

June 2011 Meeting Minutes

Orlando Modern Quilt Guild
Meeting Minutes
June 1, 2011
Sewing Studio, Maitland, Florida

I. WELCOME
23 members and guests were in attendance.
May Minutes were approved without discussion.
Treasurer's Report. Bank Balance on June 1, 2011 was $1178.33



II. BOM FOR JUNE
The June Block of the Month was any block of your choice in blue.

 And the winner was...........Linda!

III.  BOM FOR JULY AND AUGUST
We are not going to have a regular meeting in July.  (We will still have the July 16th Sew Day. See Sew Day dates posted online.)  We decided that we will still do a Block of the Month for both July and August and they will be due at the August meeting. Rene posted instructions and guidelines for the July BOM (Disappearing Four Patch) on June 2nd and in the near future will post instructions for the August block.

Terry discussed how she made a Disappearing Four Patch Block.


IV.   Hexie Demo
Michele provided a demo on how to make Hexagons.

Alejandrina provided a link to Bruce Seeds website as an example of a quilter using hexagons.


V.  Other Business

Charity Project - Guild members made a variety of suggestions for the 2011  charity project.  Beth will gather additional information and present a plan to the guild in the near future.

Free Spirit Challenge - The Guild will participate in a fabric challenge using the Free Spirit Habitat line by Jay McCarroll.

Survey Results - Kathryn shared the results of the May Survey on programs and there was lengthy discussion of the various options covered by the survey including a number of fundraising ideas.  The suggestions will be discussed at more length in the next Board Meeting.  A motion was made and passed that guild members will provide optional demos for a small fee (such as $5. to $10. and a kit fee if needed) on Sew Days.  All demos on regular meeting days will continue to be a regular (for no charge) agenda items.

The Door Prize was won by Donna.

Next Sew Days are June 18th and July 16th.

Julie took information from guild members as to who needs a name badge and who needs membership cards.

VI.  Show and Tell






July Block of the Month

July's Block of the Month is a Disappearing 4-Patch block made in red, white and blue fabrics.  When completed, it will measure 8.5 inches square.  This block is really simple to make, but when finished looks like a complicated block.  There are various tutorials and methods for making this block (here for instance); I will show you how I made mine.


Start with two sets of five inch square blocks and make a four patch block.  Make sure you have good contrast in your fabric selection.  The color scheme is red, white and blue, but you do not necessarily have to use patriotic themed fabric.  After this step, if you use a scant 1/4" seam, your block should now measure 9.5 inches square.


The next step involves making four cuts without moving the block or the cut pieces.  It helps if you use a small mat that you can turn, a table that you can walk around or a revolving cutting mat.   Use the center seams as a guide, measure out 1 inch, and make your first cut.  Measure 1 inch on the other side of the seam, and make the second cut.  Rotate the block and repeat, measuring and cutting 1 inch from the center seam on each side.

Block will look like this after the four cuts.

The above picture shows what the block will look like after the four cuts.  Next, leaving the center block and four corner blocks as is, rotate the four center outside sections 180 degrees using the below photograph as a reference.

Your block should look like this after rotating the sections.
Your block should now look like the above picture.  You now have a nine patch block.  Sew the sections together using a scant 1/4" seam.  Square your block to 8.5".


Stand back and admire your beautifully simple, yet complicated Disappearing Four Patch Block!  Repeat as many times as you'd like;-)  Since there will not be a guild meeting in July, bring your July blocks of the month to the August meeting.  Look for a different block of the month to be posted soon for August.

As a side note, this block can also be made starting with a nine patch block, but I really like the way this block comes out using the four patch block.  Different looks can also be obtained by varying the width of the cuts made from the center seam.