quilting retreat

This past weekend Judy, Javada and I joined 19 other ladies for a quilting retreat at Pennyrile State Park. As you can see, we actually acomplished some quilting in among all the time spent chatting, eating and laughing. Yes, that is Ann as seen from the back in the second photo. We willl all have UFOs that are much further along than before to show at the next meeting.

Roxanne

And We Have a Winner!

The Ice House recently hosted their 2010 Impressions art show. Roxanne F. entered her original quilted piece called "Images of Seasons Past." I'm pleased to say she won first place in the Mixed Media category.

The genesis of this wallhanging came from a class that Roxanne took last year at the Paducah AQS show. The class was taught by Esterita Austin and Roxanne learned to do fabric painting. From there her own creativity and talent led her to create the Images of Seasons Past. I have seen this piece in person and it's stunning. It looks 3D and has the appearance of a painting rather than a fabric piece. Roxanne used her machine to quilt it, and, as always, did a lovely job with it.

Here is what she had to say about it in a previous post:

This is a detail shot of the leaf. It is thread painting on organza using washaway stablizers. The branch is painted batik using Lumiere paint by Jacquard. The background fabric is a SkyDyes piece I got at the Paducah show in April. The free motion quilting is leaves in different Superior Threads.

Congratulations, Roxanne, for winning first place! I wonder what your next piece will be.

If you click on the pictures in the post, you can see an enlarged photo that really shows all the details. (I'd love to place pictures throughout the post at the appropriate spot, but so far I haven't figured out how to do that. SIGH!)

Finally Fall!

October in our corner of Kentucky means cooler temps and much lower humidity levels. It's a time to begin to plan ahead for the upcoming cold weather months and all the quilting we can get done then. Our October guild meeting had us coming together again to enjoy each other's company and talk about quilting. Show and Tell was a bit sparse this month, but the work was lovely nonetheless. Frances showed a cute tree skirt of many many diamonds. Roxanne finished her wool applique of pumpkins and other fall items at long last. I shared my progress on the Cherry Blossoms applique wallhanging, but didn't take a picture of it so you'll just have remember what it looked like.

Karen Allen of Paducah was our guest for the evening. She presented a very nice program demonstrating how to make a variation on the Cathedral Window quilt. The "windows" in this one are elongated rather than the more normal square. By using a bright print fabric and a black background, the finished effect was very Christmas-y and very pretty! She came on Saturday, the 30th, to conduct a class and workshop in this same technique. Several quilters met to make blocks, chatter, and generally have the fun that quilters have whenever they get together. Our bunch is a creative one and they were already figuring out ways to change this and tweak that and having table runners and couch throws and the like from this nifty pattern. I wasn't able to take the class, but I did come by for a bit to take some pictures and see how everyone was making their own Cathedral Windows. I'm posting pictures from the meeting and the class for you to enjoy.

Kim

Finally...A New Post

We are back to having our normal meetings at our normal time in our normal place, so....it's time I caught us up again.

In August we got settled into a new year of quilting fun. As always, it is good to get together as a group since during the summer months we can all scatter hither and yon. By September most of us are back at home and settling in for the fall/winter months. Our meetings are mostly planned for this year and we've got some fun times to look forward to. Our community service project this year will involve 2 local hospitals. One will be accepting small quilts for babies who pass away. These can be given to the parents to keep or to bury with their wee ones. The second hospital is asking for quilts ranging in size from large crib to large youth sizes. They will be given to children with serious illnesses or injuries to help comfort them. Alice will be collecting these and will even machine quilt them for us. How nice is that! As the year goes along, we will be bringing the tops (or finished quilts) in for Alice to take to the hospitals.

Our word for the year is applique. Ways to prep it, ways to do, and anything else we can think of to do with applique. Already we have seen Brenda and Fran show us how they prep their pieces for the applique work they do. And both of them do wonderful work! Soon other members will demonstrate ways to do their applique. Hopefully I will have pictures of that, too.

Below I will post some pictures from our August and September meetings. I hope you enjoy looking at them. Well....no...obviously blogger has other ideas and I'm not sure I can rearrange the pictures. So, instead I will say: ABOVE I posted some pictures.....lol!

Kim

Changed back to the original dates

Let's just see if I can spell this out without getting anyone confused. Remember how we always meet on the fourth Monday of each month at the Library for our guild meeting? Well, miracles do happen, we are back on schedule and we will STILL be meeting on the fourth Monday of each month at the Library for the rest of the year !!!!! So, get out your calendars and erase the changes you might have made and be sure you have us down for our original-regular dates.
Roxanne

Hot Summer Days Make Good Quilting Times

As always, our summer months of June and July are our guild's annual Sit n Sew meeting. Those of us who can come by for a day of quilting, talking, and, of course eating. After all we have to keep up our strength so we have energy to sew and talk, right? Below are pictures of from our June and July sit and sews. We were are small group at each one, but good fun was had anyway. Later on I will try to go back and add captions to the photos, but for now I'm technically working at my "real" job, so I'd best get back to it. Enjoy the pictures!
Kim

Sit and Sew

Hi ladies,

Just wanted to let you know we had a great time at the library yesterday, Monday, July 26th! Lots of talk and yummy pizza! That's all it takes for me to have a great day! :-)

Brenda

Quilting at the Ice House

Several of we quilters enjoyed meeting at the Ice House today. We got to see the creations of Judy, Fran, Terri, and Roxanne. The rest of us just worked on our future creations. I would post pictures of my latest work but I don't know how. Need some help. I can do it on Facebook.

By George! I Think I've Got It!

Well! It worked. And on the first try, too! I finally got a new camera and decided today is the day I was going to learn to upload pictures from it to my computer, and from there to anywhere on the web I wanted to put them. After making it out to be such a big deal in my mind, it was easy as could be. You can be sure that if I had realized how well it would work, I would have ironed my block and worked at taking a better picture. Oh, well….live and learn.

The name of the block is Cherry Blossoms from the 1992 edition of Great American Quilts. The book’s version was a bed size quilt with 16 blocks and a pretty appliqué border. I’m just not that ambitious, so my version will be a four block wall hanging. I have big hopes and plans for the finished product. If all goes well with it, I will be entering it into a quilt show in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, next spring. Well will see how THAT works out.

Posting

Hey Brenda

I am fumbling my way around the site as well. At the very upper right hand side is a clickable button that says "new post." If you click there you get a box that lets you start a new thread to show up on the blog. If you click on the comment button below a already there post, your witty comment will appear below the original posting--but people have to click on the comment button to see it. A bit confusing, but I think I am getting the hang of it.

Judy, Javada and I will be missing the June Sit and Sew--Designing Women obligations--but I can show you all in July -or whenever-you would like.

Roxanne

Hey--I am on a roll here. This is a detail shot of the leaf. It is thread painting on organza using washaway stablizers. The branch is painted batik using Lumiere paint by Jacquard. The background fabric is a SkyDyes piece I got at the Paducah show in April. The free motion quilting is leaves in different Superior Threads. --Roxanne

Kim suggested that I try to add a photo of my latest work to our site. That is what I have been trying to do for the last hour. I hope this makes it or I will be forced to called on a "young whippersnapper" for help.

Great Job

Wow-- You did a great job getting us all set up. It only took me two months to get here but I shall return more often. As far as my quilting status goes I am not making too much headway. So many distractions in the summertime and my adult (?) ADDH kicks in. With the KHQS June deadline looming and me stuck at the machine quilting stage I am not allowed to even think about starting anything new. With that said, Kim sent us to a delightful Ami Sims website for unwrapped clothesline bowls today.....

Roxanne

I thought I had posted a message soon after our meeting last week but something went wrong. I enjoy the blog reading the posts. Good work, Kim.

Member Postings

I've been a bit out of the loop the last couple of weeks--family matters, a virus, life---but I see a few of our guild members have made postings! Yay, ladies! Do it again! And others of our guild, join them! What are you working on? What classes have you taken or hope to take? What is the neatest book or gadget you've seen lately? Come on, share with us!

Here in our little corner of KY the big AQS quilt show has come and gone once again. Many members of our guild attended the festivities which take place all over the city. For that one week each April, Paducah truly does become Quilt City, USA. For me personally, I usually skip the actual show itself. (Too many people for my comfort level.) I always like to hear about it, though. Other guild members report on the gorgeous quilts they say and the various gadgets, fabrics and ideas on offer from the vendors. Hopefully one or two members will make posts about that. I do, however, very much enjoy visiting other quilting venues about the city. My personal favorites feature antique/vintage quilts, which are my favorite quilts. It was a very pleasant surprise to see an antique quilt called Autumn Leaves prominently displayed at one booth at the Rotary Club's antique quilt show. Just the weeekend prior I had completed the top of my own version of this quilt! It was a treat to get up close and personal to this wonderful quilt and compare it to my own. It is true: Quilting makes the quilt. My own top won't hit the frames until at least this fall, so I enjoyed seeing one already quilted and bound.

Our guild's monthly meeting was held on April 26, the Monday after the show. As always, everyone shared what they had seen, and bought. Apparently I missed one or two new rulers/gadgets that are out there now. Oh, well...my overstuffed sewing room probably thanks me for the oversight. lol!

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to publish with this post. My digital camera is DOA and I'll have to make a replacement soon. Until then, ladies of our guild.....publish your pictures and, please, tell us what you found and bought (or simply admired) at the show last month!

Kim

I`m sorry I forgot my name ---Frances.

I thought it was a quilt--look what Lindsey put on my computer lol

I am working on my braid quilt. I have finished several rows. Hope to be able to load some
pictures soon. Frances

I`m hope to post to our new site. The meeting last night was well attended. Enjoyed seeing
everyone--hope all use our site. Frances

Hi, I'm trying to post to our blog, it seems I have no ideal what I'm doing? Brenda

New post

The Piecemakers: A Small Town Quilt Show Where All the Quilts Are Above Average

The Mayfield/Graves County Art Guild is hosting a quilt show this month of quilts and wall hangings made by members of the GCPiecemakers. The name of the show is The Piecemakers: A Small Town Quilt Show Where All the Quilts Are Above Average. The show consists of over 65 pieces of quilts, wall hangings, miniatures, and wearables in both traditional and original designs. Traditional quilts include old favorites such as Grandmother's Flower Garden, Drunkard's Path, Pickle Dish, Corn & Beans, Storm at Sea, Mariner's Compass, Miniature Basket, Broken Star, Tumbling Blocks, and a stunning hand-quilted, hand-pieced Jacobean Appliqué. Art quilts include works inspired by Ricky Tims, Robbi Joy Eklow, Caryl Bryers Fallert, and Sharon Malec. Many of the quilts are the Piecemakers' original designs.
Besides traditional hand piecing and hand quilting, techniques include organza overlay, bead embellishment, thread painting, hand dying, fabric weaving, thread play, paint stick shading, three-dimensional fabric folding, shading with inks, dyes and pencils, and yarn couching.

During the week of the AQS quilt show in Paducah (April 19-24, 2010) there will be casual demonstrations of such techniques as working with felted wool, making labels, hand work, applique and possibly others. There will be a bazaar table of gently used quilting items, books, and magazines, as well as a bake sale table of tasty treats. (After all, quilters do not live by thread alone!) Some quilts will also be available for sale.

The art guild is located at the old Ice House in Mayfield, KY. Click on this link to visit them for hours and location. http://icehousearts.org/

The picture above is a wallhanging titled Mexican Pots by Javada Smith, member of the Piecemakers.

I hope to see many visitors there throughout the month and most especially during the week of the quilt show!

Kim

Can I Upload Pictures?

Well, technically I can. Now I'll try it for real. This is a picture of a Celtic quilt made in 2005 for my daughter. Here we go.....

Our First Blog Post!

So....here we go! This is the first post of our brand new blog. I hope we can figure it out!

The GCPiecemakers is a quilt guild located in Mayfield, KY. We have been together since 1989. Our members vary from art quilters, traditional quilters and everything in between. Check back often as we update our guild's activities.