Meeting Recap: October 2015

What fun we had at our October General Meeting! We’re sending out a special thanks to all who braved the unknown—the different night and different venue! Thank you for your flexibility. Booking speakers and special programs sometimes requires a bit of agility in our schedules.

Wow! The meeting place we tried out this month was a big hit. The space at the Northwest Library not only provided a sizable room with all of the high tech ‘bells and whistles,’ but it also boasted a fresh and bold modern vibe that suits us just fine. Additionally, its easy highway access (just one mile south of Kilpatrick Turnpike) made driving there a breeze. And, yes, we will be looking into its availability for future meetings.

Announcements:

• This is your LAST CHANCE to make a block for our Charity Quilt. You can make either a 6 or 12 inch block (Remember! That's 6.5 or 12.5 inches unfinished. And it's okay to leave a little extra to trim down.) Mail them no later than October 16th to Leslie. Address is on the private Facebook page.
• Kits for Christmas Stockings for Anna's House are available. Please contact Melissa to pick up your kit. They are cut and easy to sew together. Don't forget to view Agnes' time-saving hack on the Facebook page. Find additional details and the pattern HERE.
• 2016 Winter Quilt Show (Jan 7-9) will be here before you know it! Please add your name to our sign-up doc on the Facebook page. Click HERE for details to our 'It's Modern!' Challenge.
• Hand-Stitching Group: October 17th at Quiltworks 10 AM - 1 PM.
• Michael Miller Glitz challenge. OK Quiltworks has bolts in silver colorway. November 30^th is the deadline for entry. 
• November Meeting: Tool Time! Bring your favorite quilting/sewing tool to share. Board elections will also be held. How would you like to serve?
• Karen Munger also took a few moments to tell us about her upcoming class at Quiltworks. The two-part (Thursdays, October 19^th and 26^th) class will make her Knitting Needle Book. Check out Quiltworks' website to sign up.

Program:

Jen Eskridge of RennaLily Desisgns (reannalilydesigns.com) was our guest speaker for this lively evening. She brought numerous samples of her quilt designs and explained her technique for piecing curves and hexagons. Her two books, “Learn to Sew Easy Curves” and “Hexagons Made Easy” detail these techniques. 

Drawing from her background in apparel design, Jen applied the garment construction technique of applying facings to these shapes, clipping curves, turning, then using a ‘spider finger’ motion to tap and ease the seam—called ‘favoring the seam’—to have the front fabric roll ever-so-slightly to the wrong side to result in a perfectly finished edge.

Jen kept us all riveted with her stories and examples of how she progressively developed her process by layering a technique on top of a possibility to move to the next level and create a new question. One of the tales that grabbed our attention was from when she lived in South Korea and bought yards and yards of fabric we love for pennies on the dollar! Gasp! What!? How? Strike-offs. These are the yardages run while the presses work up to final approval prints for retail packaging, shipment, and consumer purchase. A vast majority of our quilting fabric is printed in the Far East—some in Japan, but mostly in China and Korea. How delightful the mills sell off this ‘waste’ to avid fabric fans.

Following her presentation, Jen’s pop-up shop reopened. Items included four books—three she authored, and the other featured one of her patterns; T-shirts; quilt patterns; purse patterns; and her very own Seaming Accurate seam guide.

Thanks so much, Jen, for coming our way! And big thanks to Elizabeth for handling all the details!