Crazy Quilters'Quilt Guild
NQA Chapter #PA 497
No. 263 April 2013
Programs and WorkshopsBethanne Nemesh
Programs:
Our speaker for April 2 is the very talented Christine Morgan. Christine is a fiber artist who works in a fantastic layered and slashed method. It is an exciting combination of chenille work and appliqué and she puts it to use in home decor, wall hangings and quilting! Her vibrant quilts will be sure to bring a sparkle to our evening. Christine is a new author whose book is now in our library and she will have copies for sale and autograph that evening. There is a guest fee of $5 for Christine.
Workshops:
Wednesday, April 3: Christine Morgan 9 to 3, bring a lunch
"A quilt Maker's Approach to Layered and slashed Fabrics"
Learn Christine's technique and take home a beautiful completed leaf wall hanging. $25 for members plus a kit fee to the teacher for an additional $20. Students will need a machine, cutting mat and basic sewing supplies as well as some of their own fabrics to make a fabric "pelt". Once the "pelt" is prepared, you will take it home for washing before the final steps on your own. In class you will switch to using your kit's prepared "pelts" and continue making your leaf wall hanging which you will finish. You will leave class with a finished wall hanging and all the skills necessary to continue this process on your own!
Wednesday, June 5: Karen Kay Buckley: Fiesta Mexico 3.....hand appliqué
$35 for members, $45 for non members plus a $24 pattern fee directly to KKB for not only the class pattern, but EVERY pattern in the beautiful, award winning quilt, “Fiesta Mexico.”
KKB is the queen of hand appliqué! Come and learn her award winning skills for smooth curves, pointy points, perfect circles, bias bar stems and all the tips! I will make a handout for supplies, but for those who want to get started early, go to and see her workshop "Fiesta Mexico 3" for a full list. This workshop will be opened to non guild members after April 3rd.
Tuesday August 6 AND Wednesday August 7: Jane Sassaman, Bountiful Bouquets
$75 to members, $85 to non members
Come experience this magnificent 2 day, 12 hour intensive workshop with Jane! You will be either bringing or buying on site Jane’s wonderful Free Spirit fabrics in her distinctive large scale prints for making a layered collage wall hanging. Learn Jane's fused appliqué style. Not only will you learn the how’s of proper fusing, but more importantly, a great deal of emphasis will be placed on design, balance and creativity. This class will be partly the process but also partly the art of doing what Jane does best. No two projects will be the same! I will prepare a handout, but again, visit and see her workshop, Bountiful Bouquets, for a supply list you can start on now. This workshop will be opened to the public after May 1st.
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Pillowcase NoteEditor
In addition to the 88 pillowcases made at our March meeting and delivered to ConKerr, we just tallied another 123 cases from those taken home and finished by members. These too shall be delivered.
How terrific is that!!!!!
Running Out of Fabric Crazy Quilter
By the Crazy Quilter
I don't buy quilt kits. I make too many mistakes: cutting mistakes, incorrect fabric placement, you name it, and I have done it. If I bought a kit to make a quilt I probably wouldn't have enough fabric in the kit to finish the quilt! I know this because I participated in several Saturday sampler projects for which the fabric was supplied - and, you guessed it - I made mistakes and ran out of fabric! For this reason I buy my own yardage for the quilts I make, and I buy plenty of it! No kits for me.
Even though I buy plenty of fabric I am still in danger of running out. How? I might have changed my layout from the original plan, I might have decided to make setting squares or sashing not in the original design, I might have cut my borders too short, I might have used a color that turned out to be perfect and, later, not had enough of it. I have done all of these things, some of them more than once! When I find myself in one of these predicaments, un-lady-like language escapes my lips. I have broken a ring, pounding my fist on the cutting table. I have torn up incorrect quilt blocks. When I calm down, usually after walking away from the sewing room for awhile, I can always fix things. I have learned that running out of fabric isn't the problem I thought it was. The first thing I do is go to the internet to see if the fabric I need is still available. I can think of two times when this was the perfect solution. However, even when the fabric I need is discontinued, I consider the problem to be an opportunity to make the quilt better. It might take some time to figure out what is needed, but my quilting journey has taught me that there is a solution to every problem.
No matter how much I learn from my mistakes, inevitably, I will run out of fabric again. I don't worry about it (but I still won't buykits - I'm not asking for trouble!) For my Saturday Sampler quilts I cut the borders too short, and I frequently cut triangle units incorrectly because I was confused by fabric placement. No one will ever know, because my choices to replace my mistakes were actually better than the originals. So, make mistakes, learn from them, but don't worry about running out of fabric because there is always another color or print that will work for you.