Friday, February 20, 2015

GreatFul Threads meeting for February

I know it's cold outside but this is PERFECT quilting weather!  Thanks to the frigid temps I have stayed home all week and gotten so much accomplished;  hope you have as well.
 
Thursday the 26th is our GT February meeting. Karen and Delores will be presenting the Youtube video.   The topic for the evening will be borders.
                  
Have you played with any of the techniques we saw at the January meeting?  If the answer is yes, bring those in for show 'n tell. I trust nobody burned her house down with a soldering iron!
 
If you have a quilt to hang on the clothesline during STITCH IN THE MALL, please bring it, if it is finished. I am hoping to have mine quilted and bound by Thursday night, fingers crossed.
 
Be sure to bring Show 'n Tell with you, it is my favorite segment of our meetings!
 
See you Thursday night, February 26, 6:00 at the Bernina Quilt and Sew Studio.
 
Denise 

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Welcome to GreatFul Threads 2015.



Welcome to GreatFul Threads  2015.  When you were a child did you ever ponder on what the world would be like “in the future”?  For whatever reason, the year 2025 was always my futuristic date. I was thinking about this last week and realized we are only 10 years away from what I deemed “the future”. If you watch the daily news programs our future is questionable. Although, if you, like me, hide in your quilting studio, only read quilt magazines and only watch quilt programs and quilt classes, our future looks like great fun and I can’t wait to jump in with both feet!!

We had thirteen members attending the January GreatFul Threads meeting. We are so GreatFul (har, har) to Bill and Melissa for hosting our group in the Bernina store for a second year.

The group is still collecting fabric, trim and recycle items for the Children’s Discovery Museum.  We decided to table the Blanket project in conjunction with the CDM due to lack of woman  power.

A retreat at Home Harvest in Trenton, GA is scheduled for April 24-6, cost approx. $140.00. Due to that being the weekend of AQS Paducah, it was questionable whether any members were able to go. If you are interested contact me, we need a minimum of 6 to attend.

National Quilting Day is March 21. Sandi Suggs, in conjunction with Hamilton Place Mall, has planned  “Stitch in the Mall”  to promote quilting and the Chattanooga Quilting Community. Eight guilds will be given a table to set up 2 sewing machines. Each guild will hang 2  36” square quilts ”. Shoppers can admire the quilts, talk to the quilters and get info on joining a guild that appeals to them. Josie is going to design a handout with information about GreatFul Threads. If you are interested in hanging a quilt or sewing, please contact me by February 1.

GT 2015 Challenge will be “Birds”.  Make it whimsical and add text to it. We discussed submitting our challenge to Chattanooga AQS 2016 but found out there will not be a challenge this year or next. In fact the only challenge is at Grand Rapids.  Hmm, was there not enough participation in the past? So, back to our question of  “What size  will our challenge quilts be?”  How about 30” X 36”? If anyone has a better suggestion….bring it on! 

There will be 4 of us going to the Children’s Discovery Museum February 14 to assist with the annual Make it Day. We will be helping the children sew pillows. The Museum needs help from 12:00 to 4:00. That happens to be the 2nd Tuesday of the month which is the day Modern Quilt Guild meets and several of us attend that until 12:00. If you are available and not in Modern it would be great if you could be there at 12:00 to assist and back up will be there as soon as we can grab lunch and get from E. Brainerd to downtown. Let me know if you can and I’ll get you a parking pass.

At the May meeting, in addition to our program we will be creating a multi-media project. Bring a square box, approximately 4” to the meeting. 

I want everyone to know that I used the soldering iron today and cut my synthetic fabric. It cut like butter and was SO MUCH FUN.  It could be addictive. I only burned myself once, my finger slipped but I very quickly put some aloe burn lotion on and it neither hurt nor blistered.  If you need to watch the youtube videos again they were, “Cutting Fabric with a hot knife” by Don McCunn, Fusing Fabric with Jane Davies, and “Craft Ideas with Textile Artist Margaret Beal”

Thanks to Josie for taking pictures and helping with the blog while I’ve been locked out. 

Next month, Vista will be choosing our program videos. This will be interesting to see just what strikes everyone’s fancy!

See you at the February meeting. Be sure to bring in a project you have created by fusing. Don’t forget to add some sheer fabrics you cut with your soldering iron!

Quilt every day, it takes the Winter blues away,

Denise

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Thursday January 22, 6pm at Bernina of Chattanooga, First Meeting of the Year!!!!!!!!!

Next week is our January GreatFul Threads meeting. We have much to discuss and I hope much to show 'n tell.  I plan on getting there early (5:00) to set up the computer with the TV. I will choose our first Youtube video for the 2015 program. 

I do hope this is going to be a good year with a lot of participation. I am looking forward to it and hope you are as well. 

See you Thursday at the Bernina shop. Meeting begins at 6:00.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my art quilting friends. May your stocking be filled to the brim with quilting art supplies. I don't know about you but I think I am going to ask Santa for the gift of time, more time to work on my art quilting! What!  I can sense some of you are shaking your heads...get back you unbelievers of the jolly Clause.  He can give me more time....by hiring someone to clean my house, cook the meals, do the shopping and the laundry. Yea, right, dream on Denise. Well, that's why I'm  good at art quilting, I have a vivid imagination.

I do hope midst all the hustle and bustle  you are finding time to create, it will relieve holiday stress. One thing I am sure of, a few of you are creating some last minute Christmas gifts. I myself have two that need to be finished in two weeks.

One way to relieve holiday stress is to think about the upcoming year. For example, Karen Dewhirst needs you to be at the Children's Discovery Museum on Saturday, January 3 from 9:00 - 11:00. You will be helping the children sew together a monogrammed pillow or bag. Nothing to prepare simply show up and work with the children using the sewing machines for two hours. Let me know if you are available and I will put you on the list along with my name.

Have you had a chance to get on YouTube and find an art quilting demo, our 2015 GT program?  At our meeting in January, I will have one chosen, after we watch and discuss we will then  pass around a sign up sheet for the year. You might find something that strikes your fancy that would be appropriate for a certain time of the year.

I'll be honest, my husband and I are hosting our annual Book Group Christmas party Tuesday night. My upstairs sewing room looks like an F-4 tornado hit it! Someone always ask to view my latest project, So, I am  asking you, the blog reader, the following question, Should I.....

1. Put my two cats upstairs and tell them, "I'm sorry but my cats are locked up there and I'd rather not get them any more upset than they already are."   OR
2. Stay up all night tonight cleaning and straightening. (problem with this solution is eventually I will stop cleaning and begin sewing, solving nothing).   OR
3. Tomorrow I should forget cleaning the rest of the house, which looks doubly clean compared to the sewing room, and clean the sewing room instead.      OR
4. Take them upstairs regardless because,  a messy sewing room is an artist at work, be proud of my accomplishments. I could perform this problem solution  only because my sister, Psyleeta, is not coming. If she was coming this solution would not hold snuff!

Help me solve my dilemma by voting for what you think I should do.

Don't forget about our March 12, National Quilting Day. We need each GreatFul Thread member to make a 36 X 36" art quilt to be hung on the clothesline in Hamilton Place Mall. If I remember correctly one will be chosen to hang OR they will rotate off every hour and another hung in it's place. Either way...Fun, Fun!  Any theme or color can be used.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!

Denise

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Re-cap of October's meeting

What a full and final meeting for the 2014 year of GreatFul Threads.

Jackie Cory won ribbons on her work submitted to the Mount Olive Quilt Show and the Tennessee State Fair. Both she and Delores Dady have quilts in the upcoming Folk Art show at Reflections Gallery. There will be a reception to meet the artists Nov. 6 from 4-7:00.

Jackie will be teaching a second Altered Book class on Nov. 12 from 11:00 – 2:00. Call Reflections Gallery to sign up, 423.892.3072.

Several ideas were suggested for projects  with children at the Discovery Museum. It was decided that GreatFul Threads will work as a group with the children 3 times during the year.

Liza Blair of the Discovery Museum suggested an art project for next year during AQS. This project will involve a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Because any group applying for this grant must be a 501 C3, GT will have to work with a group that is.

A retreat has been set at Home Harvest Retreat April 24-6 in Trenton, GA. Details will be determined in 2015.

The program for 2015 will be art quilting videos on YouTube. The Bernina Quilt and Sew studio is set up with a big screen TV so the videos can be viewed as a group. Members will make a project using information learned from the video and bring a completed project  the following month.

Brenda Cregger volunteered to be the Children’s Discovery Museum Liaison. Her job will be to communicate with  Karen Dewhirst and Liza Blair concerning programs and events that involve members of GreatFul Threads.

2015 Challenge for the year will be art quilts around the theme “Bird”.

Sandy Suggs has planned an event at Hamilton Place Mall in Center Court inviting all guilds in the Chattanooga area to participate. Two members from each guild will be sewing on personal projects while others will be answering questions and selling tickets for a raffle quilt. Funds retrieved will be donated to a local charity. All members of GT are asked to make an art quilt of their choice 36” X 36" by March 1. Two quilts will be chosen  from each guild to hang on a clothes line in the Mall at Center Court during this event. Purpose of the event is to promote quilting in the Chattanooga area.

The Self Portrait Challenge was accepted by 8 members. They were fantastic as can be seen by the  pictures. Thanks to Sharon and Linda for taking pics.

Thursday, November 6 guild members will meet for a day out to Yates Bleachery in Flintstone, Ga. We will then  go to Samaritan’s Thrift Shop in Ooltewah with lunch in between. Vista Mahan will send out driving directions. If you are interested in going please contact me so













 we can arrange a time and place for carpooling.

Thanks to all for making 2014 a wonderful art quilting year! A special thanks to Bill and Melissa Klingensmith for being our host this year and in 2015.


Denise