show & tell quilters

I have to confess that show and tell is about my favorite thing to do. That is one reason I enjoy going to the DC Modern Quilters Guild meeting the other is to see what other artists are doing with their quilting and to learn from them anything I can about how to make my own work better and sometimes easier. This month we had another sewing day at Westover Library out in Arlington, VA it was a lovely day to spend with my new friends. I took my quilting projects and planned to work on the Seminole Quilting with my little feather weight Singer using the new walking foot attachment. It was really the only project I had that was ready to work on for the 4 hour meeting. I have made some headway but I think machine quilting is much more challenging than the fun quilt top piecing projects I have been enjoying this year. I got a few photos of me presenting my projects to the group of ready and curious quilters from one of the other members I admire. Jessie Aller is designer and quilter and she has a great blog here: http://jessiealler.com/

 Elle (left), our new DCMQG president, holding up Jessie's (right) Modern Dresden Plate quilt during show and tell. 

Jessie showing her new fabrics for another Dresden plate quilt which includes her own fabrics soon to be available in fine quilting shops.  

There are a few charity projects that are going on at the group level for volunteers. One of these is hosted by the Modern Quilt Guild Conference, It is a quilt done in the conference colors, the challenge is described in detail here QuiltConBlocks. 
Several quilt blocks were sent to our group and they are being Incorporated into a DCMQG quilt to be donated to a new children's homeless shelter near the conference in Austin, Texas. They asked us all to add a block or two and make a finished twin quilt. I jumped in at the last minute and made one block for the project with fabrics other members shared from their collections. Someone laid out our blocks, on the ugly carpeting, to try and find a nice design for our twin quilt. These blocks will be surrounded with a sort of rainbow of the colors and white. Jessie did a few sketches of various layouts we could try.

Left in turquoise skirt, Deanne owner of the Quilt Haus and creative Sewlutions near Austin TX. who visited and gave out some free samples of fabrics. She also helped us get the donation blocks ready to sew together and began the "rainbow blocks seen here hanging on the wall beginning with Orange at the top ending with turquoise at the bottom.  

possible quilt layout sketches 

The blocks as they looked at the end of the day. 

I was so inspired by looking at these blocks across the table from my spot I couldn't resist adding one of my own but I only had 15 minutes to do it before we had to leave the library. I think the greens in this photo get lost a bit but there will be a photo of the finished quilt once it is completed on our DCMQG blog. 

SwimBikeQuilt Katie, retiring president, looks a bit perplexed on the left in magenta as she is setting us up.

A different Katie's stained glass quilt ready for it's portrait to be entered in a quilt show!

Elle shows one of 3 baby quilts she is practicing new machine quilting stitches on before she donates them to 100 quilts for kids. See Elle's blog for more detail shots and the stories that go with them! ElleMental blog

Aubrie and Katie looking closer for details of Elle's machine quilting

Linda (blogs here: I Finally Have Time )shows a banner of 4 Christmas trees she is making for a daughter.  

Linda's visiting friend Anne shows one of the three blue baby boy quilts she is starting from her leftovers. 

Aubrie's squares with circle appliques 

Finally my show and tell as photographed by Jessie Aller in which you can see the quilts and the other quilters listening to my stories and admiring my work. It sure is nice to have somewhere to be with others who know what it's all about. I am still learning names so some of the quilters don't appear in this post. They were all very interesting and very talented and there seem to be a lot of them because new faces turn up each time I go. Still I am the only guy quilter which makes it easier for them to remember me than the other way around but I dig the support they all offer and I hope to learn all their names eventually.

Diamond Dresden plate 

Red and yellow Seminole

Hand pieced & quilted Rose-Star is getting red and white edges, I tell the viewers on my left. 

Rose-Star spread out for the viewers on the right.