Wednesday, May 23, 2012

May Meeting: Mr Holice Turnbow

Hello again all BMQG members and followers! Our May meeting has come and gone. This month, our meeting was dedicated to creativity. Mr Holice Turnbow graciously accepted to give us a presentation on the subject.

Mr Holice Edward Turnbow is a quilter, artist and textile consultant. For the past 40 years, he has curated, judged and taught in various quilting events throughout the country. (Mr Turnbow has an entry in Wikipedia, where you can find more information about his life and career). We started off by learning that Mr Turnbow grew up amidst a family of quilters. His "think outside the box" set of mind lead him to start teaching quilting without having actually quilted before!

Without giving away all of Mr Turnbow's tricks, I tought I would share some key points he told us to keep in mind. First of all, about developing your technique. "If it doesn't work, rip it out and find out WHY". It isn't enough to start over. You must strive to understand why you made a mistake so that you can prevent it next and save yourself MUCH frustration! Also, always remember the 3 golden rules of quilting: accurate cutting, accurate measuring, accurate sewing. On the subject of creativity, I feel like the following statement sums it all up: "sometimes, you have to break some rules in order to keep the project and idea alive". A warm thank you to Mr Holice Turnbow for his fun and insightful presentation. It was a pleasure to listen and learn!

(Mr Turnbow directed us to a book called "Damn Good Advice", as well as a website where he has made a 6 part series on quilting, Quilters TV.)

Mr Turnbow's grand-mother's modern quilt.

Put your scraps to good use, be creative!

An example of how Mr Turnbow thinks outside the box. This "Circle of Life" quilt was created for a Circles challenge!!!

Creativity meets humor with this "Longarm Quilt", which Mr Turnbow presented for a longarm challenge (get it???)

And of course no meeting would be complete without some show and tell from our very own members:

Aimee made this HUGE twister quilt for her daughter. I love the colors.

Alice made this one using a pattern from the new Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr magazine "Modern Quilts Illustrated". Nums nums.

Bonnie made this fab little quilt. Inspiration: a rust patch on a truck she was following during a long road trip!

Elise's circle quilt, which she was working on at the retreat. People; she quilted these perfect circles on her home machine!!! (Elise, you NEED to show us your neat trick!) 

 Another of Elise's projects. The center is teeny squares, quilted with waves. Amazing.


Janis made a series of mini quilts using a "slashing" technique she recently learned. It involves multiple layers of quilted fabrics being cut between quilted lines, thus exposing fabric from inside the quilt.

Front and back of a beautiful string quilt. These colors make me think of the Pastoral Symphony. Beautiful.

Here's the first of two baby quilts Lia showed us. I love how the the space between the webs looks like stars. Neat!!!!

Second baby quilt from Lia. I LOVE birds on quilts and, well, pretty much anything! This is lovely.


Rachel made this darling baby quilt.

Front and back of a shot cotton quilt Rachel made for a wedding gift for a friend. LUCKY!

Rebecca made is stunning baby quilt for a coworker. I hope it was appreciated, it looks like a lot of work and love was put into it!

Samantha made this stunning appliqued turtle quilt, which has recently been accepted for show at a Portsmouth exhibit. What a piece of art!

This one's a bit of a cheat. I (Melissa!) brought in this quilt at the meeting but had to leave before show and tell. It's a quilt with a diamond center I've made for my mom's 60th birthday. It's quilted with swirls. I hope she'll like it!

Thanks to everyone who attended the meeting. By the way, if you are a paid member and haven't received your 2012-2013 membership card, please email me so I can send you one. Hope to see everyone in June (sew-in at Lia's, 7pm June 11th. Meeting in Arlington June 23rd at 12:30pm). Check our Bigtent site for event schedules and details.

Mel
xoxox

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Member of the Month: Bryanna O'Mara

Here is our first 2012-2013 member of the month: Bryanna O'Mara. Thanks for sharing with us, Bryanna. As always, it's great to learn more about our members.


Name: Bryanna but everyone calls me Bry

#Completed quilts: Um...somewhere in the 20's??

Favorite online fabric store:
Oooo that has to be Pink Chalk Fabrics.  Kathy has always given me the absolute best customer service and everything always arrives perfectly packaged and in safe condition.

Favorite fabric shop:
This is definitely Stitch Lab in Austin, TX.  I always know when I go there I am going to spend 3 times what I have budgeted but walk out with all the things that I have been drooling over online!

Favorite pattern: 
Definitely zig zags! Like the Heather Ross Mendocino quilt I made for my sister.  I adore this pattern so much, but quilting it nearly killed me and made me want to set my sewing machine on fire.

Favorite fabric designer: Tula Pink.  Period.  I am a die hard Tula Troop.

Favorite color: PINK.  Always pink.

Favorite sewing-related thing to shop for: 
Is fabric too obvious an answer??  Hmmm...maybe so.  Second best would have to be scissors.  I love dressmakers scissors, embroidery scissors, pinking shears, etc etc etc.

What machine do you use: 
A Bernina 1080 that I bought used on ebay.  I wanted a machine with all metal parts for durability, and that was not computerized as I didn't want my sewing machine to be smarter than me!

Why you love to quilt: 
Because I love the look on people's faces when you gift them with something handmade and they realize how much thought, time, energy (and sometimes blood, sweat, and tears) went into a completely personalized quilt that was created specifically for them.

Favorite sized quilt you like to make: 
I always make throw sized quilts.  Even when I make baby quilts, they somehow end up being throw size!  I can do calculus but simple addition (and inch calculation) seem to elude me.

Solids or prints? : 
I love both but I am leaning more and more towards solids as I think they sometimes allow the over all pattern to shine more when the eye isn't distracted by the smaller print patterns.

Quilting or sewing skill you'd like to acquire: 
PAPER PIECING.  I am just too terrified to try, which is stupid considering how many amazing tutorials are out there.

Handquilting or machine quilting?: 
BOTH!  Machine quilting allows me to finish quicker but hand quilting is so cathartic and fun.

Other sewing or crafts: 
I love embroidery, always want to learn cross stitch, and anything that involves sequins or other shiny things!

How did you get into quilting? :
My great grandmother taught me to quilt when I was younger, all by hand as she thinks machines are cheating!  But I made her the half square triangle quilt with Moda's Dream on line and she did totally love it, so maybe I can tempt her over to the machine quilting dark side.  Although at 92 she might be a bit set in her ways.  Picture

Feel free to share a quilting story with us!!!
My biggest oops moment during sewing was when I was trying to make Film in the Fridges starburst block for the group do good stitches on Flickr and in trying to force wrestle politely push the seams through the machine I managed to sew right through the pointer finger on my left hand.  The needle broke and I was left with the broken end sticking out of the top of my finger, and the pointy end coming from the underside of my finger.  It looked that I had tried to pierce my own finger.  I sat there totally stunned just staring at my finger, then though, well I guess I should just pull it out, so I did.  And I mili-second after I did I thought I should have taken a picture for my blog! DAMN!  I wonder if I could get it back in without it hurting too much.... Picture1Picture 2

Blog, website: ablondquilts.blogspot.com

Etsy shop: none

Here's some of Bryanna's work:

Beth's Gaggle of Mermaids

Jane

A Cacophony of Color