Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Latifah Saafir Molehill Workshop

Molehill Making with Latifah Saafir 



In the middle of San Antonio lays the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas where we spent our Saturday sewing. I assure you it is quite the oasis, filled with amazing architecture, landscaping and generally stunning craftsmanship. It set the scene for a serene day of sewing with the wonderful Latifah Saafir. Not only was Latifah delightfully charming, but she provided the SAMQG with many new tricks and tips to use on her Molehill Quilt pattern.

The Molehills Quilt pattern was inspired by the tiles in Los Vegas and has many different options to achieve either a tiled look or layered hills. Sewing curves can be rather an intimidating challenge to even seasoned quilters. Her piecing technique uses no pins and no glue basting. The tile work can be paper pieced-or not! After sewing the first molehill everyone was quite comfortable with her technique and we started cranking out blocks (Are they blocks if they’re actually curved? Something to think about!). Latifah really stressed that it was a flexible pattern and for us each to find our voice in the quilt. 

Our class was small but there was such a diversity of ideas. Loretta was pieceing old ties into her molehills, Allison choose to focus on a red and white theme, Sarah Gregg pieced each like tiles, and Kelli used bright, fun fabrics. Everyone got a great start on their quilts but all blocks must be made before it can be pieced together. So alas, there are no fancy finished pictures of our group's projects. We couldn’t have had a better, more relaxed time with Latifah and hope she will hurry back to San Antonio to teach us her bias tape techniques. 

If you were unable to attend the class, her Molehills Quilt pattern can be found on craftsy at: http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/quilting/home-decor/molehills-quilt/142285




Friday, October 2, 2015

October Meeting Misses

Before I forget let me post what you missed at the meeting. A lot of you were missing. 

1) You missed the election of our 2016 Board.
-- President: Rebecca Cronk
-- Vice President for Programs:  Sarah Rodriguez
-- Vice President for Membership:  Joanna Marsh
-- Vice President for Outreach:  Jen Eskridge
-- Secretary:  Jessi Lane
-- Treasurer:  Kelli Saffel

They'll be installed in January.  Congrats to all. 

2) You missed the Christmas Party swap announcement: 

Mini quilt under 24" x 24". Doesn't have to be square. No color specifications. No fabric requirements. Make something you love and others will love it too. Must be quilted and bound. 

3) You missed the decision to make the 15th of every month share a deal day on the SAMQG Facebook (I'm calling it SADD). Okay, it was really called free ad day but I didn't want folks calling it a fad. Maybe someone else will come up with a catchy title. But what it means is if you have a quilt-related business you can advertise it for free on the 15th of every month. But even if you don't have a business if you have things to sell or give away, that's your day. Now if you don't want to hear about the great things our guild members are offering just turn off notifications on the 14th and turn it on on the 16th. We'll take a re-look in 6 months to see what folks think. Our sponsors will also be able to post whatever they'd like. Hopefully some of these SADD posts will include deals for guild members to make us happy. Don't forget our FB is private. Only viewable by guild members. 

4) You missed a bunch of cute tree blocks won by Debra Barnes.  You'll have to check FB for next months BOM. 

5) You missed a great handworking demo, tips, project shares and show and tell. Thanks to Allison, Rebecca, Kathy, Jessi and Linda. Hope I didn't forget anyone. 

But you don't have to miss the eye candy of sew n tell and the President's Challenge. Here's some pics. 




















Thursday, October 1, 2015

September meeting

Sorry folks, it looks like I spaced out after last months meeting and didn't post anything. So sorry. Here's some eye candy for you -- a month later.  I'm a little concerned no one noticed or if they did, didn't feel comfortable asking me what happened. Hopefully, it won't happen again. Hope someone enjoys these. 
















Sunday, August 30, 2015

End of Summer Blast

Also known as the no frills retreat, 20 people participated and got some sewing done at the Main a House retreat center in Kerrville. Here's some pics of our guild members and their creations. Looks like I missed a few people. Sorry.  I left early and was usually first to bed so unfortunately this is missing a bit of eye candy. But. There's still some beauties below.