Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Pacific NW Modern Quilt Guild Meet-Up

August 15 through August 18, 2013, the Portland Modern Quilt Guild hosted the Pacific NW Modern Quilt Guild Meetup.  The meetup was four fabulous days of sewing activities with quilters from 9 Modern Quilt Guilds attending.

On Friday I took the Long Arm Quilting Class from Rachel at 2nd Avenue Studios.  The class was held at Modern Domestic and was fantastic.  Now I need to set my quilt frame back up and "just do it!"  I was so inspired to continue to practice my long arm skills after taking Rachel's class.

Friday evening was the Kick off party at Modern Domestic.  I was incredibly thrilled at the number of new faces and new friends that I made during the evening.

As part of the event members could choose to participate in a tote bag swap using some denim fabric provided by Robert Kaufman.  I chose to make The Divided Tote Bag by Kerri Made.  It was a pretty easy bag with two outside pockets and a divider pocket with a zipper on the inside.  Here are the fabrics I chose to go along with the denim.


My bag was picked out (randomly) by Caroline at Trillium Design.  I forgot to take a final photo but there is a photo on her blog of her and other members of the Corvallis Modern Quilt Guild with the bags they received in the swap.

I received the tote bag below made by Kim at Perfection Not Included.  She used the Super Tote Pattern from Noodle-Head.  I absolutely love the bag and the fabrics she used.  It is so big I can carry everything I need with me everyday (although sometimes I wonder if I ever really NEED the things I drag around with me).

 
Everyone who participated in the swap did wonderful work.  I loved seeing all of the tote bags and was inspired by all of the Quilt As You Go tote bags.  

Finally, I was the lucky winner of the first door prize of the night.  Shown below on the far left in the photo which I have borrowed from the meet up blog.  I was so excited and happy when I got home that I forgot to take my own photo of my treasures.





On Saturday there were two options for sewing.  Charity were being made at Modern Domestic from 10:00 to 5:00.  An all day sew was also scheduled at Fabric Depot from 9:00 to 9:00.  I chose to attend the all day sew at Fabric Depot.  I met some wonderful ladies from Bend, Oregon and Vancouver, B.C.  I worked on some swap blocks from a Halloween Swap on the Quilting Board.

Here are the blocks that I completed:



On Saturday night several ladies attended dinner at the Food Carts at 12th and Hawthorne. Sunday morning was a hosted brunch at Acapulco Restaurant followed by the final event at Cool Cottons.  I didn't attend the dinner or brunch as I was exhausted from sewing all day on Saturday and still recovering from returning from my trip to Illinois on August 13.

I did attend the final event at Cool Cottons so that I could join in on their contest.  Every modern quilt guild member registered for the meet-up received a bag of fabric scraps with the instructions to "make something" out of the scraps.  The only rule was that you could only add one fabric to the scraps for your project.  Here is the pile of scraps I received:



So, the question was, what to make.  You guessed it!  Inspiration from the tote bag swap led me to try my hand at a tote using the "quilt as you go" method.  I didn't have a pattern or instructions, I just went for it.







 And here is the final product.  I LOVE IT!


I had so much fun meeting fellow quilters from all over the northwest.  I am so glad that I attended and I can't wait to see what the guild's have in store for next year's meet up.  I've heard rumors that we will be traveling to Canada!!


August Trip to Illionis

This month we were able to travel back to Illinois for a wonderful celebration, the marriage of our nephew Mike Klemm and his new wife, Monica.

We flew into Chicago on Wednesday, August 7, and on Thursday afternoon we were treated to the Architectural Boat Tour of Chicago by Michael's sister and brother-in-law.









After the tour we met up with more family for dinner at The Purple Pig on Michigan Avenue.  The food was fabulous and the company even better!

I gave the bride and groom their wedding gift the night before the wedding.  Here is a photo of them with the quilt and pillow shams.





The Wedding was on Saturday, August 10, and it was a beautiful ceremony.



And the reception was a blast!


We were able to stay in town to visit family through Tuesday, August 13.  We ate way TOO MUCH food, but enjoyed our visit.  We hope to be able to visit family again soon!








Monday, June 3, 2013

Memorial Day Quilt Retreat

Memorial Day weekend was the setting for the semi-annual Seams Sew Right Quilters retreat in Depoe Bay, Oregon.  Thursday through Monday were filled with food, fun, laughter and lots of sewing and quilting.

Marlene kept the 14 of us well fed and prepared awesome dinners: stuffed cabbage Thursday night, a full turkey dinner Friday night and then everyone's favorite, tacos on Sunday night!  Saturday night was dinner out.

Saturday afternoon we hosted My Lazy Daisy to check out their product offerings.


We enjoyed having Jennifer Reinhart share this fabulous new company with us.


Anytime we quilters can pet and buy fabric is a great time!



Our next retreat will be in October and we are already planning our activities, menu and projects!


Welcome!


Welcome to my blog!  I have been saying that I was going to start a blog for almost six months and, FINALLY, here I am.

My name is Jennifer Gleich and I am addicted to fabric.  My husband says I am a hoarder, but I disagree.  I love everything about fabric!  I have been sewing since around the age of 5 and started quilting roughly 14 years ago.  My sewing machine is truely my therapist.

I am a member of the Seams Sew Right quilt group.  This is a group of ladies who are as addicted to fabric as I am; well maybe...

I live in Oregon City with my husband, Michael; five cats Mickey, Pepper, Pickles, Johnny and Poke; and our black lab, Cyrus.