Kennebunk 2019 Spring Retreat

About 20 NHMQG members along with a few friends and family gathered in Kennebunk for a long weekend in early May.  While the weather was mostly pretty rainy and cold, by Saturday the sun was starting to make an appearance.  A number of us took a walk out to the beach.

Everyone was working on diverse range of projects, and there was plenty of cross-fertilization of ideas and techniques.  A few pics below, but definitely not exhaustive of everyone's work -- things were going up and coming off of design walls pretty quickly, and I was working hard to get my project as far along as possible!

Carolyn Friedlander paper piecing project!

Super size multi-colored Alison Glass pattern!

Both paper piecing and English paper piecing all in very pretty blues.

There were several triangle based projects.

Nice blocks and colors.

Major project getting the rows put together.  Fortunately we had lots of floor space to work with.

One of two Mod Mountains projects.

A couple of views of everyone working away.

Lastly some origami styled paper-piecing.  

May 2019 Meeting Reminder

Our May meeting will take place on Tuesday, May 21st at 7pm!! Doors open at 6:30ish if you would like to come early for some pre-meeting sew-cializing!

Programming: Scrap cutting party!! If you’re like me, your scraps are in a jumbled heap and need some serious attention. Usually, that attention involves cutting to precut sizes - so let’s make a party out of it. Or you can just hang out and chit chat, or cut for another project. 

Show and Tell: Make sure to bring your finishes for show and tell this month. Remember, each item you bring to show and tell in 2019 enters you into a special year-end raffle. Don't forget those WIPs too! We'll be pulling the winners (you heard that right, WINNERS!!!) at our meeting.

Fall Retreat: Save the dates! We're heading back to the Lighthouse Inn for our Fall Retreat for the first weekend in October! Please let Lesley know if you plan to attend and sign-ups will be open via PayPal in early June and cash or check payments can be made at the June meeting.

Giveaways and Raffles: Our giveaway item this month is Nine-Patch on Point pattern

Raffle #1: Assorted notions in a handmade bag

Raffle #2: Alison Glass/Sun Print 2019 jelly roll and Checkered Dresden pattern

We'll see you tomorrow at the First Baptist Church!

March 2019 Show & Tell

Carolanne showed us her map of London around Grosvenor Square made with Liberty of London fabrics (scraps, stash and shirt), a project from Timna Tarr's map workshop.

Sarah did this about six years ago, quilted it and got Chelsea to help with hand binding it, donating to charity.

Sarah made this from the yard sale leftovers with a grape pattern and purple strips.  The pattern is Good Girl quilt pattern by Southern Charm Quilts.  Very quick.  Will also go to charity when its quilted. 

Another made from yard sale leftovers by Sarah and Chelsea.  There was a lot of pink fabric, same pattern as the one below this.  

Another leftover fabric quilt on the left with Kona solids.

This is the third quilt Sarah showed.

Laurie showed us a coat she made for her daughter. Very cute!

Laurie mad little kitchen themed potholders for retreat she's going to in Colorado.

Leslie also made a quilt for her baby due on July 4th made with lawn fabric.

Laurie also brought in another wonky star quilt she had done, also in lawn.

Laurie showed her sampler and found it very challenging to piece, taking two hours per block to do. Quite impressive.  Had a long-arm quilter do it for her.

Back of Laurie's sampler quilt.

Lorie used scraps to make a cute little bag, very fun!

Lorie also is building her crochet skills, and did this blanket for her nephew's baby boy due in August.  She also described the problems when you don't have enough yarn to finish your project and then have too much!

This is Lorie's WIP, using a pattern from Quilted Threads.

Special charity quilt that Laurie quilted.  It is absolutely beautiful.  Need to figure out where to offer it to make sure we get good value from the donation.   

Deb showed us her experiment using rulers to quilt to make this bag!  Pattern from Pine Tree Quilt Shop.  Very nice!

Betsy has completed gorgeous quilt from pattern found at Quilted Threads, strip pieced. 

Michelle made a multi-color pillow this month!

Michelle also made a duffle bag for her niece.  Really cute.  She did a sew along for the bag ending March 31!

Donna, made this quilt with her daughter together.

Julie showed her first quilt front and back -- very striking! 

Marie showed a quilt she designed -- very dramatic!  Showed two versions.

Suzie showed us her mini-quilt from Quilt Con.  

Suzie also did a map quilt of Minnesota.  Very impressive!

René  is quilting as much as possible before spring arrives.  First showed us a square in a square, with a clam shell quilting pattern.  This one is for charity.

René also showed a vintage 2014 quilt using Ricky Timm's kaleidoscope pattern.  Quite stunning.  Check out the back below.  

René had another quilt finish dating from 2000, which she hand pieced and has now finished.  Laurie quilted this for her. Really nice and another WIP.  

René also showed us a tool she has found that you wind your folded binding on.  The "Binding Babies" come in three sizes and you can put them on a spool while you sew the binding on the quilt.  Great idea!

Simone presented a really cute baby quilt made from the Giggles pattern.  Nice colors!

Gail showed her MiniQuilt from the exchange at QuiltCon, which used Carolyn Friedlander fabric, some fabric that was ice-dyed by her partner along with some other found solids.  Very lovely with fancy label on the back!