Monday, March 26, 2018

Selling raffle tickets

Clark County Quilters makes an opportunity quilt each year (raffle quilt).  This year, I helped to sell the raffle tickets at the Milwaukee airing of the quilts show in March 2018.

Here is a picture of our quilt and a customer.



Let me tell you how our opportunity quilt gets made and what we do with the proceeds.  It's a 3 year process.  The first year, we have a block contest.  Guild members get a piece of fabric from the coordinators and make blocks according to whatever the rules and theme are for that year.  For the quilt in this picture, we started with a piece of gray fabric and had to make a house block or something that represented "It Takes a Village".   Shameful promotion:  my block won!  The second year, the coordinators sew all the blocks together and have the quilting completed.  Karen Saltzberg did the fabulous custom quilting on this one.  The third year we take the quilt around and sell raffle tickets.

Every year, Clark County Quilters asks other non-profits in Clark County to submit proposals that explain what they would do if we gave them the proceeds.  This year, we selected FISH of Clark County to receive our proceeds.  In previous years, we've earned money for the Vancouver K-9 program, babies in need, and search and rescue.  Each year, it is a different non-profit and we are always excited to present them with a check.

I hope you take a chance at winning a raffle quilt... and maybe even it will be ours!

Monday, March 19, 2018

Modern Quilt Class with Katie Peterson

I've been following Katie Pederson for a little while.  She and I have a mutual friend in Seattle, Krista Withers, who used to belong to Block Party Quilters with me.  Krista first introduced me to Katie in Portland during a book signing at Quilt Market.  She wrote a fabulous book, "Quilting Modern: Techniques and Projects for Improvisational Quilts" with Jacquie Gering and was signing it at Quilt Market.  I ran into Katie a couple of years after that when she was the featured quilter at the Walla Walla quilt guild show.  I loved her quilts and promptly made one based on a picture that I had taken.  Then, when it came time to recommend someone to come to our guild for a lecture and workshop, I recommended Katie.  So, I was over the moon that I was able to listen to her lecture and then take a class from her this year.

She taught us her class, "Double Trouble".  It is a half square triangle quilt with a  modern twist that she came up with.  I loved her humor, energy, and personal attention that she bestowed on all of us. If you can catch up with her, you should definitely consider taking a class.  You'll love it!

I made most of the blocks during the class, then played around with it a little bit and added a few more blocks.  Here is the finished top which measures 50" x 60".

by Joanne Adams Roth 2018


I hope that you belong to a quilt guild that also brings fabulous speakers and teachers right to your doorstep.

Monday, March 12, 2018

Quilt Retreat with a few friends

The small group that I joined in Vancouver went away for a few days of sewing at the Oregon coast.  I used to love to go on retreats with my quilting friends, but haven't gone in several years.  While I was packing, I remembered that you have to take just about your whole studio.  At least I had kept my old packing check list.  There was so much "gear" that we could only fit 3 passengers in my car.

We sewed, laughed, walked on the beach, cooked, stayed up late, and made a lot of memories.


The beach at Gearhart, OR

Joanne Adams Roth at the beach

The sewing space


Modern quilt started at the retreat

I hope that you have a small group of friends that share your passion, whether it is quilting or anything else.  We need more kindness in the world right now, and a small group can really feed that need.

Monday, March 5, 2018

Bride dress quilt, part Three

This is a continuation of 2 previous posts about making a quilt from a bride dress.

The top was quilted with gold thread in the center section and all of the circles were quilted down during this step.  The fusing didn't hold up very well on the polyester fabric and I didn't want to applique them down separately, so the quilting saved a step, but created a few handling issues.  A couple of things I learned.....

     - the gold glitter paint did not hold up to handling.  I ended up with gold glitter all over the place.
     - the gold ribbon did not hold up to handling either.  It shredded terribly
     - make more woman-made fabric than you think you'll need.  I ended with a lot of extra and some
           that I didn't use at all in the quilt, but they're ready for the next project!
     - a metallic needle is a must when quilting with metallic thread.  Even so, be prepared for
          shredding.

Here is the top all quilted and ready for beading.



I used most of the beads and sequins that I removed from the dress.  This really gave it some bling and made it more beautiful, like a bride would feel in her dress.


And here is the finished quilt.  I named it, "Time to Celebrate".

"Time to Celebrate" by Joanne Adams Roth 2018


I hope you like it and you try something with non-traditional materials.