April 2018 – Meeting Recap and Announcements

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The Boulder MQG will be doing a Round Robin June 2018 – October 2018, signups are open now and the center block is due at the June evening meeting. Signups and rules are available here, please read through the rules completely.

At the May 3 evening meeting we will be doing quilting book reviews and we need your help. Members will be presenting the books and participation is encouraged. We put together a list of questions to think about when picking a book, and we’d love to see any finished projects or blocks you’ve made from the book (photos are acceptable)! It would also be great if you could submit a book review for the blog so everyone can learn about your favorite books, you can do that here.

We had an amazing turnout for the April 5 evening meeting with a huge group of 21 people, including 4 new faces, coming to learn paper piecing techniques. And it was a great meeting to be at because we had a ton of amazing giveaways!

First, we had a giveaway for everyone who wore their name tags they made for the March open sew challenge, a 6 month subscription to the great digital magazine Make Modern and Protect and Grip Thimble* from Clover.

Barb generously donated two Add-A-Quarter Rulers* which are perfect for the new foundation paper piecing skills everyone learned at the meeting. Beadeux donated two hexie templates for English paper piecing, and we also had a pack of my favorite EPP needles, Black Gold Applique-Sharps*, to giveaway from Clover. A huge thanks to all the generous donors and congratulations to all our winners and we hope you’re enjoying trying out these great new tools!

Barb presented on foundation paper piecing and demoed Block 12 from Sewn by Leila’s Year of Scrappy Triangles. Barb had a lot of great tips and tricks for making paper piecing easier. You can print out this little cheat sheet to keep next to your machine.

Barb did a great demo and demystified the foundation paper process. Members can download the full presentation with step by step paper piecing tips in the member area.

It was extremely helpful to see foundation paper piecing in action and Barb sent everyone home with their own pattern to try it out at home. Laura L. and Julie have already been busy making theirs!

Next we switched to hand stitching while Rebecca showed off English paper piecing. Everyone received templates and glue sticks* and got a chance to try out making their own hexies.

Rebecca had a few tips for English paper piecing:

• It’s worth investing in a Fiskars X-Large Hexagon Squeeze Punch* so you don’t have to manually cut out the templates
• If you are glue basting, make sure not to fold the fabric too tight
• When joining hexies, don’t use white thread unless you’re using white fabric! Match the thread to the color of the fabric or use a medium gray, tan, or pink. These will all blend much better and your stitches will be less visible.

The next open sew is Sunday, April 26 and there will be paper piecing help available if you still need a little more guidance. Bring along a pattern you’ve been wanting to try or we will provide a simple block to try.