The excitement builds...

Last night was the second meeting of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild, and we enjoyed meeting at a new location, Pacific Northwest College of Art, in the Pearl District in Portland. It is a nice, central location, and they are friendly and seem genuinely happy to have us use their space.

The energy and excitement of gathering so many  passionate quilters together at one time is electrifying.  Who else could get so excited over -- POTHOLDERS!  Welcome to our potholder swap.

We all made and brought potholders in any fabric or style desired and wrapped them in plain brown wrapping, depositing them in this large (almost not large enough) soup pot.  Each member chose a package, and as our Program Chair, Cherri, would say, mass unwrapping ensued.  I got the very last package left as I was so busy watching everyone opening their potholders and taking pictures.  There was so much inspiration and so many big smiles.

Amber and Tania

Jen

Leah...

...who made this brightly colored potholder that went home with me :).

This lovely lady opened my potholder, and I was so pleased that she looked really happy, I forgot to get her name!  This is the first potholder I've ever made, and my first grommet, too.  It was an act of courage just to mark on and then cut a hole in something I'd just made!  The Good Folks fabric is part of my hexagon project and the Kaffe Fassett binding is from binding the Mosaic Columns quilt.  And who doesn't have Kona Coal in their stash?  You can see I've still got wonky cross blocks on the mind, which is good because I have a lot more of those to make!

Cherri gave brief demonstration on how to make these wonderful cathedral window-ish potholders.  See the peek-a-boo fabric in the center?  The larger fabric triangles were originally sewn to the back and then flipped to the front.  I was busy taking notes and pictures, so I think I'm going to need a refresher course, Cherri.

Tobey went home with the book Pretty Little Potholders, donated by Lark books.  And while she and her husband both blame (I mean credit) me with getting her hooked on quilting, I'm pretty sure she won't be gifting this to me.  But she will share; won't you, Tobey?

Everyone went home with a little package of Insulbright, donated by the Warm Company.

We ended with a little impromptu show and tell.  Tamara had just received a couple of quilts that had been professionally long arm quilted.

Lovely finished quilts by Tamara:

 Marcia shared this quilt -- one that she is finally keeping for herself.  While she was very humble about the simplicity and ease of the pattern, is there anything better than a design of simple shapes done beautifully?  There is a lot to be said about the beauty of simplicity.  The wonderful long arm quilting on this was done by Nancy.

You will have to forgive this horrible picture, but I just had to try to give you an idea of what one member did, inspired by a design on Project Runway.  These blocks were made by pleating this fabric:

A real labor of love!

Seriously.  Would you actually risk getting marinara sauce on one of these?

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan