Thursday, May 22, 2014

PROGRAM UPDATES FOR 2014

June 7th 2014 - You be the Judge with local AQS Certified Quilt Appraiser - Chris Moline.  As an AQS Certified Quilt Appraiser, Chris will take you through what appraisers look for and what judges look for. With a special emphasis on the quilting, she will help you to identify ways where quilting, as well as other aspects of quilt making, can make or break a quilt. She will also explain when and how to quilt those antique blocks and tops and when to leave them alone. You get to participate in expressing your opinions too! Chris will be bringing her stash of beautiful quilts to emphasize her concepts. This program will be held at PNC Bank, 250 E Roosevelt Rd.,  Wheaton, Illinois. starting at 9:30 A.M. Please park in the the lower lot.

Bring pen and paper to take notes. You will have six months to apply her concepts to your own quilts. In Dec, you can bring back your quilts (or someone else's quilts!) and Chris will provide feedback on what works and what you can improve on.

 Please remember to bring your SKILL BUILDER.. "Do something" on a fat quarter and any show and tell that you have. Any member with skill builder show and tell has the opportunity to have her name entered into the door prize basket.
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The August 2nd, 2014 meeting brings Cindy Roth to NILAG. Cindy will give a lecture and drawing class on CONTINIOUS CURVES.  Cindy will demonstrate quilting solutions for simple blocks up to more complex designs like Wedding Ring, Jacobs Ladder and 3-D blocks. We will learn how to incorporate the background fill as we stitch the block designs. Cindy will also discuss thread, needles and her rulers. 

Cindy is a nationally known longarm instructor from Kent Washington and the director of Longarm University   http://www.longarmuniversity.com/index.htm   The CONTINIOUS CURVES class will be held at our regular meeting place.  PNC Bank, 250 E Roosevelt Rd.,  Wheaton, Illinois. This class is open (at no charge) to paid NILAG members. NILAG members can sign up at the June meeting or RSVP to the Yahoo group. Class room and parking space is limited, so we will not be offering any guest spots.  There will be an exception for the members of the Lakeshore Longarm Quilters. They can attend for a cost of $15.  The Lakeshore Longarm Quilters are required to RSVP to debquilts1@comcast.net

In the afternoon Cindy is sponsoring a 2nd class. Quilting as a Business. Join Cindy as she explains how to figure out exactly how much it costs YOU to quilt each quilt you put on your machine. You will also learn the different between "cash in your hand" and cash flow. This class does not tell you what to charge, instead it gives you the tools so you will know what you need to charge to cover your costs and make a profit! Marketing and business tips will also be discussed. A question and answer period is included and many diverse business topics will be talked about.

Quilting as a Business will be  held at the home of one of our guild members that is not far the morning class. This class is limited to 20 to 30 longarm quilters.  The time of the class is 2:30 to 5 pm (allowing for lunch in between meetings). The cost of this class is $25 (cash or check only)  to be paid directly to the speaker.   Any member of  NILAG or the Lakeshore Longarm Quilters that would like to attend can reserve their spot and are required to RSVP to kkh595@comcast.net .  

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

April NILAG Meeting

We had a great meeting April 5th.  No snow, no rain  Yeah!

Marla shared the boards' emergency plan, so that if there is a future meeting cancelation, it will go smoothly.  Members  should look for a document on this from the Yahoo group later this week.

Rita, our Quilts of Valor Regional representative announced that QoV  would be delivering their 100,000th quilt sometime this year. Rita said this would not be possible without the support of the NILAG quilters and wanted to be sure we knew how much our participation was appreciated.   I have added a link on NILAG's blog back to Rita's blog where you can see some of these wonderful quilts and contact her about quilting for QoV .  http://lolqov.blogspot.com/

We will continue with our bi-monthly skill builders.  We had two examples of the Mini-Whole cloth skill builder.


 


The door prize basket was unveiled.  We had a nice assortment of items, marking tools, rulers, stencils, scissors, tote bags and thread, just to name a few.  At the April meeting we allowed all members to enter the drawing.  Our first winner was Terri H.  Going forward, the door prize drawing will be for members that bring show and tell of the current skill builder.  The skill builder for the June meeting is  "DO SOMETHING" on a fat quarter. Basically just choose any fat quarter and select a quilting  tool, motif, method, design, etc., and get it quilted. We really want to see more participation on this.  All levels of quilting are encouraged to participate.  Remember we were all beginners once.  We love to see what inspires you.

We had some addition show and tell

 
 
 


Our guest speaker for the April 2014 meeting was Cheryl Sleboda.  Cheryl is a fiber artist who loves to manipulate fabric and also light up her work with electronics. Cheryl took us along with her on her quilting journey.  We saw photos of more than 200 mini quilts from her “Working Weekly – Staying Inspired” self challenges.  We saw how her design style grew and her artistic voice developed.  We also learned all about Electronics and textiles.  We fell in love with her cartoon minis and were amazed by her  "light up" quilts.






You can see Cheryl's work on her web site http://muppin.com/wordpress/  There are links to her blog that will keep you updated on what is next for Cheryl  aka, a television star on Quilting Arts and links to purchase some of the LED light kits.

Our president Marla, is doing a wonderful job of getting us inspired to "DO SOMETHING". So get in your studio, load that fat quarter and quilt.   It does not have to be bound and ready for a show.  Just quilted..

Saturday, March 15, 2014


PROGRAM UPDATE  For the April 5, 2014 meeting, NILAG will host  Cheryl Sleboda,

Cheryl Sleboda, is a modern quilter  and fiber artist.  Cheryl will share her journey towards becoming an artistic quilter by creating small quilts with big detail.  Find out how working weekly and working small can help you define your artistic vision and make you a better quilter. You’ll be able see the quilts from small to “actual size.”

And, to help us stretch as artists, Cheryl will teach the basics of e-textiles and explain how easy it is to include cutting edge soft circuit technology in your quilts, as well as show you some of her amazing e-textile quilts  Be prepared to take notes. www.muppin.com  


Bring your completed Mini-Whole Cloth Skill Builders for show and tell. Anyone that brings their skill builder to the meeting will have the opportunity to select a door prize.

Friday, January 31, 2014

FEB 1, 2014 MEETING CANCELED


Due to the weather forecast, 8 inches of accumulated snow for the Wheaton area, the Feb 1st NILAG Meeting has been CANCELED.  We apologize if this causes anyone problems.  You can register your email to FOLLOW the news posted to this site. (See the link in the right border)  

Friday, January 24, 2014

2014 Program Schedule

CANCELED     CANCELED    CANCELED !!!!

February 1, 2014 - You be the Judge with local AQS Certified Quilt Appraiser - Chris Moline

As an AQS Certified Quilt Appraiser, Chris Moline will take you through what appraisers look for and what judges look for. With a special emphasis on the quilting, she will help you to identify ways where quilting, as well as other aspects of quilt making, can make or break a quilt. She will also explain when and how to quilt those antique blocks and tops and when to leave them alone. You get to participate in expressing your opinions too! Chris will be bringing her stash of beautiful quilts to emphasize her concepts.

Bring pen and paper to take notes. You will have all year to apply her concepts to your own quilts. In Dec, you can bring back your quilts (or someone else's quilts!) and Chris will provide feedback on what works and what you can improve on.

Skill Builder homework was to quilt the mini whole cloth started at the Dec 2013 meeting.
 


April 5, 2014 - PROGRAM CHANGE  Cheryl Sleboda  - Find out how working weekly and working small can help you define your artistic vision and make you a better quilter. Cheryl Sleboda, fiber artist and quilter (www.muppin.com) will share her journey towards becoming an artistic quilter by creating small quilts with big detail. You’ll be able see the quilts from small to “actual size.”

And, to help us stretch as artists, Cheryl will teach the basics of e-textiles and explain how easy it is to include cutting edge soft circuit technology in your quilts, as well as show you some of her amazing e-textile quilts!
June 7, 2014 - Chris Moline *****RESCHEDULED from Feb****
August 2, 2014 - TBD

October 4, 2014 - Cindy Roth - founder of Longarm University (program TBD) 

December 6, 2014 - Quilt Critique with local expert Judge - Chris Moline

Bring a quilt for a grand show and tell moderated by Chris Moline. Chris will provide a "critique" on areas that will help you identify what you are doing right and how you might improve. Don't worry, you can be anonymous if you like! But here is your chance to learn from your work and the work of others.

 

 

 



December 2013 meeting
We had a full house at the Dec 2013 meeting. We started with always great show and tell. At the previous meeting we were given a new Skill Building Assignment - TOOLS.  Members were asked to practice using one of the tools they purchased but had not used.  Show and tell included samples from the Gammill Workstation, Quilter's Rule Flower template, the curved side of Linda Taylor's Applique helper. Marla used Jamie Wallen's Mystical Ditcher, she drew her design onto water soluble stabilizer with  water soluble Crayola markers and stitched through the stabilizer. Then removed the stabilizer with water. The markers were okay on the black whole cloth but the ink transferred to the fabric on the white sample.


 
The program for the Dec meeting was a mini-whole cloth design assignment.  The guild provided "gridded flip-chart" paper for drawing.  The members brought rulers and  pencils.  There was a huge number  of  stencils, and longarm templates that were shared for creating the whole cloth designs.  Members folded their paper and worked on quadrants. The hope is that quilted minis will be shown at the February 2014 meeting.

To encourage participation in the skill building assignments, they board has decided  to obtain items that can be used for door prize drawings. Tools, thread, patterns, batting etc.  Any member that shows a quilted skill building mini, will have their name added to a basket for a door prize drawing.  So please bring your quilted skill builders to the February meeting.
REMINDER: The 2014 Membership fee of $25 is now due.  If you did not pay at the December meeting, please bring your renewal to the Feb meeting.  If you cannot make the Feb meeting, please mail your dues to the membership chair.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Oct 2013 program


For the October 2013 meeting, the guild gave us a fat-quarter challenge.  Find a batik fat quarter that "spoke" to you and quilt as desired.  You could do what every you wanted.  Some of the results were, quilting around the printed motifs, thread painting, one member used a stencil and fill stitches, and we had one mini whole cloth.  If you did not get your batik fat quarter finished for the October meeting, we would love to see it in December.