Welcome!

Ninigret Quilters is an organization for quilters of all abilities in the Rhode Island and southeastern Connecticut area. We meet on the second Tuesday of every month at 7pm at the Westerly Senior Center, 39 State Street, Westerly, Rhode Island (Google Maps) to share our common passion of quilting. Guests and new members are always welcome!




Sunday, April 17, 2016

April 2016 Meeting

Upcoming Classes available for sign-up-


 Mary Beth showed her version of Bonnie Hunter's Narragansett Blues, 
which will be featured in a class to be offered in September, 2016.
 Barbara C showed her sample of Bonnie Hunter's Pineapple Blossoms Pattern,
also to be featured in a September class.

Outreach - 
Tora displayed several of the quilts created for our Outreach program through Habitat for Humanity.
 One destined for a 14 year old boy.
One for a 12 year old girl. 
 Two options for a 16 year old girl.

 One quilt that has not yet been assigned.
Two quilts have been made for the Linus Project and will be sent out.

Program-
Quilter and motivational speaker, Valarie Poitier gave a slide and trunk show. 
Her topic was "Promote Your Work Without Apologizing" and was fabulous.
She was energetic, educational and very entertaining.

 Valarie has been quilting for 45 years, but has not done traditional piecing in several years. 
She is not a fan of the 'Quilt Police'
who examine her points to see if they are perfect.
She says "Points are not the Point".
Valarie explained that Quilting is a 3.5 billion dollar industry and 
admonished us to enjoy the process, and to 'use the good fabric and thread'
because honestly, what are we saving it for?

 Valarie has worked with several different media, She is truly a Fabric Artist.
 Valarie has displayed her work in museums. These pieces used magazine clippings on cardboard.

 This was a fabulous piece illustrating the building of the wall running river to river in Manhattan at the current location of Wall Street by African slaves in 1653. It is part of a traveling display documenting 400 years of African and American History called "And Still We Rise".


 Here is some detail of the strip pieces Valarie used to make the bodies.

 Valarie draws her inspiration from several sources, especially
sculpture. She loves African Masks.

  Some of the process of one of Valarie's quilts.

She added trapunto details to accentuate the noses and necks in the final quilt.
 This woven Kwanzaa piece began with the candles. "Mishumaa Saba — the seven candles which represent the seven core principles of Kwanzaa. Three candles on the left are red, representing struggle; three on the right are green, representing hope; and one in the center is black, signifying the African American people or those who draw their heritage from Africa." from Wikihow
 Then a shadow on the back of the piece (left) 
inspired this fabulous finished piece on the right.

 
Valarie works with various inks and techniques. This piece used a chlorox dye 
pen then a product called 'bleach stop' to halt the bleach process.
Here is the quilt that was inspired by the bleach portrait. She augmented the hair 
using decorative stitches on her sewing machine.
This piece was part of a quilt exchange where each person added a border, beginning in the center. This is how the quilt looked when it arrived at Valarie's quilt studio.
Remember... Valarie doesn't like to work with points...
but she happened to have several masks that were looking for a home. Valarie added the masks and sent it to the final person in the exchange who added the border (with points).
Here is the final quilt. It was donated to a raffle to fund a mission trip and raised $12,000.

Valarie was invited to submit work to an exhibit celebrating James Audobon landing in Kentucky 200 years ago. She based her work on an Audobon painting of a crane. She hand dyed the fabric, used strips of fabric for the town in the distance with fancy stitches, then pieced and quilted the crane.
Detail of the quilting.
The final quilt.


The background fabric in this piece was dyed, then painted.
Valarie used fabric paint, finger painting and used a
Shiva Paintstik to add the vertical lines
and created the perfect marshy background for this lovely bird.


Valarie experiments with dyeing fabric and lets the finished piece of fabric guide her. This piece of dyed fabric appears to have a central tree. We look forward to the quilt it inspires.

Thank you Valarie, for a really fun and stimulating evening!
****

 Show and Tell (or as Valarie would say... "Show, Tell & Brag").
Valarie admonished us to enjoy the process of quilting and stop pointing out
imperfections. She believes that 'every positive [statement] is a 
deposit in joy and happiness.'
 Linda K took Barbara C's workshop on 'Disappearing Nine Patch' and made this tablerunner.
 She also made a runner for Easter.
 We all enjoyed the interplay between Barbara B and Valarie.
 Barbara shared vintage Singer Sewing Machine Advice and 
her quilt which illustrates how poorly Barbara follows that advice.
 Tora shared her quilt using the 'String Bean Pattern' from Connecting Threads

 Here is some of the detail of Tora's machine quilting of the String Bean Quilt
 Tora also shared this cool quilt with houses and sailboats.
 This is detail from one of the Outreach quilts made by Tora.
Several members showed quilts they made during the
Disappearing Nine Patch workshop hosted by Barbara C
 Kathy T shared this tabletopper
 and this tablerunner.
 Catherine
 Barbara S
 Linda K
 Mary K has been collecting scrap triangles from members & shared her masterpiece.
 Here is some detail, showing her piecework and quilting.
 Pat G shared her fun Easter quilt made from flannels.
She used a pattern from a magazine for inspiration.
 Sharon D displayed the quilt she started at a 
workshop by Sue Pelland. She
enjoyed the machine embroidery.
 Tina C shared this English Paper Pieced gem
which will be raffled at the NBQA show.
 Detail of Tina's machine quilting. She took an online class 
through Craftsy with Christina Cameli of A Few Scraps.
Lastly, Tina shared her Modern Blue Star Quilt. 
Tina machine quilted this piece as well.

Thank you and Quilt On!