September 2021
Tulsa Modern Quilt Guild donated quilts to Catholic Charities of Eastern Oklahoma for Afghan Refugees coming to our community next month.
Tulsa Modern Quilt Guild partners with Gathering Place! TulsaMQG quilts will be used during the A Book & A Blanket literacy program on October 9, 2021.
2020 QuiltCon Charity Quilt
"Who Needs Words To Tell a Story:
A Day in the Life of a Quilter"
This was our fifth year participating in the QuiltCon Charity Quilt Challenge. The theme was text with a palette of grayscale. So many people use emojis instead of words to communicate, which was the inspiration for this quilt. An emoji can pack a punch with one small click. Here is a story, read from left to right, line by line, representing a typical day in the life of a quilter. We hope you enjoy "reading" this quilt and have as much fun as we did designing and constructing it.
2019 QuiltCon Charity Quilt
"Voices Getting Stronger: Coded No More"
For the fourth year in a row, the Tulsa MQG participated in the annual QuiltCon Charity Quilt Challenge. The theme for 2019 was Small Piecing. Our quilt titled "Voices Getting Stronger: Coded No More" was inspired by the Me Too movement, which has given voice to victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Even though abuse has always existed, it was either not talked about or mentioned only with whispers or coded language. This coded language is represented by the words, Me Too, written in Morse Code at the top and bottom of the quilt. The coding becomes larger and eventually turns to letters toward the middle of the quilt, representing our collective voice getting stronger over the decades, until we eventually screamed ME TOO. The Morse Code sections fit the small piecing theme of this year's challenge, with the growing size representing our voices becoming stronger. The letters represent finally being able to speak courageously about our stories of sexual harassment and assault. Various members of the guild constructed the quilt by strip piecing segments for the Morse Code and paper piecing the letters. On several sew days the strip-pieced segments were cut to size and set into rows in progression of size.
2018 QuiltCon Charity Quilt - Another Fabulous Collaboration by Tulsa Modern Quilt Guild Members
As we have done the past couple of years, the TulsaMQG decided to participate in the 2018 QuiltCon Charity Quilt Challenge. The theme laid out by the Modern Quilt Guild was "Modern Traditionalism" and a color pallet was assigned. A group within TulsaMQG came up with a plan and coordinated efforts throughout the year to bring the plan to fruition. After it was shown at QuiltCon and at the Green Country Quilt show, the quilt was donated to Tulsa's Child Abuse Network - CAN
"I Got 9,999 Problems and a Stitch Ain't One"
By Shawna Gehres,
co-cordinator of Tulsa MQG 2018 Charity Quilt Challenge
For the theme of Modern Traditionalism, we updated the traditional Trip Around the World quilt by building it from micro-pieced tone-on-tone traditional blocks, measuring 3 inches square. From a distance, these blocks appear solid, but an up-close viewing reveals tiny versions of traditional 9-patch blocks, including churn dash and flying geese. Some of the three-inch blocks include as many 18 pieces! We employed paper piecing, trimmed relentlessly, and challenged ourselves to sew with accurate seam allowances as we assembled the quilt.
Unlike the prior QuiltCon charity quilts our guild has made, in which we assigned parts of the quilt to individuals to sew at home and return for assembly into the final quilt, this was much more of a communal activity. Until the final assembly stage, all the work of cutting, piecing, trimming, and pressing was done together during group sew days. Because there was so much ground work to be done as we assembled the tiny blocks, we even brought pieced blocks to guild meetings, and members removed the paper from paper piecing, trimmed blocks (so much trimming!), or ironed as they sat and listened during guild meetings. This was truly a group effort!
To build the blocks, we paper pieced the half-square triangles and employed various strip piecing techniques. We started with the white blocks, which were most numerous and then worked our way through the other colors. By the time our guild’s annual retreat rolled around in October, we were constructing blocks in five different colors, so we set up five different Featherweights, each with a different color of thread, and encouraged members to take breaks from their own sewing to work for a bit on the charity quilt.
Our biggest challenge in creating a quilt with this many small pieces was attaining accuracy in piecing and seam allowances. This was truly challenging at times, with so many different people sewing with different types of machines, but we worked toward this by reminding ourselves this was a skill-building challenge, trimming at each stage of the process, seam-ripping a bit, and employing a lot of patience.
The overall design makes the traditional modern not only by playing with scale, it also explores negative space as the Trip Around the World fades toward white in the upper left corner of the quilt. The quilt has a total of 9,999 pieces, which inspired the title “I Got 9,999 Problems and a Stitch Ain’t One.”
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| "I Got 9,999 Problems and a Stitch Ain't One" by the Tulsa Modern Quilt Guild won a green ribbon at the 2018 Green Country Quilt Show |
QuiltCon Charity Quilt Spotlight: “Good Morning, Tulsa” by the Tulsa MQG
From the Guild that brought you an improvisational portrait of Woody Guthrie, comes “Good Morning, Tulsa!” — our entirely paper-pieced entry into the scale challenge for QuiltCon 2017!
We were blown away with all the positive attention our “This Quilt is Our Quilt” received during its time on display at QuiltCon 2016 and wanted to push ourselves again this year. The challenge theme of “scale” had us thinking of space, microscopic images of cotton, and tiny flying geese… but the color scheme reminded some in our group of “art deco” — a movement that influenced many of the buildings in downtown Tulsa. So we finally decided to create a paper-pieced version of our city.
The pattern was drafted in Adobe Illustrator, and fabric was generously donated by Brenda Shreve of Red Barn Quilting (brendasredbarn.com). Foundation piecing sheets were printed and then distributed to the 43 quilters who took part in the making of this quilt. Many of our members were new to FPP, so our first sew day featured some instruction. Though many of the pieces are quite small, even those trying paper piecing for the first time were impressed with their progress.
I can’t even imagine how many individual pieces make up the design — and I’d be lying to say there weren’t a few times some thought we had bitten off more than we could chew — but as the blocks started coming in and we started joining them together, it fueled our determination to see the project through.
Our completed top was sent to Guild member, Ann Olson of Ann’s Quilt N’ Stuff (annsquiltnstuff.blogspot.com) to work her magic on the long arm. She free-handed straight lines in the buildings and filled the sky with her signature “graffiti style quilting” (including a tornado or two in the sky).
This project was a great learning experience! Many of our members learned FPP, and those who already knew the process learned to not be afraid of small piecing. Personally, I learned how to draft a paper-piecing pattern — a skill I hope to use again in the future. We had some bumps along the way: mixing up the blue and navy, forgetting to leave the extra ¼” seam allowance, and misplacing a pattern piece or two, but overall it was an enjoyable experience.
We are proud of our work and hope you enjoy this tribute to our beautiful city. We haven’t yet decided who this quilt will be given to, but have discussed a couple of possibilities.
Instagram @tulsamqg
*Copied from The Modern Quilt Guild Blog
https://themodernquiltguild.wordpress.com/2017/12/11/quiltcon-charity-quilt-spotlight-good-morning-tulsa-by-the-tulsa-mqg/
*Copied from The Modern Quilt Guild Blog
https://themodernquiltguild.wordpress.com/2017/12/11/quiltcon-charity-quilt-spotlight-good-morning-tulsa-by-the-tulsa-mqg/
The 2017 Pantone Quilt Challenge results are in and we have a winner!! That's right, folks! Tulsa MQG member Kari Bloom's quilt was judged and selected by Jennifer Sampou as one of two winners in the mini category. Winners were announced on June 6th by Bryan House Quilts and No Hats in the House. Kari won a $50 gift certificate for Fat Quarter Shop. Beautiful work, Kari! To view the full story and other quilt entries check out http://www.nohatsinthehouse.com/
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| "Meadow" by Kari Bloom 2017 Pantone Quilt Challenge Second Place, Mini Category |
Tulsa MQG is proud to be featured in the Modern Quilt Guild's March News and Happenings. Thanks for the IG love, The Modern Quilt Guild
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| The @tulsamqg participated in the #mqgminiswap and showed off the quilts they received at their last meeting! |
QuiltCon Charity Spotlight: “This Quilt is Our Quilt” by the Tulsa MQG
By Kris Farnsworth, Charity Quilt Project Manager
When the Tulsa Modern Quilt Guild first heard the guidelines for the 2016 QuiltCon Charity Quilt Challenge, the concept of “Improv with Intent” immediately inspired some of us to look at various project ideas. The thought of breaking an image down into pieces and individuals creating improv blocks to match those quickly found some support. In deciding on a subject, we considered superheroes, pop art, florals, architecture, and portraits. When one member mentioned Woody Guthrie as a possible subject, it seemed a great choice: he is a native of Oklahoma, and the Woody Guthrie Center is located right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In fact, the husband of one of our members is on the board of the Woody Guthrie Coalition, so we had an “in” with a possible charity!Now that we had a plan, we needed to generate enthusiasm and ease the apprehension of some members who were intimidated by the project. We decided to do a trial run with a different image. While the process of making the blocks proved quite a challenge for some members, when the final product was assembled, they were impressed with the outcome and ready to tackle Woody (with the understanding that when doing the larger project, most of the individual blocks would be less complex, with a good number of background blocks needed of simple improv in one color).
As project manager, I took our digital inspiration and cut it into images to each inspire a 5”x5” (finished size) block and named them each with coordinates in a spreadsheet to make assembling the finished blocks easier. We ordered fabric and distributed all the material and images. In order to kick the project off, we hosted a sew day to share techniques and advice.
As the blocks started to be turned in, they were identified, labeled, checked for size, and given a trim if necessary. We held another sew day to create some time to focus on knocking out more blocks and to start assembling the top. When we first laid out the loose blocks and started to see how it was coming together, we all felt added motivation to see the finished product and were ready to tackle the remaining blocks.
Once all the blocks were in, they were all joined into the final quilt top. One of our members, Brenda Shreve (brendasredbarn.com), agreed to quilt the project for us with a combination of matchstick and a guitar/music pantograph with even some lyrics from “This Land Is Your Land” thrown in! Then all it needed was the binding, sleeve and label.
The Woody Guthrie Coalition, a nonprofit corporation, hosts the annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in mid-July to commemorate Guthrie’s life and music. The festival is held in Guthrie’s hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma with the simple goal of ensuring Guthrie’s musical legacy.
The Woody Guthrie Coalition, a nonprofit corporation, hosts the annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in mid-July to commemorate Guthrie’s life and music. The festival is held in Guthrie’s hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma with the simple goal of ensuring Guthrie’s musical legacy.
Woody Guthrie photo by New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer: Al Aumuller [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
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