IMQG Block Party!

Hey guys, I'm happy to announce our very own Quilting Bee - The IMQG Block Party!!!

A quilting bee is one of the best ways to improve your skills as a quilter.

In the old days, women would gather together and work on a quilt saving a lot of time! This usually happened when there was some specific reason - weddings wars, etc. Women would come together and work on a single quilt. Helping to finish is faster than anyone person could.

Since we are spread out over an area of 3287263 sq.km. doing that would be practically impossible.

So we will be following the example of the Block Party (I could not find a link to their blog that worked) and have our own Block Party!

Here is how it works

We will have 12 members. Each member will be assigned a month. 

You can request for a specific month if you want to make the quilt for a specific occasion. (I have requested for November 'coz I want to make this quilt for myself for my birthday - thats January... Getting the quilt blocks by mid December, I can make my quilt by 2nd Jan!) But I dont mind taking up the first month so that others will know how things go.

Efforts will be made to accommodate as many requests as we can.

In the month before your assigned month, you will send out fabric to all the other 11 members.

Things to consider while sending out fabric.

1. Include enough fabric to make the block. - I'd suggest you include a little extra to allow for some errors.

2. Include clear instructions to make the blocks. It could be sketches or photos or detailed instructions - its up to you.

3. State clearly if you'd like the members to keep the scraps or you want them returned to you.

In your assigned month, the other 11 members will make the blocks from your fabric and send it back to you.

Things to consider while sending out blocks.

1. Send the block out on time. If you are delayed, inform the other members. Stay in touch.

2. Try to include a little something for the block recipient. A small chocolate would really make their day!

3. Update the group thread when you have mailed your blocks.

At the end of your assigned month you will have 11 (or more) blocks ready for your quilt. Finish your quilt and upload it in the group for all to see!

Ready to Party, girls?

Sign up.

Cheers from Chumkie

Hi All:

I am an Indian quilter living in the U.S and have been quilting off and on for a couple of decades.  My sister who lives in India signed me up as a member of the IMQG. This group of Indian quilters is so motivated and enthusiastic! I enjoy browsing the group on Facebook whenever I can, just to see what everyone's been up to! After becoming a member I have been inspired to pick up quilting again after several years of stagnation. I will, forever, be grateful to them.

My most memorable quilt to date is the Stack and Whack or Kaleidescope quilt.

This was probably the most interesting quilt I've ever worked on.

I chose an oriental theme for my focal fabric. The repeats in the pattern of the fabric were segmented and stacked on top of each other six times, triangles cut from each set of six, which were then pieced into a hexagon.

The resulting pattern for each of the 18 hexagons in this quilt is unique. I've shown only 6 of them.

 I like the 'movement' in each block.

 

 The colours are incredible.

I couldn't stop sewing this quilt because my expectations kept on building. It isn't until all the blocks are sewn that one can appreciate the magic that is created from one focal fabric.

Cheers!

Chumkie. 

IMQG Meet Details

Hiya all!

Excited about the meet?

So what is it really all about?

What will all of us be doing?

So here's a rough itenary for all of us...

We will all be meeting in the evening on 19th. Say about 7.30 ish. We will visit one of the best restaurants in town and have a blast! We'll get to know each other over delicious food and drinks... At night, those of you who want to stay with your relatives can do so for 1 day, and for the others, I can kick our little bro' from his apartment for one night and we can all crash there!

20th Morning, we head to Orchard Resort, just outside Pune on the NH4 for our final destination! We will be sharing the rooms on triple accommodation basis (3 people in one room).

Post lunch, since the check in time is 12 noon, we will have a formal session where we will all introduce ourselves and show what work we have been doing. Feel free to bring along quilts that you have made to show. Or you could put it together in a power point presentation to show everyone.

We will chill out along the poolside at nights... So bring along that crochet work you needed to finish or that hand quilting work or those hexies - I'm bringing mine!

On 21st in the morning session, we will have those training sessions. Some of us will be teaching others a few tricks... We have enough time to accommodate 6 people to teach giving them a MAXIMUM of 2 hours each.

Post lunch we all can work on making mini quilts with a common theme... :) 

On 22nd, we will get only a little time to sew, as we will be checking out at 10 am! It will mostly be me and Shilpa handing out the goodie bags while all of the others squeal in delight! But we'll do that over breakfast!

Whats in the goodie bag?

It could be anything... But I know it will be something you all will love! 

I am estimating the total cost of everything, including the food will be about Rs 5000 per person. People will have to pay for their drinks separately. I am including the cost of the dinner on the first night in this 5K. This is just an estimate, though. If there is any change I'll inform you.

After we check out, we will be going into the town for some shopping! We'll be buying fabric and notions! Got you excited, didn't I? No, I'm not including your shopping expenses in the 5K! We will spend the remaining of day wandering around in the town! Maybe even eating off stalls along he road and sipping ice-golas!

So all those who have registered! Gear up to enjoy yourself for 3 days! And all those who cannot make it this time, get ready to be jealous and think, "Why didn't I go?"

Cheers!!!

Is my quilt underpriced? Or Overpriced?

A lot of you might be wondering how much should you sell your quilts for.

How much can you sell a quilt for? Here in Sangli, the maximum price I have fetched for a quilt is Rs. 1500. But do you know that the quilt was made from 12 pairs of jeans cut down into 6" squares and measured a whooping 8'6" x 8'6"? It weighed almost 6 kg! Now you think it was underpriced... Don't you?

So what do we do?

Here's how I price mine.

Material Cost 

It is the cost of the fabric, batting etc required for the quilt, simple? 

Not.

You did not produce the fabric, did you? You had to move your butt from your chair, go to the market (either spending time - walking or money - fuel). You had to stock some fabric. You had to bargain for a discount! 

So how do you calculate that?

Add about 15 - 20% of of the cost against all this charges.

So let us say, a baby quilt requires about 4 meters of fabric costing Rs 100 per meter.

Plus a meter of the batting for Rs100 per meter again.

Your total material cost will be 500 + 75 = 575 (considering 15% surcharge)

Labour Cost

Does you bai work at your home for free? 

Does the Dudhwala smile and give you that bottle of milk for free? 

Then why should YOU work for free? The talented, superb quilter like you!

So, how much should you get per hour?

In US the basic hourly labour rate is 5$ for unskilled labour and about 15$ for quilters. In Rs it comes to about 750! But I know we're not going to get paid like that! So how about settling for Rs 100 per hour?

A baby quilt will normally take somewhere between 8 to 10 hours to complete! 

So that makes it Rs. 800 per quilt.

So what do you do? Sell that quilt for 575 + 800 =  1375?

No.

A big NO.

Didn't you not spend time designing it? It took a lot of calculations and working out! Your brain was buzzing beyond those 10 hours, wasn't it? Come on, all of you will agree that you were thinking about how best to quilt it when you were sleeping, weren't you?

Doesn't that count?

Of course that does.

And what about the money you spent to buy that machine ,thread, needles, interfacing and what not! Doent' that count too?

So consider another surcharge of  about 20% - this will also include your profit!

So the final price will be 1375 + 275 = 1650.

And thats just for a baby quilt! About 36" x 42". Considering you are using local material!

Now think twice before you put that price tag on your quilt!

Here are a few more ways to price it.

1. Ink  & Spindle's formula  - did you know that the calculate by this method the cost of the same quilt (as above) will be Rs 5500!

2. If you follow eHow's method it would be priced at about 2650!

3. If you follow Quilting Business' advice you would be selling at about the same as ours. 

We have to be practical too. 

So use whichever formula you want, but dont forget to calculate the time required for you to make it. 

Enjoy Quilting!!!

Hugs from Shruti...

While everyone is talking about their first quilts, I though I'd write about it too...

All those who have kept me on a pedestal are going to feel like removing that from under my feet... Just warn me first, or I'll just fall down hard!

So... It was back in January 2010 (Its 2 amazing years already)... I had recently recovered from Chikungunya and was busy setting up my new venture of 'up'cycling things.

I stumbled upon the blog of Elizabeth Hartman and fell in love! With quilting.

Without a sewing machine and without ANY proper training, I started my first quilt.

I planned the quilt well in advance. Sketched it. Looked at it and already loved it.

These were some co-ordinating Pillow shams I got from D mart. This was my idea of an FQ bundle! They were poor quality utterly rough linens but I loved them at that moment.

I organized all my cut fabric. I did not have a rotary cutter and drew each piece on the fabric and cut with scissors.

And I hand sewed the blocks! All of them.

By this time, I had brought home my grandmother's sewing machine. It was a treadle machine, but I got it fixed with a motor.

I sewed the blocks together. Okay, I started sewing the blocks together and realized, I had made a huge mistake counting them! I was about 16 blocks short of my actual number! 

I just replaced those 16 blocks with white fabric squares! 

When the top was done, I just ironed on some of our photos onto those 16 squares. And it became a memory quilt. I finished it in time for our 5th Anniversary! (the 7th is coming up and I have not made anything for us!)

Here's my finished quilt.

Today, I see a lot of mistakes in it. But at that time, just completing it was so wonderful! Dont forget that for 6 months (till April) it took me an hour every morning just to be able to walk properly. All my joints would pain and I would dread mornings and evenings. Even today, my ankles pain after I sit for a long time in cold weather! Making this quilt was quite an achievement at that time and it really did boost my confidence.

It is not a beautiful quilt, I make them much more better now, but it is the most loved one! And it will always occupy a position of pride in my heart as well as my home!

Lesson learnt from this quilt : NEVER EVER use linen and silk in the same quilt! And I mean NEVER.

 

Welcome from Josie!

Welcome to the Indian Modern Quilter's Guild. We are a small but growing tribe...planning for world domination!  to unite the quilters in India. :-) My name is Jocelyn but, all my friends call me Josie. So, please call me so. I'm not a regular quilter. I've made 2 quilts till date and a few quilted mug-rugs. I'm what you call a crafter. I dabble in knitting,crochet, spinning ,sewing, quilting and most recently embroidery. I'll share my first quilt here now..

It is a simple nine-patch quilt that I designed on the go. I didn't follow any pattern for this. I was a newbie at sewing and quilting when I made this quilt. I have a vague idea about seam allowances and binding. But, the best part of being a newbie is that you are courageous ignorant enough to try advanced techniques without worrying about the possible difficulties. So, I did stitch-in-the-ditch quilting for the nine-patch blocks and I tried free-motion quilting on the yellow fabric. I didn't have a quilting foot and I'd known my machine for about a month. But, that didn't stop me.. I jumped right in with two feet and quilted it.

It came out alright. Not a front runner in a Quilt show..but, a simple quilt that my son can use. He still uses it after 2 and a half years. I learnt a few things when I made this quilt. The main lesson was in planning. I didn't have the size of the final quilt in mind when I started it. So, it ended up as a square quilt of size 66 X 66 inches. I realized that I'll appreciate the quilt better if I knew what size I'm making. Maybe, that's the OCD control-freak in me talking. ;-)

That's my lil one sitting on the quilt the moment I spread it on the floor for a snap. He was about 2 yrs old at that time. :-) Oh! He is munching on a banana. All the troubles you go through in creating something vanishes when your loved one appreciates it. Doesn't it?! I'll talk about my second quilt another time. I do have a craft blog where I talk about the things I make. Do visit me there too. I'm glad to be a part of this Guild and hope to meet other quilters in India.

-Josie

Welcome from Amalie

I have not been quilting very long so I will share the first and so far only quilt I have made. I do not own a sewing machine yet, so all I make I hand quilt over paper to keep it fixed. This quilt was a gift for a very special person or persons, a good friend and her newborn daughter.

My first quilt started with these fabrics.

Came to look like this after I fixed the fabric on the paper templates.

The front of the quilt ended up like this.

And the end result with a purple fleece back and bating look like this.

After making this quilt I was completely hooked on making more quilted things. So I have made a few balls for kids since.

Welcome from Brinda!

Welcome to the Indian Modern Quilter's Guild! This is a space where we will share our experiences while we cut, snip, sew, quilt and create our very special masterpieces, and ofcourse become friends! Since this is the first day of our very special blog lets all share one piece of work as a way of starting, a piece that has had some special meaning for us. I am sharing the picture of a quilt I made for my daughter's wedding anniversary. Its a crazy quilt, and I had so much fun making it. I tried to capture her special moments including memories of Kolkata, as she was brought up here and now lives away!

My favourite block was the one of Victoria memorial....Really had to use all my imagination to create this one!

The one that proved a challenge and took lots of time was the one of St. Paul's Cathedral

Our grand daughter Sufi was born that year, our own pot of gold....so I made this block to celebrate her birth!