WINNERS!

Time to announce the Winners

Winner # 1 : Fox Trail Charm Pack is Vidya Parthasarthy

Winner # 2 : Rotary Cutter & Blade is Aliya Mir

Winner # 3 : Erin McMoris Fabric is Madhu Mathur

Winner # 4 : Birds on a Swing is Tina Katwal

Winner # 5 : Custom Mini-quilt is Sonalee!

Congratulation to the winners! 

Your gifts will be on their way soon.

Sonalee, we need to do some talking so that I can make a mini-quilt for you....

Cheers!!!

A milestone!

When we started back in September - that isn't that long back - we - Me, Shilpa &Vidya (the brilliant lady behind our new poster!) the ONLY 3 members of IMQG, had hoped of reaching a milestone of 100 members in one year!

Diwali 2012 was my personal target for 100 members.

But today, even before we have seen the end of March 2012, we are nearing that target!

How does it feel?

Awesome.

Proud.

Happy.

Delighted.

Crazy.

and a lot more that words cannot express.

So we're going to celebrate our century (our first one, as much awaited by all our members as much we awaited Sachin's 100th) with a giveaway.

Right now, I mean at the moment I'm typing this, we are at 93 members.

I will unveil the 5 prizes that you can win one at a time, every time a new member is added after 95. (The first one will be unveiled when we have added our 96th member). And exactly 2 days after we add our 100th member, we will draw the winners.

Each image will be replaced by info and image of the prize IN THIS POST.

#One
Revealed March 26
Fox Trails Charm Pack

A beautiful and fun fabric with prints that you'll adore... Includes 25 5" squares!

#Two

Revealed March 28

An Olfa Rotary Cutter (45 mm) along with 2 spare blades.

Yup! You'll get that cute case to keep your blade safe too!

#Three

Revealed March 28

One Yard of Weekends Go By Bike in Gray by Erin McMorris!

You'll be getting one yard of this fabulous fabric!

#Four

A pair of birds on a swing made by me

And the bumper grand prize

#Five

A custom designed wall quilt just for you by me!

You tell me what your likes are and I'll work around them to make a custom quilt for you!

How do you enter?

Try to guess the prizes. Make your wildest guesses. Leave a comment here.

10 guesses per person.

You HAVE to be a member of the IMQG to be eligible.

ONE person for each prize will be chosen by random draw from amongst the CORRECT ANSWERS.

Each person wins ONLY ONE PRIZE. 

If the same name is drawn again, I'll skip it an choose another one. That will be fair to everyone.

Start entering your guesses, right away!

Cheers!!!

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!!!

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.