Announcing The Bearding Ladies Quilt Group!
Hey all, Christine reporting here! We are SO excited to
announce that we are starting a monthly quilt meet up at Sew L.A.!!! We will
gather the third Monday of each month from 6:30-9:30pm and talk quilts! It’s a
place to bring finished projects to show and tell, share your favorite quilting
tips, trade ideas and techniques, learn new skills, and get input on your work
in progress. The Bearding Ladies quilt group meetings are free and open to
everyone! Please join us!
So, you might be wondering, how did a quilt group get
started at Sew L.A., the land of the garment seamstresses? Well, here’s how it
went down.
First we had Rebecca Prange, our lone quilter in the bunch.
Then came Devon Iott, another quilter in the teacher line up. Next thing you
knew, Shaerie, Haley, Hollye, and myself were all quilting! I’m not sure what
happened! I know I’m enjoying a completely different style of sewing from my
usual garment construction, and perhaps that’s true for all of the other new
quilters in the house too. No matter what got us going, we are now all
quilters. It’s a slippery slope!
We offer multiple quilting classes each semester and between
all of the new quilters in the house and all of our quilting students, we
thought it was time to form a real quilting group. But to be honest, we’re a
little punk rock for anything too formal, so we decided on a few things up
front. First, we have mad respect for the LA Modern Quilt Group and its
founder, Alissa Haight Carlton. So first things first, I chatted with her to
make sure there was no stepping on turf, and like a real quilter, she was
excited that we were all bitten by the quilting bug and gave us her blessing.
(This is so West Side Story – we’ll have to snap and dance around our quilts!)
Next, we had to think up a name. Devon and Haley started
looking up quilting terms and after some back and forth, we all loved the word
bearding. What is bearding? Bearding is a term for when the batting comes
through to the right side of your quilt. It’s not a good thing, and it suited
the bad-girl vibe we were after for our posse. Pair bearding with the word ladies,
and well, it goes from a bad-girl vibe to something even worse. We were
smitten.
Of course, every group needs a good logo and mascot, so we
called upon Hollye, our resident graphic designer and she developed our bearded
lady, complete with beard (of course) and since we’re ladies, her beard is
topped off with a delicate bow. Again, we were in love. So with our name, logo,
and times set, it’s now time to get these going!
Please join us for the first of what will hopefully be many
quilt meetings, Monday January 21 from 6:30-9:30pm. We hope you come, bring
ideas of what you’d like this group to be, and of course, bring quilts, tips,
works in progress, and anything else you’d like! See you there!
