Of late, I have been so busy with the IMQG activities, that I have not had time to write anything here...
But here's a wonderful treat for you guys!
Here's the IMQG Meet!
For the first meet of a new guild that covered a whole country we did fantastic!
On the day before, all our friends arrived from different corners of the country...
We had 'lunch' at 4! Amidst heavy rains!
Here you can see from left to right - Shilpa (Pune), Elizabeth (Goa), Veena (Chennai), Brinda (Calcutta), Me (Sangli) and Sonalee (Mumbai)
Behind the camera was Tina!
After lunch we met up with the other girls at the venue and did a bit of planning for the next day, while the Bernina guys set up the awesome machines they provided us with!
Bernina India had provided us with a total of 15 machines for our use that included - the Bernette 12, 15, E56, E92c, Bernina 350PE, Bernina Aurora 450, Bernina 580.
It was a wonderful experience to work on the best machines in the industry!
I also brought a Bernina 330 home! But more about that in a later post.
We got together and had a meeting to take crucial decisions for the next day...
From left to right - Sonalee (Mumbai), Preeti (Pune), Sandhya (Dahanu), Elizabeth (Goa), Vidya (Pune) and me!
Post meeting, we went on to have an awesome dinner at Barbeque Nation one of the most happening retaurants of the town.
But the next morning was a different picture...
We decided to do something new to inaugurate the meet! So we got this gorgeous cake made by one of my friend's brother and had our chief guest cut it...
Our chief guest was one wonderful gentleman! Every woman in the room wanted to kiss him! He was the son of my brother and the youngest member present - Yash Pandit!
Well, he'd have loved to skip the knife altogether...
Thats the winner Sonalee working away on her block.
Next, we had a demonstration and hands on training for Free Motion Quilting by the Bernina NSP Usha Belose.
All the members then participated in the FMQ challenge sponsored by Bernina India. The winners won boxes of Mettler thread!
3 Winners were selected by Ajay and Usha. Based on their FMQ skills.
Here's me working on my FMQ piece!
Thats Brinda, who did a fantastic job with hers!
In the end we had happy girls surrounding the only two men without whom they would not have enjoyed!!!
It was a wonderful experience for me... There were a lot of firsts... There were a lot of mistakes too... But in the end, we were happy to have come together for the first time!
And we do hope we will have a more organized and a better planned meet the next time!
Cheers for IMQG!!!
But here's a wonderful treat for you guys!
Here's the IMQG Meet!
For the first meet of a new guild that covered a whole country we did fantastic!
On the day before, all our friends arrived from different corners of the country...
We had 'lunch' at 4! Amidst heavy rains!
Behind the camera was Tina!
After lunch we met up with the other girls at the venue and did a bit of planning for the next day, while the Bernina guys set up the awesome machines they provided us with!
Bernina India had provided us with a total of 15 machines for our use that included - the Bernette 12, 15, E56, E92c, Bernina 350PE, Bernina Aurora 450, Bernina 580.
It was a wonderful experience to work on the best machines in the industry!
I also brought a Bernina 330 home! But more about that in a later post.
We got together and had a meeting to take crucial decisions for the next day...
Post meeting, we went on to have an awesome dinner at Barbeque Nation one of the most happening retaurants of the town.
Was I tired? Well, I did get up at 4.00 am to pick up Elizabeth and worked late into the night to finish the newsletter... This picture will say it all...
But the next morning was a different picture...
We decided to do something new to inaugurate the meet! So we got this gorgeous cake made by one of my friend's brother and had our chief guest cut it...
Our chief guest was one wonderful gentleman! Every woman in the room wanted to kiss him! He was the son of my brother and the youngest member present - Yash Pandit!
Well, he'd have loved to skip the knife altogether...
Vidya, our most senior but the most enthusiastic member, published the first issue of our newsletter - dreamcatchers!
The inaugural address was followed by an exciting show and tell...
I chose to show my colorbox quilt and talk about what NOT to do when making a quilt... I also showed off some awesome stuff I have received in swaps!
Tina showed off the beatuful quilt she made at her Buda workshop...
Sonalee gave us a demo to paper piece hexies...
Brinda showed off her handpiecd beautiful memory quilt she made for her daughter's wedding! It is an excellent piece of crazy piecing and hand embroidery...
Elizabeth, the shy lady from Goa, showed off the awesome machin embroidery that she does! She also shared important info about getting subsidy while setting up a small business.
BTW, the wonderful 'S' handtowel that she's holding was one of the 3 that she made for me, Rohit and Aadi... Rohit got a 'R' and Aadi got a Nemo...
Kalpana, a fibre artist, showed off her excellent art quilts.
The show and tell session was followed by a quilting basics session by me...
Tina demonstrated rotary cutting basics...
After this the wonderful Usha Belose, NSP of Bernina India demonstrated the super Bernina 580 and other models to the participants, who then got to play with them for a while...
BTW I cannot remember the reason for my expression! And i know it looks quite funny in the photo!
We also had some fun giveaways that brought smiles to all the girls present!
We ended the day amongst a lot of 'ooh'ing and 'aah'ing! Not to forget cheering and giggling!
The second day was mostly comprised of all of us trying our hand at Free Motion Quilting. We also had a few chalenges for the participants!
The first challenege was sponsored by Fat Quarterly.
Since most of the participants were beginners, we had to make a drastic change to the program to make them comfortable. The members were asked to sew together 16 squares to make a 16 patch block. The winner was decided based on the accuracy of the seams and the overall presentation of the block.
Sonalee Suchismita won the challege closely followed by Vidya and Elizabeth.
Next, we had a demonstration and hands on training for Free Motion Quilting by the Bernina NSP Usha Belose.
This session was followed by a technical session by the owner of Bernina India, Ajay Gupta. He even had an opportunity to show us some basic trouble shooting!
All the members then participated in the FMQ challenge sponsored by Bernina India. The winners won boxes of Mettler thread!
3 Winners were selected by Ajay and Usha. Based on their FMQ skills.
Here's me working on my FMQ piece!
And here's the winner of the challenge - Vidya working on hers...
Thats Shipra... For a first time FMQr this girl showed awesome skill and dared to experiment!
Thats Brinda, who did a fantastic job with hers!
In the end we had happy girls surrounding the only two men without whom they would not have enjoyed!!!
It was a wonderful experience for me... There were a lot of firsts... There were a lot of mistakes too... But in the end, we were happy to have come together for the first time!
And we do hope we will have a more organized and a better planned meet the next time!
Cheers for IMQG!!!
