Sending our love + support to Boston

Two of our fellow modern quilt guilds have asked that we share our talents.

We are all still confused/upset (you name it!) by the recent senseless bombing of the Boston Marathon.  The Boston MQG + the Vancouver MQG would like to show those affected by the event that we care!  Here are the details of their projects:

make 12 1/2" h x ?" w blocks in yellow/blue/gray fabrics

make 8" h x 6" w flag in cheerful colors

Here's what I've made:

If you would like to make a block or flag please bring it to our May 8th meeting and we will submit them all together.  You may always send them on your own. The flags for to Boston with Love are due no later than May 21st and the blocks for Quilts for Boston are due May 24th.

Diane

April Recap

Thanks everyone for being so patient and understanding when we were locked out of our room at the Arts Center!  We landed in another studio albeit smaller than Room 23.

I also want to thank Carolyn for taking over our blog Showcase and for updating pictures on our flickr site.  Heaven knows a photograper I'm not.  And Carolyn's captions are always more interesting than mine!  

By the way, please feel free to join our flickr site and add any photos of your quilts or works in progress.  It's not only for pics from our meetings.  

SHOWCASE

 Mary, our newest member, brought this great quilt that she had made out of batiks.  It is similar to a french braid pattern and so pretty.

 Diane showed off her awesome blue pinwheel quilt, looks like a storm in the ocean to me.  She also brought in a pretty heart applique quilt (that I didn't get a picture of :( ).  It was interesting to see how the quilting makes a difference in how poofy it is when using the same batting.

 Bonnie brought in this log cabin quilt that she is working on.  She decided to use up old orphan blocks for the back, but then decided she likes the back so much it could be another top.

 Kat brought this awesome disappearing 4 patch quilt.  It was made entirely of batiks.

 Carolyn brought two quilts to share, one called Fracture and the other is for her Aunt Carol, called Blue Wave.

Rose didn't do much sewing, but she did do some crochet.  She made Carolyn this pretty blanket for her birthday.

GUILD BUSINESS

We are officially joining the National Modern Quilt Guild, MQG.  Our guild dues to MQG for this year are $75.  Individual dues will be $25 and will be collected at our June meeting.  The extra money will be used to buy supplies for charity quilts.  Many thanks to Natalie for volunteering to be a co-signer along with me on our guild's banking account. 

Quilting Bee

Now for some fun news!  We are starting a monthly Quilting Bee.  At the end of the bee we will each have enough blocks for a complete quilt.  Here are the rules.

1. Each month there is a different Queen Bee.  That person tells the rest of the members what block to make which will be due at the next meeting.  The Queen may limit the colors of the block, or want it scrappy, or provide specific fabrics to be used.

2. Blocks must be modern.  We are a modern quilt guild after all. :-)  Please keep them simple for our newbies.  

3. You must commit to being a member of the Bee and making one block per month. 

4. Here are the randomly assigned Queen Bee months.  Except for Cindy who is brave enough to start us out in May, with blocks for her due in June (May/June).

• May/June - Cindy
• June/July - Mary
• July/Aug - Diane
• Aug/Sept -  Carolyn
• Sept/Oct  - Rose
• Oct/Nov - Kathleen
• Nov/Dec - Bonnie
• Dec/Jan - Gloria
• Jan/Feb -Natalie
• Feb/Mar -  Michelle    (Shannon, Jackie and Rachel - there's still time to join.)

5.  For inspiration check these out: Block Lotto, Bee Modern Too, and Bee Happy. 

  

Announcements

1. The Quilt Alliance is having a contest to celebrate their 20 year anniversary.  The contest theme is "Twenty" - the numeral, the concept and the word.  First prize is a Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen machine quilting system.  All entries must be 20"w x 20"h.  The deadline for submission is June 1, 2013.

2. The Brooklyn Museum has an exhibit "Works by Hand: Hidden Labor and Historical Quilts."  The above Tumbling Blocks quilt is circa 1865-70.  It  looks pretty modern to me!  The exhibit runs through September 15, 2013.

3. The Modern Quilt Guild's first SewDown will be in Philadelpia, September 6-8, 2013.  Reservations will open in early May.

4. We are still collecting monochromatic wonky log cabin blocks for a charity quilt.  This quilt was made by Elaine Lane and you may use her block tutorial.  Please finish your block as an 8 1/2 inch square.

5.  Our next monthly Sew-In is May 4th, 1- 4 pm, at Fabric Inspirations.  Bring anything you would like to work on or need help with.  

See you then!

Diane

March Recap

At the start of our meeting we played around with our half square triangles, made for a charity quilt, to see all the different patterns we could make with them: 

Our choice for the charity quilt

Carolyn has graciously volunteered to quilt this charity quilt for us!  We can't thank you enough!

Showcase:

Rose's Starburst Quilt-A-Long top - great job!

Quilt Bonnie made to practice free motion quilting -

back of quilt shows the fabulous results.
(sorry these pics are blurry)

Another beautiful quilt by Bonnie.

Bonnie shows us her brilliant way to use free tote bags -
cover the unwanted logo with a quilt block!

Carolyn's entry for Quilting Possibilities Challenge -

and quilt back.

Adorable baby quilt by Carolyn -

and close-up of newsprint background.

Rose's disappearing Four Patch

Guild Business:

The majority of the meeting was spent looking at the pros + cons of our guild joining  the national Modern Quilt Guild (MQG).  The MQG has undergone a major restructuring - just check out their new website and blog.  We'll continue the discussion at this weeks meeting.

Hope to see you then!

Diane