Minutes from last month's meeting...

Meeting of 10/21/15

Queen Bee: A couple of Blocks were brought for Rose, our September Queen, and many members have some catching up to do. The blue and white star blocks that did come in for Rose were really nice! Our October Queen Kat was unfortunately unable to attend.

Patchwork City Quilt-A-Long: Phyllis, Mary, & Eileen had lovely blocks to show - Eileen is working in a colorful range of cotton and steel fabrics, Mary in neutrals and blues, and Phyllis in a range of blues, pinks, whites and greys! We applaud their efforts!

QuiltCon Charity Quilt: A few finished improv blocks for the Quiltcon Charity Quilt were shown! They are colorful and coming together wonderfully!!!!  Scraps were returned and can be used to piece the final quilt if necessary.

Charity Update: Deb Loeb brought a placemat for our charity project and Sherre donated a placemat and quilt.We need 21 quilts for our donation to HABCORE in Red Bank. HABCORE is a group which assists military and displaced people with transitional housing. Placemats are still needed for our next donation. Batting is available and stored at the Art Center for charity quilts... Ask Diane if you need it.

Business: Deb H. has taken over as WebMistress and is doing an excellent job of writing lively content and engaging our members with news and inspiration throughout the month!

At the November meeting we will be accepting self-nominations for officer positions in the guild and officers will be voted in at the December meeting and those elected shall take office in January.

The Sew-ins for November and December have been cancelled by the Arts Center. We need to find an alternate location to sew. We also discussed the fact that we are still requiring 6 participants to hold a sew-in.

The guild has started a Pinterest page. Anyone who wishes to be invited to join must email Deb or Diane and they will add them. If any members would like to add a board titled JSMQG on their own Pinterest pages Deb will find pins and move them over to the group page.

The possibility of moving our meetings and sew-ins was discussed and Natalie intends to talk to the VFW Commander soon.

A sunshine committee was discussed and appropriate gift amount. We should establish a committee to send cards and gifts when our members are in need.

Bonny and Deb went to South Shore Stitcher's quilt show and have pictures to post.

Carolyn and Rose recently went to see Pat Sloan at Quilting Possibilities

Pincushion Swap: We are planning to have a Pin Cushion Swap in December. Deb brought nut shells and passed them out for filling the cushions. Anyone who wishes to participate should sew a modern pin cushion in any size and shape, wrap it, and bring it to the meeting in December. We will distribute the gifts in a manner similar to what we did for the Tote Swap except we will leave them wrapped til the end!  We will have a party and food sign-up sheet will be emailed so we have an idea of what everyone is bringing.

Coming Events: Central Jersey Retreat - November 13-15 - Shannon announced that she has a room and intends to use it well and enjoy her sewing time and has welcomed others to join her!

Show and Tell:

Joani showed her "On the Road" quilt. She put together a bright and beautiful quilt top using cuties and fat 1/8's of batiks on a sunny light background that she put together on her extended road trip - adventures of which were relayed at the meeting. She was also inspired by the speaker at the Camaco meeting this summer, Jessica Skultety who took the fear out of Modern Quilting and opened Joani's mind to see that the definition of "Modern Quilting" was broader than she originally thought... With this inspiration along with that of Diane's improv queen bee block Joani created her Morse Code Masterpiece... The background is an improv pieced area of blocks in various light neutral fabrics with a colorful message in morse code which reads... "When life gives you scraps make a quilt." 

Brandy brought 2 economy blocks in greys and pinks made from the adorable Michael Miller Alpaca fabric that was donated via Eileen's efforts for charity... Brandy is two cute blocks closer to a charity quilt....

Michelle has been busy with her modern projects! She brought 2 quilts and a student to the meeting! One quilt is a baby quilt for her husband's niece Skylar who is two weeks old and has a colorful and beautiful quilt with her name on it... literally! It has a white background with bright Michael Miller fabrics leftover from the Michael Miller challenge! They are colorful appliqued circles in pinks, yellows, oranges, greens and turquoise! She also brought a quilt that she constructed from her Tula Pink City Blocks primarily bright greens on a vibrant blue background.

Shannon has been slow stitching away working to hand quilt and embellish her hand dyed mermaid panel.

Mary had a sparkling lap quilt to show in black, white and silver with varying polka dots pieced together in a really cool pattern of stripes and squares from Michael Miller Glitz fabric and she also brought a Charity Quilt top in blues and purples that she put together using more of Eileen's charity procurement fabrics in Michael Miller Fairy Frost!

Phyllis has been super busy as usual piecing together a bunch of oversize improv blocks from her scraps.... she is working with many variations of improv blocks in various colors, shapes and sizes.She also brought a large colorful quilt top in a rainbow of colors moving across the quilt. She pieced multiple colors of butterfly blocks onto a background of white moving across the quilt and in a diagonal from top to bottom and covering the entire color spectrum.

Carolyn has been working on more projects for Project Quilting. She showed a mini-quilt made of flying geese pieced on curves in various shades of turquoise and blue moving across a neutral background of cream on cream patterns of.... you'll never guess... flying geese.... she is committed to her flock of geese and exceptionally skilled at her craft. She was playing with free motion quilting of a feathering pattern which was executed wonderfully!

Carolyn also brought a quilt of interlocking squares pieced from triangles of silver and pewter on a white background that she made for her sister's upcoming wedding. She embroidered their names and wedding date into the quilt and was forced to gift it early and unbound at her sister's wedding! I'm sure it was as greatly appreciated unfinished as it will be finished!!!

Sherre brought a full bag as usual.. Her Mary Poppins bag was brimming with beautiful projects both finished and in-progress. She brought a modern quilt of colorful squares pieced to appear in 3D on a white background. She also brought a "mystery" quilt top in apricot, white and turquoise in a star pattern as well as a multicolored quilt of white squares framed in multicolor strips which move across the quilt on a diagonal... Also in her bag of tricks was a shop sample for Needles and Pins and a Pat Sloan Mystery Quilt in pinks and greys pieced in a pattern of various blocks featuring various triangles and stars.

Happy sewing!

Brandy