Jersey Shore Modern Quilt Guild: February 2014

Hello all! A little behind on my recap for last month, sorry. Hope everyone's year is off to a good start.

It is a new year and there are some fun and exciting things happening with the MQG mama guild! Dues this year are $25 for returning members and $35 for new.

Last month we all brought blocks made with yellow, blue, and white to create nicu/pediatric quilts for the hospital. He have a great selection of blocks that were brought. Thank you to all who brought them.

We did have an update about donating to Jersey Shore Hospital, they asked if we would be able to create quilts, such as lap quilts, for other areas than the nicu such as pediatrics, maternity, dialysis, and chemo. Michelle also mentioned that another of her groups brought quilts to the dialysis center on rt 33 and handed them out to the patients. We can come up with an idea together about how we would like to continue this great project. There are many different ways of going about making the quilts, too. Helen mentioned a quick quilt of 10 inch blocks would sew up fast (5x10 blocks).

Congratulations to Jackie who wrote her first article in Generation-Q last month! I can't wait to see what fun articles she writes next!

For the first month of the Tula Pink QAL that we are doing, the first blocks chosen at random are 14, 69, and 90. I can't wait to see what colors you all are using for your blocks. This is a great scrap project, too, since it uses such small pieces.

We chatted about tags for the quilts that we will be making for donation. We can easily have some printed through spoonflower or go through etsy and have some printed on a spool or ribbon or even print out own and iron them onto ribbon or fabric tags. On the wonky log cabin quilt I also free motion quilted "JSMQG" into a corner.

So for a fun thing for our group we talked about a name tag swap. You would pick a name of another member and create a name tag for them. I know that there are great tutorials out there for name tags or you can make your own tag. Having name tags at the meeting will make it easy for out new members to know all of us as we continue to grow. If you would like to join in the swap please let me know so we can choose names at the meeting.

Natalie was our queen bee this past month. She asked for a flying geese block measuring 12.5". She handed out Architectures by Carolyn Freelander to use in the block.

We have a tentative sew in date of March 2. Diane will be checking on the date to make sure that the building is free. It will be 10-6.

We had some great sew and shares this past month! I love to see all the projects our members create.

Natalie whipped up this great quilt. The muted colors really gives it a great a retro vibe. The back of the quilt is another quilt on its own!

Mary created this quilt using a craftsy class, Pattern Free Quilting. Those colors really pop!

Bonnie showed of her bag that she added a pocket to. Seriously, a great idea for all those free bags with advertising on them!

Kat only brought this little tiny quilt to share with us this month ;). I love the colors and all the flying geese. (One of my favorite blocks!)

Eileen brought in a sampler quilt that she recently completed to share with us. The back is a greay and really lets the quilting stand out. Her colors are so cheerful.

We had some visitors Camaco Quilt Guild from Cape May. Danielle (I hope I have the right name!) shared with us some of her great quilts starting with this beautiful sunflower.

She moved onto this great batik creation that she was still working on. Along with this awesome Christmas wall hanging that she is really getting a head start on ;).

These trees were made with thread painting, just beautiful!

Jackie shared with us this really fun rainbow quilt top that she created. She used all different 2.5" strips to make this fun quilt top. I can't wait to see it all quilted.

Denise made this great cute valentine mini quilt. She used a freezer paper pattern to create it.

Helen made the same quilt, except she made hers larger. So much fun to see the same quilt interpenetrated different ways!

Helen also created this awesome bird quilt, called Happy Birds With Balls. She made the balls removable so the quilt can hang happily all winter long. SHe also created this great infinity scarf with a minky center. I bet it has come in handy with all the snow we have gotten lately!

Brandy finished up her table runners that she was working on before our last meeting. She also finished up another quilt top! Along with a set of half square triangle blocks.

Helen shared with us how she created her block for the charity quilts. She made a quick block of half square triangle by using just two pieces of fabric. Helen began by cutting two squares at 13 inches square, one blue and one yellow.
She then placed the squares, right sides together and sewed around all 4 edges with a quarter inch seam. Once sewn, she cut through the square on the diagonal so the sewn sides become the diagonal of the 4 half suqare triangles.