Wednesday, April 24, 2013

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 LottoBee 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

Monday, April 8, 2013

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

Monday, February 25, 2013

February Recap

In spite of nasty wintry weather we had another wonderful meeting - most of it spent oohing and ahhing over our handiwork. And thanks to Carolyn here are pictures along with thoughtful commentary!

Showcase:

Michelle did this amazing quilt, the colors transfer
to the little squares as they move across. It reminds me of film.
Michelle made these amazing courthouse
step blocks with little strips of fabric.
Natalie made this cute bag for her sister. Great prints and colors!
Natalie showing off her Thanksgiving dress she made.
Loved those cap sleeves!
Amazing picture quilt of Diana Ross made by Gloria!
Done with applique and stitching
Rose showing off her Starburst Quilt from the Happy
Quilting QAL
.  Her first real quilt following a pattern.
Cindy had so much fun making the Scrappy Trip Along blocks that
she made a small quilt of it. She even quilted it herself, yay!
(She's hiding again!)
Carolyn showing off her Spinning Stars quilt, made with paper
 pieced blocks, for Project Quilting 
Circle Meets Square in Square quilt, another made for
Project Quilting by Carolyn.
Back of Circle Meets Square in Square quilt by Carolyn.
Front of the charity quilt for QuiltCon. We were sent blocks to makea
quilt for the Austin's Children Shelter. Rose and Carolyn made extra blocks
 to add to the ones that were sent. Diane came out with a great layout!
Diane did an amazing job quilting the
QuiltCon charity quilt.
Back of the charity quilt being sent to QuiltCon. Shannon, Bonnie
and Diane did an awesome job, the back could be a quilt in itself!


Sew In, Saturday 3/2/13:

We'll be working on our Scrappy Trip Along charity quilt at our Sew In.  Here are some of the blocks we have made - that's Zelda, my kitty, being nosey!



Kat made ten beautiful squares - thanks so much!  We also wish Kat well as she recuperates from surgery!

Please bring your sewing machine and any fabric you can donate for the back of the quilt or to make more blocks.  I'll be bringing the batting. We'll be using a Quilt as You Go method to finish the quilt. So if you're interested in this technique I hope you'll join us.  



For March Meeting:

We have another quilt planned.  This time it will be a rainbow quilt made up of monochromatic Wonky Log Cabin blocks like this:



This fabulous quilt was made by Elaine Lane and we'll be using her tutorial to make our wonky blocks.  

Make a monochromatic scrappy block in any color you like and finish it as an 8 1/2 inch square.  I know that I'm inspired to start sorting my scraps!  



Reminder:

The Quilt Fest of New Jersey takes place in Somerset this Thursday thru Sunday, Feb 28 thru March 3.  Cindy, Bonnie and I are car pooling to the conference on Friday and there's room for one more person.  Email Cindy if you would like to join us.

Diane