February Meeting Re-cap

Hello Ladies!  I hope that the beginning of the year is treating you all well.  I know these last couple of months have been eventful for me.

Starting off with our Queen Bee, Michelle.  Michelle shared with us a pretty soft yellow fabric and asked that we add a grey fabric to make a Grecian block for her.  She said that any grey is good, even with a pattern, as long as it reads grey.

Last month Queen Bee was Natalie, she asked for flying geese.  She received some really great blocks!

Last month we also received our new Modern Quilt Guild cards.  They are more sturdy than last year (yay).

The MQG is doing a new fabric challenge, this time it is with Michael Miller fabrics.  Those who wanted to join in signed up.  We will be getting our fabrics soon!

• The challenge runs from March 2014-June 23, 2014.
• Winners announced July 8, 2014
• Members may make anything they want as long as it is quilted!
• Add in any solid or Michael Miller printed fabric.
• You do not need to use all the fabrics given to you.

March 1 was our sew in date for the month.  We had a good turnout and had a lot of fun working on our projects.  I love sewing with friends.

Our Tula Pink blocks for this month are 2, 48, and 58.  Last month we had a great group of blocks shown!  I can't wait to see what everyone creates this month. 

We went around and shared our Riley Blake projects that were completed for the challenge.  Such a great variation of projects were made!

Sew and Share time...

Diane brought what she was going to share in January.  She made it with the Quilt Without a Pattern technique. 

Bonnie shared her beautiful fall birch tress quilt.  It is amazing how she is able to capture photos in quilts the way she does.

Kat shared with us a poofy quilt she is working on.  She has chosen such pretty fall colors for this quilt.  She also shared some quilty jewelry she picked up. Look at those blocks on her ring. 

Eileen shared with us this great maple leaves quilt that she created.  I love the leaves with the different backgrounds, they really stand out.

Carolyn shared her Project Quilting Sweet Treats quilt, lots of triangles.

Rose shared some blocks that she has been working on putting together.  I really like the one opposite block.  She also shared a great tote bag she created with fabrics that June shared with her at the last meeting.

 Denish shared with us two quilts.  One she created for herself, I love the colors in it.  It has in interesting pattern.  This next one is a quilt made with fabrics donated to the Cape May County Quilters for a charity quilt.  It is a great modern pattern that lets you mix all different fabrics into it without any standing out.

Helen shared a new tote bag she created along with a great quilt.

Look at all that super close quilting she did on it.  (Sorry for the poor photos, my camera died)

Joanie shared a few projects with us this month.  She created a coupon holder out of some great veggie fabrics.  Much better than the envelope that she used before (and made her hubby happy, too, haha) Joanie also created this great wall hanging for her kitchen.  And I love this little tote bag she came up with, too.

Brandy shared with us the back of the farm quilt that she had been working on.  (She was quilting this at the sew in, I hope she shares it this month!)  She also shared some experimentation she did with dying and coloring on fabrics.

Our next meeting will be on March 19.  Hope to see everyone there!

January 2014 Meeting Recap

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.

Once you press them, you can line them up and sew them together and trim them to the size desired.  What a great quick quick block!  Thanks Helen!

Our next meeting is February 19.  Hope to see you all there!  

Out with the old and in with the new!

The Old

The Riley Blake challenge closes tomorrow.  So please email pics of your finished quilts to me and I will post them on the MQG site. Can you guess who made each of the above entries?  You'll find out on Wednesday! 


The New

These are the yummy fabrics for the upcoming Michael Miller challenge .  I can't wait!  

See you on Wednesday!
Diane