December Meeting Recap

Our December meeting was jam-packed! Most of our guild business has moved to our monthly newsletter through MailChimp, which is free. Members, if you haven't received a newsletter yet from December, please email me.

Upcoming events:

• January Meeting - Tues., Jan. 13, 2015 - 6:30 (optional social/shop time), 7-9:30, Pennington Quilt Works (see more at the bottom of this post)
• Hopewell Train Station Sewcial – Sun., Jan. 18  - FULL – email centraljerseymqg@gmail.com to get on the waitlist
• Cloud 9 Fabrics – Michelle Engel Bencsko – Lecture and Organic Fabric/Quilt Trunk Show - Saturday, January 31 from 1-2 pm at Pennington Quilt Works - free for members, $5 guests
• February Meeting - Tues., Feb. 10, 2015 - 6:30 (optional social/shop time), 7-9:30, Pennington Quilt Works
• Quilt Fest of NJ XI (and our Modern Quilts exhibit!) - March 5-8, 2015, Garden State Exhibit Center
• Hopewell Train Station Sewcial - Saturday, March 21, 10-4:30 (unofficial time)
• Mid-Atlantic Mod Retreat– April 23-26  

 

Meeting:

We voted on a new Guild Quilt-A-Long/Block of the Month for 2015. All the info is here (and at the top of the blog under "2015 Guild Quilt-A-Long"). We are so excited to start! Please bring your fabric picks and/or your January block to the January meeting. You could also complete the Jan. and Feb. blocks for the Feb. meeting, and one for each month afterwards. 

Our Dec. meeting marked the end of our 2014 Guild QAL using Modern Mondays. Please bring in your quilts when you finish them so we can see them!

-Discussion: Favorite sewing classes/resources online - We used the projector and our laptops to explore recommendations from members. All links have been updated under the "links" tab at the top of the blog. Enjoy!

-Challenge: Bring in a gift you are making for the holidays. Here's Elaine's stockings and my quilt for my niece:

- 2nd round of the CJMQG bee - members brought in blocks for Tatiana's quilt.  

Teddi's block, above, and Neva's, below

-Show and Tell

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 January Meeting/Party

Welcome to the CJMQG's fourth year!

 Tuesday 1/13/15 - 7:00-9:30 @ Pennington Quiltworks
(6:30 - optional shop/social time)

Guests welcome, as always! See our guest policy in the "about" tab.

-Elections for 2015 Officers. Be there to cast your vote and celebrate the new board!
-Quilt-o (quilt bingo) with prizes from Pennington Quilt Works! Thanks, Jan!
-Secret Quilter Gift Exchange/Swap
-Jessica Levitt's Fabric Challenge Intro
-Bee
-New Guild Quilt-A-Long for 2015 (bring fabric selection and/or first block). See info here: http://centraljerseymqg.blogspot.com/p/2014-guild-bom.html
-Show and Tell

Please note that the January newsletter will be sent to your email through MailChimp a few days before the meeting. Please let me know if you haven't received anything from MailChimp yet.
 

Happy New Year! See you in January!

Jess S.

Reminder: December Meeting

Please join us for our December meeting!
Tuesday, Dec. 9
6:30 pm social/shop time (optional)
7-9:30 meeting time
Pennington Quilt Works, Pennington, NJ

Guests welcome! Email us and let us know you are coming.

Members, RSVP here.

-Discussion: Favorite sewing classes/resources online and in person - you may bring your laptop to follow along

-Challenge: Bring in a gift you are making for the holidays

-Officer Nominations

-Work on your Secret Quilter Exchange project - due in Jan.

-Wrap up 2014 Guild QAL

-Bee

-Show and Tell

See you then!

-Jess S.

November Meeting Recap

Our November meeting was packed full with activities, news, fabric, and of course, quilts!

Upcoming Events:

 

 -Submit quilts to QuiltCon

by November 30, 2014 

Click here for registration form

-December Meeting 

Tuesday, December 9, 2014, 6:30 (optional shop/social time), 7-9:30

Pennington Quilt Works

See bottom of post for details

-Dues for next year - bring to December meeting preferably to renew your membership! It's $50 for the year, and this goes towards our challenges, meeting lessons/events, charity projects, guild retreats, and to the international Modern Quilt Guild. If you have any questions, please email the account!

-January Meeting 

 Tuesday, January 13, 2015, 6:30 (optional shop/social time), 7-9:30

Secret Quilter gift exchange and officer elections

 -January Sewcial (free!), Hopewell Train Station, 10am-5pm

Sunday, January 18, 2015

3 out of 20 spots remaining - members RSVP here.

Sat. March 21 - 10-4:30

-Cloud 9 Fabrics – Michelle Engel Bencsko – Lecture and Organic Fabric/Quilt Trunk Show 

Saturday, January 31, 1-2 pm, Pennington Quilt Works, Pennington, NJ

Free for 2015 CJMQG members, $5 guests

-Mid-Atlantic Mod Sewing Retreat

Doubletree Hotel, Lancaster, PA

April 23-26

Details here - general registration - Nov. 30 @ 7pm

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General Announcements:

  

-Event section on the Forum online (Bigtent) – please post any sewing related events you are involved with/hear of. You can announce them at meetings, too.

- Please enjoy our giveaway table and feel free to donate. However please don't bring very large items and please only bring quilter's cotton fabric (or the kind of designer home décor or laminate etc. sold in quilt shops).

-Meetings start with a shop/social time from 6:30-7! No obligation to come, but this is a great time to catch up with friends, get to know others, and shop at PQW!

-I'm experimenting with MailChimp, an email service, for guild updates in addition to Bigtent (possibly an all-inclusive newsletter kind of thing). You should be getting an email from me soon!   

-The Great Fabric Trade from last meeting was successful and we'd love to see more people participate next time. We will do it again in the spring, so set aside your destash goods for the future!

   

-End of year survey – will go out through email and link on Bigtent. Please start to think about what you'd like to do next year!

  

-Please respond to the email about volunteering to vote for our quilt exhibit and the Quilt Fest in March. The voting committee will vote in mid-December before the holidays.

-Our November retreat was so much fun - see blog post here!

  

-Charity quilts went to the Center for Great Expectations - see blog post here!

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Meeting:

-Ice breaker – We found out whether there were families of sewists out there, or lone wolves (a bit of both - and many learned from their grandmothers!). 

-We discussed officer positions and nominated members for those positions (President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer). Nominations will also take place at the December meeting, and elections will take place at the January meeting. If you have any questions, feel free to email the account!

Challenge: We collected 8" x 8" blocks for our guild's QuiltCon Charity Quilt. Guess what? The top is already pieced!

 

Designed and pieced by Jessica Skultety

Discussion:  Scrap sewing/storage - What are your favorite solutions for sewing with scraps?
How do you store them?

Activity: Fabric and color play with Jessica Levitt

 

- 2nd round of the CJMQG Bee – Lee's quilt blocks

  

-Show and Tell

Lori S.:

 Jess S.:

 Elaine:

 

 

 Neva:

Jess L.:

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December Meeting

• Discussion: Favorite sewing classes online and in person – bring laptop to follow along 
• Challenge: Bring in a gift you are making for the holidays 
• Officer Nominations  
• Work on your Secret Quilter Exchange project – due in Jan.
•  Wrap up 2014 Guild QAL 
• Bee  
• Show and Tell

Looking ahead:

January Meeting

• Activity: Bring in your Secret Quilter Gift Exchange! 
• Challenge: Receive fabric for Jessica Levitt's Cascade fabric challenge - due in March - you can still sign up (email us) 
• Officer Elections  
• Bee 
• Introduce new guild QAL 
• Show and Tell

Happy Thanksgiving! :)

-Jess S.

Guild Weekend Retreat

This past weekend, guild members gathered at the Hyatt House in Bridgewater, NJ for a retreat! We usually gather for a retreat 1-2 times a year.We stayed from Friday to Sunday, and several members slept over for the weekend. I think it's safe to say that we all got something done, in between eating, drinking, chatting, basting, pressing, piecing, and quilting. We put our guild design walls to good use, too!

Neva was kind enough to take some great pictures of the attendees. Thanks, Neva!

Here's (left) Neva, Tatiana, Laura, Sonia and Teddi with their clutches! Sonia taught a free mini class on how to make them. Jessica L. also taught a free class on making folded star fabric ornaments. This was an addition to our retreats that we'll surely return to!

On day 1, Friday, we shared the ins and outs of Instagram with guild members. You can see all of our tags from the retreat under the hashtag #cjmqg.

Stephanie was our guest from the Philly MQG! It was so fun getting to know her.

 I did a lot of pressing and chain piecing! This is my all-voile quilt, which Jess L. and I basted on a table together... fun times!

Tatiana especially loved making zip pouches! She also showed us her beautiful quilt from the Jacquie Gering workshop this summer.

 This is Linda B.'s Michael Miller Challenge from earlier this year. Isn't it lovely?

 Kristina B. worked on some cute embroidery and her Swoon blocks.

 Sue worked on a pretty purple quilt for herself!

 Teddi was hard at work on this gorgeous applique for her future grandson:

 Kathleen H. was sewing up tiny HSTs!

 We had a lovely visit from Elizabeth, Laura's 6-month-old daughter. Laura sewed with us on Friday, too!

 Neva worked on a bunch of projects, including this block from this year's Pile O' Fabric Quilt A Long. How striking is this hanging quilt?

Jess worked on her amazing modern medallion.

 Terri hand sewed hexagons!

And last but certainly not least, Michelle worked on quilting this lovely rainbow quilt.

 Here's a sneak peek of our guild quilt for the Quiltcon Charity Quilt Challenge. I designed the quilt and pieced the whole thing this weekend. Members brought us blocks earlier in the week at our November meeting!

-Jess S.