March Meeting Recap

Our March meeting saw a LOT of quilts! We shared our challenge projects for Jessica Levitt's Cascade fabric, plus the usual quilt-a-long blocks, bee blocks, and show and tell.

Most of our business is now contained in our newsletter. If you'd like to be in on all the latest, please sign up on the left sidebar! Members are already included on the email list. This is a totally different email list than updates from this blog!

What an awesome picture of most of our current bee members with the blocks they made for Teddi! I will post the individual blocks on the blog soon.

-We recapped both QuiltCon (February in Austin, TX) and QuiltFest of NJ XI (where we had an exhibit of modern quilts). Generous attendees of QuiltCon raffled off some swag (more to come at the April meeting!)

-Jessica's Cascade fabric challenge - more entries. The contest ends tomorrow! Members had to make a quilted item with her fabric. Thank you to Jessica and to Windham Fabrics for providing fat eighths and scraps of fabric!

Lori

 Jess S. - see other pics on my blog :)

 Andy

 Elaine

 Tatiana

 Kathleen

March Quilt-A-Long blocks:

 Great job everyone! Let's keep the momentum going in April! So many people are participating (even more than in the photo) - it's great! :)

-We held our 2nd Great Fabric Destash - members brought in fabric and notions that they wanted to trade or sell to other members. It was fun and I hope next time we have even more participants! We can hold another in the fall.

Show and Tell:

 Laura and her astounding 3-D butterflies (thank you again for all of these meeting pictures!)

 Liz and her beauteous Cotton and Steel

 Nicole and her cute Minecraft pillow

 Janneke and her lovely tulips

Lori and her bold, beautiful fabric mixing

Sonia and her thoughtful improv piecing

 Michelle and her stunning rainbow

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Please join us for our April Meeting!
Guests welcome, as always - please see the "About" tab on our website for details. First time guests are free! Please email us if you'll be attending.

Members, RSVP here

Tuesday, April 14, 2015
6:30 optional social/shop time, 7-9:30 meeting
Pennington Quilt Works, Pennington, NJ

-Swap - low volume fabrics (see info here - anyone can participate if you are present)
-Challenge: Try a new quilting technique and share (can be practicing on a scrap quilt sandwich - straight lines OR free motion - anything goes!)
-Bee
-Turn in purple flower blocks for Mott Hall Bridges Academy (due in May to Lori)
-Guild QAL - April blocks
-Show and Tell

See you soon!
Jess S.

April QAL BOM: "Bordered Star"

This month, we get to play with half square triangles (HSTs) and flying geese!

When making flying geese and half square triangles I stitch just outside my drawn line to create that "scant" area so when the fabric is ironed to the outside it lines up perfectly (or so it works for me....  your experience may vary).

 

For the flying geese, I always throw them under the ruler once stitched to check the dimensions tweaking (NOT to be confused with twerking) if necessary before moving on.

For the Center Block HSTs: Once you trim the dog ears you will have a 2 1/2" square.

 

In this block I carefully considered which direction my seams were ironed.  I decided before making the first block in this series that I want to uniquely quilt each one.  To that end I want my colored areas to pop with ditch quilting before I add the detail.  Ironing the seams toward the dark whenever possible sets the stage for the quilting process I have in mind.

Do you have a general quilting plan yet?  An all over design?  Different details for each block?  Same details for each block?  Quilting by checkbook?  It's never too early to start tossing some ideas around.

Quilt on!

-Neva

April Meeting and Low Volume Swap Info

Please join us for our April Meeting!
Guests welcome, as always - please see the "About" tab on our website for details. First time guests are free!

Tuesday, April 14, 2015
6:30 optional social/shop time, 7-9:30 meeting
Pennington Quilt Works, Pennington, NJ

-Swap - low volume fabrics (see info below - anyone can participate if you are present)
-Challenge: Try a new quilting technique and share (can be practicing on a scrap quilt sandwich - straight lines OR free motion - anything goes!)
-Bee
-Turn in purple flower blocks for Mott Hall Bridges Academy (due in May to Lori)
-Guild QAL - April blocks
-Show and Tell

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Low Volume Fabric Swap Info

Low volume fabrics are currently a modern quilting trend. Quilters like to use them as backgrounds, though they have many uses. You can learn much more about low volume fabrics and see pictures in this Craftsy article. We did a similar swap last year and it was very popular (about 30 people participated!)

If you'd like to participate in this fabric swap at the April meeting, please buy one yard of low volume fabric. For this swap, the fabric should have a white or off-white background, and gray, black, or white print on top (not too bold or busy). Here are some examples of acceptable prints (text prints that aren't too bold are good, too!)

 

• Cut your 1 yard of fabric into 6x10 inch bricks (you will have 24 once the yard is all cut). Please cut carefully and accurately.
• Bring cut fabric in a big plastic or paper bag with your name on it to the April meeting. You must be at the meeting to participate, or you can designate someone beforehand to bring your cut fabric and gather your new pieces. We prefer that you are present, though!
• You will get 24 other bricks of fabric to take home (depending on how many people participate - if we have more than 24, you won't get everyone's. If we have less than 24, you will keep some of your own).

We will use these low volume fabrics for a challenge due at the May meeting. Of course, you can use them beforehand, if you want, for a project - just please bring it to a meeting and show it off to us!
 

Thanks and have fun picking out your fabric!

-Jess S.

CJMQG Modern Quilt Exhibit at QuiltFest of NJ XI 2015

This year, we were honored to be asked back to the Quilt Fest of NJ for a second Modern Quilts exhibit. The show took place from March 5-8, 2015. We hope that our modern quilts gave attendees food for thought and that they inspired them to think outside the box!

We couldn't have participated without the help of our volunteers! Members voted anonymously on all submissions from the guild (using a scale that measured various elements of modern quilting with one likability question). These volunteers also set up and took down the exhibit. Thank you everyone for your help!

Here were all the quilts in our exhibit. Our members are so talented!

 "Swirling Stars" and "Radiation" (from left to right) - both by Neva Asinari

"Autumn Circles" by Sandy Mahaney (CJMQG bee quilt from 2014)

"Candy Coated Raindrops" by Laura Bennett and "Slices of Life" by Teddi Munslow

 "Low Volume Bars" by Sandy Mahaney

 "Somewhere Under" by Jessica Levitt and "Big Tube" by Janneke Van Der Ree

 "Loosen Up, Bookkeeper" by Krishma Patel

"Home" by Jessica Skultety

"Thoroughly Modern Quilt" by Jamee Pemberton

 "Grange" by Elaine Hagaman, "Untitled" by Janneke Van Der Ree, "A New Direction" by Elaine Hagaman

 "Untitled" by Kathy Stanish

"Scatter" by Jessica Skultety and "LOVE" by Lori Saporito

"Pinwheels" by Kathleen Schwartz and "Pixie Sticks" by Jessica Skultety

 "Juxtapose" by Krishma Patel and "Centered" by Jessica Levitt

"Untitled" by Jessica Levitt and "Dreaming of Japan" by Lori Saporito

Hope you enjoyed the virtual quilt show! Thanks again to Mancuso for the invitation. Be sure to check out our 2014 exhibit here.

-Jess S.

February Meeting Recap

With QuiltCon at the end of February and QuiltFest this weekend, I completely forgot about posting the Feb. meeting recap. There are some great pictures though, taken by Laura! The March newsletter will go out tomorrow (Monday) night. If you aren't part of our guild, you can still sign up for the newsletter at the top of the left hand sidebar. See the bottom of this post for the meeting reminder (it's this Tuesday)! 

-Introduction to WIP It Up contest for 2015 - all information is here.

-Scrap swap - bring a quart plastic bag stuffed full of scraps and go home with new ones! This was successful and we will do it again later in the year!

 
-Discussion/presentation: Color of the Year (Marsala)

-Treasurer Report - 2014

-Challenge: Jessica Levitt’s Cascade fabric challenge (final due date: March 31- bring to March meeting) - we have two finishes already!

-Discuss charity initiative – Lori S. - see newsletter for details

-Bee blocks for this month can be seen here.

-Guild QAL – February blocks - We've had a ton of participation so far! Can't wait to see the March blocks! More people were standing than sitting for this part of the meeting!

-Show and Tell

 

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Please join us for our March Meeting!  
Members, please RSVP here. Guests welcome! Please see our guest policy under the "about" tab at the top of this blog.
 
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Pennington Quilt Works
6:30 optional social/shop time; 7-9:30 meeting

-Recap QuiltFest of NJ and QuiltCon

-Return quilts from QuiltFest - if you cannot attend the meeting, you must arrange for someone else to pick up your quilt

-Challenge: Jessica Levitt - Cascade Fabric (due by March 31 - must be a quilted item)

-Activity/Swap: The Great Fabric Exchange - destash – trading, bartering or selling your fabric/books/notions. Bring small bills (use money at your own discretion - cash or checks) Please limit what you bring to an amount that could fit right in front of you on a table. :)

-Treasurer Report - 2014, part 2

-Bee

-Turn in wonky star blocks for the Knoxville MQG and purple flower blocks for Mott Hall Bridges Academy (due in May now) (see recent charity block email for details)

-Guild QAL - March blocks

-Show and Tell

See you then!
-Jess S.

Hey Hey!

HEY, HEY, CAN YOU SAY, "MY MARCH BLOCK IS FINISHED TODAY"?

 

If you can the YAY for you!!!!  We can't wait to see your block!

If you can't then slowly step away from the screen you are reading this from then RUN don't walk to your your sewing space and get started!  Our meeting is Tuesday!

 

-Neva