October Meeting Invitation

Please join us for the October Meeting!

Guests welcome, as always! Please see our guest policy here.

Members can RSVP here.

Tuesday, October 13

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

-Demo: Reverse Machine Applique with Neva

-Challenge: Make something (or show something) that uses only two colors (can be different shades)

-Recap: PNQE exhibit/give back all of your quilts!
-Recap: Quilters Take Manhattan

-Swap - Scrap dump/swap (bring a gallon bag or two of your scraps and swap for others - must be larger than a 2" square)

-Start the third round of the CJMQG Bee!

-Guild QAL – October blocks

-Show and Tell

-Sign up for the Nov. retreat!

See you then!

-Jess S.

September Meeting Recap

At our September meeting:

Swap: We had a fabric postcard swap! Susan taught us about her process last meeting, and we used it to create some beauties. Thanks to all who participated!

Bee: Members gave Lori her bee blocks. Lori gave them black and white fabric, a color, and free reign to create any block them wanted. Check out all that creativity and individuality! 

Challenge: Nicole and Jess shared their Cirrus Solid Mini Quilt Challenges, sponsored by Cloud9 Fabrics. Check out the rest of the minis here.

 

 

Charity Quilt: We handed in improv blocks for our guild's QuiltCon Charity quilt, spearheaded by Laura B. Thanks, Laura!

Lori also shared the quilt we made for the faculty at Mott Hall Bridges Academy. Thanks to Lori for all of her work organizing this.

Discussion: We shared our favorite fabrics ever and why!

 Tatiana's wasn't the sheep but the lining of her bag - a light tan linen.

 My favorite is this large print from Anna Maria Horner. I want to use the rest of what I have as a backing.

 Laura B. is a huge Lotta Jansdotter fan!

QAL: Members shared their blocks for August and September. Great job with those improv curves!

 

Show and Tell:

 Meg shared this special, touching quilt that the Quilt Alliance recently made for her.

 Kathleen shared this lovely hand-quilted beauty.

 One of our guests, Maggie, shared some of her work. This is two people arguing over the sound that lasers make! How cool is that?

 Jamee shared this stunning kaleidoscope quilt.

 Lori can't stop making selvage notebook covers!

And last but not least, Neva shared sewing themed quilt she finished and quilted from Mid-Atlantic Mod retreat this year. It was a collective effort of about ten sewists. Beautiful!

See you in October!

-Jess S.

October Block - CJMQG QAL

WHO'S DOWN WITH PAPER PIECING?

I SAY CJMQG IS DOWN WITH PAPER PIECING!

(stomp, stomp,clap, clap, arm slap, arm slap, snap, snap, clap, clap, leg slap, leg slap, clap, snap)

And............  we're back to paper piecing!  You've had a chance to play with this technique a few times during this quilt-a-long so you are a pro by now!  

If you follow the suggested instructions both "A" blocks will use the same colors as will "B".  Take your time to decide which colors you want next to each other.

Once I chose my colors I pre-cut the fabric for both blocks before I began sewing.

We are getting close to the end!  If you want your finished quilt to be in the running for prizes it will need to be completed by the March 2016 meeting.  That means it's never to early to start working on layout ideas for your top.  Visit my Pinterest page on the subject for inspiration:

https://www.pinterest.com/nevaasinari/quilt-top-layout-ideas/

I will continue to add to it during the next two months!

(Stomp, clap, arm slap, snap, leg slap, clap)

-Neva

August Meeting Recap

Our August meeting was chockful of quilt sharing (even more than usual!). Read on:

This meeting was the reveal of our Cloud9 Cirrus Solid Mini Quilts! We had so many members create with just solids and share their techniques. Many (dare I say all?) of us, as quilters, are attracted to prints at one point or another. An all-solid quilt can be a fun challenge for those of us who don't use solids all the time. Plus, they are a great opportunity to show off quilting! Thus, we developed the mini quilt challenge.

 We will be exhibiting the minis at the Hillsborough Library in February, and at that time we will take more pictures of them all together!

 Krishma and her long arm quilting business logo!

 Susan - she used her sewing machine and black thread to make patterns on the solids!

 Jess - I blogged more about my quilt here.

 Kim's quilting transforms all the angles!

 Janet's mini with all its gorgeous improv! And that boat!

Thank you so much to Cloud9 Fabrics for sponsoring this challenge! Their organic quilting cotton is the only one on the market today, and we were honored to make with them! You can see more pictures on Instagram of individual quilts: #cirrussolidsminiquiltchallenge

 

Not only were we visited by a basket of cucumbers (you had to be there to get one!), but the lovely ladies of leadership from the North Jersey MQG came to visit. Daniela, their president, showed us the beautiful modern chuppah she recently made for a wedding.

 

 And Amy, the VP, brought her selvage string quilt. We discussed selvages at our May meeting!

Quiltmakers: Our guild gifted Kathleen, our former secretary, with a wonky cross tablerunner in her colors in honor of her retirement. Congrats, Kathy! You can see more about this runner here.

 

 Lesson: Susan showed us her Fabric Postcards and explained how she makes them. Thank you, Susan! We loved looking at all your intricate stitching.

The swap for September is Fabric Postcards - show us what you've got! Check out these tutorials for inspiration: http://needledmom.blogspot.com/2008/04/fabric-postcard-tutorial.html
http://marelize-ries.blogspot.com/2014/01/fabric-postcard-tutorial.html

 

Quilt-a-Long: Our members were super busy over the long summer - check out all the QAL blocks they made! Four more months and we'll have completed quilt tops!

Bee: Members made blocks for Neva based on the theme "rectangles." Don't you love how they are all different, but the same? Beautiful work, bee members!

Challenge: Krishma and Linda shared their quilts made for the "big" MQG's Riley Blake challenge.
 

 

Show and Tell:

 One of our newest members! Welcome!

 Lee's hashtag-inspired quilt

Neva's wonky-crosses-turned-large-crosses - and that beautiful walking foot quilting!

 Jamee's stunning quilt (pattern: Paper Lanterns by John Q. Adams)

 

Terri has been making with solids and her walking foot!

Lori made this cute baby quilt. A great way to show off one special fabric!

There were so many great pictures from this meeting, but we couldn't include them all. See them here!

See you at the Sept. meeting!

-Jess S.

Guild QAL: September Block

WHO ROCKS THE GUILD?

I SAY WE ALL ROCK THE GUILD.

AND WHEN WE ALL ROCK THE GUILD

WE ROCK IT AAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL THE WAY DOWN!

And we'll all be rockin' this month with CURVES!!!

After you sew your focal fabrics fabrics together and get your background strip cut you'll be ready to rock this block!

 

Before you cut your gentle curve using a rotary cutter working from bottom to top make sure the background piece and the top of the focal fabric are even at the top.

Here is mine after the first cut.  Keeping the curve gentle will make it easier to sew.

When you flip the top piece over make sure the top edges line up.  No pinning is necessary when sewing.  Once you start hold the bottom piece with one hand and the top piece with the other and guide them individually moving slightly left and right so they come together as you sew a 1/4 inch seam.  Press to one side.

Take your focal fabric and give it a straight edge before you start the next curve.

I hope this information is helpful. Feel free to contact me with any questions!

ROCK ON!

 

-Neva