CJMQG May Meeting!

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

7-9:30 PM, Pennington Quilt Works, Pennington, NJ 

-Members: RSVP here. 
-Guests welcome! - please email the account to let us know you are coming - centraljerseymqg(at)gmail(dot)com.

-Discussion -- How you plan out piecing your quilts -- bring in your plans and/or be prepared to talk about it (especially if you do so on the computer)

-Swap -- Low Volume fabrics -- bring your cut fabrics (1 yard --> 6 x 10" blocks [yield 24]) to the meeting in a bag so you can get fabric back! Name on bag. Fabric should be white or off white based as a background, with gray, white, or black as the design. See blog for more info.

-Challenge - Quilt Alliance, "Inspired By" (due to the QA on June 1), Michael Miller Challenge (officially EXTENDED to July 25!!)

-Show and Tell, of course!
 
See you then!

-Jess S.

April Meeting Recap

We had 40 people, including guests, at our April meeting! Wow! Thanks to everyone for coming! Thanks to Kathy for the minutes and Carol Esch for taking pictures!

 

Above is a picture of the Stripes progressive quilt from Mid-Atlantic Mod, which Jess L. contributed to and won! This was made with Alissa Height Carlton's Modern Solids.


News

-There is a new "Event" thread on the BigTent Forum for members – please post any sewing or quilting events you are involved with/have heard about. You can announce them at meetings, too!

-Sewcial – free! - Sat. May 3, 9-5, Hopewell Train Station – 20 members and full. Can't wait to sew with you! If you want to be on the waiting list, email the account. If you decide you can’t make it, please update your RSVP so someone else can take your place. Don't forget to bring snacks/irons/whatever you signed up for on BigTent.Thanks to Lori for organizing!

-We are looking to book Jacquie Gering, modern quilter, to come in the first week of September. Similar to last time – probably free lecture/trunk show, workshop on the weekend.

-QuiltCon– Austin, TX, Feb 2014 - member registration (discount for MQG members) begins on June 24. Call for hotel rooms though - they are going fast! Go here for more important dates.

 -We are planning to get together with the Philly MQG in July. More info to come.

-We have printed copies of guild member names, towns, emails, and sewing-related businesses! This is for members to get in contact with other individual members. It should not be used for mass emails about sewcials or business, etc. You can also use our forum and BigTent accounts to reach members. If you would like to suggest a sewcial to the whole group, please let us know and we will send out a notice on BigTent.

 

-Michael Miller Challenge – we are still waiting for 2 of the fabrics (we may get them). I will let you know. Our guild challenge is curves - however you want to interpret that!

Guidelines from the MQG blog:

• 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.
• Upload and share your photos to the Fabric Challenge Forum on the Community site.
• Don’t forget to use the #mqgfabricchallenge on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter!

-We have 12 people signed up to start the 2nd round of the CJMQG bee! The bee will operate for 12 months starting in June (which is when the first round finishes). New bee members - look out for an email soon detailing the guidelines. Old be members - keep bringing in your quilt tops/finished quilts of bee blocks! And please finish up your last couple of months of bee blocks strong! 

-We will have a charity update for you at the May meeting. Thank you to all who have donated baby-friendly fabric to make baby quilts for the Center of Great Expectations in Somerset!

Meeting

-First, attendees commented on one item on their “Quilty Bucket List." I got the idea from this linky party at The Tilted Quilt.

 -We recapped Mid-Atlantic Mod, an inaugural quilting retreat hosted by the Central Jersey, Philly, and DC MQGs in Lancaster, PA. We thanked Jessica L. for all of her hard work! We also thank Katie and Andrew for all of their efforts planning the event. I posted an in-depth retreat recap here, and Rachel posted 3 separate recaps of the retreat starting here. Our members had a ton of fun! 

Thanks to Rachel for snapping a picture of us at the retreat in euphoria after shopping at Burkholder Fabrics for the first time. From left to right: Rachel, Liz (our modern quilter friend from MD), Jess L., and myself.

Discussion: We discussed low volume fabrics and how they are being used in modern quilting (mostly as scrappy backgrounds - but anything goes!). Low volume fabrics are basically neutrals with prints. You can see my post here for more details and for May swap info.

-Demo: Lori S. demonstrated how to cut up a yard of fabric for the swap (6"x10" bricks - yield is 24). We all traded cutting tips and discussed the importance of cutting accuracy. Thanks Lori!

-Swap: We swapped items made with Radiant Orchid or purple fabric. We have had great participation with these blind swaps! Thanks to all who participated! 

-We shared bee blocks! I was the queen bee for March, and I asked for blocks using flying geese in any way.

-Show and Tell

1. April 2014 meeting, 2. April 2014 meeting, 3. April 2014 meeting, 4. April 2014 meeting, 5. April 2014 meeting, 6. April 2014 meeting, 7. April 2014 meeting, 8. April 2014 meeting, 9. April 2014 meeting 

^click on the links to see each picture larger on our Flickr!

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May Meeting

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

7-9:30 PM, Pennington Quilt Works, Pennington, NJ

-Discussion – How you plan out piecing your quilts – bring in your plans and/or be prepared to talk about it (especially if you do so on the computer)

-Swap – Low Volume fabrics – bring your cut fabrics to the meeting in a large  bag so you can get 24 low volume fabrics back! Name on bag. Fabric should be cut to 6 x 10” (bricks) and be white or off white based as a background, with gray, white, or black as the design. See this link for more info.

-Challenge - Quilt Alliance, “Inspired By” (this is due June 1!),  Michael Miller Challenge

See you at the Sewcial and at the May Meeting!
-Jess S.

Low Volume Swap Info

Low volume fabrics are currently a modern quilting trend. People like to use them as backgrounds. You can learn much more about low volume fabrics and see pictures in this Craftsy article.

29 people have signed up for the May low volume swap! Woohoo! If you have signed up, please buy a 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). Here are some examples of acceptable prints (text prints that aren't too bold are good, too!):

• Cut your fabric into 6x10 inch bricks (you will have 24 once the yard is all cut). 
• Please bring your cut fabric in a big plastic or paper bag with your name on it to the May meeting.
• If you will not be at the May meeting, you need to get your fabric to someone in order to swap. Otherwise, you cannot participate.
• You will get 24 other bricks of fabric to take home!

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

Thanks! Can't wait!
Jess S.

Mid-Atlantic Mod Recap!

Hi everyone! A quick note on Mid-Atlantic Mod. We had 11 guild members join us for the weekend! Thanks to Jess Levitt., Andrew of the Philly Guild, and Katie of the DC Guild for all of their hard work. I wrote a recap post over on my blog! Instead of me reposting it here, just click on over. :)

Here's a picture of the CJMQG members at the retreat, minus Rachel and Sonia. We are just too cute!  From the left: Neva, Tatiana, Jess L, Robin, myself, Christina, Laura (back), Amy (front), Kathleen

If anyone has pictures from the retreat, you can put them on our CJMQG Flickr page (check the left sidebar of the blog to go there) and/or tag them as #cjmqg and #midatlanticmod on Instagram so we can all see them. :)

Hope you will consider joining us next year!!
 
-Jess S.

Low Volume Fabrics

Our May swap will be low volume fabrics (buy 1 yard of fabric - cut to 6 x 10", you should get 24 bricks of fabric). At our meeting tomorrow, Lori will show us how to cut up a yard of fabric, and we will discuss precise cutting tips.

In the meantime, here is a great article about low volume fabrics from Craftsy: http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2013/06/low-volume-fabrics/

For our swap, you should find a low volume fabric that uses white or off-white as the background (no tan, beige, or gray), with gray, black, or white as the print.

-Jess