Tuesday, August 26, 2014

August Meeting Recap

Our August meeting on 8/12 was great - we had a lot to do and welcomed some guests as well! It was fun to meet after a long break from our last meeting in June.


I thought this was too cute (and rare) of a picture to pass up of the two Jess's. Thanks, Laura B., for a great shot!


General Announcements:



- Members, please continue to RSVP for meetings and events. We still use BigTent for meeting and event reminders.



- Event section on the Forum online (Bigtent) – please post any events you are involved with. 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 will now start with 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. Hopefully this will make our breaks a bit less stressful and will help us get to know each other better!



-Retreat at the Hyatt House in Bridgewater was a success! We really loved the venue and hope to go there again. We are currently setting up another retreat in November to start/finish holiday projects (projected date: Nov. 14-16 after polling membership).



-Picnic with the Philly guild was cancelled but we still want it to happen. We didn’t anticipate so many people being away in July. You should have received an email with a link to a Google Form – please tell us which weekend days in Sept./Oct. you would be free to get together. 

-We are exhibiting modern quilts at the Pennington Farmer’s Market on Sat. October 4Saturday (8 to 1) as part of their arts month. Location is Rosedale Mills in Pennington. Members, see this Bigtent post to RSVP. This is a really fun opportunity to get involved with the surrounding community, attract new members, and show people what we are all about



-A few of us attended the Heather Grant lecture in Caldwell on Alternate Gridwork, one of the tenets of modern quilting. We learned how using a grid can help you balance your quilts. We also had the opportunity to ask Heather questions about the MQG.



-Mid Atlantic Mod retreat will be from April 23-26, 2015– spread the word!



-This past weekend, we hosted Jacquie Gering for a lecture and a workshop. Everyone had a great time. More soon on the blog with pictures!


-Charity Sewcial was on Sunday, June 29 – Thanks to Sue, Robin, Krishma, and Elaine for all of their voluntary hard work prepping, and to all the ladies that came out to help the day of! See more about the day on this post.




-Charity quilts – if you take one to quilt OR quilt and bind, you must bring it back by Sept or Oct meeting. Machine binding and dense quilting. There are still quilts that you can pick up at the Sept. meeting if you would like one. We appreciate your contribution to our charity initiative! You can see Krishma above and below showing off her beautiful charity quilts.


-You can enter your modern quilts into the QuiltCon quilt show until November 30. See this page for more details. There are several categories and prizes, plus the honor of being featured in Austin during QuiltCon! Let us know if you have any questions.


-We started the 2nd round of the CJMQG Bee with Amy's quilt.


Quiltmakers

At our August meeting, we gifted two quilts from the guild! Members donated blocks to help create these quilts. Thank you so much for your dedication, expertise, and help!!


Quilt for Laura Bennett and her new baby girl, finished by Eugenie Wagner




Quilt for Jessica Levitt (right) for her two years as President of our guild, finished by Jessica Skultety (left) (more on "Pretty Petals" blogged here)





Discussion
 Members and guests brought their favorite sewing notions. This is always an informative and fun discussions because we learn about new tools to use. We also pulled merchandise from Pennington Quilt Works, our gracious host shop, to discuss.



Short presentation on blogging
I discussed my experience with blogging and how sewing blogs have changed over the past couple of years. I also shared a list of my tips for blogging and starting a blog. I will post this separately here soon!



Challenge
This meeting, members brought more Michale Miller challenge quilts to share. We had a huge amount of guild members participate over the last few months! Great job, everyone!











Giveaway: Blueprint Basics fabric
Thanks to Robert Kaufman! Jess L. brought them from spring Quilt Market and raffled them off to members.




Share – Blocks for Guild Quilt-a-long
Throughout the year, we have been following 42quilts.com (Jenifer Dick, Modern Mondays blocks), completing 6 blocks per month until May, then 5 for the rest of the year.


Neva always has blocks to share, and Elaine already has a complete quilt top! Wow!




Show and Tell










Thank you to the following: Kathleen St. for the minutes, Amy for the refreshments, and Laura B. and Jess S. for photos.
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September Meeting
Tuesday, Sept. 9 from 7-9:30 pm (6:30 optional social/shop time)
Pennington Quilt Works, Pennington, NJ
Presentation: Susan Flick – snap bag tutorial
Discussion: Using/storing scraps - be ready to share your storage methods! Bring any scrap projects, too, to share.
Swap: Fall mug rug - make one and bring it to swap!
Challenge: Make something from low volume fabrics
Charity quilts: due at this meeting or October's


-Jess S.