Hi everyone! I hope you’re sewing at home with the guild on this snowy Saturday. Check Instagram (@njmqg) and Facebook for pictures of what members are working on, and be sure to tag your images with our hashtag #njmqgopensnow. We’ll be having giveaways each hour, so stay tuned!

Here is the part of the meeting where I usually stand and talk.

—Our next meeting will be Thursday, February 26 (one week later than we usually have it, make note!) at 7PM at Rock Paper Scissors. We will be having a mini quilt swap! Quilts should be no smaller than 16” and no bigger than 24” on a side, and we encourage you to try a technique, color, or shape you’ve never tried before. If you bring one to the meeting, you get to take one home.

—Our March meeting is Thursday, March 19.

—Aleeda is organizing a retreat at Cross Roads retreat center the weekend of March 20-22. We’ll have a separate blog post with more information for those who want to sign up. This sewing weekend is always a hit and a great chance to learn from each other.

—On May 1 and 2 we will be hosting Heather Jones for a lecture (Friday) and workshop (Saturday). Check out her website oliveandollie.com and her Instagram feed instagram.com/heatherjonesstudio for more about her and her quilts. We’ll have registration information for the workshop soon. Priority will be given to NJMQG members for the 20 available spots.

— Stella has a fun new bee concept for our members. It will be done in smaller groups on a quarterly basis– no more yearly commitment. More details on this soon.

—Our home base Rock Paper Scissors is featured in the latest issue of Generation Q magazine! Beth has ordered extra issues, which will be available at the store in the days and weeks to come.

— Did you know that there are TONS of free modern quilt patterns and webinars that are accessible to members on the MQG’s website? Check them out here. https://community.themodernquiltguild.com/resources

— Quiltcon starts February 17! Keep an eye out for news and pictures. Members Betsy Vinegrad and Melanie Tuazon both have quilts in the show, and Beth Rowan will be doing her substrate demo at the convention center in Austin.

—A note from a neighboring guild: “The Brownstone Quilter’s Guild will be running a trip to the AQS show in Lancaster, Pa. on Saturday, March 14, 2015.    The cost of the trip is $60.00 and includes the bus fare, entrance to the quilt show and a tip for the bus driver.    We will be making a stop prior to the convention center at a mall about 15 minutes outside of our destination.   This is at a hotel that has over 50 vendors presenting their wares and goods.   Our members enjoy this stop which usually lasts about an hour.  They have a dealer who specializes in Featherweight machines. If you or any members of your respective guilds are interested in taking the trip please send a check in the amount of $60.00 made out to the BROWNSTONE QUILTERS GUILD to my home address before February 20th.    Be sure to include your cell phone number on the check.     The bus will be at the parking lot of the Armenian Presbyterian Church located at 140 Forest Avenue,  Paramus, 07463  at 7:15AM for a departure time of 7:30AM.    Park to the right side of the parking lot.  We should be back in Paramus at about 7:00PM” Email njmqginfo@gmail.com for the address. (For privacy’s sake I didn’t want to post someone’s home address on our public site.)

— Finally, a huge THANK YOU to everyone who contributed time and effort to our beautiful Quiltcon charity quilt. Check out pictures here: https://njmqg.com/2015/01/09/our-finished-quiltcon-charity-quilt/ . Did you see that we were featured in the MQG’s global newsletter? Such an honor.

Do you have an announcement or event you’d like to mention? Please do so in the comments.