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NJMQG Secretary

Posted on

February 13, 2019

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Uncategorized

January 2019 guild meeting

We started our year out with another great meeting.

We had 46 members and 1 visitor with us, welcome Marcy!

As always, let one of the board members know if you need a pin or name badge.

We talked about our fabulous party and an extra special thanks to Barbara and Terri again! And we all agreed to do something similar to the tote swap next time.

Our renewals for the this year have now been sent in to the MQG. We are in the process of fixing the roster and changing the blog password. So that will be given out at the February meeting.

We talked about some of the fun things happening before our next meeting. NY Frocktails in Brooklyn, Vogue Knitting Live, and NJ orchid society. We have quite a few people going to Quiltcon. For those going, be sure to stop and see our guilds charity quilt and at least Melanie and Betsy have Quilts there, too.

Montclair Art Museum has a new show called New Directions in Fiber Art from February 9- June 16. On February 3, they had a Yarn bomb installation on the property. It’s so fun to drive by and see. We are going to try to plan a meetup to see the show too.

Rachel talked to us about charity. We sent 16 quilts to the Robert Kaufman to be donated the victims of the CA fires. We sent 25 lbs of scraps to The Social Justice Sewing Academy. We had a suggestion of buying white to have in charity bin. Terri talked to us about Quilts of Valor, and we will be collecting 12 1/2″ blocks. We are also going to have a new kit to replace the New wave pattern we were using for charity Quilts. We are also having a block drive, due in March, we are asking for as many scrappy log cabin blocks you can make. As always, we have bundles made up, sandwiches ready to be quilted, tops that need backs, all sorts of things waiting to be given a little love and attention for charity donations.

Jackie talked to us about our workshops for the coming year. We started out Melanie doing Creative Walking Foot, and Amy doing a Aneela Hooey clear open pouch. We are also looking forward to Sarah Bond and Sheri Schifaldi (Whole Circle Studio) later in the year.

While the meeting was going on, we had some fabulous ladies, putting a sleeve on our Quiltcon charity quilt, Pieceful Integration. Thanks to Ameri and Amy for your beautiful design and all the hard work you put into it. Thanks to Diane for the wonderful quilting. Thanks to Lori for the label and to everyone who made a block and helped in any way.

Before our break we had a sewing bucket list challenge questionnaire thingy and JoAnn had 47 our of 50, so she won our raffle prize.

When we got back to our meeting, we had Sue showing us how to face a quilt. She suggested this tutorial. Click the link to check it out. We are also asking you to make a mini, or something else you choose, showing off the facing technique.

Then we had our favorite time of the night.

Show (Sew) and Tell

Release the Geese

Samantha- Fractal block

Dawn- Michele Hill William Motis Design

Robin- Kaffe

Rochelle

Lenny- Suzy Quilts Mode in Fans

Rebecca- Go Fly a Kite class

2018 bee blocks

Debby- solid fabric Tula 100 City Blocks

Karen- Tula sliding Scale

Bear Hug aboriginal

Red and white

Mary Jane- valentine block

Betty- Rayna class

Twizzle

Debby- wave purse using cork fabric

Betsy-

Ameri- Quiltspot quilt

See you next month and happy sewing!

-A

Posted by

Rachel

Posted on

February 13, 2019

Posted under

2019, announcements, charity, charity projects, Open Sew, volunteer

2019 Charity News

Hi members!

Thank you to all who contributed charity quilts, the new wave quilts and your own designs!

Donations:

We were able to donate a total of 16 quilts in 2018 (yay!) to the Robert Kaufman quilt drive to benefit the California fire victims.
We already have 6 finished quilts ready for donation.
We have 42 pillowcases ready to send to the Stuffed Suitcase program through the Giving Hope Network for their next giving event and we are so thankful to you guys, you’re the best! Let’s try to beat 2017’s pillowcase record of 127 pillowcases made and make more for 2019!
In addition, we have already donated 32 pounds of fabric scraps to the Social Justice Sewing Academy. Their Instagram is @sjsacademy if you want to check them out.

Below are the charity activities happening so far for 2019, we are so excited for our upcoming projects!

Log Cabin Blocks

We are making log cabin blocks that should be made 12 ½ by 12 ½ that will be finished 12×12 blocks. We would like for you to dig up those awesome stash strips and ask that members use some white in the block so they have a universal look once assembled into the quilt tops. There will be strips available at the February meeting from the charity stash and white to mix up with your stash. We will have a special giveaway in March for members who bring in log cabin blocks, but we will continue to collect blocks until we have enough for a quilt top or two. Use up that scrap stash!

log cabin with measured strips

one log cabin with measured strips, and one with unmeasured wonky strips

Quilts of Valor Blocks

Quilts of Valor blocks

Thank you for all who made QOV blocks lately, they are awesome! We will be collecting more through to the April meeting so we have enough to assemble into several quilt tops. There will be QOV block kits available at the February meeting as well as at the charity open sew that we are hosting during the weekend of QuiltCon (February 23rd). These blocks should be 12.5” x 12.5” and can be any pattern of your choosing. Please make sure the colors are red, white and blue.

Presenting the 2019 NJMQG Charity Pattern of the Year!

shoreline quilt The pattern we are using this year for charity quilts and kits is the “Shoreline” pattern from Tula Pink. This is a free pattern available from her website and we were given permission to create kits for our guild. Rachel, Crista, Terri and Emily got together last month to organize the charity stash (thank you!) and have already created 10 kits to make quilt tops for this pattern! These will be available at the charity open sew. We will continue to have the Elizabeth Hartman New Wave Quilt pattern and kit if you would still like to try that pattern.

We also have tops with backing and battings available for those of you who want to practice your FMQ skills and walking foot! These will be available at the March meeting. We have 5 quilt tops that need backings made or cut, and 4 quilt tops/backs ready for batting and quilting.

Thank you again for all of your charity efforts last year, you are all amazing. I can’t wait to see how many we get done this year, let’s try to beat last year’s pillowcase numbers!

Emily Chwazik

Co-Chair of Charity Committee