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October 26, 2022

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October 2022 Guild Meeting Recap

Hello friends! We once again had a great meeting, in person! WOOT WOOT!! We had 40 people joining us (3 guests), including some new friends we haven’t met yet and some old friends we haven’t seen in a while! Welcome Iman, Kim, Wendy and Daniel to the guild! And so wonderful to see Mary and Terri back for a visit! It really is so lovely to get together in person.

To start us off Rachel gave us a general breakdown of what a meeting generally looks like in person, reminded us about our amazing library cart, filled with books and rulers, free to borrow. Of course we have our free table for all to share those things you are ready to pass on. Also, make sure that if you bring something that isn’t taken, please bring it back home with you!

Our name tag swap partners (who were there) got to receive their name tags, YaY!
Ann–>Jann Jann–>Tari Carolyn–>Ann Meena–>Carolyn Betsy F–>Meena

We are back up to a total of 90 members heading into the end of the year and on that note, we want to remind you that guild renewals will be starting again soon. Before we went any further, we had a request to introduce the board! Sometimes we forget that we haven’t met in person for a while, so not everyone knows us! Rachel is our fearless president. Ann M, VP. Annette A, Treasurer, Betsy F, Co-Programs (Tari K, Co-programs couldn’t make it). Aubrey C, Secretary (that’s me). Rachel then reminded everyone about our website (if you’re reading this, you’ve made it!) and all it has to offer. You can sign up for the mailing list to get posts sent automatically sent to your email. There’s the members only section, with the password protection, that has all the member info, bylaws, budget, etc… To make sure our emails get to you, and not in the junk folder, add our emails to your contacts. While your at it, make sure you check out all the MQG website has to offer, as well. Annette filled us in with the overview of the treasurer’s report. You can always find that in the member’s only section. As a reminder, we will be voting on our proposed budget at our November meeting.

Congrats to Ann on winning our first raffle!

Mid Atlantic Mod is a retreat that includes members from the DC, Baltimore, Philly, Central Jersey, and us, North Jersey modern quilt guilds. This year it is in Lancaster, PA from April 27-30. As a sponsoring guild, we receive 10 guaranteed spots for our members. We had 12 people sign up for the lottery, and the winners are…Pam C, Judy J, JuandaMarie, Jeanine B, Sarah F, Rochelle, Elinore, Rachel, Ann, and Jackie! Early registration starts November 4 (we’ll send out the code to the lucky 10) and general registration starts November 13. There is a wait list available, so don’t hesitate to sign up!

Margy was on hand collecting the MQG Color Shift quilt blocks. They’ll be trimmed and ready to piece together at our open sew on Saturday October 29. Thanks to Carolyn who offered to quilt it for us!

Congrats to Penny and our friends at the Warwick Valley Quilters Guild on a successful show! They hung 150 quilts and sold many mini quilts in there auction. Even more congrats go to the past and current NJMQG members on their ribbons! Susan S, Carol P, Carol M, Penny M, Debby S, Samantha L, Valerie W, Laura F, Mary K and Anne S. Now rest up so you can start prepping for the next one!

Wanetta and Ellaree have come up with another fantastic No Stress Charity Project! With your help previously we made more than 75 kennel pads. This time they are asking us to make reusable sanitary pad for people who menstruate in Africa. While we are fortunate that we can go to the store and purchase them, it is very expensive to do that in Africa. We are shooting for a goal of 50, but I know we can do better than that! With a small amount of pre-washed fabric, some old towels, a few buttons or snaps, you can have a bunch of these whipped up in no time! They brought in some samples and ran through how to make them (and they ways to make them easier than even the directions said). We sent out an email with the more info and a template, but if you need it again, let us know. So get sewing and send them by the end of November!

Our mini challenge show “I Used to be a Shirt” is hanging in Peters Valley Gallery until November 6th. Peters Valley is printing a catalog with pictures and info on all the quilts. If you’d like to purchase one, please let Rachel or Crista know!

Miguel is offering to start an Improv Bee. He had started a sign up sheet, but if you’re interested or have and questions, send him a message! Email can be found in members only section.

Some meeting updates! We sent out our latest Guild News at-a-Glance. Thanks for all the positive feedback on that.

Saturday October 29, we are having an in person open sew, from 10-4 at the Community Church of Cedar Grove. For now we are continuing to do the Zoom/in person combo for our meetings. We know we have varying levels of comfort and availability and want to engage with as many people as much as we can. On the way out of the meeting we asked everyone to recycle their raffle ticket in an informal poll. Pick a Can! Which day would you prefer live meetings? 3rd Thursday evening, 3rd Saturday mornings, or stay the way it is, combo? A survey was sent out to get an idea of what everyone is looking for in programs and meetings, too! We know we can’t please everyone all of the time, but we are hoping to make as many of us as happy as we can!

Congrats to Margy who won the 2nd raffle!

The holidays are approaching and we are planning our annual holiday party! Saturday December 10th, from 11-3 at the Community Church of Cedar Grove we will be hanging out and getting festive! The guild will provide a catered meal and ask members to bring drinks and desserts. We will have 2 swaps available to be a part of, as well. This year we will be making an iron caddy and we are going to exchange poppers again (because they were fun and popular last year)! They will both be blind swaps, meaning, you will not be partnered up with someone, but for as many as you bring, you will leave with one someone else made! Keep an eye on your inbox for all that info, pattern deatails, sign ups, etc…

We had one person show a WIP. Congrats to Karen for finishing another thing and for winning this month’s WIP prize!

Now on to Show and Tell

Kathy- for niece wedding/baby- Laura Lowen Finger Paint

Debby S- ribbon winner! multiple classes made into one quilt- Annie Smith, sampler that isn’t a sampler, Bethany Niemish- beading radiance fabric Mark Sherman- trapunto- Natalie Bonner

Curated Quilts Red Issue- inspired by MAM Navajo quilts show

Susan- Audrey Esarey, mounted, all fabrics hand dyed

Samantha- Elizabeth Hartman, Sons quilt Warwick Ribbon winner

Keep an eye out for these three in a brother ad!

We hope to see you at out our November guild meeting 17th, 7:15 over Zoom! Don’t forget to send pics of WIP’s, Show and Tell and any other announcements to programs for our slide show! And never hesitate to reach out with any questions for any of the board members!

Stay healthy and keep sewing!

-A

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October 12, 2022

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September 2022 Guild Meeting Recap

Wow! Time sure does fly! I know you were all patiently waiting for the September recap and I am happy to fulfill those wishes! For September we met over Zoom. There were 39 people that joined us.

On September 10 we had our open sew. It was a lot of fun to see some old friends and meet some new friends, too! Our next open sew is coming up on October 29. Let’s celebrate the spooky season, work on some projects, and just be together! Would be great to see you there!

Our Name Tag Redeux Swap is wrapping up. Partners were matched up to make name tags for each other. The deadline is the end of October. With our monthly meeting and open sew both in person for October, it is the perfect time to swap, or mail them out at any time. Don’t forget to take some pics and send them to programs for us all to see! If you are a new member or just need or want a new name tag, let a board member know and we can start a new list of people to match up.

The I Used to be a Shirt Peters Valley Gallery show has now opened for all to see. The guild was challenged to take a button down shirt with white and/or cream and turn it into a mini quilt between 18-24″ square. There was an opening reception that many members were able to attend. The show will be open through November 6, so there’s still time to see it. Some of the minis are also for sale. If you don’t have a chance to see it in person, you can see them all on their website. We had 38 minis made for the show! Amazing! Thanks to Lenny for the photos.

As well as the gallery and amazing learning opportunities, Peters Valley holds a Craft fair every year that is a must visit! The guild had talked about having a community booth to share our love and knowledge of the art of quilting this year, but time just rushed by too fast. We would love to get some volunteers to help plan for next year. You can always volunteer directly with Peters Valley as well. Just something to keep in mind for next September. We will be sure to start planning sooner and remind everyone next year.

The guild’s MQG Community Outreach Quilt is in progress. Block kits have been distributed and are due back by the October 29 open sew. We are piecing it on that day. If there is any interest in helping with backing, quilting, binding, labeling, or any step of the way, please reach out to the board or Margy, who is our point person for this. As a reminder, this is what we are working on.

Announcement time!

This weekend, October 15 & 16, visit our friends at the Warwick Valley Quilters show

Mid Atlantic Mod lottery sign up is out. NJMQG is excited to be a sponsor of Mid-Atlantic Mod Retreat which will be held at the Doubletree Resort in Lancaster, PA, April 27-30, 2023. An email was sent with all the info on how to sign up for the lottery. If you did not receive it, let a board member know.

Congrats to Jacquie, Lenny, and Betsy V for getting quilts into the Mancuso show. And double congrats to Lenny who won a ribbon and Betsy V who won 3 Ribbons! We are lucky to have so many talented quilters in our ranks!

Ellaree is asking everyone to be ready to do another quick charity sew project. Similar to the kennel quilts, it will be a quick small project that can use some stash or scraps. We will have more info at the October meeting.

JoAnn will be teaching the Audrey Esarey Ultraviolet Radial pattern at Acme on October 21 & 22.

Margy mentioned how the prices are up on fabric and maybe we can plan some sort of swap or stash share. We can work on what that may look like and get back to you.

Also, look for one of our guild’s founding members, Rayna Gilman, on an episode of The Quilt Show with Alex and Ricky. You can check it out here

Programs update

We were all set to host Jacquie Gering on September 17, but an emergency came up and the class had to be cancelled last minute. We have rescheduled the class for November 4.

Heather Kojan lecture has been rescheduled for our regular guild meeting on January 19 and the class for January 21.

We hosted Tighe (pronounced with a long I, we’ve learned) Flanagan for his Ottoman Rings workshop. There were about 15 participants that took part in the class. He explained his inspiration and method for drafting his patterns and taught a lesson on best practices with partial seams. Then they jumped into the pattern and had plenty of time to work and ask questions. If you ever have a chance to take a class, Tighe is well spoken and patient. And thank goodness because that pattern looks mind bending!

NJMQG member Miguel asked about doing an improv bee…keep an eye for when we have more info!

For 2022, Programs has challenged us to work on some WIPs and a lot of you have taken up that challenge

Congrats to Rochelle for winning this month’s WIP prize!

Show and Tell

Audrey Esarey class and pillowcase to match!

Don’t forget our next meeting will be Saturday October 22, IN PERSON at the Community Church of
Cedar Grove from 10-12. We are meeting up in person the following week for an open sew. Same place, October 29 from 10-4. Come in your Halloween best 😉

As always, stay healthy and crafty!

-A

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August 19, 2022

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August 2022 Guild Meeting Recap

Hello all! We had another great meeting last month! We had 44 people joining us. Welcome to new members Holly, Jennifer, Juanda, and Marina!

We had the pleasure of having Tighe Flanagan talk to us, but before he did, we had a little bit of guild business to go over.

As you may have heard, we are celebrating our 10 year anniversary…for a whole year! June 2012 the guild started having meetings and in 2013 we officially joined the MQG. As part of the celebration to commemorate, we had some pins made. At our June in-person meeting we were able to give a lot of them out. We had been planning on mailing out the rest, but to be honest, the postage was higher than we had expected, so we are going to hang on to them to hopefully see more of you in-person to hand out. We do have some more in-person meetings and open sews coming up, but for those of you who aren’t able to meet up, we can plan a way to pick up, drop off, or if you would like it sent, we are asking for you to pay for postage. (There are some extra ones for sale if you are interested in more, too) reach out to Ann vicepresident at njmqg dot com.

We have matched up some more members for a name tag swap. If you are new or interested in having a name tag made for you, let us know!

Approximately 35 members have signed up to take part in the I Used To Be a Shirt mini challenge to be shown at Peters Valley October-November. Crista has sent out the emails with the details, but to recap it must made from a button down shirt and white and/or cream fabric. It should be no smaller than 18″ no larger than 24″ SQUARE. If you are feeling inspired, you can make more than one. Really, you can make as many as you like! Don’t forget to add corner tabs for hanging and a label! Taking pictures beforehand isn’t necessary(if you saw that on the email form), but if you want to take process photos you can tag NJMQG and Peters Valley on instagram. The minis need to be handed over by September 27. They can be dropped of at Crista’s or we can plan other ways to get it where it needs to be. Don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions! Oh! Keep those scraps, too! We have something special planned for them.

Peters Valley is holding their craft fair on September 24 and 25 from 10-5. The guild will have a community booth so we can share more about modern quilting. If you are interested in taking a shift to work the booth and/or to lend some quilts to display, let us know!

Our MQG Community Outreach Quilt, for 2023 Quiltcon in Atlanta, is in the works. We voted on the blue/green color way with a log cabin style block idea by Aubrey. (sample above made with Aubrey’s stash) Some members will be getting together to cut the fabric for kits soon. We will be sure to let you know when they are ready to be picked up. We will be having an open sew on September 10, which will be the perfect time to pick up and/or work on the blocks. We are always looking for volunteers to help at every stage, so if you are interested in more than just making a block, please reach out. We will need help putting the blocks together, quilting, binding, even putting on the label! We would like to have all the blocks before the October meeting to stay on schedule.

A few announcements…
The deadline for the Warwick Valley Quilters Guild show is fast approaching. Check here for more info or contact Penny (email in members only section)

To try and keep things a little more easily organized, an At a Glance newsletter has been sent out and posted for everyone. It’s a nice bullet point list of upcoming dates to keep in mind. Hopefully it will help everyone!

Next up we had our guest lecturer, Tighe Flanagan. He lives in DC, has an MA in Arab studies from Georgetown and calls himself a lifelong creative. He started quilting in 2016, had his first quilt in a show in 2019, and got his first award in 2021. If you look at his work you can clearly see how he is inspired by art, architecture and math! He talked about his arsenal of tools and skills and math, lots of math! There were still a couple of spots left for his class on Saturday. Even if you can’t make it, he generously gave all members a coupon code for his site through the end of the month. The code was sent out, but if you lost track of it, someone on the board can send it to you. You can also find a free pattern of his on the MQG website. It was a pleasure to have him speak to us about his quilts and process.

For the lucky who jumped at the chance, we have a workshop with Jacquie Gering, who will be showing us how to step up our walking foot game. It was filled up in no time, but we have plenty of other good stuff coming up, too. We will be sure to update soon!

Summer is flying by and before you know it, school will be starting, days will be cooler and we will continue to have more fun things going on! Hoping we’ll see you at the open sew on September 10 or our monthly guild meeting on Thursday September 15 over Zoom. In the mean time, keep on working on the minis, WIP’s and more! Just keep on quilting!