September 2024 Meeting Recap

Happy Autumn!

Our first in-person meeting since June was held on Saturday September 21, at the First Lutheran Church in Montclair with 38 members and 2 guests in attendance. Welcome back everyone!

QuiltCon 2025

  • Registration woes have been sorted out.
  • October 31st deadline for quilt entries. Get those quilts finished!
  • Volunteer sign-ups opened September 19th.

QuiltCon Community Outreach Quilt

Thanks to the members who gathered at Paula’s house to create the block kits which were ALL distributed at this meeting! Yay!

To those who picked up kits, it’s not necessary to trim your blocks, and please leave the paper on the back.

October 19th Completed blocks are due at the in-person meeting.

MidMod 2025 April 4-6 2025

  • As a sponsoring guild, 10 spots are reserved for our members to access early registration. NJMQG will hold a lottery to award those 10 spots, and an email with a link to the sign up form was sent to members on September 23rd. Winners pay NJMQG $35 to get their early access code.

Early registration: Monday October 7th at 7 pm through Monday October 14th at 7 pm.
General registration: Sunday, November 3rd at 7 pm.

  • Due to rising costs of the hotel space and, well, everything, we do have a price increase for MOD 2025. The early bird registration fee is $315 and the general registration (for those that do not receive early bird pricing) is $365. General registration spots sell out quickly!

Holiday Party – seeking volunteers

  • Our annual Holiday Party will be on Saturday December 7th, 11a-3p.
  • We need a few volunteers to help plan, organize, and execute including menu, activity, setup, cleanup, etc. Please contact Ann.

Programs

Pockets-to-Go Swap

  • Over a dozen pockets-to-go bags were joyfully exchanged! Nice work everyone!

Bee Block Party

When you sign up for the bee, you will choose a type of block you want to make as well as a color scheme you would like for your quilt. You will be split into groups, then you will make the same 12 inch quilt block for each member of your bee, in their preferred colorway with fabrics from your stash. Your completed blocks will be distributed to all the members of your bee and everyone should have enough to create their own quilt top.

  • All completed blocks should be 12″ x 12″ finished (12.5″ x 12.5″ unfinished).
  • Saturday September 28th Sign ups end.
  • Sunday September 29th Group assignments go out.
  • Saturday November 16, 2024 Completed blocks due at the in-person meeting.

Next meetings

Saturday October 19 – In-person 11a-1p at the First Lutheran Church of Montclair.

  • Outreach Quilt blocks due
  • New name tag if you’re working on a swap with someone.
  • Show & Tell!

Saturday November 16 – in person meeting

Saturday December 7 – in-person Holiday Party

Other Good Stuff Happening

  • Montclair Fiber Arts Club – register through Lifelong Montclair to join this group with your needlework at Edgemont Park House 290 Valley Road every other Wednesday 10a-12p.
  • Hunterdon Art Museum – 7 Lower Center Street Clinton, NJ 08809, Unblocked: Improvisation and Identity in Contemporary Quiltsnow through January 12th, 2025.

    Featuring Elizabeth Brandt, Zak Foster, Coulter Fussell, Chawne Kimber, Basil Kincaid, Kwesi O. Kwarteng, Krystle Lemonias, Sarah Nishiura, our own Melanie Tuazon, and Sherri Lynn Wood.
Unblocked brings together a diverse group of artists whose quilts tell stories, express identity, celebrate community, further social justice, and engage in formal design and color investigations. Comfortable with improvisation, these artists use materials that are readily available—often discarded or donated clothing and domestic textiles—and work intuitively, without a structured plan.

  • Quilts in the Mill – Prallsville Mills – 33 Risler Street (Route 29), Stockton, NJ 08559, Confetti of Color sponsored by Courthouse Quilters Guild, Friday-Sun September 27-29th 2024.

    On Fri and Sat, our own Jo Ann Lepore will be signing her newly published book, Picture Patchwork.

  • Clifton Quilters GuildOctober 17 bus trip to Poconos.
  • Stars of the Valley Quilt Show – Sanfordville Elementary School 144 Sanfordville Road, Warwick, New York, Saturday-Sunday, October 19 & 20, sponsored by Warwick Valley Quilters.

    At 1p Saturday, Melanie Tuazon will be giving a lecture Planned and Unplanned: Design and Improv in Piecing

Show & Tell

Post-meeting FMQ Workshop

  • Jackie and Samantha led this terrific informative class on free-motion quilting, with a ton packed into a few hours. Good job everyone! Practice, practice, practice!

Next meeting

In-person Saturday October 19, 11a-1p at the First Lutheran Church of Montclair.

  • Outreach Quilt blocks due
  • New name tag if you’re working on a swap with someone.
  • Show & Tell!

Happy sewing!

xo,
Kathy

NJMQG August 2024 Meeting

Greetings everyone!

Our August meeting was held on Zoom 8/15 at 7 pm, with 31 members in attendance.

QuiltCon Registration blues news…

As anyone who tried to register for QuiltCon knows, the system crashed and the MQG has been manually going through all the records to resolve a multitude of issues.

Week of August 19th – Everyone who has registered will receive an updated registration confirmation email. Please see QuiltCon 2025 Registration Update: Next Steps for details on balances due, refunds, and a special cancellation policy through August 22.

Week of August 26th  – Registration will reopen for MQG members only – the exact date and time that registration will reopen will be announced in an email to all members at least five days before!

Watch your inbox for that email from MQG!

2025 QuiltCon Community Outreach Quilt

The theme for 2025 is “Lines and Bars”.

A big thank you to all who submitted designs!
The quilt chosen for this year’s entry was designed by our very own Betsy Vinegrad (and is on the cover of the 2024 QuiltCon magazine!), recolored in the 2025 Outreach palette.

Septvolunteers needed to cut fabric on 9/17 at 11am.
Quilt kits will be distributed at the meeting 9/21.

  • Oct –  Sew blocks, and turn in at meeting 10/19.
  • Oct-Nov – volunteers needed to assemble quilt top and back.
  • Nov-Dec – volunteer needed – quilter.
  • Dec-Jan –  volunteer(s) needed to apply binding, sleeve and label.

Many hands make short work of 48 blocks! A volunteer sign-up form will be sent the week of Aug 26. Paula Fleischer is leading the process; contact her with any questions.

Autumn 2025 NJMQG Quilt Showcase

We’re looking for volunteers to form a committee to steer this idea into reality. Ann has a template for the steps based on last year’s showcase, so you’re not starting from scratch. A sign-up form will be sent out soon.

Fundraising

Now that we’ve been approved for a gaming license a world of possibilities opens up for fundraising in conjunction with the Showcase. Thanks for all the great ideas at this month’s meeting! It’s exciting to hear your enthusiasm!

Among the ideas floated:

  • Make 2 of the Outreach quilts and raffle one.
  • Distribute raffle ticket books to every member with a requirement to sell all their tickets.
  • Mini quilts silent auction/raffle.

Programs

Next meeting

In-person Saturday September 21st, 11a-1p at the First Lutheran Church of Montclair.

  • Sign up for Bee Blocks
  • Hand in finished Charity Quilts to Kelly
  • Pockets-to-Go swap
  • New name tag if you’re working on a swap with someone.
  • Show & Tell! is back
  • After the meeting: Free-Motion-Quilting workshop with Jackie Laba and Samantha Linehan.
    Sign up here. Cost is $25.

Upcoming

October

  1. Saturday 10/19 – in person meeting
  2. After Meeting: Pleating with Miguel Huidor

November

  • Saturday 11/16 – in person meeting

December

  • Saturday 12/7 – Holiday Party

Other Stuff

Book Signing

Jo Ann Lepore will be at Quilts in the Mills Friday Sep 27th (and possibly 28th) to sign advance copies of her forthcoming book Picture Patchwork, published by Fox Chapel Publishers. The show, sponsored by Courthouse Quilters Guild, runs Sep 27-29. Jo Ann’s book is expected to be available from booksellers by early November.

Congrats Jo Ann!

Stars of the Valley Quilt Show

Sponsored by Warwick Valley Quilters, the show runs Oct 19-20. Quilt registrations are due by Sep 7.

Your quilt does not have to be finished to register, you just need to provide a picture of it for identification purposes. You’ll find the registration form on their website.

  • Bonus: our own Melanie Tuazon will be giving a lecture on Saturday Oct 19 at 1pm, “Planned and Unplanned: Design and Improv in Piecing”.

That’s all for now! See you in September!
Happy sewing!

xo, Kathy

NJMQG July 2024 Meeting

Hi Everyone! Hope you’re all finding ways to stay cool and sew.

Due to summer heat and lack of A/C at our regular meeting place, we held our July meeting on Zoom on July 18th (and the August meeting will be on Zoom too). I forgot to make a note of how many people attended, but I think it was about 25-30 (not to self: pay attention as Secretary, not as a member!)

QuiltCon Member Registration Opens July 31, 2024

First up, Ann reminded us of that QuiltCon registration opens at 10 am EDT on Wednesday July 31st. That’s less than a week away, so now’s a good time to check and make sure that you’re able to log into the MQG website. Contact register@themodernquiltguild.com if you have any issues.

The MQG has a great downloadable guide to the entire registration process, including what’s different this year, on the quiltcon page where you can also review the schedule and view the first-timers guide.

The theme for the 2025 QuiltCon Community Outreach Quilt is “Lines and Bars”. Paula Fleischer is collecting design ideas before the August meeting.

Guidelines:

  • Geometric Theme – Lines and Bars
  • Size: 60” x 80” minimum, 65” x 85” maximum
  • Color Palette – must use at least 4 – 8 of the colors provided. Do not have to use all 8.
  • Email your ideas to Paula at pvfleischer [at] gmail [dot] com before August 15.

Pockets-To-Go Swap

Due at the September meeting. This is a blind swap. To participate, you must purchase the pattern (contact Ann or Annette). We are making the small version.

Programs

On July 13th, Margy hosted a Shibori dyeing class with Miriam Jacobs. It was HOT but lots of fun for the 11 attendees who got to play with water all afternoon.

Treasurer’s Report

Annette presented the Treasurer’s report for 2nd quarter. You can view it on the members-only page. Any questions, reach out to treasurer [at] njmqg [dot] com.

Annette also announced that the guild has been approved for a NJ gaming license, which means that we’ll be able to hold fundraising raffles at public events. Yay!

Upcoming Events

Next meeting: Thursday August 15 at 7pm on Zoom. No show & tell–save up all your hard work for September!

September meeting: in person! Saturday the 15th at 11 am at the First Lutheran Church of Montclair.

  • Sign up for Bee Blocks
  • Hand in finished Charity Quilts to Kelly
  • Pockets-to-Go swap
  • New name tag if you’re working on a swap with someone.
  • After the meeting: Free-Motion-Quilting workshop with Jackie Laba and Samantha Linehan. If you have questions or suggestions, please email them.

Other Stuff

Rachel received a friend’s stash of traditional sewing/quilting books which, once she’s had a chance to go through them, she’ll share with us if they look interesting!

Long arm rental – there was a question to the group asking for any local places that rent long arm time, besides Sew Jersey. If you know of any, let us know and we’ll included that information at our next meeting.

And lastly, Annette shared a Brother video featuring 3 delightful NJMQG members: Annette, Ellary, Wannetta and some of their quilts!

That’s all for now! See you online in August!
Happy (and cool) sewing!

xo, Kathy