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May 20, 2025

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2025, challenges, guild business, improv, Library, meeting recaps, Meeting Reminder, MQG, Programs, quilt showcase, QuiltCon, show and tell, workshop

May 2025 Meeting Recap

34 members and 1 guest were at our meeting on Saturday May 17th at the First Lutheran Church in Montclair. Thanks for coming everyone!

Guild Business

Board Elections – The election will take place at the June meeting, which will start at 10 am. The new board will transition prior to the July meeting.
The nominees are:
- President (2-yr term): Ann Marston
- Vice President: Emily Clifford
- Secretary: Kathy Morganroth
- Programs Co-chairs: Holly Finneran & Samantha Linehan
2026 Quilt Showcase Committee – The committee will meet soon. Emily Clifford is the showcase chair. Please contact her if you’d like to join in the fun of making this happen.
We added the QuiltCon 2025 Catalog to our library of quilting books, magazines and rulers. See Caroline at a meeting to borrow.

PLEASE NOTE: Our June meeting will start at 10 am.

MQG Business

QuiltCon 2026 February 19-22 Raleigh, NC.

Challenges and Hotels

2026 Windham Artisan Cotton Fabric Challenge

For this challenge, members must use at least 3 of the 6 challenge fabrics chosen by the QuiltCon 2026 featured speaker, Hillary Goodwin.

American Patchwork & Quilting Diamonds Quilting Challenge

Eligible quilts will have the diamond (rhombus) shape as a primary element of the quilt design. You’ll find lots of examples of this and additional details on the challenge page.

Raleigh Hotel Blocks for 2026

We’ve secured blocks in six hotels for you to choose from. Check out the details on the website.

Community Outreach Challenge QuiltCon 2026

The theme is Medallion quilts, a fun way to work as a group and experiment with different repeating shapes and secondary patterns.
Size constraints of a maximum of 65”x85” and a minimum of 60”x80” must be adhered to.
More info on the MQG’s website.
We want your ideas! Put your thinking cap on and submit a design to the Board for our guild to create using one of these palettes.
Bear in mind that entire color palette must be used, with no additional colors allowed, and broad participation by as many NJMQG members as possible is an essential feature of this challenge.

Call For Entry

MQG is curating a fresh exhibit in partnership with The Dairy Barn Arts Center! This juried exhibit will display the wide variety of talent and innovation happening in modern quilting today.

Submissions will be open April 21, 2025 – June 16, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.
There is no submission fee.

Submitted quilts may be in any modern style and may or may not have been exhibited at QuiltCon in the past.
The entries will be juried by MQG staff.
Any MQG member may submit up to 2 quilts to the call.
A limit of 1 quilt per maker will be chosen with a final exhibit of approximately 20 quilts.
Quilts must have been completed within the last 3 years (2023, 2024, 2025).
Quilts must be available to ship to arrive in Athens, Ohio by September 5, 2025.
There is no minimum size for quilt submissions, but the maximum size will be 90″ on any side.

**The June meeting will start at 10 am.**

Programs

Ongoing

Mystery Quilt – Step 4 was emailed May 15th. The reveal will be in October.
Bee Block Party – current blocks will be swapped at the June meeting.
Mini-Quilt “Initial” Challenge – open to all members. Finished quilts are due at the June 21st meeting which starts at 10 am. (Remember to keep it secret until then – no posting on social media!)
- The basic parameters are:
  - Make a mini-quilt, Min 12″ Max 24″ per side. (Does not have to be square.)
  - Choose a main color based on the initial of your first name.
  - Choose an inspiration block based on the initial of your last name.
  - Bring your finished mini to the June meeting (wrapped, to maintain anonymity) where we’ll display them all and vote for Viewers Choice. The winner will receive a prize!
Charity projects will continue to be collected by Kelly for donating to CASA.
Montclair Art Museum field trip to see an exhibit of Montclair collage artist Nanette Carter was planned post-meeting, but we found out at the last minute that the museum was closed to prepare for a gala that evening. (What nerve! Did they check with us? Did they invite us? Hmpf.) We hope to reschedule another day to see it before it closes on July 6.

Upcoming

Felting Workshop with Josie Dakers-Brathwaite on Saturday July 19th at First Lutheran Church of Montclair, 10a-2p. Stay tuned for class registration info.

Reminder: June meeting starts at 10 am

Improv Inspiration

The trunk show by member Carolyn McKibben was a real treat! Carolyn’s work will be displayed in a solo show titled Nature’s Tapestry at the Reeves-Reed Arboretum in Summit June 7 – October. Go see it!

Follow Carolyn on Instagram @quiltergardener

In the beginning…
Carolyn has learned from and been inspired by books by Irene Roderick, Sherri Lynn Wood, Victoria Findlay Wolfe among others.
Quiltcon 2023
“Ms Anglerfish”
Lego Candyland Quiltcon 2023
“Dead Fishes” Quiltcon 2023
Sometimes the back is equally interesting!
“Pollinate This”
“Mojo” at Reeves-Reed until May 23rd.
See this at Reeves-Reed in June
Zephie’s quilt “Rainbow Gelato” which was diplayed at Quiltcon 2025 in the Youth category! You go girl!

Repeat after me: the June meeting starts at 10 am.

Show & Tell

From the Kawandi Workshop with Ellaree Pray – (1) Debbie, (2) Caroline, (3) Sue, (4) Jo Ann. Great work everyone!

Thanks everyone for showing your wonderful work! Jo Ann (1), Sue (2), Ann (3), Betsy V. (4, 5).

Next Meetings

Saturday June 21, 2025 In-person 10a-1p

New meeting time: 10 AM!
Board election
Initial Challenge mini-quilts due & vote for Viewers Choice!

Thursday July 17, 2025 Zoom meeting 7-9p

Thursday August 21, 2025 Zoom meeting 7-9p

See you in June at 10 am!

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

xo,
Kathy

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NJMQG Secretary

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July 6, 2024

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2024, announcements, Bees, challenges, charity, guild business, Library, meeting recaps, MQG, Programs, QuiltCon, show and tell, Uncategorized

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NJMQG June 2024 Guild Meeting

Hello all and happy Summer! Hope you are all staying cool and getting some sewing time in! We had yet another lovely meeting last month. We had 30 members joining us, including a newer member meeting with us in person for the first time. We also welcomed two guests, Joanna and Annette! Hope you join us again soon!

We want to give a special shout out thanks to Aleeda for donating a Keurig machine to the guild. As always we had our free table with a machine Karen brought, that I hope went home with someone. We received the latest copy of Quiltfolk magazine, which can be found in our library. Don’t forget, our library is chock full of books, magazines, patterns, and templates. You just need to check them out with Caroline and you could be on your way to learning something new!

Kelly is working with us on all things charity and we had made about 10 quilt tops that were available to be put together. A few members stayed after to cut batting and backing.

Programs was up next. We are hosting a shibori workshop on July 13, with Miriam Jacobs in Margy’s driveway in Clifton. Paula is coordinating our Community Outreach quilt for this year. The theme is lines and bars. If this strikes any inspiration in you, send in a design idea!! In September we are doing a blind swap for the Pockets to go organizer. If you haven’t bought the pattern, we have a few available for purchase.

The MQG started a quilt label week. The week of June 17, they encouraged everyone to take the time to do that important finishing step of labeling a quilt. If you have taken part, you can tag the MQG and use #labelmyquilts. The MQG Make-a-difference challenge was put out and you can find out more about it here. This year the theme is pollinators. Quiltcon is February 20-23, 2025 in Phoenix, AZ. Registration starts July 31. Set your schedule up now so you’re ready to go! Next years key note is Tara Faughnan. Submissions for the show are from September 1-October 31.

Programs is starting a new set of bee blocks! Keep your eye out for sign ups. It’s a lot of fun and a great way to get blocks for a quilt top. And Mary let us know that the Warwick Valley Guild show is a go in October. Submissions are due by Sept 7, and the quilts need to be dropped off in person on October 7. You can find out more and print the forms from their website!

Congrats to Debby for winning the first raffle prize! and Caroline the 2nd!

Rachel helped run our elections for this year. Ann Marston is continuing her term as president and Annette is staying on as treasurer. We elected all of our newest board members unopposed and unanimously. Let’s give a warm welcome to our new VP, Samantha. Holly is joining Margy in running programs, and Kathy is taking over the role of secretary. (I will miss being a part of the board, but I’m sure I’ll be back) Can’t wait to see what the new board has in store for us.

As tradition goes, the guild works together to make a quilt for the last outgoing president. Big thanks to Lenny who designed the quilt, the members who made blocks and to Krishma for quilting it. What a beautiful collaboration for a beautiful human who led our guild through those weird pandemic years.

Show and Tell Time!

Sam- Sally Tomato Ferris bag printed cork

“Let the Wild Rumpus Start” wall hanging

Debby- Applique learned from JoAnn for 5 yr old grandchild

Annette- from Sunday Quilts for Project Linus

Betsy V- 24″ clam from Latifah Saafir- sew along

Our next two meetings will be over Zoom. Thursday July 18 and August 15 at 7:00. Keep an eye out for the links and as always, don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions, concerns, ideas…

Well folks, that’s all for now. I’m signing off from the secretary duties. It’ll be nice to just be a regular member for a while. Like I said, I’m sure I’ll be back in some capacity, but I’m looking forward to getting back to my sewing machine! Enjoy the rest of the summer! Stay cool! Happy quilting!

-A

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NJMQG Secretary

Posted on

May 13, 2024

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2024, charity, guild business, meeting recaps, show and tell, Uncategorized

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April 2024 Guild Meeting Recap

Hello friends! Hope you are all well and able to get some in some quilty time in. Spring is springing, and aside from allergies, I’m grateful to see all the flowers and green, so much green!! We had a lovely April meeting with 25 members joining us. A special welcome to our new members Molly and Sue and our 2 guests Jane and Mary. And congrats to Jeanine welcoming in another grandbaby!

We had a little bit of business to take care of. Annette recap the treasurer’s report for us, and as always if you have any questions you can always reach out. We had a name tag swap, with 22 members taking part. I did not manage to get any pictures of those…As a reminder, we have our free table, anything you bring that doesn’t get taken, please bring it home with you. Since Kelly couldn’t make it to the meeting, we are extending the charity block deadline to our May meeting. The person who makes the most blocks will get a little prize, so get to sewing! This charity block is a quick and easy one.

We pulled our first raffle ticket and congrats to Betsy F for being our first winner of the day.

Also coming up in May, we will be announcing the candidates for the board elections. June is when we will hold our elections, and Rachel has so kindly offered to lead that for us. This will be our first in person election since 2019. The positions we have open are, VP, treasurer, programs and secretary. If you would like to run for a board position, or help out in some other way, we would love to hear from you!

MJ, was our second raffle winner (and again, I missed the photo)

We had some overviews and updates on the Philly field trip, Mid Mod (some pics below) and talked about some upcoming programming. Mark your calendar for some upcoming dates. After our May and June meetings we will have open sew time (Saturdays May 18th and June 15th). Saturday July 13th, there will be a Shibori dying workshop held at Margy’s house in Clifton. Our July and August meetings will be held over Zoom on Thursdays the 18th and 15th, respectively.

On to Show and Tell!

Our most prolific quilter…

Blake- “You’re Going to Want More Fabric”

Grandson’s golden bday- Starry night Bloem

Sue- “Karman Line” where our atmosphere ends and space starts

Rebecca- David Owen Hastings quilt as you go coasters

2″ squares- Irish Chain-ish- 5-6 years in progress

And congrats to Kathy for winning our last raffle!

After our meeting, we had a great class with Betsy V making the Frost Fanny Pack by Petite Stitchery. Once again I was lax in taking pictures, but I was able to finish mine a few days later… I hope to see more finished ones at our next meeting!

Our next meeting is on Saturday May 18th at 11:00. We will be meeting at our new space at the First Lutheran Church of Montclair, at 153 Park St. Don’t forget to bring any show and tell, charity blocks
and/or any project you’d like to work on during the open sew. See you then! Happy sewing!

-A