February 2023 Guild Meeting

Hello quilty friends! We had our monthly meeting over Zoom on February 15. As always it was a lot of fun. We had 38 members joining us, including a few new members- Amanda H, Ginny M, Mindy M. Welcome! After a little bit of technical difficulties (Betsy F powered through and persevered!! Don’t give up, you got this!) our slide show got started.

We started with a little bit of business. The guild renewals are still in the grace period until the end of March, but for anyone who has renewed or signed up should have received the welcome letter including info about what our membership includes and the password for the members only section of our website. If you have no idea what I am talking about, send us an email and we can get that sent out to you!

The NJMQG board is doing the annual review of the bylaws. If anyone has any proposed amendments you are asked to submit a ‘proposal’ before the March meeting. Everything can be found in the members only section of the website here. Annette gave us the 4th quarter treasurer’s report overview. If you are interested in checking it out, that is also in the members only section. And speaking of financials we are also asking for a couple of volunteers to help us do an audit and review the financial stuff. Please reach out if you are willing to help with that.

We are also reaching out and planting the seed for any member who would like to be more involved in the guild and be a part of our board. We will definitely be looking for someone to step into the presidential role (could be co-lead), but also someone to help share program’s duties. If you are interested in another role, we are always looking for more good people to help make our fabulous guild continue on being what it is. Elections are in June and the new board members transition in July. Let us know if you, or someone else in the guild, might be a good fit!

The MQG Quiltcon 2023 in Atlanta is coming up! We have quite a few members who are going as well as having work hung at the show. I will share our member’s work on Instagram, but if I miss anything, send a pic/email to secretary at njmqg dot com and I can share. While a bunch will be in Atlanta we are having a Missing Quiltcon Open Sew over Zoom, February 25 from 10-2.

Our next meeting will be in person on March 18, from 10-12 with an Open Sew right after until 4. We hope you will join us for our Tea Party themed meeting. For those signed up, the needle minder swap will be happening and during the open sew time
Sam L will be on hand to walk any member whose interested in making a Schlep Bag. We will be meeting at our usual in person spot at the Community Church of Cedar Grove. If you are staying for the Open Sew, don’t forget to bring a project to work on, your machine, etc… We’ll send out a reminder, of course, that will include supplies for the bag.

It’s Show and Tell time!

First up we have some blocks made from the Heather Kojan Interleave Piecing workshop

Origami bag class with Carol Mann
Jaybird Nebula BOM
Star in the West
Quiltcon mini swap
International friendship swap- Little Lute Bag
Lamp mats- Paper pieced, hand dyed fabric, walking foot with Jacquie Gering
Quiltcon mini swap- Sarah bond paper piecing

Until next time friends! Stay well and keep on stitching!

-A

December 2022 Holiday Party/Meeting Recap

Hello Friends and Happy New Year!! Hope you are all happy, healthy and have enjoyed some time off with friends and family. We had our annual holiday party last month, and it was just so lovely to see everyone who could make it! We had 38 members and one little guest join us.

Because it was also our monthly meeting, we did have some guild stuff to go over before all the fun stuff. Our Community Outreach quilt “Emerald City” was quilted by Carolyn and was on display for us before moving on the the binder. Thanks to all who have taken part in making this a true community quilt.

Speaking of Quiltcon quilts, we have some member’s quilts going to Quiltcon. Congrats to Betsy V, Miguel, Carolyn, and Lenny. (Let me know if I’ve missed anyone) Congrats to everyone who got in AND entered and didn’t get accepted. Just taking that step of entering is an amazing deal!

Crista brought all of the mini’s back from our Peter’s Valley Gallery show and the catalogs were handed out to anyone who purchased one.

Guild Renewals will begin in January. We like to keep the financials separate so we can start new in January. An email with the link will go out the first week of January and we will reset the website information. Our goal is to complete sign ups by Jan 31st. The MQG roster gets reset in February. You can find all the info to renew/signup here.

We gave a little preview of what was to come for 2023.

  • January – Heather Kojan – joining us twice in Jan!
    • 19th – Thursday Zoom meeting w/ Guest Speaker
    • Introduction to Interleave Piecing Zoom Workshop on Saturday, January 21, 2023 from 9:00-12:00
  • February – Thurs Zoom & live Sat Open Sew
    • Matched swap with members to make a needle book, or roll-up
  • March – Live Saturday Meeting/ tea party & Open Sew on the SAME day!
  • April – Lisa Shepard Stewart – Thurs Zoom lecture & SUNDAY live class
  • May – Kelly hosting us for Tie Dye again!!

We had a fun craft station, yummy lunch and so many desserts to share!

A highlight of the party is always the swaps. Since it was so much fun last year, we did the party poppers again, as well as an iron caddy swap. I couldn’t get a picture of everyone fast enough, but I did try.

The poppers were a blind swap. It’s a paper towel tube stuffed with as many goodies as you could fit rolled in a FQ. We had a great turnout, with a few people putting together more than one.

The caddy swap was a lot of fun, too! Another blind swap. Sarah F got Pam and amazingly, Pam got Sarah F! Sam got Josie, Josie got Miguel, Miguel got Annette, Annette got Kelly, Kelly got Betsy F, Betsy F got Sam. Karen got Kathy, Kathy got Kimberli, Kimberli got Ann, Ann got Rebecca and Rebecca got Karen! Phew!

We had a few WIP’s

Julia- sweatshirt
Julia
Wannetta from last year’s popper swap

And of course show and tell, too!

Sam- Happy Sew Lucky mini paper pieced ornies
Kelly- jacket finished at open sew
Casey- first in person meeting- Windows 95
Wannetta- Blessings quilt
Back
Wannetta- bag made from scraps
Wannetta- iron bag
Wannetta- skirt fabric from Kenya
Wannetta- reversible apron
Miguel- Quiltcon reject turned Accept
Margy- harmonic convergence
Ellaree- first bag
Ellaree- Pennington 25th Anniversary quilt
Back
Carol M- origami turned flap bag
MJ- for grandson inspired by Debby’s I spy

Thanks again to all of you joining us for the the fun and festivities! We all hope that 2023 brings plenty of joy and love and lots and lots of sewing! Hope to see you soon!

-A

2022 Guild renewal info

Hello guild friends!

I hope everyone is feeling replenished and refreshed for this coming year.
Thank you first and foremost for your participation and support these past two years. We are continuing to meet via Zoom and our Programs team: Samantha & Tari have gathered a dynamic group of teachers for our lectures and classes this year. We are excited to get this year going and look forward to inspiring each other to accomplish creative things together.

S​ome reminders about our guild renewal:

  • Our dues cover the calendar year of January- December
  • Dues for the year are $60 (the additional $2 is for PayPal fees)
  • A small amount of dues goes to the MQG – the majority stay with us to cover costs of instructors, programs, gifts and other guild needs
  • Membership includes participation in our swaps, challenges, opens sews and discounted prices for our classes
  • Membership includes access to the MQG range of offerings including free patterns, challenges, webinars and early registration to QuiltCon

​Important notes:

  • There are TWO parts of the renewal process
  • You must fill out the form AND do the PayPal portion
  • I will send out the 2022 renewal letter towards the end of the month, the MQG considers us in a grace period for the month until all our members are confirmed.

Head to our join page to sign up today!! ^^up there, up top at the banner^^

Please reach out with any questions – info@njmqg.com

We are looking forward to spending this coming year with you all.

your 2022 NJMQG board