September 2023 Guild Meeting

Hello! Hi! How are you? September has come and gone, but we can’t forget all the fun we had at our in person meeting for September. Despite the rainy day, we has 38 members and 3 guests joining us. Welcome to Emily, Blake and Noa Joe!

First things first, we got some updates and reminders from Ann. Our Showcase of modern quilts was coming up and we were collecting the quilts in the front. Pick up would be the end of day Sunday or Monday morning during breakdown, but anyone not available at those times was asked to please make arrangements with Ann. There was a Sign-up genius link for all members to volunteer hours.

Mid Atlantic Mod retreat had exactly 10 members enter the lotto, and so all of the lucky entrants will be going to Mid-Mod! Yay! Congrats!

We had a vote on the MQG Community Outreach quilt and we chose a design. The blocks were available to work on during open sew or to take home. Here’s one block.

The board is working hard behind the scenes on reviewing the budget, looking at potential new spaces for our in person events and frequency of meetings. We will be presenting the proposed budget in October and there was a poll to fill out about meeting in person. We will continue to update you all in the coming months.

We had a fun time swapping postcards with the Baltimore MQG. We will have more pictures on our October Zoom meeting, but some of us got to show them off in person. (well, I took a pic of mine hung up in my studio)

Our member Karen Fricke gave us a great talk about her work and some of the techniques she uses. I have never been so inspired to use bugs in my quilting! Thank you so much for sharing Karen! She will be hosting a workshop with us soon.

We took a little break and pulled some raffle tickets! Congrats to MJ, Karen, Maureen and Noa Joe!!

Then Show and Tell. It impresses us every time!

Ginny- Perfect Illusion

Pat- Bag Saturday Sampler

Emily

Holly- Tie dye with Kelly Free pattern on Janome

Rochelle- Garment bag Sally Tomato kit Vest

Karen- Bonnie Hunter- Talking Turkey

Debby- Kantha summer quilt (look out she’s found some inspiration!!)

MJ- charity quilt made with fabric from free table

Betsy V- mini’s for Curated Quilts challenges

Latifa Saafir 25″ clam template and bag pattern

Robin- Jen Kingwell Handpiecing class

Wanda- Kawandi style, Sankofa- Colors of a Baltimore Childhood

We had a couple of Programs things. Betsy was taking sign ups for those interested in taking a field trip to Lisa Shephard Stewart’s space for a workshop, October 25th. We signed up to be a part of Quiltfolk’s free directory. Save the date for our Holiday Party December 2, 11-3. We are looking for a few good volunteers to help us in coordinating that. Betsy is wondering who may be interested in taking a class with Kirsten Fisher making fabric bowls. We know we have had requests for free-motion and applique classes, so we are keeping that in mind for the coming year. Another workshop to look forward to, already on the schedule, is Libs Elliott on January 21! Then we had some lunch, some good conversation and sewing!

So much more fun to look forward to! Hope everyone stays well, enjoys the fall weather and gets their quilt on! As always, let any board member know any questions, concerns, or anything you’d like us to share with the guild. Our next meeting is Thursday October 19th over Zoom! See you then!

-A

June meeting – NEXT Saturday 6/17

IN Person Meeting & Open Sew – Saturday Jun 17, 2023 (not this weekend)

10am-4pm, meeting 10-12, then we’ll set up for an afternoon open sewing session

Where? Our Cedar Grove location

Don’t forget:

  • Swap items – blind swap for Thread Catcher & Petit Four baskets (check your reminder email for details)
  • Show & Tell items
  • Good vibes for voting in & cheering for our new board!
  • Sewing machine & all accouterments
  • Power strip, extension cord
  • Snacks!!

Mark your Calendars & see you NEXT weekend!!

-Rachel

March 2023 Guild Meeting Recap

Happy Spring! We were very excited to be able to meet in person for our meeting AND open sew this month. It feels so great to be seeing each other again and be able to meet some of our newer members face to face. Don’t get us wrong, Zoom is an amazing resource to have and to use, but with such a tactile thing as quilting, being face to face with each other and the quilts is just so inspiring and invigorating. It was lovely to be able to chat and sew with and brag on our members. We had 39 members joining us. A few lovely new friends introduced themselves to us. MaryAnne, Mindy, Ginny and Cindy it was great to meet you and hear a little bit about your quilting history.

We had some guild business to go over. We are wrapping up our renewals and have all the info to be sent in to the MQG. That doesn’t mean you can’t still sign up, but more for the ‘business-y’ side of stuff. You should be able to access all the available resources on the MQG website, if not, let us know. As part of some housekeeping, we are doing a review of our bylaws. We had a change suggested on some wording for one section that was voted on and approved by all present. If anyone has any changes or anything they’d like to discuss, the board is always here.

Quiltcon was our next topic of discussion. For the members who did not go, we had a very fun Open Sew over Zoom. And while we were Zooming it up, we had a few members there representing us well! Congrats again to Jackie L, Lenny, Melanie T, Liz K, Caroline M, Miguel, and Betsy V for having quilts shown. Aleeda C, who is one of the NJMQG’s founders was inspiring to watch as she slipped easily into her role as MQG president. We had our Community quilt available to look at and we are working on the plans for what to do with it next.

The NJMQG is in the early planning stages of having a quilt show!! We are really excited to finally be able to put on a show, after talking about it since our early years, but we need your help! We are looking for as many hands as we can for help in putting on a show. Reach out to Ann if you are interested in helping.

We had a quick trivia question and Debby C was the winner! (Which company introduced the electric sewing machine in 1889?)

We couldn’t go through the day without acknowledging our fearless leader who was celebrating a birthday the next day. Happy birthday Rachel!!

As we slowly roll towards the middle of the year, we are preparing for the next Board Election. We are looking for a new president and co-program person, at least, but if you are feeling inspired to volunteer for another position, there are ways to make it work. Right now only the treasurer spot is only truly not up for election. We are asking for members to nominate themselves or suggest someone else who they think may be good at and interested being a part of the board. We are looking for some members to be part of a committee to help be a liaison and to host the election, as well. Please reach out to any board member if you have any questions or suggestions. If you’d like to sit in on a board meeting to check it out, we can do that too! You know the saying, many hands…

Another raffle prize and Mary K was the lucky winner!

Programs updates were next. We will be having Lisa Stewart Shepard of Cultured Expressions do a lecture for us at our April 20 guild meeting over Zoom. There is a half day workshop on April 23 from 1-5 with Lisa to learn a cool corded log cabin technique.

On May 20, Kelly C has once again offered to host an afternoon of tie dying!

Sam came up and showed us some examples of just a fraction of the many Schlep bags she has made before showing us how it’s done during the open sew.

The last prize for the closest answer goes to…Lenny! (Where did the thimble originate?)

Before our break, where we enjoyed tea and goodies, we had some members take part in a needle minder swap.

We ended our official meeting with show and tell and then got all set up for our open sew!

Penny- Interleave piped pillow
Jackie L- “leftover” orange peels
Lenny- first of 3 quilts finished 2 weeks with Nancy Crow
Jo Ann- Needlebook made by friend
Caroline- friend made from mom’s snowball quilt
Mary Anne- Epp

I hope everyone had as much fun as I did! Look forward to our April meeting. Thursday April 20 at 7:15 over Zoom. As always, reach out with any questions, concerns, or anything! Don’t forget, you can always let us know of any classes, shows, news you hear so we can share it with our members, too! Thanks for reading!

-A

P.S. The answers were Singer and Holland