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

January 2023 Meeting Recap

Hello quilty friends! Hope you’ve all had a lovely start to the new year. This month we had 50 people join us for our Zoom meeting. We welcomed some new friends to our guild with a special shout out to Mary Ann D, Daniel R, Cindy S, Pat B, Mary K, Pam F and Michelle.

We went over some quick guild business, because what we all were here for this month was a lecture from Heather Kojan. First things first, we could not continue without proudly congratulating our very own member and cofounder, Aleeda C. for being elected MQG Board President! We know she will put her heart and smarts into her role. Read more about it here!

Quiltcon is coming up. Thanks for Margy S. for once again taking the lead on all the coordinating for the Community Outreach Quilt. If you are going to be in Atlanta, Lenny is coordinating a meetup/group photo. Contact her to join in. For those of us not going to Quiltcon, we will be hosting an open sew over Zoom on Saturday, February 25. We’ll send out an email with that info soon.

We are in the middle of our guild renewal! Tell your friends! I may be biased, but we have the best guild around. Don’t forget to fill out the form AND then send the payment, either through Paypal, or check to the PO Box. To do that and find out more check it out here. We are hoping to have majority of the signups done by the end of January. We reset our roster in February.

We will be hosting a Needle Minder Swap! We will be sending out the sign ups and matching up partners soon. Then we will be swapping at our In Person Tea Party meeting/Open Sew in March.

Last, but certainly not least, we welcomed Heather Kojan for a lecture ahead of the Interleave Piecing class she was teaching on Saturday January 21.

Heather talked to us about Quilt Design. Her personal style is more modern traditional. During the pandemic she was quite a prolific quilter with about 20 quilts each in 2020 and 2021! Regarding quilt design she talked about 5 points. Inspiration (is everywhere!), Design Composition, Education, Selection and Construction and Documentation. It was lovely to have her with us and I hope everyone enjoyed!

Next month we will have our usual updates, as well as the quarterly treasurer’s report and show and tell! Send pictures of everything you’ve been working on to programs at njmqg dot com. We want to see all the quilty goodness!

Until next time, be well, stay crafty!

-A

Updates: Our 2021 MQG Community Outreach Quilt

fabric prep

The MQG’s Community Outreach quilt for QuiltCon 2021 is focused on curved piecing with a given color palette. As in previous years the NJMQG is participating and we are well on our way. A shout out to our members: Lenny van Eijk who came up with a great design, Kathy Morganroth for getting our templates in order, and Margy Schilling who has sorted out organizing, prep and co-ordination of all the parts.

Thanks to all who are already participating on our community quilt: 24 guild members were sent kits! About 20 of us hung out in three Zoom sessions. Twelve have already returned pieced blocks, and they look fabulous!!

cutting & prepping fabric kits

Hopefully the rest are on their way. Please let us know if you have any problems with the blocks or find that you don’t have the time you thought you would.
We have a small group lined up to piece the top together, but we will let you know if we are in need of more assistance in this area.

There is another opportunity to help with this quilt: It needs a back! We have a few yards of the blues, and plenty of orange scraps. Anyone interested in doing a bit of improv???  If we have one person to sew it, I bet we can get a few others to consult over Zoom.

Think about it, and let Margy know, or we can talk more about it at the Guild meeting on Thursday.