Happy 2024! I hope everyone is feeling replenished and refreshed for this coming year.

Thank you first and foremost for your participation and support this past year, especially as we have been navigating more meetings in person and our first quilt exhibit. 

If we haven’t seen you in a while, we look forward to welcoming you back!

Last year was full of creative challenges, our 10-year anniversary and a modern quilt showcase celebrating our work.

We look forward to inspiring each other to accomplish more creative things together. 

Below are planned dates for the combo of 8 in-person meetings/open sews (at the NEW location – First Lutheran Church in Montclair) and 4 Zoom meetings along with currently scheduled lectures and workshops. I hope the schedule below is helpful so you can pencil them into your calendars. We may have adjustments and additions that we are working on. Active members will be promptly notified of any changes. There will be plenty of fun swaps and challenges along the way. Plus a potential field trip! We will continue to send out the Guild News at a Glance but hopefully this will entice you to renew your membership today!

Preview of 2024 Meeting & Programs Schedule:

Some reminders about guild membership renewal:

• Dues cover the calendar year of January- December
• Dues for 2024 are $70 (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 meeting space rental fees, programs, gifts and other guild needs
• If you are a member of another MQG guild – you can determine with the MQG which is your main guild, please let me know so I can share that info with them.
• Membership includes participation in our swaps, challenges, open sews and discounted prices for our classes. Please note that workshop fees are determined by the instructor.
• Membership includes access to the MQG range of offerings including free patterns, challenges, webinars and early registration to QuiltCon
• Let us know if you would like to join in 2024 but are concerned about the financial obligations. We want everyone to be able to participate. Contact any board member to find out more about available sponsorship gifts.

Important notes:

• You can renew on the JOIN form page (link below) – no need to sign into the Members Only Section
• There are TWO parts of the renewal process – you MUST DO BOTH to complete the process
• You must fill out the online form AND do the PayPal portion**
• Clicking the application link will redirect you to the Google form – you must return to the JOIN page to access the PayPal button below it
• Please renew your membership before January 30th
• The Members Only Section will have a new password on February 1st
• I will send out the 2024 Welcome/ 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.
• Link to join is below:

2024 NJMQG Join (Renewal) Site 

If this link doesn’t work, please visit the website www.njmqg.com and click JOIN.

Payment Options:

** Online credit card payments accepted via PayPal – use the button on the Renewal page; a $2 service fee is added.

Zelle: send payment to the following email treasurer@njmqg.com

Check: Mail your check to NJMQG, 41 Watchung Plaza, Montclair, NJ 07042 please respond to this email that you will be mailing a check. Do not mail cash.

Cash: please contact treasurer@njmqg.com to arrange cash payment

Please reach out with any questions.

Warmest Regards,

Your NJMQG Board 2024

Libs Elliott is an imaginative textile artist and designer who explores the intersection of technology and traditional craft by using generative design to build handmade quilts. Libs Elliott is known for using computer code and algorithms to create her random quilt patterns. A deep appreciation for craftsmanship, design history and future-focused applications are all reflected in her work. Libs lives and works in Toronto, Canada. In this class, we will work on the blocks that are used in Libs’ Bloem quilt pattern.  We will practice curved blocks and half-square triangles, learn how to successfully piece curves and how to sew blocks together to ensure matching seams with tips and tricks along the way. We’ll also cover the various ways these quilts can be quilted for maximum effect.  

Please fill out the google form to hold your spot, then click the PayPal button to pay the workshop.

Hello Quilty friends! Our November meeting was kind of a short one, but full of info! We had 37 people join in on our Zoom meeting. Special welcome and thanks to Paula, Susan and Arlene! Hope to see you again soon!

We started our meeting off with a recap of goings on that happened since our last meeting. We had a group take a field trip to Lisa Stewart Shepard’s shop, Cultured Expressions, for a little workshop.

A few of us spent some time on MQG’s Scrap Sorting Day, getting organized and talking about organizing and using our scraps.

The Clifton Quilter’s Guild had their fall retreat and quite a few of our members attended. They had a blast and we are inspired…we had our first quilt show, is it time for our first retreat? We’ll see…either way, the Clifton guilld has two on their calendar for 2024.

Annette filled us in on the treasurer’s report. Just like everything else that is going up, we at the NJMQG have to take into account the numbers. We discussed our proposed budget and including a new, higher membership fee. We talked about all the details and asked for everyone to hold their questions until the end of the meeting when we held our vote. You can always check the member’s only section for those reports.

Our guild is planning on doing more in person meetings in 2024. We are planning to do 8 in person and 4 virtual meetings. We will be getting together at a new location. We will be meeting at The First Lutheran Church in Montclair at 153 Park Street. Our official schedule will be announced in December.

The MQG Community Outreach Quilt status update! The top and back have been completed and it is being quilted by Carol M.

Our final meeting of the year, as always, is our holiday party. Saturday December 2, from 11-3 at The Community Church of Cedar Grove. This year we are swapping a scissor pouch by Sotak Handmade, info found here (and a helpful youtube video here) and the party poppers we have swapping the past few years. These will be blind swaps, meaning for every swap you make, you swap one and bring one home. Just wrap the pouch, nothing fancy, and put your name on the inside! The party popper, is a paper towel tube, stuffed with as many goodies you can fit, and covered with a fat quarter. We will have games, a craft, and lunch catered. We are asking everyone to bring a dessert to share (please include a list of ingredients for allergies)This will be our last meeting at this location.

We skipped show and tell, so we can all share in person at our meeting, so please bring all those things you’ve been working on. If you can’t bring it to the meeting, take a picture for a future virtual show and tell.

Programs and the board is in the process of planning all sorts of good things for 2024. We are starting the year off with a lecture and a workshop with Libs Elliott. The January meeting is January 18, over Zoom, and Libs will join us with a lecture. We will then have a workshop with Libs on the Bloem quilt, Saturday January 20 over Zoom. Look for sign ups soon.

February brings us a Zoom guild meeting on Thursday February 15th and Quiltcon, but for those not able to go, we will be having an open sew on Saturday February 24th.

We will continue to keep you updated!

To close things out, we had a vote, by show of hands, on the 2024 budget, which passed.

Hope to see you all at the holiday meeting!

Ciao and happy sewing!