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April 8, 2024

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March 2024 Guild Meeting Recap

Hello quilty friends and happy spring! We had an absolutely fabulous meeting at our new space. Thank you to the 38 members and 3 guests we had join us! We want to give a special shout out to those who introduced themselves: Blake (new to quilting but prolific!), Janet (From Colonia), Arlene (a traditional friend), Paula (quilting since 1987), Cecelia (quilting for 30 years), Sue (makes clothing and quilts) and Bonnie (who works with clay). So nice meeting you all and hope to see you again!

We started our meeting off with a little Quitcon recap. We are always so proud to be a guild that has many members who have quilts hanging in the show. Betsy V, had 3 hanging, with 1 winning first prize, for her Windham Fabric challenge quilt, Overprint. Lenny (3), Miguel (2), Melanie, Liz (2), and Juandamarie also had quilts hanging in the show. Congratulations to all! Aleeda metioned this year had the biggest attendance on record for Quiltcon, with 15,000 people attending! Amazing! While some of us were away at Quiltcon, others of us at home took part in an open sew. Quilting friends and sewing, what can be better?

The latest issue of Quiltfolk Magazine was all about NJ. We have a copy of it in our library if you’d like to check it out. Congrats to Krishma, Juandamarie and Aleeda!

Kelly shared with us a charity block we can work on for 2024. Use your stash, those precuts you no longer like or get some fabric from the charity bin and get to sewing! Using 5″ squares, make a 9 block (3×3) and add a 3″ strip to two sides of the block. The finished block should be 16.25″ square. Bring your finished blocks to the April meeting, and there might just be a prize for the person who brings the most in…

Lucky Raffle winners Rebecca, Carolyn, and Tracy

Just some reminders. Caroline Hayes is our librarian and our library cart is always accessible during our in person meetings to borrow books, magazines, patterns and templates. The free table is also always out for our meetings. REMINDER, if you bring something that doesn’t get taken, please bring it back home with you or it will be thrown away!

Besides all the snacks (our “tea party” themed meeting is always one of my faves) Show and Tell is our favorite part of getting together. It’s been a long time and you all did not disappoint!

Casey- Alison Glass Trinket Quilt along- foundation pieced

Based on a painting- Memory of Lambertville

Karen Fricke- Quilt Arts magazine article

Rachel- Libs Elliott class- will be a cushion cover

Jacquie Gering class panel turned Open Wide pouch

Sally Tomato Connie backpack with selvages

Betsy V- one of the MANY fanny packs made

Remember all those things you brought in to donate to Kelly’s request for the members of the Lakota Tribe? Well, we received the nicest thank you!

After the break we had a skills lab where some of our members showed us some tips and tricks. Thanks to Carol P/quilt sandwich, Margy/flanged binding, Betsy V/hanging sleeve, and Karen F/quilt labels. I sadly did not get any pictures…

Some upcoming things to keep in mind. If you are a new member and need a nametag (or are an old member and want to have a new one) we are doing another nametag swap. The MQG is doing a sew along that starts on April 18. Check it out here. Our next meeting is 1 week later than normal, on April 27 (which just so happens to be my birthday, gifts not necessary, but will be accepted ;P) Betsy will hold a workshop after our meeting to make the Frost Fanny Pack, which you must be signed up for (and paid) to participate in. Sign up here! And as always, the board is planning ahead, so keep and eye out for more great opportunities to participate in!

Spring is springing! Happy sewing!

-A

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March 29, 2023

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2023, guild business, meeting recaps, membership, MQG, Open Sew, Programs, swaps, Uncategorized, volunteer

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!

Lenny- first of 3 quilts finished 2 weeks with Nancy Crow

Caroline- friend made from mom’s snowball quilt

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

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NJMQG Secretary

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December 4, 2022

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2022, guild business, meeting recaps, Programs, Uncategorized

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November 2022 Guild Meeting Recap

Hello Quilty Friends!

Time is just flying by and here we are in December almost ready for our Holiday Party and I’m just getting to the recap of our November meeting. Our fearless leader, Rachel, was unable to make the meeting, so the rest of the board took charge! A true team effort! Thanks to all 38 members who joined us on our Zoom meeting.

We jumped right in to announcements. We wanted to remind everyone about Mid-Atlantic Mod. Early admission was open on November 4 and general admission has been opened up on November 13 (and you’re in luck, there are still some tickets left!) Go to their website to find out more info and to sign up.

Our November meeting means it’s time for our vote on the next year’s budget. Annette filled us in on the overview and, as always, the information is available in the member’s only section of the website. We had our vote, and after some confusion, managed to figure out how to do it, and the proposed budget was passed! Thanks to all for taking part.

Our MQG Community Outreach Quilt is in the hands of our quilter. Thanks to Carolyn M. for volunteering! Can’t wait to see what it looks like!

We were lucky enough to be able to host Jacquie Gering for a workshop over Zoom. I heard she is a fabulous teacher and it was a wonderful class!

Our Peters Valley mini show was a resounding success! So much so, that the Cincinnati MQG has asked if they can use the idea for their own! (with credit, of course) I’m sure they’ll post at some point on their instagram. Crista has the mini’s and catalogs, for anyone who ordered one, and will distribute them at the December Holiday Party. Or reach out to her to plan another way to coordinate.

Speaking of the Holiday Party, we have some fun things planned for the meeting. On Saturday December 10, from 11-3 at the Community Church of Cedar Grove, we will be getting together to celebrate with some food, swaps and of course plenty of time to just be together! The guild is going to be getting the main food (and we are taking into account all sorts of dietary things), but are asking everyone to please bring a dessert and drink to share! We have two Blind Swaps (not Secret) swaps you can participate in if you’d like. The Iron Caddy and the Party Poppers!

Last year we mailed our swaps so we knew who the swap came from, but this year since we are in person, make sure to put your name inside the swap. We are also asking everyone to please wrap the swaps in a FQ. Can’t wait to see what everyone makes/receives! We are also going to have an activity or two to do. We will have a station to make some of those popular Swedish stars, and a little area to make some tags, too!

A few months ago, we sent out a survey to get an idea of what the guild is looking for with meetings and classes. We are thankful to everyone who answered. Here’s a little overview of what we got.

The board has been hard at work coming up with a schedule of fabulous things for 2023 AND 2024! For 2023, we will be continuing to do the majority of our meetings over Zoom, still on the third Thursday of the month. Once a quarter, we will have an in-person meeting on a Saturday and try to combine it with an open sew, so we can be together for a full day of fun! We are lining up some great lectures, workshops, challenges, swaps, etc… We are very excited to be able to share more with you real soon!

Speaking of 2023, we do have our first workshop for the year lined up. We hope you will be able to join us. Look for sign ups soon!

For 2022 we challenged you to work on some WIPs! This month there was only one entry.

Started out with 5 pillows to be made. This is the 3rd one finished

Show and Tell was light this month. Maybe everyone has started on their Holiday sewing early?

Sharing the last quilt Dawn made. Brought to England and already loved!

about 22 reusable sanitary pads and 30 extra inserts

After the official part of the meeting wrapped up we had an lovely and intriguing conversation on a topic that was floating around social media recently. What is Modern Quilting? It is an interesting topic with so many facets it’s hard to really define it. Maybe we can revisit it again sometime soon?

Thanks again to everyone for joining us. Hope to see you the the Holiday party! December 10, from 11-3. Don’t forget to bring your swaps, a drink/dessert, and show and tell!

Happy quilting!
-A