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NJMQG Secretary

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January 30, 2023

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2023, Guest presenter, guild business, meeting recaps, MQG, Programs, QuiltCon, swaps, Uncategorized, workshop

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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

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NJMQG Secretary

Posted on

March 20, 2022

Posted under

2022, meeting recaps, Uncategorized

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March 2022 Guild Meeting Recap

Hello quilting friends! We had our monthly meeting on March 17. We had 38 people joining us and a very special guest speaker.

We started out with a little guild business. The election of board members in coming up in June. As a reminder, the president and treasurer are 2 year commitments and the others are 1 year. The president and treasurer trade off in election years-president in odd years and even for treasurer. This June our treasurer and programs positions will be open. Programs works well being co-chairs. If you are interested or have any questions, please reach out to anyone on the board.

We moved right into our guest speaker, Audrey Esarey of Cotton & Bourbon. “Finding my voice in quilting” was the theme of her lecture and it was fascinating to see the evolution and trajectory of her work over time. She got started quilting after being invited to a class by her, then, future mother-in-law. Inspired by Caryl Bryer Fallert Gentry, Jonathan Lawes, and Nancy Crow, Audrey works with a lot of hand died fabric and curves, but is always interested in challenging herself (and the limits of EQ8). It was lovely having Audrey share with us. We are hosting a workshop with Audrey on April, there are still some spots open. You can sign up here. Come play with foundation and curved paper piecing in the Ultraviolet Radial workshop.

We had an update on our charity quilting. Ellaree made a list of Kennel quilts we know were made. If you made and sent on your own, let Ellaree or a board member know so we can update the tally!

We have started to bring some of our quilts and pillowcases to an amazing place for donations.
The American Friends Service Committee, is a Nobel Peace Prize winning program that has been working with refugees for over 100 years. They are a leader on immigration issues in NJ since the 1980’s, supporting through community organizing, education, advocacy and providing legal representation in immigration cases. The Immigration Rights Program has 2 offices in Newark and 1 in Red Bank. Elinore delivered some quilts that went to displaced families, many with small children, who are dealing with immigration and asylum issues. They are extremely appreciative by the generosity of our members. These quilts will be well loved. Please email Rachel (president at njmqg dot com) or text Elinore (info found in members only section of website) if/when you have quilts or pillowcases to donate. A drop off or pick up can be coordinated.

Next we talked about all things WIP! Anyone who sent in a WIP was entered to win a prize…

2 baby quilts. One on left too labor intensive to continue, so will add some sashing or borders.

Simply Woven pattern by Moda A back 1/2 pieced 1/2 solid

Pappersaxten Hold punch Workshop 6 point stars w/scraps

This month’s winner of the fabulous Tula Pink Butterfly 2 quilt pattern is… Jackie! Congrats! Can’t wait to see when you finish it 😉

We then moved right along to our Show and Tell

Paper pieced with EQ8 for Teacups group and learning photography lighting

After show and tell we talked quickly about the survey that was going out about getting your opinions on starting up some meetings in person. If you did not get that email, please reach out to anyone on the board and we can forward the link.
Also our MQG Community Outreach group quilt did not sell at Quiltcon, so the board has voted on, and agreed to donating it to AFSC. We’ve had a request from a few more people hoping to see it in person before that happens, so let us know about how you feel in the survey!

If you are interested in sharing a little more about yourself with the guild, please reach out the Aubrey (secretary at njmqg dot com) You can answer some getting to know you questions and be featured on our Instagram page!

Hoping you are all staying healthy and enjoying the spring weather! Warmer days are *hopefully* here to stay for a while!

Until next time, keep on quilting!

Peace,
-A

Posted by

Rachel

Posted on

February 13, 2019

Posted under

2019, announcements, charity, charity projects, Open Sew, volunteer

2019 Charity News

Hi members!

Thank you to all who contributed charity quilts, the new wave quilts and your own designs!

Donations:

We were able to donate a total of 16 quilts in 2018 (yay!) to the Robert Kaufman quilt drive to benefit the California fire victims.
We already have 6 finished quilts ready for donation.
We have 42 pillowcases ready to send to the Stuffed Suitcase program through the Giving Hope Network for their next giving event and we are so thankful to you guys, you’re the best! Let’s try to beat 2017’s pillowcase record of 127 pillowcases made and make more for 2019!
In addition, we have already donated 32 pounds of fabric scraps to the Social Justice Sewing Academy. Their Instagram is @sjsacademy if you want to check them out.

Below are the charity activities happening so far for 2019, we are so excited for our upcoming projects!

Log Cabin Blocks

We are making log cabin blocks that should be made 12 ½ by 12 ½ that will be finished 12×12 blocks. We would like for you to dig up those awesome stash strips and ask that members use some white in the block so they have a universal look once assembled into the quilt tops. There will be strips available at the February meeting from the charity stash and white to mix up with your stash. We will have a special giveaway in March for members who bring in log cabin blocks, but we will continue to collect blocks until we have enough for a quilt top or two. Use up that scrap stash!

log cabin with measured strips

one log cabin with measured strips, and one with unmeasured wonky strips

Quilts of Valor Blocks

Quilts of Valor blocks

Thank you for all who made QOV blocks lately, they are awesome! We will be collecting more through to the April meeting so we have enough to assemble into several quilt tops. There will be QOV block kits available at the February meeting as well as at the charity open sew that we are hosting during the weekend of QuiltCon (February 23rd). These blocks should be 12.5” x 12.5” and can be any pattern of your choosing. Please make sure the colors are red, white and blue.

Presenting the 2019 NJMQG Charity Pattern of the Year!

shoreline quilt The pattern we are using this year for charity quilts and kits is the “Shoreline” pattern from Tula Pink. This is a free pattern available from her website and we were given permission to create kits for our guild. Rachel, Crista, Terri and Emily got together last month to organize the charity stash (thank you!) and have already created 10 kits to make quilt tops for this pattern! These will be available at the charity open sew. We will continue to have the Elizabeth Hartman New Wave Quilt pattern and kit if you would still like to try that pattern.

We also have tops with backing and battings available for those of you who want to practice your FMQ skills and walking foot! These will be available at the March meeting. We have 5 quilt tops that need backings made or cut, and 4 quilt tops/backs ready for batting and quilting.

Thank you again for all of your charity efforts last year, you are all amazing. I can’t wait to see how many we get done this year, let’s try to beat last year’s pillowcase numbers!

Emily Chwazik

Co-Chair of Charity Committee