October Meeting Recap

Happy Sunday, Quilters!

Our October meeting was held last Saturday, the 17th at StitchCraft. Thank you to all members and guests who joined us.

Monthly Topic:
The monthly topic for October was Handwork, specifically English Paper Piecing (EPP) and Big Stitch Hand Quilting.

Nicole started off with a presentation on EPP, and a demonstration to show how she finished her EPP Hexagon Table Runner.

Kate gave a presentation on Big Stitch, followed by an interactive lesson in hand quilting.

We are excited to see our members try these new techniques! They're great projects to have for our Sewcials, or sewing on-the-go.

BOM:

Our block of the month for October was Eastern Sunrise, in the Tequila Sunrise Color Palette. The winner of the drawing was Penny Stern.

Our next block of the month (for November 21st) is the Checker block from Elven Garden Quilts.

Sneak Peak of our Upcoming BOMs for November and December.

QAL:
Our Quilt Along is in month 5. We'll bring out final blocks (#6) to the November meeting, where we'll also talk about how to put the blocks together. Some of our members have started working ahead, and have been putting their quilt tops together. It has been fun to see these quilts progress, and we can't wait to see the finished quilts!

Workshop Recap: 
In September, Patti gave us all a presentation on Modern Traditional piecing and quilting. She gave members 9-patch blocks to take home and "make modern." The results were fantastic, and will be assembled into a charity quilt top.

We also got to see some of the beautiful results from Patti's Modern Traditional workshop at the beginning of the month. These quilts and quilt tops are beautiful, and we hope to see them in our upcoming exhibits!

Here is LoriAnn's finished quilt top from the Workshop.

Marianne (who wasn't able to attend) also finished her quilt top.

Marilyn also brought in her (nearly finished) quilt top from the workshop.

Patti's finished quilt, made from her blocks from the workshop.

Projects:
Allison gave us an inspiring presentation on our QuiltCon Charity Quilt, to hang in QuiltCon in Pasadena. The colors and inspiration photos are beautiful, this is sure to be an amazing quilt! This will be a great opportunity for all of us to come together and put the techniques we've been learning to good use. We hope her presentation inspired you to join us! If you want more details, please read this post. WE CAN DO THIS!

Charlotte did a "progress check" on our Negative Space Challenge. The Challenge isn't due until July 2016, but it doesn't hurt to get a head start. Many of our guild projects (QAL, BOM, Workshop Quilts) could be turned into quilts that use negative space. This is a great way to finish up one of your WIPs and enter the challenge! Please share your progress on facebook and instagram with us. As an incentive to use social media about your Negative Space Challenge entry, each time you post to Facebook or Instagram or Flicker about your progress using hashtag #sfmqgnegchallenge you will get an entry to win something. We all want to hear about what you are doing and share the fun!

Don't Forget! We also have our holiday swap coming up at the November meeting. These tutorials are fun and easy to make. This is also a great opportunity to get ideas for your other holiday gifts!

Show and Tell:
We started our show and tell with some examples of EPP and hand quilting:

Debby's EPP in Progress

Patti's StitchCraft Challenge, with big stitch accents

Penny's StitchCraft challenge, made with EPP Hexagons

Close-up of Swig's big stitch hand quilting

An example of Big Stitch hand quilting from Swig.

One of Swig's WIPs with big stitch hexagons.

Wanda's Kaffe EPP bolster.

General Show and Tell:

Marilyn's Shadow Quilt

Monica's Audrey Hepburn mini-quilt

Monica's Tolkein inspired quilt.

Pam's Trees quilt (made from Carolyn Friedlander pattern)

Pam's finished quilt from the Improv Round Robin workshop in September.

Patti's improv with curves quilt.

Meryll brought in two finished BOM Sampler quilts!

Lisa showed a quilt where she used glue basting to finish the binding.

Other News and Reminders:
We have quite a few quilt events and exhibits coming up. Charlotte gave us a reminder and additional details on some of our upcoming exhibits. More details can be found on the blog. We really hope to see our members submit quilts to our Modern Quilting exhibits next year! This is a fun way to show off your work! Many of your quilts made from the workshops, BOM, and QAL would be a great addition to our exhibits.

Elections! Our first elections are coming up in November (will be done at November meeting). Kate gave an update on the nominations, and the members who are standing for these positions in our elections:

• President: Allison Schnackenberg
• VP of Programs: Charlotte Noll
• VP of Projects: both Patti Auten and Rose Parsons are standing
• Secretary: Debby Schindall
• Treasurer: Abbie Bill

Voting will take place at our November meeting. Prior to the meeting, we will send out a final list, along with statements from those interested in running for a contested positions. Stay tuned! 

Thank you again for joining us last Saturday! We look forward to seeing you at our next meeting, November 21st!

September Meeting Recap

Greetings from the South Florida MQG! We hope everyone is enjoying the nice autumn weather in South Florida :)

Our September meeting was held on Saturday, September 19th at StitchCraft.

Another packed room for our general meeting.

QAL:

Patti and Kerrilyn talked about our Month 4 blocks from the Improv QAL. We love watching these blocks come together! It's fun to see everyone's different versions from the same tutorial.

Beautiful QAL blocks!

Monthly Topic : Modern Traditionalism

Patti gave a great presentation on Modern Traditionalism.

Part of Patti's talk on Modern Traditionalism

She also invited members to join her for a game of 9-patch password, where they got to try to make 9-patch blocks more modern.

Marilyn junps in to try out Patti's interactive demo.

Mini Challenge: Everyone got to take home a 9-patch block, and instructions to make it more modern. We'll bring in our new, modernized blocks to the October meeting to show off!

Patti showed how we can make a traditional block look more modern.

Patti will also be teaching a Modern - Traditional Workshop this weekend at StitchCraft. Those who join her will learn how to make a modern quilt top like this:

A sample of the Modern Traditional workshop methods.

Logo Competition:

Our members voted on the two finalists for our log competition. Congratulations to our winner, Alyson! (Alyson's logo is on the top). We had many wonderful submissions to vote on, thank you to all who participated, we're very excited to have a new logo!

Logos by Alyson and Charlotte made it to the final vote!

Block of the Month:

Our September block was the sunrise block in low volume prints. Diane Moss won the BOM lottery!

Lots of beautiful BOM blocks in our "Sunset" color palette this month.

We also got to see our upcoming BOMs for October and November. October's block will be paper pieced, in a beautiful, autumn color palette:

Upcoming BOM blocks for October and November.

Show and Tell:

This month, we had a lot of extra projects to show off in Show & Tell.
To start, the participants in our improv workshop showed off their progress on their improv round robin quilts.

yes, that is Patti on the left with a completely finished quilt!



Tonya also used LoriAnn's blocks to show us some ideas on how to piece them all together:

LoriAnn's blocks from the Improv Round Robin workshop



Many of our members brought in some of their Modern Traditional Quilting Projects for Show & Tell

Nicole showed off this modern EPP Hexi quilt

Patti brought in a Modern Traditional star quilt

Rose brought in this supersized log cabin quilt top

Rose also brought in this large star quilt top

Another beautiful quilt top by Rose

Pam brought her Michael Miller challenge quilt from last year

Pam brought this fun quilt, made from a charm pack!

Pam also showed off this quilt, made with improv pieced slabs.

Ivy brought in this modern tumbler quilt

Here's a photo of the back.

Monica made this mini Bee quilt

Kerrilyn brought in this paper pieced butterfly quilt

• Andrea, from the Nominations Council, gave us a progress update on the nominations leading up to our first election, this October.

• Allison announced our opportunity to make our first QuiltCon Charity quilt, as a guild, and enter it in QuiltCon next year. We'll be working on this together for the next few months.

• Charlotte announced 3 upcoming quilt shows (which we'll have exhibits in), more details will be sent via email.

• We are having a Holiday Swap in November, where members will make a small gift and swap during the meeting. Details were sent to members on the 20th, we hope to see you all participate in this fun swap!  
  

Sewcial:
We also had our monthly Sewcial, after the meeting. This is a great opportunity to socialize, get to know some other guild members, and enjoy some hand sewing!

Other News:
Thank you again to all who joined us, can't wait to see you again in October!

August Meeting Recap

We had a fantastic time at our August meeting, which was held last Saturday. Thank you to all who joined us!

 

Monthly Topic: Negative Space

 

Charlotte and Debby did a wonderful presentation on Negative Space, and discussed the use of Negative Space in Modern Quilts, along with other art forms. They also had an interactive activity, and asked our members to join in and participate in making some modern quilt designs, using negative space, on some design boards. 

 

Meryll planned a couple of potential designs using some hand-pieced units.

Barbara and Sheila designed a quilt using some strings and strip pieces.

LoriAnn and Audrey made a design using different sized blocks and square scraps.

Our First SFMQG Quilt Challenge:

 

Charlotte and Debby announced our guild's first challenge--the Negative Space challenge! The challenge is to make a modern quilt, using negative space. Quilts will be due at our July 2016 meeting, so you have plenty of time to plan! We're looking forward to seeing everyone's progress on this over the next several months!

 

Charlotte can't resist a challenge--this is her entry for the MQG Riley Black Challenge (2015).

 

Block of the Month:

 

Our BOM from August was Wonky Pinwheels, in a refreshing summer palette. Congrats to our lucky winner, Charlotte!

 



Our August BOM

 

 

Preview of the BOMs for September and October

Quilt Along:

Patti and Kerrilyn led the discussion on our 3rd blocks from the improv QAL. They also had an example of the block for the 4th month of our QAL.

Show and Tell:

Patti made an improv pieced baby quilt, using techniques from Sherri Lynn Wood's Improv Handbook

Alyson brought in some fun clutches, made with modern fabric.



Charlotte showed an example of a modern quilt with negative space, using her SFMQG bee blocks.

Debby showed a sample of fabric she'd printed at a workshop at IS Designs.



Audrey brought in a pillow bolster WIP, to get some modern quilting ideas.

Patti made a lone-star quilt from scrappy improv "made fabric"

Kate brought in her finished quilt from the MQG Riley Blake Challenge, from Sherri Lynn Wood's Improv Handbook



Allison showed her lone star quilt, which was a great example of a modern quilt with expansive negative space.

Andrea brought in her finished quilt, made from her SFMQG herringbone bee blocks.

 

Ivy showed her handbag, made from modern fabric.

Sewcial:

After our August meeting, we had our first Sewcial! Our members brought lunch, snacks and some fun hand sewing projects. We hope everyone had a great time, and we look forward to seeing you again at our next Sewcial!

 

Thank you again to all of our members and guests for joining us for our August meeting, we look forward to seeing you again at our next meeting on September 19th!