January Meeting Recap

Another successful meeting of The South Florida Modern Quilt Guild!  We had about 25 lovely ladies in attendance last weekend.



For those who didn't have a chance to attend, here is a quick recap:

1.  We welcomed everyone and had an icebreaker game.  It was fun to hear everyone's stories and get to know our members a little better!
2.  We discussed our upcoming meetings and events:

3.  February Meeting:  Scraptacular, Scraptacular!

• On Saturday, February 18th, we will be having a regular meeting at Stitchcraft from 10am to noon.
• The theme of the meeting will be scraps!  Learn about how to sort and handle your scrap collection.  See samples of scrap projects.  Hear from members how they use their scraps.
• Johanna from Stitchcraft has graciously offered to demonstrate the Accuquilt system, a great item for cutting your scraps into useful sizes and shapes!  

4.  March Meeting and Field Trip:

• On Saturday, March 17th, we will be having a casual field trip to the Quilters By the Sea Quilt Show in Fort Lauderdale!
• We will hold a regular meeting at Stitchcraft from 10am to 11:30am.  Afterwards, we will be caravanning down to Fort Lauderdale together (in our own cars) to see the show.  You can return home anytime.
• No fee for the field trip, aside from the cost of show admission.
• We encourage everyone to come to the meeting, whether or not they are attending the field trip afterwards!
• If folks from Fort Lauderdale are meeting up with us directly at the show, we will probably arrive at the show around 12:15pm.

5.  April Sewing Day:

• On Saturday, April 20th, we will be holding our first sewing day instead of our regular monthly meeting!  It will be held from 10am to 2pm (4 hours of glorious sewing)!
• The sewing day will be held at the new Boca Raton Library on Spanish River Boulevard (not Stitchcraft that month), which is a beautiful space.
• We will be sewing mainly to support Project Linus, an amazing group that gives small quilts to children who are sick or in need.
• The fee is $150, unless at least 2/3 of the individuals live in the City of Boca Raton.  We may or may not be able to meet that criteria, so there may be a small $10-$15 cover charge (to be determined).  
• Bring your own sewing machine, iron (And ironing board), extension cord, fabric, batting and sewing supplies.
• Be on the lookout for child-friendly fabrics!  Pull from your stash, stock up online and shop at Stitchcraft.  Fabric.com and Fabric Shack online tend to run good sales.
• Please invite knitters, other sewers and folks who want to participate in a great cause.

6.  We had a great member-led "Ten Minute Tutorial" on bindings.  

7.  We discussed Round Robin quilts and Quilting Bees.

• Bring in any of your small unfinished quilt projects for a Round Robin!  The piece will be given to another interested quilter, who will add on to the project.  It can make a few "rounds," and you'll end up with a beautiful collaborative quilt to keep!
• Quilting Bee signup was a success, and those who have contacted me or signed up will receive an email soon.

8.  We talked about quilt news in the area and handed out fliers for upcoming events.
9.  We laid out the strips for our strippy quilt, which will turn into a Project Linus quilt.
10.  We decided on February's "Thing To Bring" (to be posted in an upcoming post).
11.  We showed off our beautiful mug rugs and had a swap.
12.  We did a Show and Tell of our latest projects.
13.  We had a doorprize raffle of fabrics, magazines and Girl Scout Cookies!

Here are some photos of the meeting:

Binding tutorial.

Strippy quilt layout

Project Linus Quilt #1

Project Linus Quilt #2

Mug rug madness!

"Things to Bring" for January Meeting

For the January meeting, here are your "Things to Bring!"

1.  MUG RUG
As a follow-up to our great mug rug tutorial from the December meeting, we are having a mug rug swap!  Please bring in one (or more) completed mug rugs that you would like to swap with other members.  Mug rugs can be any size, but 6 inches by 9 inches is usually a good standard.

For those who are asking "What the heck is a mug rug?," check out this link:  http://www.twomoreseconds.com/2011/03/mug-rug-madness-what-of-mug-rugs.html

For those who need mug rug inspiration, check out these great links:
http://www.twomoreseconds.com/p/mug-rug-madness.html
http://www.flickr.com/groups/mugrugmadness/


2.  STRIPS FOR OUR GROUP QUILT

Size:  Please bring in at least one "strip" of fabric that is 44/45 inches wide (the width of typical quilting fabric from selvage edge to selvage edge).  It can be any height, but should probably be at least 2.5 inches tall.

Pattern:  You can piece the strip with interesting patterns (such as flying geese, stripes, log cabins, etc).  Alternatively, you can just bring plain strips (or bring in excess Jelly Roll strips).

Color:  If you piece your strips, please include at least a bit of white in the strip.  If you bring in plain fabric strips, any color is fine.  

Here are example photos from the New York Metro Mod Guild, who created their own strip quilt a year or two ago:

Strips that each member brought.  Some were plain, some were pieced.  All were beautiful!

The finished quilt!

Detail of the finished quilt.

Of course, don't forget your standard "Things to Bring" for each meeting (you can see the standards items HERE).  Feel free to email if you have any questions.  See you on Saturday, January 21st at Stitchcraft!