Sari Bari

Thursday night one of our guests, Beth, shared her inspiring story about the organization Sari Bari.  Beth is a member of Blue Flax Quilters, a group of women that has made 2 quilts for this organization.  The quilts will be auctioned beginning on Monday, October 1 as part of the Sari Bari annual auction. 

Here is an excerpt from the Sari Bari website:

"Sari Bari is a safe place of employment where women who have been exploited in the sex trade or who are vulnerable to trafficking can experience a new life in the making. The name "Sari Bari" comes from two symbols. A sari is the traditional clothing worn by women in India. In India, a sari represents the essence of womanhood. The word bari mean "house or home" in the Bengali language."


To learn more about Beth's group and the Sari Bari organization please visit the links below:

Blue Flax Quilters

Sari Bari Auction

Ready for some fun? Upcoming events!

October Meeting

Date/Time/Place - To Be Determined ASAP
The October meeting will be held at a different location due to the library needing the space for early voting.  Complete details will be coming shortly.


October Swap
The holidays are just around the corner, so the October swap will RED & GREEN FAT QUARTERS.  To participate in the swap bring:

     1 Fat quarter that is mostly RED
     1 Fat quarter that is mostly GREEN

The fabric does NOT need to be holiday themed but should be "modern" and read as mostly red or mostly green.


October BOM
The block-of-the-months are a fun way to try different online blocks and tutorials.  Try your hand at this month's BOM and let's have a great collection for the drawing.  Bring 1 block for 1 chance to win, 2 blocks for 2 chances...

The block this month is Broken Spiderweb and the tutorial can be found here at House of A La Mode.  Our color theme this month:  Bright & scrappy with a light colored center.

 

Barnful of Quilts

Saturday 10/6 is the 10th annual Barnful of Quilts in Waxhaw.  It will be held from 10-5 at the Fox Family Farm at 7505 Sims Road (704-516-8060).  The Charlotte Modern Quilt Guild will have an information booth at the show and several of our members have quilts that will be in the show.  The proceeds benefit Samaritan's Purse.

Spring Retreat in the Mountains

The CMQG and heARTS Desire Retreats present...

Spring Retreat in the Mountains

Meadowbrook Inn, Blowing Rock NC

April 19-21, 2013

 

Games!  Prizes!  Fun!

This is going to be SO MUCH FUN.  The cost is $45 for Modern Guild members and $55 for all others.  Complete details and a registration form can be found at Hearts Desire Creations  or at our upcoming meetings.  Thank you Joyce for planning such a fun event.

September Recap

What a fun September!  There is so much to share that I will do one post recapping all the fun and another post detailing the upcoming events. 

 

 

Sew-In

The September sew-in had a really good turn out and there were lots of pretty projects.  Mark your calendars for our next sew-in on Saturday, November 10. 

 

 

 

 

Quilt Con Blocks

Congratulations to our members that had their QuiltCon blocks featured on the MQG blog.  A HUGE congrats to Emily for having her block chosen as one of the blocks to be used on the raffle quilt! MQG post recognizing Emily's block

 

 

 

 

Block-of-the-Month

September's BOM was the X+ block from the Badskirt blog.  Congrats to Cindi for winning all of the fun blocks at the meeting.

 

 

 

 

 

September Swap

The mug rug swap was so much fun.  Who knew little quilts could lead to so much laughter, Diet Coke and to Kelleigh's first official "quilt"!!  Below is the mug rug Cindi made (love the thread used and the quilting).  I've posted pictures of all the mug rugs over on Flickr.

 

 



That should do it for the recap.  I'll be back with another post detailing all of the upcoming fun - swaps, sew-ins, retreats , BOMs...

More soon - Karen

Meeting This Thursday

Hope you can make it to our meeting this Thursday 9/27 at the Morrison Library starting at 6:30.  Please note the LATER start time due to another group using the meeting room before us.

If you are participating in the mug rug swap or the block-of-the-month don't forget to bring those items.

See you there!

Sew In This Saturday

A quick reminder...

Our sew-in is this Saturday 9/15 from 10-2.  It will be held at Carmel Presbyterian Church on Carmel Road (in the smaller building beside the playground).  Hope to see you there!

Address:  2048 Carmel Road
                Charlotte, NC 28226

If you have trouble call finding it call Bianca at 704.839.9364

UPDATE: Mug Rug Swap

Since last month's workshop was on Foundation Paper Piecing, we'd love it if you would give paper piecing a try for your mug rug swap this month.

You can use one of the patterns Courtney gave you or give any other foundation paper piecing pattern a try. There are lots of free ones online. You can find a lot at 365 Quilt Blocks .

You could also try a tea cup and slice of cake pattern,

or this shop that has owls and other paper piecing patterns for sale.

Tallahassee Block

The Tallahassee Block (above) can be paper pieced. Here is the link for the template to print.

You can also print a basic diamond in a square template here.

Lots of options out there! It is not madatory to paper piece your mug rug but we hope you'll feel inspired to give it a try!
:)

Remember the mug rugs are due at the September 27 meeting.
For the list of participants and partners, see this post.

See you then!

We have a winner!

Congratulations to Jennifer Mathis for winning the Festival of Hexagons over at a.squared.w!  It is such a beautiful quilt - way to go!

September Swap- Mug Rugs!

It's swap time and our theme for September is Mug Rugs.

So what's a mug rug anyway?

Well, it's a small quilt - somewhere in between a coaster and a placemat. It's usually between 4" x 6" and 6" x 8" but the size is flexible.

What do you do with it? Well, it's a snack mat; a place to put your drink and some cookies.  It's also looks cute.

It's a great way to showcase some favorite fabrics, a small design or block or some hand-sewing skills.

Since Courtney did such a great job teaching foundation paper piecing last month, we would love for you to give paper piecing a try for this swap. It is not mandatory but it is FUN! 

We hope you'll feel inspired and give it a try. 
For more info on paper piecing and links to free patterns, click here. 

This will be a partnered swap. Names were put into a pot and drawn out two at a time. The two names became partners and you will make a mug rug for your partner.

Partners are:

Susan Austin & Jen Bland

Bianca Miller & Jennifer Mathis

Courtney Lyons & Liz Harris

Fran Lyons & Cindi Woody

Gail Toliver & Elizabeth Phillippi

Elyse Mullis & Karen Ernest

Kat Bierma & Kelleigh Bland

Joanie Page & Jennifer Mathis

Creating a flickr mosaic is optional. We'll have a tutorial on how to do this at the September meeting.

If you would like to create a flickr mosaic of the type of things you like to inspire your partner,  click HERE for a tutorial.

Here are a few mug rugs to inspire you!

source: Marianne 

Source: etsy.com via Marianne on Pinterest

source: Mug Rug by Katie of Swim, Bike, Quilt

Source: flickr.com via Jennifer Mathis on Pinterest

source: Better Off Thread

Source: flickr.com via Jennifer Mathis on Pinterest

source: jm1122

Source: flickr.com via Jennifer Mathis on Pinterest

Mug Rugs will be due at the September meeting on the 27th so please bring it with you to the meeting that night. We'll show them off and present them to your partners.

Have fun!

Jennifer Mathis - In The Top 10

Our own Jennifer Mathis (Ellison Lane Quilts) is one of the top 10 finalists in the Festival of Hexagons.  Voting is open until Thursday, September 6.  If you have a minute head on over, look at the beauitful entries and  VOTE!  Good luck Jennifer!