February Meeting - announcements and pictures

Good morning, friends. Isn't this spring weather lovely! It's my favorite time in the Carolinas and all I want to do is be outside.

Here is a recap of our February meeting ...

Next Month's program will be on your favorite tool or sewing/quilting help. Bring something you can't work without to show us and tell how you use it.

Our swap will go along with this program. Bring a favorite tool or notion to swap. It doesn't have to be a quilting tool, but something that you use when you sew. Everyone who brings a tool or notion to swap will have a chance to choose something from the goodies that we bring.

Our charity right now is Friendship Trays. Anytime you have an orphan block or UFO, feel free to turn it into a placemat that we can give to Friendship Trays.

The Charlotte Quilt Guild annual show is this weekend, March 11 and 12 at the Metrolina expo. More info and a $1.00 off coupon here.

We had a short followup to our last month's program on paper piecing. Lori showed us her beautiful squares and explained how to reuse the foundation papers used in piecing. 

Librarian's Corner - Xandi is our new librarian and she has worked hard to catalog all the books in our guild library. If you are interested in giving a book to the library or writing a review of a favorite book, we'd love to hear from you. More info in the next post.

Now for some pictures of what guild members have been working on ...

 Mark your calendars now - our next meeting is Tuesday evening, March 29. Hope to see you then!
 

Paper Piecing and more ...

A great group of 30 women gathered for our first guild meeting of 2016. I think we were all glad that the snow and ice melted away and didn't interfere with our meeting!

After welcoming several visitors, we got right to business and discussed the following:

Weather Policy - We decided that going by the CMS school closure decisions may not make sense for whether or not we cancel a guild meeting so, in the event of inclement weather a decision will be made by the leadership about whether or not to hold a meeting and that decision will be communicated ASAP to the members and the wider public via our email list (for members) and website, facebook page, and instagram. (links below). 

Charlotte Modern Quilt Guild website and blog: http://charlottemodernquiltguild.blogspot.com/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/The-Charlotte-Modern-Quilt-Guild-142528345816277/?fref=ts

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cltmqg/

Email list - If you are a member, please make sure your email address is current. You should receive an email by Friday, February 29 to test our list. If you do not receive an email, contact us via the guild email address: cltmqg@gmail.com

QUILTCON east - The quilting convention for the Modern Quilt Guild is coming east in 2017! This years QUILTCON is in Pasadena from February 18-21, but next year, it'll be on our side of the country in Savannah, Georgia. If you are interested in attending QUILTCON east, check out the website. If you think you are going to attend, hotels near the convention center will fill up fast. You can make a reservation now using the QUILTCON east reservation system and will receive a special rate for convention attendees. Yours truly just made a reservation for a room for four and I'm excited already about attending for the first time ever! Lecture and workshop offerings will be posted on June 1 and course registration for Modern Quilt Guild members begins June 25. Spots fill up fast so mark your calendars now : )

QUILTCON east - http://www.quiltconeast.com/

Hotel reservations for QUILTCON east - http://www.quiltconeast.com/about/hotels/

Charlotte Modern Quilt Guild labels for charity quilts - Our group has donated a number of quilts to charities in our city. In addition, last month we donated placemats to Friendship Trays. It was suggested that we have labels printed for our charity quilts. Certainly every quilt should have a label and this would let others know about our guild. Great idea!

Springs Creative Company Tour - Program committee member, Dee, shared some of the ideas that the program committee is working on for 2016, including a tour for guild members to the Springs Creative Company factory in Rock Hill. We decided that a Thursday during the day is the best time for a tour. More information to come as this gets organized.

Springs Creative - http://springscreative.com/

In addition, we may try to plan a trip to the thread company, YLI, also in Rock Hill. https://www.facebook.com/ylicorp

Finally, from our Swap Captains, here is info for our February meeting:

Paper Piecing Swap

Practice all that you learned at our last meeting! Choose a paper piecing pattern and turn it into something to swap at our next meeting. You could make a mug rug, pot holder, needle case – you pick what you want to make! Turn your practicing into something fun to share!

Secret Sister Swap

Sara has emailed everyone the name of her secret sister for the next three months. For each meeting, please bring something small in a plain brown lunch bag marked with your secret sister’s name. I can be something you make or something you buy (examples from the past: a new name tag, chocolates, fat quarters) Be creative!

If you signed up for a secret sister and did not receive an email from Sara, please email her at sara.struhs@hotmail.com

Whew! This is a loooong blog post full of info! I'll save the pictures from the meeting for the next post. Stay tuned ...

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, friends! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are ready to jump back into a new year. Our program committee has been working hard to figure out interesting and fun programs for the upcoming year and we'll post them on the Calendar and Events page of our blog as soon as they are finalized for each month.

For now, please mark your calendars for our January meeting on Tuesday, January 26th at St. Gabriel's Church Ministry Center, Room D.

Our program will be all about paper piecing and will be led by Jessie Gettliffe and Kelleigh Bland. The program will be geared to all levels of paper piecing from those who are complete novices to those who know how to paper piece and are interested in taking a design and developing a pattern for paper piecing it.

We will have different stations set up for piecing learning and growing at different levels:

Option 1 - If you've never done it, think you already hate it, don't like the idea of wasting fabric
This group will use colored paper and a stapler to try the technique. If you are interested in this option, bring paper cutting scissors and paper scraps (colored paper, leftover Christmas paper, etc.) and a stapler, if you have one.

Option 2 - If you already have the concept and need to learn how to prevent mistakes
A simple design, already drawn on foundation will be provided. We'll also have fabric scraps and needles and thread. You are also welcome to bring your own fabric scraps, scissors, needle and thread.

Option 3 - If you already know the basic concept and already have a pattern you want to do.
Bring an existing pattern and get help working out what order to add the pieces and how to avoid mistakes.

Option 4 - If you already know how, like paper piecing, and are ready to move beyond someone else's design.
Bring whatever image you want to paper piece and have the group help your figure out the design (or whether it's time to learn to applique instead : )

If you are interested in Option 4 and would like to send your image ahead of time, our program presenters will play around with the image ahead of time and try and figure it out. Email your image to cltmqg@gmail.com

Our swap team has also been working on upcoming swaps for the months ahead. For January, if you'd like to participate, you will have the opportunity to sign up for the Secret Sister Swap. This as always been a fun swap and a way to get to know another guild member better.

Our other swap for January is "Out with the Old, Start Something New"
Bring any UFO or orphan block you're tired of looking at and know you will never finish. At the meeting, you will have the opportunity to select from another guild member's "cast off" project that calls out to you and inspires your creativity. You will bring the completed project back to the February meeting so we can all see your creative re-imagining of someone else's UFO. We've done this swap before and there are always lots of ooohs and ahs as we see the direction these projects take.

Finally, do you have any New Year's sewing/quilting resolutions? Projects you want to complete in the year ahead? New techniques you want to try? Feel free to chime in in the comments section on the blog or the facebook page and we'll share some of these at the January meeting.

Til then, happy sewing and quilting!

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!

Workshop at August Meeting

Woo Hoo! Many thanks to Gail who is going to teach our paper piecing mini workshop at our August meeting.

Mark your calendars now, you won't want to miss it!

Also, plan to bring a sew & tell. It can be any modern quilting project in any stage.

Don't forget to work on your Habitat blocks if you are participating in the challenge. Upload pics to our Flickr group and please bring them to the meeting on the 25th.

And, fill your quart bag with fabric if you would like to participate in the swap.

More details can be found in our Flickr group.
See you soon!