December Meeting Information and a Look Back at October

Our next meeting will be the holiday party on December 15th, and it will be full of swapping, show and tell, and eating! All the best things in my book! Please bring with you:

Show and Tell – what have you been working on? We want to see it all!

A potluck dish – A dish to share. The guild will provide cups, plates, napkins, etc. Kelleigh has already claimed drinks so she doesn’t have to cook!

Swap for Someone You Love – If you signed up for this swap, please be sure to come to the meeting or send your item through someone else. We all can’t wait to see what you came up with. (At this point, I can’t wait to see what I come up with…)

Drawstring Bag Swap – If you’d like, join us in a Christmas lined drawstring bag swap! We will use Jeni Baker’s free tutorial at: http://www.incolororder.com/2011/10/lined-drawstring-bag-tutorial.html. If you’ve bought her pattern (which is great), it does include other sizes, so please stick with this 10” x 7” size. Make them Christmas/Holiday themed and fill them with a few little goodies. For each pouch you bring in, you will get to choose one to bring home. No peaking at the goodies inside before choosing, though! Those are a fun bonus.

Placemats – to donate to Friendship Trays. See the blog post from late August. These instructions are
only a suggestion – any way you’d like to make then is fine. We’d love to have each member donate at least two. This is a great way to use up those 12 inch orphan blocks you have at home.

Secret Sewing Sister Swap – if you did not bring your final bag to the last meeting, please bring it in
December.

December will also be our last meeting with the old Board and Chairs. Last month we elected the following generous volunteers:

Co-Presidents – Kelleigh Bland and Jenn Thurston

Program Committee – Laurie Treib, Susan Austin, and Dee Wittmack

Secretary – Beth Pinckney

Treasurer – Liz Harris

Swap Chairs – Sara Struhs and Jessie Gettliffe

Library Chair  - Xandi Hamilton

A look back at our October program, just in case you missed out!

For our program  in October, Christine Sahli-Williams of Shine Wellness in Concord led us in a group participatory stretching and massage session. She demonstrated a variety of neck and shoulder and hand and arm stretches to relieve the stiffness and tightness some of us feel after sitting at the sewing machine for a long time! Next we paired up and Chris led us in some partner massage for the neck, shoulders, head, and back. We each took turns sitting backwards in a chair and being massaged by our partner. If you weren't here, you missed it! Half of us fell asleep after our massages and we spent the rest of the meeting trying to wake up all the relaxed quilters. No, no ...just kidding. Seriously though, it was relaxing and helpful and if anyone is interested in contacting Chris for massage or wellness information, her website is http://shine-wellness.com/

It was a sparse night for Show and Tell. No one brought anything! OK, women, next month, let's make up for that and bring lots to share.

October Meeting and a Peak Back at September

 We had a wonderful time at our last meeting working on the Charity Quilt for QuiltCon!  It was a great night of brainstorming, planning, cutting, piecing and improvising.  Everyone was so creative and worked so well within their teams!  It will be exciting to see the results of all that work at the Guild Meeting this Tuesday!   The Meeting will be Tuesday the 27th from 6-8 pm at St. Gabe's. 

All of the photos below are from the Improv Sewing meeting last month: 

Also, you all are so willing to share your talents and efforts with others.  As a result of your generosity the ladies from St. Gabe's working on the auction you so generously contributed items for were blessed by your kindness.  Way to go CLTMQG!  This is a note from Dee:

My warmest and heartfelt thanks to all of you who lent your time, talents and projects to St. Gabriel’s Ladies Luncheon that will be held on October 19. To say that the chairladies were pleased is a huge understatement! As I suspected, they were so excited with the quilts that they decided to offer a “BUY NOW” option instead of using them for a raffle. Their decision was a good one as all proceeds from the luncheon will go to the Charlotte Food Bank.

 

Thank you all so much. Our meeting room at St. Gabe’s had definitely been secured by your hard work!

 

Dee Wittmack

We hope to see you Tuesday!  There will be a speaker at the meeting presenting on ways to ease back pain while sitting at our machines for extended periods of time.  

Also, bring you last SSS gift in a bag, as you have for the  previous months.  This is the last month!   

September Meeting

At the September meeting we will be working together in small groups to pull together a quilt for the MQG QuiltCon Charity quilt.  
We have a theme for the quilt "Postcards from North Carolina"  
In order for our time at guild to be productive we will need you all to bring the following items: 

Fabric:  Solids or Prints, but they MUST be in the QuiltCon colors.  

Here is a link with all you need to know about the correct colors:  QuiltCon Charity Quilt info

Rotary cutters and mats

There will be six sewing machines at the meeting. Ironing boards and irons as well as thread and bobbins for machine sewing.  

If we all bring our supplies and come ready to dig in, we will finish the night with a pretty good beginning of our charity quilt. 

Don't forget to make and bring a name tag for the swap, an auction item for St. Gabe's and also your Secret Sewing Sister item if you have a SSS.  

Secret Sister Swap:  If you have something to bring, please write something about yourself and put it in the bag along with whatever you've made/bought.  Put the bags on the table when you come in.  Also, next month is the last month of the SSS Swap.  

One more important bit of information!  Officer Nominations will be made at the September meeting and voting for new officers takes place in October.  Please consider how you might help out in one of these roles:  President, Vice President, Swap Coordinator and Library officer.

See you soon!

August Meeting Recap

We had a great crowd at the August meeting, it sure was great to see you all there!

We covered a lot of ground, I am going to try to get it all down so we remember what we need to be getting done!

First, let's start with a look at some of the great finishes you all shared with the group!  

Alright, here's the link with all of the information about printing on fabric from Vicki's presentation at the beginning of August:  Fabric Printing at Home

There will be no more quilt blocks for the charity quilt.  Instead we are using those orphan blocks to make placemats for the Friendship Tray program.  The instructions for the placemats are on the post before this one, so go back one post and you will find everything you need.

Our program for the August meeting was about Improv with Intent.  We participated in a webinar by Cheryl Arkison, which helped us understand a little more about the Improv process.  This will help us along as we work on the QuiltCon Charity Quilt, more on that in a minute.

There are some basic steps to remember as we use the Improv technique in our quilting:

1. Examine our inspiration

2. Pull fabric

3. Sketch

4. Cut fabric

5. Sew. Play.

6. Stop and Step back

7. Keep Sewing

8. Piece it together

At the September meeting we will be working together in small groups to pull together a quilt for the MQG QuiltCon Charity quilt.  We will be bringing our ideas, inspirations, fabric (in QuiltCon colors), and hand sewing supplies. You are free to work on your ideas/blocks/segments at home and bring what you have to the meeting as well.  We will be basting our pieces together and Xandi will take them home to piece.  Some of the inspirational ideas thrown about at the meeting were:  Mountains to Sea, State themed ideas; ie. state flower, bird etc; The Queen City and Charlotte Traffic.   Here is a link with details about the quilt as well as a list of the colors required, broken down by manufacturer:  QuiltCon Charity Quilt Info  Please note, that you can bring in solids or prints, but they must be the correct color!  Please also bring some mats and rotary cutters to the next meeting, so we can slash away! 

If you have a Secret Sewing Sister, please bring her goodies to the next meeting. 

Also, if you drew a name for the Nametag Swap, please make and bring the nametag to the September meeting!  

Last but by no means least, Auction Items for St. Gabe's are due at the September meeting.  Please bring something for them as a way to thank them for the FREE space the are so gracious to provide for us every month! 

Okay, I think that covers everything!  

Meetings: 6-8 pm at St. Gabriel's Church. 

September 29th

October 27th

No meeting in November

December 15th

Placemat Instructions for Friendship Trays

Here are the insturctions for the placemats:  If you are interested in turning your orphan blocks into something useful for some people in our community, follow the instructions below and bring them with you to the next meeting! 

Placemats and Napkins

These directions assume you are using a 12.5" square block for the center.  Ending size of placemat is 16.5" x 12.5" bound.  Napkin 17" x 17" hemmed.

Placemat:

Materials

16.5" x 12.5" batting & backing fabric; 12.5" block; 2.5" x 12.5" strips to match block (2); binding material 1.5" x 68"  (can be one continuous or spliced piece for mitered binding or (2) 12.5" and 18" sections for squared binding)

Steps:

1.  Sew 2 strips to 12.5" block using quarter inch seams.  Spray baste back to batting and then front to batting. 

2. Machine quilt.  (In the ditch, all-over lines or pattern...optional)  Do enough to make the sandwich secure. 

3.  Optional 1/8th " seam around edges to secure. 

4.  Fold the binding strip (s) in half and iron wrong sides together.  Sew the binding to the front....Bind according to the method desired.  If not used to doing continuous binding, follow this link:        Binding Your Project - YouTube

Then either hand stitch or machine stitch in the ditch on the front to secure the binding to the back.

Napkins:

Materials :  Cotton fabric to match placemat cut 18" x 18".

Steps:             Sew Modern: That's What She Sewed: Napkins In No Time! - YouTube

1.  Iron 1/2" around all sides, wrong sides touching.  (I use 1/4" fold because I want thinner edging.)

2.  Fold the napkin right sides together diagonally.  Mark sewing line for miter on all four corners.  The sewing line will be perpendicular to the fold line...crossing the edges of folded fabric.  Pin to secure.  (see YouTube reference.)

3.  Stitch and trim to 1/8".  Push out the mitered corner.

4.  Iron again, allowing the fold to match the mitered corner. 

5.  Top stitch on front, making sure to secure the corners.  

August Meeting: Tuesday the 25th

Our next guild meeting will be this Tuesday the 25th!  We will meet at St. Gabes from 6-8pm and can't wait to see you all there! 

We will be enjoying a program called Improv with Intent. We will we have the opportunity to go home and play with the techniques we learn in order to make blocks for Quilt Con, in the MQG Quilt Con colors. This is a great opportunity to really play with modern techniques and participate in something with all of our MQG sisters (and brothers) around the country.  

Don't forget if you signed up to be a Secret Sewing Sister, please bring in your first bag this month.  Remember, you should not be spending tons of money or hours for this swap.  Just pack fun, thoughtful little treats to brighten your partner's day!  Remember to put a note with a few hints or facts about yourself in the bag each month so your Sister can have fun getting to know you and trying to guess who you are!   Partners will be revealed after the last bag is opened in October.  Make sure to give your bag to a friend to bring if you cannot make the meeting this month.  

After many requests, our swap next month will be name tags!  We will choose partners at our August meeting and the name tags will be sue in September.  If you want to be in the swap but can't make the August meeting, you can always ask a friend to put your name in the basket and draw out a partner's name for you.

I think that covers everything!  We hope to see you Tuesday! 

BOM Link

Hi Everyone!

I wanted to put up the link to the BOM that will be due NEXT WEEK!  I'm so sorry, I should have put this up earlier in the month....but don't fret, there is still time to put one of these beautiful blocks together in time for the meeting!    Here is the link to the instructions: broken herringbone block   We will be meeting TUESDAY, the 25th from 6-8 as usual at St. Gabe's.  More information about the program and swaps will be posted soon!  So check back.