May Meeting Minutes

8 Members present at Inspire Quilt Shop on May 10th.

The official Modern Quilt Guild Michael Miller Challenge deadline has been extended to July 25th.  We will vote for our guild members creations at our July meeting, July 12th at Inspire Quilt Shop.

International Quilt Festival is welcoming modern quilt entries to submit quilts to their show.  Quilts must be at least 36" x 36". Quilts can move on to QuiltCon if person wants to submit to both. Entries open May 30th. http://www.callforentriesmodernquilts.com/

QuiltCon classes are supposed to be announced at the beginning of June.  Can also volunterr to work part of the show but needs to apply be end of MAy.  Apply through QuiltCon.com

July marks the new calendar year for the guild and new officers must be selected.  Officers will be voted for in the June meeting, officially taking control in July.  Volunteers as of the May meeting are as follows:  Ellen for President, Katie for Vice President, Sara for Treasurer, and Sandy for Secretary.  Emily has offered to run our official elections at the June meeting. If anyone else wants to run for an office, please be sure to attend our June meeting and speak up!  You can email us ahead of time as well if you are interested in being more involved with our guild.

Dues will also be collected at the June meeting, for $25 per member.  Cash or check payable to the Tampa Modern Quilt Guild.

Inspire Quilt Shop news: now an offocial Quilts of Valor drop off and service.  In September will have a Miles for SMiles event for ConKerr Cancer.  Inspire is running their own fabric P & B Challende, the Flying Sweetly line.  Quilts will be judged in the store during the shop hop motnhs.  Quilts can be marked for sale in the store as well.  See store for the beautiful fabric and challenge requirements.

We collected 8 blocks for inaugural Modern Block of the Month!  Emily's block is next using white, charcoal, mustard, or teal colors. She gave the instructions at the meeting but will also add to the site.  June's BOM will be Ann's choice.

Ellen and Sandy shared their trip to Paducah and all of the amazing quilts and shopping that was seen!

Note for Modern Insta Bee-ers.  In using the ninja star block, their is a correction in sizing/cutting.  Do look it up!

Our guild decided to complete 15 quilts for the Project Linus charity by our November meeting.  We will create a group label to place on the back of the blankets. No official size requirements, but they do look for older children and boy quilts since the majority gifted are babies and girl quilts. http://www.projectlinus.org/

The guild also decided June will be a charity sew day for ConKerr Cancer.  We will sew as many pillowcases as we can at our June meeting in Crafty Threads. Please RSVP for the June meeting and if you are staying to sew so we can be sure to set the room to proper sewing space. You will need 1/3 yd of the border fabric and 3/4 yd of the main pillowcase fabric.  Sandy and Ellen bought lots of pillowcase fabric in Paducah and will bring it to share.  But we do need border fabric to go with the main prints.  Solids, Tone on Tones, Stripes/Polka Dots, etc.  We need the calming side!

Next meeting will be June 14th at Crafty Threads!

April Modern BOM

Wallflower Waltz – Blue/Purples Color scheme (prints or solids) for Ellen Ault

1.       Fabric needed:

a.       Center square: 4 ½”

b.      Row 1 – WHITE Fat quarter

c.       Row 2 –Fat quarter

2.       Begin with Center Square 4 ½”

3.       Row #1 – Sew a 1 ½” x 4 ½” to right side of center square

4.       Working in clockwise direction:

a.       Sew 1 ½” x 5 ½” to bottom.

b.      Sew 2 ½” x 5 ½” to left

c.       Sew 2 ½”  x 7 ½” to top

5.       Row #2 – Sew 2 ½” x 7 ½” to  right side of current square

6.       Working in clockwise direction:

a.       Sew 2 ½” x 9 ½” to bottom

b.      Sew 1 ½” x 9 ½” to left

c.       Sew 1 ½” x 10 ½” to top

7.       Complete!

  

Original pattern source: http://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/inspiration/freequiltpatterns/wallflower-waltz.html 

   Emily is next for May. Then Ann in June, Katie in July, and Terry in Sept. We do still need someone for August!

April MQG mintues

Introductions

 10 members present, Business meeting 10 am 12 pm, sew day 12 pm – 1 pm

Michael Miller Fabric Challenge

Official deadline June 23^rd , submit to official forum.  There is a current challenge in progress topic you can look at and upload to. We’ll look at our guild member’s pieces at the June Meeting. 8 members received their fabric. Thanks to Terry for giving her fabric to Katie!

MQG Webinars

Design Fundamentals & Starting a Business online, check the Webinar section in the forums to view in case you missed the live feed.

Meeting Ideas –What do you want from our TMQG?

I am very glad we brought this topic up. I personally have had ideas of what I want this guild to be and how I currently see it.  Everyone chimed in and was happy to have new ideas for things to occur during our meetings. The biggest topics all related to building a better “Community” between the members.  We enjoy seeing each other but know little about each other and when we leave have little to know about the next meeting. The main ideas were skill building, a bigger online presence, reaching out to more members, and charity sewing.

The group decided instead of having Sew days every month when you are unsure of people staying, we should use that time to learn something new.  The group consensus of the Improv Workshop we previously had was very successful and to continue in that fashion. Ideas brought up were free motion quilting, paper piecing, curved piecing, new binding techniques and even technological related ideas such as how to photograph your quilt or blogging.  If anyone wants to volunteer to teach the others something at a meeting, please let us know! We return to Inspire in May and do not have any skill building topics set for the meeting.

There was also a stress on a bigger online presence to inform current members and to help reach out to new members. Current members were unaware that we have a blog (http://tampamodernquiltguild.blogspot.com/) and that our personal TMQG website is under construction and never been used. The group brainstormed ideas to be put on either places such as lists of member’s personal blogs, calendar dates of meeting times and places, meeting minutes and local quilty stuff happenings. For example listing quilt shows that you can submit your work to or places to go as a group as a field trip, such as a museum or quilt show. Also adding our challenges and sewing items to the blog.  A Guild newsletter was also mentioned, and highly received. We will begin creating a format and sending these out. The blog can be directly linked to the website.

Our Flickr group was also mentioned pertaining to its little use.  Members have requested to join the group and have not heard back. We are unaware of who is in charge of the flickr group, to accept the newer members. This could also be added as a gallery or side bar to the blog and website.

There were many ideas in terms of reaching out to others.  In its simplest form, a TMQG avatar/button needs to be made so our current members can have a link on their own personal blogs to direct people to us as a group.  Ideas were mentioned to create a simple flyer to put at local quilt shops to let others learn of us, and on their websites.  Also putting flyers at local libraries if allowed. We will contact our current two locations that we hold our meetings first to add our information on their site.  There was a question of USF having a quilting group, to reach out to them to visit us. For local quilt shows, to look into getting information together to have a table/booth to show our work and members, to help gain others.  And then in the hopes of finding these new members, we need to have a ‘New Member Packet’ to give them all the information so they too will not feel lost.

Also looking at building community amongst our members, we decided to have a yard swap/sale type of event twice a year. Starting in September, then again in March, members are encouraged to bring fabric, books, patterns, and anything crafty to our meeting for a swap.  There was the question of actually selling the items or having this as a swap.  We are still a small guild, the comfort of just swapping works for now. However if we do plan to move forward with some of our larger ideas such as quilt shows or field trips, we may add prices such as 10 cents a fat quarter or the like, to help build guild funds. 

We already have our Holiday Party Swap set for July, where members will bring in a handmade item wrapped to swap. Other ideas for community building were to start sewing for each other.  Looking at the size of our group, we decided against bees and round robins as of yet.   Ellen initiated our ‘Modern Block of the Month’ for each meeting.  A member will be selected to bring in directions for a quilt block for the other members to make.  The member will pick a color scheme for the members to follow.  This will give all members the opportunity to make something during the month to bring at the following meeting.  The block information will also be posted online. (See the next post about Aprils BOM.) Members are not required to make the block. Blocks should be from a free pattern source.  The block does not have to be seen as ‘modern’ although this is where we can challenge each other! All members present were very excited about adding this to our meetings! (Yay! Glad I thought of it and brought it). Emily has chosen May, Ann has chosen June, Katie has chosen July, and Terry has chosen September.

The final item we discussed at our meeting was charity sewing.  The group feels the need to give back to the community, even if it is only a small amount.  Ideas were proposed such as ConKerr Cancer Pillowcases, Project Linus, Downy Quilts for Kids, NICU Quilts, Quilts for Kids, Easter Seals, etc.  Ellen will look up more information about these charities before the next meeting. She will bring her findings for the group to discuss and vote on a group to support.  There was also the idea to have a sew day specifically for one of the charities, such as a Pillowcase Sew Day. We could support two groups in this fashion. Having a more quilt based charity for the year and then the pillowcase sewing day.

Other small ideas that were discussed for future meetings were the topics of food! We all agreed for the July Holiday party that it should be a potluck (food to be assigned later.) There was an idea to bring our lunches to meetings so not to lose time going elsewhere.  For the moment this will be up to each person, but perhaps later we can decide on lunches in house to eat together at specific meetings. 

Another idea members had was to add an evening meeting to the month.  The idea was to have the evening meeting as the business meeting so then the sew day can be spend on all sewing! This idea appeared in favor, but will take more planning on our part. We will have to find locations that can accompany us and an evening that will work for the majority of the group.  There was an idea to have the business meeting at those houses of us who have the space.  Since it will be the business meeting, there would need to be room for people but not machines. We will also look into this for the future!

We ended the meeting with our Sew and Share!  Many people were intrigued with Terry’s ‘Add A Border’ quilt. Here is the link to the flickr group for it: https://www.flickr.com/groups/add-a-border/pool/

We hope everyone enjoyed the meeting and what we discussed!  I see some great things in our future! Let’s turn our guild into what we want it to be!

Next Meeting: May 10^th, 10am, Inspire Quilt Shop

March MQG Meeting Minutes

Membership pins and cards were given out to present members.
The Michael Miller fabric will be given out in the April meeting.
Hotel registration is open for QuiltCon 2015. More information to come out in June/July about classes and teachers. Registration will open to members first, then general public.

We spent our educational component on the MQG website. Remember to add your name to your profile, and image so we can tell who is posting!

Some wonderful quilts were shown at our Sew & Share. Kara showed an interesting knife edge binding for a wall hanging.

"A Quilter's Mixology" will be coming out in May all about curved quilt blocks.

April meeting to resume on April 12th at Jimmie B. Keel Library.

February and March Meetings

Our February and March meetings for 2014 have been officially scheduled.

We will be meeting on Saturday, February 8, 2014 at the Land O Lakes Regional Library at 12pm, as well as on Saturday, March 8, 2014 at 10:00am.

If you are not currently a member, we encourage you to come check us out and learn more about becoming a member! Guests are welcome to attend up to two meetings before deciding to join the guild.

October Meeting Minutes

Meeting held at Inspire Quilting, 9 members present

Riley Blake Challenge:

• -          6 fat eighths provided by Riley Blake
• -          Item must be quilted and use improvisational piecing techniques
• -          Add any solids or Riley Blake prints
• -          Do not have to use all the fabrics
• -          No size limit
• -          Challenge Item due at December meeting

White Elephant Handmade Swap:

• -          December meeting to have holiday party
• -          Bring a handmade item to swap
• -          Only participate if you wish – bring an item and get to ‘play’
• -          Can be any type of handmade item, doesn’t have to be ‘holiday’ related
• -          No size limit

Improv Workshop:

-          Improv Log Cabin

o   aka wonky log cabin

o   Each round of logs going around the center tend to be the same color and value

o   Use of random angles instead of specific measurements

o   Technique similar to crazy quilting

-          Slice and Insert Improv

o   Start with pieces sewn together

o   Slice to add line/section of new fabric

o   Trim to square/finished size

-          Stitch and Flip

o   Instead of using measured pieces, similar to improve log cabin, place fabrics together and sew

o   Trim off excess and flip over for new piece

-          November meeting  - discuss MQG website

-          December meeting – Holiday party and White Elephant Handmade Swap

September Meeting Minutes

Meeting held at Inspire Quilting – 10 members present

Reminder: Big Tent to end at end of October

Education: Improv Quilting

• -          Technique that do not call for normal ‘block’ style or specific grid style quilting
• -          Using fabrics or scraps not in a particular order
• -          Use of cutting to change style of blocks
• -          Improv workshop to be held at October meeting

Sew and Share