October Meeting Recap

Here are some important notices from our October meeting.

SEND IN CHARITY BLOCKS

The charity committee needs any outstanding star blocks to be finished up and sent in. (Packets were distributed at the September meeting.) Please mail them to Susie by November 1.

Sending the blocks in promptly will ensure we have them in time for ...

THE CHARITY SEW-IN

On November 3, people will be gathering at Susie's to sew the blocks together. If there's work to do after November 3, a second sew-in will happen on November 8, also at Susie's. To sign up for either date, please contact her at sboots812 (at) hotmail (dot) com.

SEWING BEES AT PEABODY MILL

Beginning next year, we will be holding sewing bees at the Peabody Mill Environmental Center in Amherst, NH. Each Sunday session will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and cost $10. The dates are: 

January 15, 2017

March 19, 2017

May 21, 2017

July 16, 2017

September 17, 2017

November 19, 2017

If you would like to commit to the six bee dates please contact Ellen at edutile (at) comcast (dot) net.

We hope there will be some extra slots for people to pay for individually. More information will be provided on that front next year. : )

SPRING 2017 RETREAT

We will hold our next retreat in Kennebunk on March 23-26, 2017. Sign-ups will happen in January, but mark your calendars now!

SEW-IN AT QUILTED THREADS

On Saturday, November 12, we are convening at Quilted Threads in Henniker, NH, for a daylong sew-in, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (No early birds! Please do not even pull into the parking lot until 8:45!) There is no cost for this event, but participants need to sign up in advance. If you want to attend, email Michelle at michelle.l.cain (at) gmail (dot) com. 

For those already signed up, bring your machine and typical sewing supplies. The shop provides irons and ironing boards. Also: we receive 15% off regularly priced merchandise the day of the sew-in.

SHOW AND TELL 

You can view all of the show and tell items from October here!

NOVEMBER MEETING

Our November meeting will take place on November 15th. We will be having part 2 of "Share Your Favorite Quilt" so get your favorite quilts ready!

October Show And Tell

Our members have been very busy and had some beautiful items to share at Show And Tell in October!

Denise made these two quilts as gifts for boys that will be sharing a room. They are similar, but different!

Patty made this cute runner for her mom.

Susie made this true labor of love for her parents 50th wedding anniversary. It even has their family tree on the back!

Carolyn made a lovely paper pieced wall hanging.

Alexandra used the colors of her company logo to make this wall hanging that will be on display at the office.

One of our VP's, Michelle, made this amazing giraffe quilt for another of our VPs, Chelsea, aka Patch the Giraffe. 

Gail used a Carkai layer cake for this quilt.

Pat bought this top at an auction and finished it up.

Nancy used a jelly roll and a tutorial from the Missouri Star Quilt Company to make this bright and fabulous quilt!

September Show And Tell

The kids are back to school and attendance at our September meeting was high! It's so exciting getting to see everything everyone has been working on. Here are the pieces everyone brought for Show and Tell.

We presented the church where we meet with a quilt for an upcoming event!

These charity quilts were all made by members throughout the year. The fabric was donated and Janome block patterns were used and then our members got creative with how they put them together. The finished quilts are being given to Project Linus and the Hospice House in Merrimack.

This charity quilt is still a work in progress, but it will soon be given to Bridges for their January gala.

Betsy used some of the fabric from our Carolyn Friedlander fabric swap to make this lovely quilt

Michelle used the scraps left over from her Icy Waters quilt to make this quilt.

Patty is in an art group and the theme for this beautiful mini was travel.

Lisa made this big quilt for some newlyweds. This picture doesn't do it the justice, the quilting on this is amazing!

Lisa is also in the group that created quilts with a travel theme and she created a Dr. Who police box, how fun!

Having caught the garment sewing bug, Nancy showed off these fun polka dot shorts she made; complete with welt pockets.

This mini was Gail's first time machine quilting, you go girl!

Donna calls this quilt starry night on a rocky new England coast, she's so creative!

Susie made this adorable giraffe quilt for a very luck baby. 

Brianna joined us in September as a guest and shared her Alison Glass feathers quilt. This was her first time paper piecing and doesn't it just look wonderful?!

Eileen made a baby quilt and tried her hand at appliqué for the first time!

Chelsea had five finishes to share! This one is Starlight by Thimble Blossoms.

This quilt was inspired by an episode of the show Fixer Upper and I (Carolanne) want her to teach me how to make one!

October Meeting Reminder

Our October meeting is just a few days away, who is getting excited?! We have a lot of fun stuff to go over.

Swaps: Our fabric swaps ended in September, but if you missed any meetings please bring your fabrics to swap in October.

Special Event: Please bring in your favorite quilt as we'll be having a special part of show and tell where we share our favorites and tell everyone why!

Charity: At our September meeting, Susie and Marie handed out packets to make blocks for the QuiltCon charity quilt. If you picked up a packet, please remember to bring your finished star block to the October meeting.

Sewing Bee: If you would like to signup to participate in our bi-monthly sewing bee please bring a check for $60 to our October meeting. More details about the bee can be found here.

2017 Board & Committees: We're preparing for 2017 already by asking people to consider taking on a board or committee position in the new year. Full details will be posted again at the October meeting. If you'd like more information about a particular position before then, please contact Michelle at michelle.l.cain@gmail.com, and she'll connect you to the right person.

WIPs: We are two months into our second work-in-progress (WIP) challenge! Just like last time, each member is allowed three WIP tickets to enter into the raffle. We will be raffling a  $50 dollar gift card to Quilted Threads at the December meeting!

Raffles:  As always, we'll have some raffles. October's meeting will feature: 3 half-yard cuts of Amy Sinbaldi's Playground and Crafted Applique: New Possibilities (Signed by the author Lara Buccella!!)

We'll see you on the 18th!

Announcing The NHMQG Sewing Bee!

The NH Modern Quilters Guild Sewing Bee will be starting in January 2017! 

After reviewing all the responses to the questionnaire (Thank you everyone!!), it was determined that Sundays were preferred and that people would love to get together every other month in the year. So with that in mind, Ellen has reserved the following dates for our meeting to be held at the Peabody Mills Environmental Center (PMEC), located at the end of Brook Road in Amherst, NH.  

The dates will be on the 3rd Sunday every other month. The sessions run from 9am to 5pm each day at a cost of $10 per day. The dates for 2017 will be:

January 15, 2017
March 19, 2017
May 21, 2017
July 16, 2017
September 17, 2017
November 19, 2017

In order to make this work, we need to have a majority of people willing to commit to attending all of the above sessions to cover our minimum requirements for each session. This will require an upfront payment of the $60 for the year. Hopefully there will be a few slots available for people to join us for individual sessions for those who cannot commit to the full year. We can only fit about 20 people per session.

Signup for the Sewing Bee sessions will be held at our October guild meeting. Prepayment is requested at that time.

Looking forward to seeing you all then.

Thank You, Timna Tarr!

Last month, we hosted Timna Tarr for her Designing with Flying Colors workshop.

Timna started the afternoon off by walking us through a cross-section of her work, illustrating how she approaches design and color. This mini trunk show was hands-on, and we all had a chance to examine her fabric decisions, her approach to piecing, and her quilting up-close.

Some of the quilts connected to what she has been working on recently. This map quilt, for example, is a signature Timna project:

And these on-point squares and their appliqued centers are reminiscent of her egg quilt:

But many others offered surprise after surprise, including George Washington’s face, traditional fabric used in modern contexts, and brilliant, vibrant colors …

Following this look into Timna’s art, we delved into a discussion of how to use the color wheel, how to approach volume in our color selections, and how to incorporate seemingly ugly fabric into beautiful fabric pulls.

Like so many of us, Timna creates her quilts with one foot firmly planted in traditional quilting and the other in the modern movement. But this class pushed us all out of our comfort zones, no matter where we are on the continuum between traditional and modern, and we left newly inspired and challenged to use color and fabric in novel (for us!) ways. Thank you, Timna!