Last week’s meeting featured a great show and tell, two visiting quilters who might become members, and a few future plans.

The Expo booth was a great success. We spoke to dozens of quilters who were interested in our guild and sold upwards of $100 for our raffle quilt. If you have not yet bought tickets, they will be available at our next meeting or email us at fredericksburgmodernquiltguild@gmail.com and we will get tickets to you.

We have decided to move our annual holiday party from December to the January 12th meeting, 5:00-8:00 p.m. This will be our first meeting on the new evening schedule. Look for more details coming soon!

We have reserved the library meeting room for four Saturday sew-ins next year, topics TBA. Suggestions include a round robin (two or three members present a tutorial, with time for participants to make a start on the projects); a hand dying session in the spring, possibly outside; and a sew-in where members work on a current project and/or a recent guild challenge. If you have more ideas, please email us at fredericksburgmodernquiltguild@gmail.com!

For show and tell, Jen brought her finished piece from the David Owen Hastings workshop. Love her quilting!

She also brought her T-shirt quilt in process, and got lots of tips on how to proceed.

Caroline’s Free Bird BOM is done! That is, the flimsy. Backing fabric has been purchased and soon it will go to the long-armer. This was sponsored by Thread House, a UK site that is about to release next year’s BOM if you’re interested in their modern take on traditional quilting.

Lori, one of our visitors, brought these improv quilts, this one featuring playful scrappy birds, and

this “Improv in Gray” with bright shapes and colors and close quilting. Full of movement!

Diane, who says she is more of an art quilter, showed us this richly detailed sun image, based on techniques from Susan Carlson,

and her first foray into more traditional quilting with this disapearing nine-patch as taught by Brita Nelson. Well done!

Remember that our next meeting is an evening one, Thursday, November 10, from 5 to 8. See you there!

Agenda includes:

Show and tell

A chance to buy raffle tickets for our MQG quilt (see above) at $1 each or 6 tickets for $5.

Future plans

We extend a warm welcome to new members and all who stopped at our booth at the Expo and want to check us out!

As always, we’ll be meeting at the Salem Church Library. See you there!

• November’s Show and Tell
• Expo and more
• Raffle Quilt and More
• July Show and Tell
• Show and Tell for April

Our next meeting is right around the corner: Thursday, September 8, from 5:00 to 8:00 pm. at the Salem Church Library. Don’t forget to bring your entries for the Expo show!

Reminder: The guild will have a booth at the Expo Center for the sewing and quilt show September 29-October 1, and we need you to help spread the word about our guild and what we do! Volunteering at the booth is a great way to meet and greet potential new members and other friendly quilters. We’ll have some quilts on display at the booth as well as our own exhibit of recent quilts in the exhibits area.

At the booth we’ll have info about how to join the guild and will answer questions about our activities and about modern quilting. You can sign up for a two-hour shift via our Sign-up Genie here.

If you volunteer as an ambassador at the Expo, you can get free admission to the show. Details here.

For our exhibit of recent quilts we want to include your creations from the David Owen Hastings workshop; scrappy applique from our most recent challenge; your Museum of Fine Arts modern QAL; and members’ choice (whatever you’d like to enter that has a modern slant). Quilts will be due by the next meeting, September 8th, or at the very latest by Wednesday, September 28th, for set-up.
Remember that all quilts that are entered must have a four-inch hanging sleeve on the back. If you haven’t made a hanging sleeve before, there are lots of tutorials online, including a video here.

And don’t forget to check out the classes and lectures!
Looking forward to seeing everyone there!