Saturday Sew-in

Do join us at our in-person sew-in scheduled for Saturday, March 23rd from 10:00-4:00 at our regular location, the Salem Church Library. Drop in for an hour or two, or stay the whole day! Feel free to bring whatever you are working on. It’s a great way to get some sewing done while chatting with fellow guild members and sharing good ideas.

*If you’re bringing your machine, don’t forget an extension cord.

*Ditto for irons, plus an ironing board or other surface (wool pressing mat, etc.).

*Remember to bring your cutting mat, too, plus all the notions you can’t sew without: wonder clips, sewing machine needles, rotary cutter, scissors, thimbles, etc. etc. etc. Luckily, Straight Stitch is right around the corner if you have a sewing emergency!

Handwork is welcome, too, of course!

You can bring your lunch, or walk over to one of the restaurants right next door and pick up something to go.

ALSO: we have traditionally included a technique or project to share or demonstrate. This time, plans are afoot to demo free motion quilting from the back side of your fabric, using the design of your backing fabric as your sewing guide. This is scheduled for the afternoon, probably around 1:00.

February meeting

Good morning, everyone! Our February meeting is this Thursday. We’ve changed the start time just a bit. Since 5:00 was too early for almost everyone, we’ve decided to open the room at 5:45 for chatting and setting up, and our meeting will start at 6:15. We hope this will work better for all our members.

This month’s agenda:
Around the table: What’s your favorite block? And if you weren’t here last time, please introduce yourself!
Note from raffle quilt winner
Program updates – Linda
Art Quilt challenge – Carolyn
Reflections block updates (reminder, block is due in March)
Treasurer’s report
Show and Tell
Other?

January meeting

Our first meeting of the New Year is this Thursday, 1/11, at the Salem Church Library. We’ll be updating everyone on upcoming plans and events. Linda will be introducing to an new modern block. And, of course, bring your show and tells. 

Don’t forget to check out our calendar for the year. See you there!

November’s meeting…

…is this Thursday, November 9th, at the Salem Church Library. The room opens at 5:00, and the meeting starts at 6:00.

We currently have nominations for four Board members for the coming year: Caroline P for President, Linda B for Vice-President, Carolyn B for Secretary, and Sharon C for Treasurer. If anyone else is interested in running for one of these positions, please let Carolyn or Caroline know. Voting will take place at the December meeting.

Speaking of the December 14th meeting, we will be meeting for dinner at a local restaurant. Details to follow!

Dues renewals and new members – Dues for 2024 are payable January 1st but you can pay earlier if you like;) New members: If you join at this meeting, your membership will go through December of 2024.

Don’t forget to purchase your tickets for our raffle quilt! We’ll have the quilt at the meeting for you to ooh and aah over, and below is a picture of it in our booth at the Expo in September. We’ll draw the winner at our January meeting.

And of course, bring your show and tells!

October meeting

We’ll be meeting this Thursday 10/12/23 at the Salem Church Library. Room is open at 5:00, meeting starts at 6:30. A special welcome to those who met us at the Expo and decided to drop in and find out what we’re all about!

Agenda:

Expo recap – what worked? what should we change?

Raffle/opportunity quilt tickets – report on tickets sold at the Expo and opportunity to buy tickets tonight

Dues renewals and new members – Dues for 2024 are payable January 1st but you can pay earlier if you like;) New members: If you join in December, your membership will go through December of 2024. In the meantime, you can come to our meetings in October and November for free!

Nominations for 2024 Board members will be made at the November meeting, and voting will take place at the December meeting. Please let Carolyn or Caroline know if you are interested in a Board position (President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer).

Show and Tell – the best part! Bring anything you’re working on or anything you’ve finished.

And, in case you missed it, enjoy these photos from our Expo booth.

Jen’s quilts

Linda’s Dresdens

Found objects challenges

Three versions of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston quilt-along above, more challenges below!

This month’s meeting

Our monthly meeting will take place this Thursday 9/14 at the Salem Church Library. Doors open at 6:00, business meeting starts at 6:30.

Please bring any completed quilts for the Expo exhibits if you have them ready. Don’t forget to add a hanging sleeve, a label, and an artist’s statement. We can’t wait to see what everyone has created!

We still have a few open slots at the Expo to staff our booth and promote the guild. It’s easy and fun! Shifts are two hours but we can work around it if you can’t do a whole shift. Sign up here.

Of course, we’ll have show and tell as usual.

Don’t forget that our quarterly sew-in will take place on Saturday, September 23rd, from 10-5 at Salem Church. Feel free to drop in whenever you can and stay as long as you like. Remember to bring an extension cord and make sure you have the power cord for your sewing machine (ask me how I know this!). Hand sewing is fine, too, of course!

August meeting notes

We had a great show and tell, with lots of challenge quilts among other Works in Progress and new creations.

Four takes on the Maximalist challenge

Challenge from another guild to use “ugly” fabric in a table runner

Page 20 challenges (turn to page 20 in any magazine or catalog and use what you see as inspiration)

Renee’s fabulous star, from a Mid-Appalachian quilter’s workshop at Gettysburg

Wonky star made from 1930’s blocks with Mary Kerr at a workshop at the Stitch Fest in Lancaster

Two sweet little blocks from Lori

Baby quilt with walking foot quilting

Remember that you can register for workshops and lectures at QuiltCon starting at 10:00 on Tuesday, August 15th. Make sure you can sign in ahead of time so that you’ll be all ready on Tuesday. Pro tip from Jan: you can put workshops in your cart and then easily sign up for them right on the dot of 10:00. Sessions fill up fast!

Note our upcoming meetings: Monthly meeting on September 14, and our in-person sew-in on Saturday, September 23.

Opportunities abound!

At our August 10th meeting, we’ll be getting ready for our booth and exhibit at the Expo, September 28-30. There are several ways you can participate:

  • Sign up for a two-hour shift at our booth. We’ll be using SignupGenius.com again this year, details to come. Meet and greet people interested in modern quilting, and spread the word about our guild. We need at least one person for each shift, but it’s more fun with two!
  • Volunteer for booth setup. We will be coming on Wednesday, the day before the show opens, to set up our booth. Need at least two people.
  • Wrangle the quilts we’ll be displaying on the show floor. We need to keep track of the quilts we’ve received from members, but the staff at the show will do the actual hanging of the quilts.
  • Help with the flyer we’ll make available to potential members.
  • Volunteer for take-down of our booth displays on Saturday. Need at least two people.
  • Bring your modern quilts to the September meeting so we can plan how much exhibit space we’ll need. Don’t forget a hanging sleeve!

And don’t forget show and tell this Thursday! You can also bring your challenges, whether found objects, maximalism, etc. Not quite finished? You’ve got a bit more time, just be sure to bring them to the September meeting.

Last year’s booth:

Show and Tell and the Expo

Great show and tell this month!

Expo Plans

The Original Sewing and Quilt Expo takes place in Fredericksburg on September 28-30, and the guild will be there. We will have a booth to promote the guild, plus we have lots of exhibit space. We plan to display our quilt challenges for this year, as well as any modern quilts you’d like to display. Remember that larger quilts need to have a hanging sleeve attached! Here’s one method.

Quilts for the Expo can be delivered to us at the September 10th meeting, or email us to arrange a different pickup time.

We’ll need volunteers to staff the booth, as well as to help with set-up and take-down. Watch this space and your email for more information coming soon!

Great workshop opportunity

The Central Virginia Modern Quilt Guild is hosting a Cindy Grisdela workshop on August 6th at the Cultural Arts Center in Glen Allen.

Learn to cut large scale curves freehand without templates or patterns. Add dots, skinny lines, wonky triangles and more to give each curve its own personality, then combine them into a fun original design.
We’ll talk about color and design to create the composition as well as the techniques needed.
Best for students with some experience with curves–not for beginners.

Information on the class and a link to the registration form can be found on their website:

https://cvamodernquiltguild.com/

Sew-in news

At our upcoming sew-in (Saturday, June 24, from 10-5 at the Salem Church Library), you can bring whatever you want to work on BUT we also have two opportunities to think about:

  • We are planning to enter a group/bee modern quilt at QuiltCon next year! If you’re interested in this project, please join us at the sew-in at 11:00 to discuss how we’ll proceed. We’ll need to talk about design, a color palette, and how to divvy up the creation of blocks or other elements of the quilt. Lots to chew on, so we may not nail it all down right away! Quilts can be entered between September 1 and October 31. This year’s winner is posted above, or see all the winners of the group/bee quilts at QuiltCon 2023 here (scroll down) for inspiration.
  • Get a jump start on holiday (or any day) gifts! At 1:00 p.m. Linda will be walking us through a cool technique for making fabric origami flowers, as presented in Flower Origami by Kumiko Sudo. You can create gift boxes, needle cases, holiday ornaments, and much more. If you’d like to participate, please bring:
    • 2 different sets of 2 coordinated light and dark 7.5” squares (total of 4 squares)
    • 2 different pairs of 2 coordinated light and dark 9” squares (total of 4 squares)
    • Thread and needle for hand sewing
    • Scissors
    • Fabric marker
    • Small ruler
    • Buttons for centers (optional)
    • Templates will be provided, along with a limited selection of fabrics (if you don’t want to bring your own and are willing to take “potluck.”)
    • Finished origami pieces can be used as holiday ornaments (just add a string) or turned into more ambitious projects such as wall art, cell phone cases, bags, napkin rings, etc.

Questions or suggestions? Post to our Facebook page or email us at fredericksburgmodernquiltguild@gmail.com.

Credit for the photo above:

1st Place: Sashes
64” x 83”
By Elizabeth Ray
Bentonville, Arkansas, USA
Northwest Arkansas MQG

Contributing Quilters: Carole Lyles Shaw, Chris Davies, Chris Simon, E. A. Cox, Ellyn Zinsmeister, Emily Lang, Isabelle Selak, Loide Wasmund, Sarah Goer, & Sarah Ruiz