January Meeting

Well, the ECMQG started 2012 off with a bang! First, with our very first sew day, and then with our first meeting of the year! It was our biggest turnout yet, with 11 people coming. We started taking dues at this meeting and 9 people became dues-paying members! I can't wait to see what the rest of the year will bring.

At our meeting, Kelly B. did a paper piecing demo. She used a block from The Quilter's Cache as her example. Quilter's Cache is a great resource full of free blocks available for download, and also a great paper piecing tutorial. I think the biggest lesson we all learned was that until you really get it, paper piecing can be confusing and difficult. So stick with it, have your seam ripper handy, and don't be scared to try!


Kelly mentioned that coming up this Tuesday, January 31, Fat Quarterly will be coming out with Issue 8 of their e-magazine, that will focus on paper piecing. This issue is sure to be very educational, and have plenty of well-written tutorials, so if paper piecing is something you're really interested in, consider purchasing that issue - or even a yearly subscription! You won't be disappointed!

She also talked about a series of block tutorials that Faith at Fresh Lemons Quilts is doing. It's called the Solstice Stars Series. Some of those will be incorporating paper piecing.

After the demo, we had Show and Tell, which is always fun. Here are some pictures from that...

Then it was time for door prizes! The very talented and very generous Laurie Wisbrun was kind enough to send some of her fabric to us to give away. Two lucky people won a fabric bundle of Laurie's latest (and by the way, organic) line for Robert Kaufman, Modern Whimsy, and two other lucky people won a fabric bundle of one of her other lines for Robert Kaufman, Pooches and Pickups. Here's a picture of the winners with their loot. Thanks, Laurie!

By the way, Laurie just announced on her blog that her newest fabric line, Jack and Jenny, is about to ship to stores in February. It's super cute - donkeys wearing rain boots in three colorways!

Now onto some bittersweet news...

We were so happy to have so many people come to this meeting. However, we were pretty tight in our space. So after the meeting, we made arrangements to start meeting at Lynn's Sewing Center. They were even able to accommodate our same meeting time, which is awesome! so the only thing that's changing is the location, which is just down the road from our other location. We're sad to leave Sheri and everyone at The Sewing Center Around the Block and we've enjoyed our time there, but we are excited that we're growing as a guild! Growing out of a meeting space is not a bad problem to have!

Our next sew is coming up Saturday, February 18 from 10-3 at Martelli's in Pensacola, and the next meeting is at Lynn's on Friday, February 24 starting at 10 am. Hope you can make it!

Our First Sew Day!

The ECMQG just had our first sew day, and what a day it was! Six hours to do whatever you wanted to do - a quilter's heaven! We had a great turnout, too. Four of our regulars came, and three new faces came, as well. Here are some pictures from the day...

The thing that's really great about these sews is the input you get from fellow quilters. If you're questioning something, you've got your very own sounding board to bounce ideas off of. There's also plenty of talk about fabric lines and designers, quilt alongs, Flickr, etc. Not to mention being able to spread all your stuff out and just get alot done! If you think you missed out, well, you did! But don't worry - these are monthly! Check out the "Meeting and Sewing Schedule" tab above for upcoming dates and locations.

In other news, the January meeting is coming up this Friday, January 27 at 10 am, at The Sewing Center Around the Block in Fort Walton Beach. This month, Kelly B. will be talking about and demonstrating paper piecing. We'll also have show and tell and door prizes, so come check us out!

100 Days of Modern Quilting

If you don't frequent the main MQG blog, then you might not have heard about "100 Days of Modern Quilting," which starts today. Every day for 100 days, The Modern Quilt Guild will be featuring modern quilts, broken up into weekly categories. Here's the breakdown of all the categories that will be featured:

Week 1: Week of Shapes

Focus on quilts featuring different geometric shapes (squares, hexagons, circles, etc.)

Week 2: Week of Colors

Focus on color schemes, rainbow quilts, etc.

Week 3: Week of Blocks

Focus on block-based quilts and reinterpretations of traditional blocks

Week 4: Week of Improvisation

Focus on improvisational piecing techniques

Week 5: Week of Inspiration

Focus on different sources of inspiration and how they’re interpreted into quilts

Week 6: Week of Composition

Focus on different kinds of compositions, use of negative space, etc.

Week 7: Week of Prints

Focus on quilts that effectively use print fabrics

Week 8: Week of Solids

Focus on quilts that effectively use solid fabrics

Week 9 : Week of Using What You Have

Focus on scrap quilts and repurposed materials

Week 10: Week of Techniques

Focus on quilts made using different popular online tutorials (Ticker Tape, String Quilts, Mod Mosaic, etc.)

Week 11: Week of Collaboration

Focus on quilting bees

Week 12: Week of Participation

Focus on challenges and quilt alongs

Week 13: Week of Tools 

Focus on tools that make modern quilting easier

Week 14: Week of Machine Quilting

Focus on different styles and techniques including long arm vs. finishing at home

In addition to featuring 7 quilts a week, there will also be tutorials related to that weekly topic. You can read more about the details of "100 Days of Modern Quilting" here.

They've already posted twice today - an intro into shapes and the first featured modern quilt.

I won't be posting these every day, so if this is something that's of interest to you, make sure to go to The Modern Quilt Guild every day to see what's new!