Zippy Skippy!

It’s our first swap of the new year! Join in the fun!
It’s a “Make Two, Take One”. Sound confusing, its not. Use your favorite Zippy pouch pattern, don’t stop with one, go ahead and make a second one to donate to our upcoming silent auction. 
Your zippy doesn’t not have to have a theme, it must be made using any quilt shop quality fabric, it can be no larger than 6x9 inches. Here is one of the best parts, one zippy should have a little surprise Valentine treat costing no more that 5.00. Perhaps Chocolate might be a good idea.
We are posting a few links to some simple zippy pouches, these are all friendly patterns to use.
Zipper Pouch Tutorial with Decorative Tabs

Get creative and put your own style into it! 
Don’t forget to bring your Zippy’s in a brown paper bag. It gets better, if you get a bag with two Zippy’s, you get to choose your favorite, the other will be donated to the online auction.  

January 13 Meeting Minutes

The Emerald Coast Modern Quilt Guild started off the year with a great meeting in January!
The ever busy sign-in table at ECMQG
Our new President, Loree, began the meeting promptly at 10:00 a.m. by clanking the bell.

Old Business:
  • We received a card of thanks from Arc Gateway.  $490 was made from our donated quilt.
  • A food sign-up sheet has been created for each month.
  • Sign up for Show and Tell at the beginning of each meeting and specify Modern or Traditional.
  • The Flying Needles Quilt Show is coming in February.  Entries are due by the end of January. We will display our Kona Challenge Quilts and possibly do a demonstration.

  • BRING your completed Kona Challenge Mini to the February meeting.

  • Cindy provided another recap of our online auction which was deemed a success. Financial summary to be presented at the next meeting. Discussion of what sold, how to market items, and how to streamline shipping ensued.
  • Linda presented a brief treasury report.
New Business:

ZIPPY POUCH SWAP - At the February meeting we will have a blind mini zippy pouch swap. Zippies must be modern quilt shop quality fabric, no specific theme, no larger than 6” x 9” any style – BE CREATIVE, and may contain Valentine treats of no more than $5. 
Triangle zippy pouches
box zippy pouch
If members would make 2 zippies we can use the second zippy as an inventory builder for our next online auction. Please bring your zipper pouch(s) in a brown paper bag.

Program ideas were discussed as follows:  ¼ inch seams---Cindy; Quilting on a Domestic Machine---Wendi; Binding Workshop—Wendi; Labels—Loree shows us how to make different labels; Help!  How do I make this work?;  Individual problems that we will have a workshop to work on with a partner; Blenders—What are they? Natalie; Pillows and pillow covers; social media skill building; finish strip piecing projects started last year.

Outreach with Girl Scouts was discussed.
Fabric Swaps for the upcoming year were discussed.

Our Program:
Natalie presented a Review of Modern Quilting. She used the national website: The Modern Quilt Guild for the review and explained that there were many other resources within the website. The ECMQG Modern Quilt Guild Continuum was also posted on the back wall as we reviewed.The main principles of Modern Quilting according to the definition by The Modern Quilt Guild were discussed and visual examples were provided.
Every Which Way blocks

Laraine using the design wall
Block Lottery: Laraine gave us a review of the Which Way Block and how it fit our Modern Continuum. We had an opportunity to come up and play around with how it could be arranged. We discussed how a modern arrangement would work. Block lottery rules were discussed and can be found under the tab Block Lottery on the blog. Block lottery is both a skill builder and fund raiser. The group voted to eliminate the rule that “you must show a completed project before you can win” for the next 6 months.  Jane won the block lottery.

Mary was in charge of the February block lottery, “Bits of Friendship.” 
Mary shows this month's block with lots of scrap bits to share
Scraps from her modern group, Muskoka, were shared. A tutorial is available on the blog. Her idea came from a book by Amanda Jean Nyberg. 

Door prizes:  Bonnie and Camille Orange Peel. 
Jane shows off her door prize win while in the background Lisa is taking advantage of scrap sharing.

 Announcements: Chautauqua Quilt Show at DeFuniak and St. Andrew’s Bay Quilt Show in Panama City were both discussed as coming in Feb. 16th and 17th.

Show and Tell:
Laraine shared her Hidden Gems quilt from a paper pieced block lottery.

Natalie shared her Biggest Bag Ever.

The biggest bag ever holds
Natalie's rigid heddle loom
Cindy shared her Pillow Cover for Natalie from the Anniversary Scrap Swap.









Cindy had a scrappy pillow cover to add to the online auction inventory and an Adore La Red, White, and Blue quilt top.












Lisa shared her pink and purple quilt that was a gift (picture on phone) for Christmas.  She also shared a paper piecing project and her Flamingo Pink Block Lottery finish with the star pieces in the middle.


Maureen shared her Pearl Bracelets baby quilt and a Sampler she showed that she had redone from years ago.





Mary shared her Grandson’s quilt that he made using flannel (picture on her phone).

Wendi is working on the
Quilt Con charity quilt
Lisa is making perfect
point pinwheels



We enjoyed our potluck lunch and Sit and Sew. 







Many people donated fabric and sewing talents to make the hospice quilt come together. Thank you to Wendi, Lisa, Loree, Maureen, Bobbi, Laraine, Mary, Marcia, Natalie, and Linda.

Maureen sewing blocks
for the hospice quilt

ECMQG hospice quilt stage 1 - quilt top complete!

 Loree and Natalie power sewed the hospice quilt top together with help from all the ECMQG sewists.

Bits of Friendship

Mary, writing about her thoughts for the February 2018 block lottery, says this:

"The block combines several elements I enjoy...a basic nine patch with improv variations.  It uses bits and scraps from friends and myself in Canada for my Florida friends, and is a natural colour combination for February of white with reds and pinks.


I am calling it 'Bits of Friendship'.  My modern group at home (Pine Tree Quilters Guild of Muskoka) was keen to share fabric bits with you for this block. 

(Mary had a pile available for the taking at the January 13th meeting.)  From your stash, add pinks and reds.

Inspiration came from Amanda Jean Nyberg's quilt, Chain of Diamonds, from her book No Scrap Left Behind 


and from Rayna Gillman's quilt on the cover of her book Create Your Own Improv Quilts."

Use nine 4.5" white or white-on-white squares. (Kona White was used in our examples.)

Sew a red or pink wonky bit onto opposite corners. 

Press and trim.  

Set up in a pleasing design.

Sew the squares into rows.

Sew the rows together to make a 12.5" block.
Enjoy!


The End of an Era

 Hello Modern Quilters! Thank you for visiting our blog. Sadly, ECMQG is no longer meeting on a regular basis. Feel free to browse the blog,...