June is Coming Up Tulips!

We had an awesome June Meeting!

Take a look below:

Our June block lottery was beautiful! Even our junior member, Athena got in on the action and won! It was her first win. Congrats winners!

July's Block lottery looks very interesting! SO versatile and of course we have an awesome teacher showing us all the options.

A beach basket was the raffle of the month. Beautiful beachy fabrics and fun goodies to boot!

Time for Show and Tell:

Gorgeous pieces ladies!

Another submission from Wendi for some very deserving Veteran:

Love it!!

We have started a round robin and the medallions are awesome:

We judged a mock art show from a trunk show given by SAQA member Natalie:

We all chose our favorites, narrowed them down to 10 and gave them points as shown below.

This was not only fun but we learned so much. I think we have a better idea now of how judging works. This trunk show was very cool. Many uses of mixed media, fabric dying, and different uses of thread. We also saw how different the binding can be. I know I learned a lot! 

This is a sample that Lisa wanted to use very badly! LOL

Such a great meeting ladies! Thank you!

Program for May - SAQA Trunk Show and Ways to View Art

Exploration of the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) Trunk Show

Some of the examples that we were given as part of this trunk show are below. These are quilts? Crazy but YES! So amazing.

We referenced the book 
Ways of Looking: How to Experience Contemporary Art by Ossian Ward as we explored the SAQA Trunk Show Quilts.

Ways of Looking on Amazon

Thank you Natalie for the informative and FUN program!

We have many great things coming up in the next few months so look us up! We are on Instagram and Facebook too.

We had a bright and colorful May Meeting!

Check out the door prizes! Each had 9 fat quarters (WOW that's 2 and 1/4 yards of beautiful solids from Moda Bella). Lucky winners were able to choose either a cool stack or warm stack with 3 different values in each color way.

Block Lottery for June is a big block and looks so fun, quick, and easy to do.

Totally Tulips Block. A tutorial can be found on You Tube under Missouri Star Quilt Company. Here are the instructions:

Block Lottery: Sew and bring back for June 2019

Totally Tulips by Missouri Star Quilt Company

Block size: 9 ½” x 17 ½”

   MSQC TUTORIAL CLICK HERE

For ONE tulip block you need the following:

Background: (Kona Snow)

·        Fabric 1:

o   (4) 2 ½” squares to snowball tulip corners

o   (2) 5” squares to make HSTs for leaves

Tulip:

·        Fabric 2:

o   (2) 5” squares for top half of tulip—lighter value than bottom half

·        Fabric 3:

o   (2) 5” squares for bottom half of tulip—darker value than top half

§   Note: Fabrics 2 and 3 should be from the same color family, with the top two squares being a lighter value and the bottom two squares being a darker value.

Leaves and Stem:

·        Fabric 4: leaves

o   (2) 5” squares in green—use a print that reads mostly green

·        Fabric 5: stem

o   1 ½” x 8 ¾” green solid for stem—any solid green that looks nice with your leaves—(I think the video says to cut this piece 8” long, but that is too short.)

Refer to the video tutorial for piecing instructions.  The video shows how to make an entire quilt, so the following steps will be different when making a single block:

As shown in video, 10” squares of leaf and background fabric make enough HST leaves for two tulips. To make leaves for one tulip, make HSTs from 5” squares of leaf and background fabrics, as called for above. Use the method shown here: https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/easy-half-square-triangle-units-for-quilts-2821466

·         Trim your four finished HSTs to 4 1/2 “

Do not add the 2 ½” x 9 ½” spacer piece to the tops of blocks. That method is used to offset the tulips when making a whole quilt.

Check out this awesome "Spring Bouquet" raffle we had:

Fabric roses and interfacing supplies for a Sew Together Bag! 
What more can a quilter want? :)

We are donating dresses for girls around the world in coordination with www.dressagirlaroundtheworld.com
All dresses are due at the June meeting! Thanks to everyone who contributed fabric and made dresses.

Our very generous group of sewists brought in a wide range of single serving easy open food items for the food bank at the church.

Looking forward to another great meeting in June. See you there.

April 2019 Door Prizes!

What a stack!

These beauties were the door prizes for April. It is called Peppered Cory for Studio E Fabrics. It is yard dyed shot cotton. If you look closely, the fabric has different shades in it. Stunning for a solid no? Yes!

April’s Block Lottery

Look at these awesome and fun X Plus Wonky blocks! They were fun to make and we love what everyone came up with for this challenge. 

April’s Raffle

The April Quilt meetings raffle was, of course, Easter Related. What a cute basket! It was full of goodies like fabric, patterns, a gorgeous orchid and Chocolate. Yum! Who knows what next months will be!

Riley Blake Designs Fabric Challenge

We received our Riley Blake Designs Fabric Challenge fabric and it is adorable! We can use 3 or all the pieces we were sent plus other RB fabrics. We can’t wait to see what every one comes up with! The finished pieces are due 5/31/19. Get sewing ladies!

Welcome to the 2019 Riley Blake Fabric Challenge!

This year for the first time, we’re collaborating with an MQG member, Christopher Thompson! We're featuring prints from his new Riley Blake basics collection, Blossom, and Christopher helped select this year’s color palette. Our featured fabrics include Shades Robin, 1/8" Stripe Denim*, Blossom Baby Pink, and Blossom on White Navy.

*A previous version of this page wrongly listed 1/8" Stripe Navy as the featured stripe. Submissions using either the Denim or Navy stripe will be accepted.

The deadline for submissions is May 31, 2019. The top ten finalists will be displayed at Garden of Quilts in Lehi, Utah, Sep. 12–14, 2019. Check out Riley Blake’s website for more information!

Special thank you to Riley Blake Designs for hosting another great challenge!

Challenge Rules & Guidelines

• You must make a quilt or quilted item (any size is welcome).
• You must use at least three of the featured Riley Blake prints, as well as any additional Riley Blake prints or solids.
• You may use any Riley Blake solids or prints in addition to the feature fabrics, but you may only use Riley Blake fabrics (including for the backing and binding).
• We encourage you to try an original design suited to the fabric! You may also use a pattern, but please tell us which one in your submission. (And please always give credit to the designer when sharing images.)
• The deadline for submissions is May 31, 2019.
• Please submit your finished project to the link at the bottom of this page. We will announce the top three winners in early June 2019, and the top ten finalists will be displayed at Garden of Quilts next September! 
• Please also share your work on Instagram using #mqgfabricchallenge and #rileyblakedesigns!

Let's Make a Sew Together Bag!

ECMQG will be hosting a Sew Together Bag Workshop at our Sit & Sew after the May 11 and June 8 meetings. 

This workshop is FREE for guild members with no registration required! 

We have a limited number of seats available for non-members. Click HERE to view additional information and to register.

A Charity Quilt - From Idea to Delivery

Four years ago, Chris from the Fort Walton Beach office of the Emerald Coast Hospice contacted our guild with a plea for help. The annual Celebration of Life Ceremony was coming up and the previous organization/sewist(s) were not able to complete a quilt for the event. The presentation of a quilt with the names of the individuals hospice served the previous year is one of the highlights of the ceremony.
Say no more. The sewists at ECMQG took charge and have been creating colorful memorial quilts for the ceremony ever since. Here's the story of the 2018 Memorial Quilt for Emerald Coast Hospice from idea to delivery.

It started with a very large stack of solid charms that were left over from a hospice project from a previous year.

An online search of charm pack friendly quilts led us to this beauty and the group came up with an idea.

The block size and construction information was shared and members took home charms and white fabric to sew blocks together.

 Our ECMQG December 2018 Sit and Sew gave many the opportunity to work on blocks for the quilt. Most members stayed and sewed blocks together!

Laraine completed the top half of the quilt from the blocks that were sewn at the December meeting. Loree and Natalie worked to complete blocks and finish the bottom half.

The finished top!

Natalie in collaboration with Chris, formatted all the names and printed them on fabric iron on sheets. With some trepidation, Laraine started the tedious process of applying the sheets to the quilt with a hot iron, wooden cutting board, and timer. Natalie and Loree finished the process.

The finished top with all of the names added!

Time for a quilting plan and Natalie went to work on the longarm.

Lots of ruler work went into this one!

The quilting is complete and the top is ready for the next step.

Faye volunteered to add the binding and a hanging sleeve. The entire project lasted 5 months from conception until delivery.

The happy recipients, some of the hard working, compassionate team members from Emerald Coast Hospice.

The quilt will be officially presented at the Celebration of Life Ceremony on May 11.

Quilts from previous years hang at the office building of the Fort Walton Beach branch of Emerald Coast Hospice located on Beal Parkway. The public is welcome to stop by and view all the beautiful quilts on display.

Happy New Year! ECMQG January meeting 2019

The Emerald Coast Modern Quilt Guild started the new year off with a great meeting at our new location in Crestview.

Newsworthy

• ECMQG is moving all business associated information to our closed Facebook group.
• Our blog will be all about pictures and sharing, with just a little news for you!
• A rough calendar of events for the year was discussed. Upcoming activities include
• Sew Together Bag Sit & Sew Workshops - 2
• Dress a Girl Sit & Sew
• Art Gallery Fabric Swap
• Make a Mini All Prints Fabric Challenge
• Kona Splash Color Challenge
• Round Robin - to be determined
• Interguild swap - to be determined
• Our member, Natalie, will have a quilt on display at QuiltCon in Nashville. Several members are going. Take selfies with Natalie's quilt!
• 2018 was an awesome year as guild members collectively worked to stay within budget. This year we reap the rewards with rotating door prize buyers.
• The hospice quilt is well underway, due date in March.
• See you in February on the 9th! 

New and renewing members receive their choice of a 
FQ from the Quantum line by Guicy Guice

Door prizes this month were Forage Essex Linen from Anna Graham.
Natalie and Faye each won 3 sets. Can you believe that????

Loree, our President, always has a fun fundraiser.
This time useful 1/2" rulers and Tula Pink fabric!

Check out this beautiful fabric from our Amy Butler swap. 
FQ large scale prints anyone?

The block lottery this month was half rectangle triangles 
in a citrus color palate with low volumes. WOW!

Next month's block lottery is a bright/pastel wonky star in a field of black and white prints.

The memorial hospice quilt is ready to receive the 360+ names.

Show and Tell - Linda made a holiday mini!

Linda made Natalie a table runner from our scrap swap. Fun half square triangles!

Lisa made Christmas pillow covers. See the sparkle!

Natalie made a scarf on her rigid heddle loom.

Laraine made her shirt. Slow sewing with reverse applique and details.
We were all amazed by this beautiful tunic!