August 2018 Meeting Minutes


ECMQG Meeting Minutes                                         Aug. 11, 2018

Rachel is back.  She was here last month, and was a previous member a few years ago.  She joined today.  Yay!

Moment of silence.

New junior member, Athena, introduced.  (Linda’s daughter)

Loree set up the ECMQG Fun Fair for this months meeting, featuring concessions of popcorn, cotton candy, cracker jacks, peanuts.  For $1.00, you pick your snack.

Loree baked a homemade peach pie to raffle off, $1.00 per ticket to win. 

If you are still supposed to receive Faye’s blender fabrics, see Loree.

Food Sign Up Sheet for next meeting was available to sign up.  Please spread the love!

Auction items are due at the Oct. 13 meeting so we have time to catalog, take photos, etc. 
o   The auction is Nov. 1 – 15.  Cindy will be organizing the auction. 
o   Please help support our guild and make items! 
o   There is a form to fill out per item.  The form will be posted on our guild Facebook page. 
o   We need volunteers to help catalog, take photos, and then afterwards to help pack and ship items.  We would like to make the packing exciting to receive.

Dress a Girl Around the World will be headed up by Maureen.
o   Please bring fabric for these projects. 
o   There are patterns to use. 
o   The fabric requirements:  a) you should not be able to see through it when you hold it up, b) don’t use fabric with licensed logos like Disney, movie themes, etc., and no americana (red, white & blue),  c) good choices are flowers, stripes, and solids, d) trim, ribbons, etc. should be washable, e) fabric does not need to be modern. 
o   Maybe we can do these together in a sit-n-sew.

Charity quilts
o   We decided to pay for 2 charity quilts for this year (last Feb.).
o   The Hospice Quilt is done and delivered. Yay!
o   The Popsicle Quilt still needs more quilting.  (Natalie’s long arm broke.)  Marsha volunteered to finish the quilting, Faye volunteered to do the binding, and Loree will do the label.
·       We need to chose a charity to receive this quilt.  Fischer House has already happened this year.  ARC Gateway is usually a Christmas theme, and we determined that it could not be used for the next Hospice quilt.
·       Keep your eyes open for a charity that could use this quilt to auction off.   

o   Lorraine made a quilt top from the pluses we had.   See Show & Tell today.  We still need to make the back, and quilt it. 
                  o   We have more pluses to make another charity quilt.
o   Rachel volunteered to quilt the red, white & blue Adore-La quilt. 
o   MQG QuiltCon Charity Quilt Challenge
·       The theme is small piecing with a set of allowed colors.  See the website for details. 
·       Does anyone have any ideas?!
·       If you have an idea, it needs to be presented by the next meeting, Sept. Please submit a design proposal, an estimate of fabric costs (top, back, binding), and a timeline for completion.
·       The guild has batting for this quilt.
·       Check out our guild Pinterest board for ideas!



 Athena won the 1st door prize! Yay! 

Loree won twice in a row, and gave the second one of Alison Glass to Wendi who is making a quilt of this.

Linda gave a treasurer’s report.  The bottom line is that we are staying just above the red, so we need to continue to think about not spending too much money.

We discussed our insurance, and about possibilities to reduce this cost.

We purchased the accounting software Aplos, which was comparible to other software.  On nice feature is that any board member can go online and get updates on our finances.

Anniversary Meeting is coming up next month in September!!!!!!

o   We discussed how to celebrate and budget.  We voted to keep the budget at $100 or less. 
o   Wendi will shop for fabric, tools, etc. as prizes.  We discussed types of fabric and tools, etc. that people would like.  cool!
o   Linda will bake a cake, to save the money from buying a cake, and well, homemade tastes great!
o   We discussed how we should award tickets to win prizes and which prize you win.  We decided that everyone will get one ticket for membership, plus one additional ticket for every meeting that you have attended Jan. – Aug. 2018.  When your ticket is randomly picked – you get to chose out of all of the prizes, which prize you want.  Yay!!!!!!!

Go to QuiltCON.com to see the guest speaker, the different quilt challenges, charity quilt challenge, the swap opportunity, etc. 
o   Natalie told us about her experience with a swap event at the conference in Savannah, GA.  She had to make something for one of the instructors so she was nervous, so she said she had to “step up her game” but that it was a good opportunity to grow as an artist.
o   For the Swap opportunity, you get to sign up for your level: beginner, intermediate, and expert (maybe other categories…). 
o   There is a 2-color challenge.  Tone on tone fabric counts as 2 fabrics.  hunh! 
o   There is a list of categories and prizes to enter quilts.
o   Entries are due Nov. 30, which means you fill out a form and pay the fee, $15/quilt (even if not accepted, overhead expense…)

Our Swap for next month, the Anniversary Meeting was discussed.
o   Last month, everyone interested blindly chose 3 crayons, then picked scrap fabric with these 3 colors and add one neutral.  We brought these in a one quart bag to today’s meeting.
o   Later in the meeting, we picked a bag of fabric that was hidden. 
o   The maker talks to the person whose fabric they chose, to find out more what they want. 
o   Everyone is to make a table top that must be a least 12” x 18” or larger. 
o   The item must be finished for the next meeting, including machine quilting or handiwork, etc.  However, some people like Loree, have asked that hers does not have a binding on it because she wants to make a pillow case with it.  Other people could be interested in making a tote out of it, for example.
o   The maker can also add one other color.
o   Natalie presented many examples of what colors that makers could chose, using color fabric squares on the board with the color wheel.  Examples:
·       Lorraine had picked 3 analogous colors:  dark green, yellow-green, and yellow.  Complimentary color that could be added would be purple, and if used sparingly could make it peaceful.  Blue-green could be added as an analogous color scheme.  We couldn’t really pick colors for a triad with these.
·       Lisa chose red-violet (looked pink), blue-green, and blue, which is an anologous range, and could stay happy if added purple, red, or blue-violet.  She tried a split complimentary with red-orange, but it didn’t look great.
·       Maureen also had analogous:  red-violet (pink), orange, and a yellow-orange.  Can add other colors in the same analogous region or a complimentary color, blue-green.
·       Her advice was to play with your scraps on a design board.
·       Cindy had red-violet or ~mauve, blue-violet, and sky blue, an analogous scheme which you can add another analogous color, or make it pop with yellow-green.
·       Faye had contrasting colors yellow, red-violet, and blue-green which was a triadic scheme already.  Probably don’t want to add a different color, maybe one from the same family.
·       Linda had purple, red, sky blue, an analogous scheme.  Could pop with yellow but then looks like primary colors, or add another blue or blue-green.
·       Loree had cerelean blue, cornflower blue, and pink (red-violet), which is fairly analogous.  Here I didn’t write down what she said…

We discussed this month’s Block Lottery, the Improv Curves.
o   Different people had advice.  Cindy didn’t use starch, and did use a small stitch length.
o   Wendi suggested to snip the curve seam allowance on the back to help prevent puckering, as in garment sewing.
o   Many people agreed that it turned out better if you matched the curves in the center first (instead of the ends).  Lisa started pinning at the center, and then pinned outward to the ends.
o   Lisa won the Block Lottery. Yay!  Pictures of blocks:

Maureen presented the new Block Lottery for September.
o   They are half square triangles. 
o   Use a 6” square of Kona snow and a 6” square of black and white print fabric.
o   Place them right sides together.  Maureen marked the diagonal with pencil first on the Kona snow.  Then sew ¼” away from diagonal on both sides.  Cut apart to make 2 squares of half square triangles.  Do this one more time, to have a set of 4 squares (of the half square triangles), and this will be considered “one block”.  However, do not sew them together, to allow the winner many options of how to put these blocks together.  Cool!   These are pictures showing different ways they could be arranged by the winner:

Show & Tell:
o   Lorraine made a plus quilt top from the pluses the guild had in red, white & blue.  Loree will make the back and Rachel will quilt it.  It looks awesome! Thank you!   This will be a quilt of honor for our inventory, until someone recommends a recipient. 
o   Cindy put together a red, white & blue Adore-La quilt.  Cindy will make the back and Rachel will quilt this one too!!!  We hope Rachel doesn’t get burnt out. ;) 
o   Natalie showed her quilt made on vacation.  Pieced with her mother’s very old maching and then quilted on a Bernina rented for $10/day.  We had no idea it was this cheap!  Really cool pattern!
o   Marsha showed 2 Quilts of Valor.  The first one was from the Quilter’s calendar (maybe June or July?).  This is for her son in the Air Force, and is entitled “Third generation”.  The second one is for her husband using blocks of the month from her other guild.  Nice work Marsha!  Marsha added beautiful labels and a label with washing instructions. 
o   Lisa showed a Patriotic quilt for her stepson in the Navy, and just flew off to start training in the Navy Seals.  (He couldn’t take the quilt with him yet.) 


o   Rachel showed a quilt top she made from her winning the block lottery at our guild in 2014!  The blocks were a tutorial quilt-a-long, and she also used the trimmings from these blocks.  It looks cool!  She will use wonky log cabins from her recent guild, McKinney Modern Quilt Guild (in Texas).  Welcome back to our guild and Florida, Rachel! 
o   Maureen showed a quilt she made and had Rachel quilt it.  Cool!
o   Faye showed fancy comfortable underwear for her daughters, using a pattern called “Scrundies” (spelling?).  Fancy!
  Wendi showed large strips of a quilt top using all polka dots.  At the sit-n-sew today, she has sewn all of them together and worked on the Quilt of Honor that others had helped make a few blocks. 

Faye won the homemade peach pie! Yay!

We will discuss quilt labels in a future meeting since we the meeting has been long enough.

See you next month!

Written by Lisa, substituting for Roxie this month.  Hope you enjoyed it!



Black and White Half Square Triangles

Block Lottery for September 2018

Each block lottery block will consist of four half square triangles (HST), but the four HST will not be sewn together. More on that below.

The fabrics are Kona Snow for the white AND  black and white prints, in any saturation - predominantly black, predominantly white, or fairly even.

To make one block lottery block, you will need:

Two (2) 6” squares of Kona Snow
Two (2) 6” squares of black and white print

Start with one Kona Snow square and one black/white square.


Draw a pencil line on the Kona Snow 6” square diagonally from corner to corner.

Layer the 6” Kona Snow square on top of a 6” black and white print square, right sides together. Your pencil line should be facing up so you can see it.

Stitch ¼” on each side of the drawn line.

Cut on the drawn line, between the two rows of stitching.


You now have two identical HSTs. Press the seams open.


Make two more HSTs using the same instructions. Use Kona Snow again, but the black and white print fabric can be different if you wish.


You now have four (4) HSTs. Trim all of them to 5 ½” square. These four HSTs count as one block lottery block entry, but DO NOT SEW THEM TOGETHER.  Leave them as individual HSTs, and count four of them as one block lottery entry.

Have fun making the ever so versatile HST in black and white!
Maureen



July 2018 Meeting Minutes

President Loree called the meeting to order at 10 a.m.

President’s Activity: Advent Calendar for Christmas in July. $1 ticket for a prize.
OLD BUSINESS:
  • Sign up for food items.
  • Quilt Con registration open to the public.
  • Michael Miller fabric challenge
  • Pat is unable to complete the Dress a Girl project. Maureen agreed to take it over and will develop a plan for completion.
  • Continue making auction items for Instagram auction. All items are due by the October 13th meeting. Auction will take place November 1-15. Popular auction items: Pillow covers, Tote bags, Zippy pouches. Check out our Pinterest page for bazaar ideas. Keep with the Modern theme.
  • Blog posting should be up to date. Lisa would be interested in the blog posting.

Door prizes winners: Bobbi, Laraine, Loree, Lisa, Maureen

NEW BUSINESS
  • All projects that the guild is expected to fund with fabric, batting, backing, etc., must be approved by the membership at large through a proposal process.
  • Fake email to ECMQG probably a Cox thing. Don’t click on the links Virus possibilities.
  • Charity Quilts for 2018: Hospice quilt, completed. Popsicle quilt – to be completed. Be thinking of possible charities and/or projects you would like to manage.
  • Laraine volunteered to put together another plus quilt from the blocks donated last year. Rachael volunteered to quilt it.
  • Plus Quilt completed by Loree from plus blocks made last year was given to Faye’s Uncle who was a World War II veteran
  • Christmas in July fabric swap was fun, fun, fun!
  • Possible paint chip challenge was discussed.

Anniversary scrap swap activity. Randomly pick 3 crayon colors. Your scrap fabrics are to match the crayon color palate allowing for variations in tints, tones, and shades. Your scrap baggy may also have a neutral of your choice – white, beige, gray or black. Bring baggy of scraps to next meeting. We will blind swap the baggies. Swappers will then meet with their partner to discuss design options. Makers are to create at least a 12” X 18” table topper and may add one color.

Faye won the triangle strip block lottery! Lisa presented the improv circle block. You may use solids or prints. Trim blocks to 12.5”. Check the Facebook PDF files for a copy of the instructions. Great presentation Lisa!


Show and Tell
  • Laraine made a wall hanging with beautiful quilting. She also showed her finished spool Block Lottery.
  • Marcia made a random square quilt with butterfly fusible appliqué
  • Lisa is making a patriotic economy hour glass block in red white and blue.
  • Maureen is making buckets like Marcy’s scrap buckets from the sew Modern labs. She showed an Alison Glass lap quilt, and a Beachy Blue quilt for a fellow dissertation committee member.
  • Rachael making a panel quilt for a baby! Welcome back Rachael!
A delightful luncheon followed the meeting with a productive sew day.

June 2018 Meeting Minutes

Loree called the meeting to order at 10 a.m.
Activity this month was a chance to win a Carrot Cake baked by Lisa.
OLD BUSINESS
  • Arrive early to help set up.
  • Sign up on the Show and Tell form and food sign-up form when you arrive.
  • Please continue to make items for our raffle in November.
  • Quiltcon is February 21-24, 2019. MQG Charity Quilt parameters are out.  If you are interested in a design proposal submit it to the guild.  Include fabric costs, (top, back, and binding) and a timeline for completion. Don’t forget reservations for your rooms for Quiltcon. They do fill up fast. List of hotels is on the Quiltcon website. June 26th is the day to begin registering for classes. 9:00 AM Eastern time for the beginning of registration. The catalog is out, so you can begin looking at teachers and who you may want to go to.
  • Anyone interested in a program with Joe Cunningham contact Pensacola MQG.

Treasurer’s Report:  Linda gave us an updated account of our funds at this time.

New Business: 
  • Next meeting will be Christmas in July.  We will do a modern Christmas fabric swap.  Bring up to 3 yards of fabric to swap.  Look at Facebook site.  We will be posting ideas for modern Christmas fabric to bring.  We wrap it up…each yard in Christmas paper and exchange with other members.
  • Also, bring fun quilty gift ideas for Christmas to share with the group.  Bring your samples, patterns, and ideas.
  • We shared a Quiltfest from Jacksonville in September 20, 21, and 22nd in case anyone is interested in going.
  • Door prizes were drawn:  Winners were, Lisa, Loree, Lisa, Marsha

 The Block Lottery:  Marsha won the blocks this month and Linda shared next month’s Block Lottery block.  It was the Triangle Strip Block which consists of 4 pieces.  Linda had printed directions.  Next month, Lisa does her block for August.

PROGRAM 
Westwood Acres Fabrics has had lots of experience in blogging, Facebooking, Tweeting, and Instagramming.  We invited them to give us some information on tech tools and using them for our quilt guild and personal use. They shared some recent makes. On Instagram most people like to see finished quilts.  They said when they posted finished quilts, they got the most hits.  
They explained that most businesses like online fabric businesses have at least a Virtual Assistant and a Physical Assistant.
They explained that the value of Social Media may be great in some areas, but that we have a loneliness epidemic in America, too.  It is better to know the people and have fewer contacts than to have many friends and they be mostly people we don’t even know.
@sewshabbyquilting was another site they recommended. 
They shared how they start designing a quilt by:
1.       Drawing the block, first
2.      Working to eliminate seams
3.      Figure out finished measurements
4.      Figure out unfinished
5.      Figure out quantities to buy
Hashtags were explained as folders to keep info.  Following hashtags can be fun.  The feed is filtered.  Some recommended following are:  #igreads #quiltblock
For our Quilt guild members were reminded to look at #ecmqgsews
When typing hashtags go to the next line right after punctuation…no space.
Instagram—she recommended just exploring as well as Pinterest.  
Another good book is by Penney Sturgis is The Toolbox.
On Pinterest we reminded our members we are:  Emerald Coast MQG

Show and Tell, Lunch and Sew Day followed an exciting meeting.

May 2018 Meeting Minutes

Meeting was called to order promptly at 10:00 by Loree our President.
Loree’s activity of the month: Fishing! $1 ticket for a chance to fish and win.
OLD BUSINESS
  • Arrive early to assist, visit and sign in.
  • Sign up for Show and Tell, we are celebrating making
  • Sign up for Food Sheet for upcoming meetings as you check in for attendance.
  • Please continue to make auction items for our November online fundraiser. Popular items include: pillows, bags, zippy bags, baby and dog items.
  • The Tiger Lily Tote challenge is in June.  It is a bag challenge using at least some of the Kona COTY which is Tiger Lily this year.  The bag will be yours to keep. The guild has Tiger Lily fabric for sale.
  • Strip piecing will be delayed until June.  Please bring your strip piecing materials for the next Sit and Sew.

 Treasurer’s Report: Linda presented a treasury report.

NEW BUSINESS:
  • A roll of batting was purchased.
  • Jill donated a baby quilt which Maureen volunteered to bind.
  • Lisa volunteered to make a carrot cake to auction next month as well as one for our luncheon.
  • Wendi expressed a need for recruiting new members. The board will review options at the next meeting.
  • Loree discussed a month of “Help!  How do I make this work?”  where we bring in unfinished and perhaps difficult projects and get help from our fellow sewists.
  • MQG 2019 Quiltcon EastMQG is in Nashville in February, 2019. MQG has announced the colors for their 2019 Charity Quilt. Design proposals will taken and voted on by the guild. Provide the following information: cost estimates, timeline, and proposed work sessions. Deadline for submissions TBD.
  • QuiltCon registration opens at the end of June. Go to the website now and look for the list of faculty and their descriptions, so that you can decide what classes/lectures you would like to take. In 2020, Quiltcon goes back to Austin, TX, where it originated. Quiltcon hotel information is available on the MQG website. The Lecture Series is a good way to go if it is your first time at Quiltcon. The Quilt show is fantastic and even the Quiltcon rejects on Instagram are awesome!
  • On May 3rd there is a survey you can take to help determine the decisions made by MQG.
  • We received a letter from the Pensacola MQG about Joe Cunningham coming as a speaker. He is known as Joe the Quilter and is online mostly an art quilter.
  • Loree opened discussion of introducing a designer each month as a learning experience. For example, Cotton and Steele, announced a group of new designers coming onboard. Cindy explained how you can follow fabric shops and designers on Instagram and learn more about them. You can also subscribe to newsletters from: Hawthorne Threads, Intrepid Threads, I Love Fabric, Pink Door, Stash Fabrics, etc. to name just a few. Pinterest boards are another way to follow modern fabrics and designers. ECMQG has a pinterest board that shows modern fabrics and designers.We talked about some of the retro designs that are supposed to be “modern” designs that we have our doubts about.
  • We also discussed the Craftsy free weekend during this Mother’s Day weekend.  Cristina Camelli was mentioned as a great free motion quilter we might want to watch during this free weekend. You Tube has Angela Walters who is beginning a new type of classes.  Might want to check these out also.

 Block Lottery winner was Lisa. Bobbi presented the next block lottery block, Two Way Street Block by MSQ.  Use any Allison Glass, except for her batiks and Kona Charcoal. She had Kona Charcoal for sale. Thank you, Bobbi!

Program:  Loree shared hand embroidery stitches, how to transfer pictures to cloth, types of threads and tools, books that are good about embroidery, etc.  We brought some of our projects in to work on during Sit and Sew and Loree gave some one on one lessons to several people.

Door prizes went to:  Wendi, Faye, Marsha, Bobbi (2), Linda, and Lisa.

Show and Tell:
  • Amy—utilitarian scrap swap bag for Jill
  • Wendi—a finish with the quilt that looks like banners.  Utilitarian and traditional.
  • Marsha—already completed bag with Kona Tiger Lily and Puffy quilt for grandson.  Both, utilitarian items.
  • Maureen shared a quilt she had redone and her Doctoral thesis that is finally complete!  Congratulations Maureen!

 A yummy lunch was enjoyed by all and Sit and Sew included machine sewists and embroidery sewists.

April 2018 Meeting Minutes


The April Meeting of the Emerald Coast Modern Quilt Guild was called to order by president Loree promptly at 10:00 a.m.
Flower Power fundraiser – buy a $1 ticket for a tissue paper flower and a chance to win a cake. Cindy was the lucky cake winner
Our guests were introduced:  Megan, Pat’s daughter came visiting with her, and it was good to see Jane and Amy whom we haven’t seen in a while.
          Reminders:
  •  Sign up for pot luck, be sure to take a turn at the entrée category
  •  Sign up for Show & Tell and add details
  •  Come to the meeting before 10 a.m. if possible to help set up
  • Our sit and sew for the Strip Piecing quilts will be next month in 
  • May instead of this meeting.
  • Reminder:  Be making auction items.  We had quite a few zippy bags donated from our Valentine swap.  Keep making.
  • Our Tiger Lily (Kona color of the year) challenge is due at the June Meeting.  These bags are NOT a swap, as you will be keeping your own creation.

We discussed Quilter of the Month on our blog and did not come to a conclusion for sure on whether we would do it.  Everyone seems to want others to do it, but not themselves.

Our memorial quilt was delivered to Emerald Coast Hospice for the Celebration of Life ceremony and is now hanging in the front office at their Fort Walton Beach location.

Treasurer’s Report: Linda provided a report. Our monthly fundraisers devised by Loree are fun and successful. We will purchase a roll of batting for guild use.

Door Prize winners for this month are:
Linda, Natalie, Natalie, Linda, Wendi, and Cindy

We received a letter from the guild in Santa Rosa, CA., thanking us for our donation of fat quarters.

We received the Modern Inspirations book which is the exhibit from this past MQG convention and placed it in our library.
 
We discussed a possible Sew Along from Wendi on the Sew Together Bag.  You can get this pattern from Craftsy for $12.  The group agreed this would be fun, however no time has been decided on yet.

Our May meeting program will be on Handwork by Loree.

We discussed a possible program on Navigating Tech with Wendi.  Possible topics were reviewed: Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, blog, and the MQG website. Most wanted to know more about the MQG website. 

Show and tell:
Natalie showed four The Cube bags she made for the bridal shower and The Tula Pink 100 Modern Quilt Blocks she completed for a shower gift.

Block Lottery—3/4 Log Cabin quilt by Pat. The lottery was won by Loree! Congratulations
May’s Block Lottery was chosen by Laraine and comes from the MQG website. It is called Asymmetry. Colors: All solids: white background, black stripes, one strip a pop of color. A scant ¼” seam is needed for this block.

Laraine presented a program called “Stuff It.” She demonstrated how to finish a pillow top. She also created an ECMQG Pinterest board of ideas. This program was a lead-up to the Holiday Dirty Santa Swap Pillows scheduled for the December meeting.

 Natalie and Loree presented a modern/not modern floral program with examples on cards that were discussed by the group.

Following the meeting was a wonderful lunch and productive sew day!

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,...