Documents posted: SMQG Bylaws, June 2013 Election Ballot

Thanks to Amy, Joanne, Michelle, Paula, and lots of you who weighed in with feedback, we have a final draft of our Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild Bylaws for review and approval. If you have not yet reviewed the bylaws through your email, please download them here.

If you do not attend the meeting tomorrow, June 1, from 10-12 at the West Newbury Town Hall Annex, please download the absentee ballot here. Use your computer to fill out the form and return it as an email attachment to Laura Collins (lacollins AT gmail DOT com) by Friday, June 7 at 11:59 pm.

Results of the election and the bylaw approval will be posted via email and the blog.

PLEASE NOTE: if you do plan to attend the meeting, there is no need to return an emailed ballot. Your vote will be counted in person at the meeting. Please do not duplicate your vote by also emailing a ballot.

Hope to see many of you tomorrow for some fun scrap fabric play! (My scrap bag overfloweth, Sam, I'm so ready.)

Block Lottery and Supplies for June

May's Block Lottery was a success!  The blocks were beautiful, we can't wait to see what you do with them Jessica!

June's Block Lottery is the Spiderweb tutorial from alamode.  Scrappy (in all colors) is the way to go with a white star center.  Spider Web Quilt Block Tutorial  (This post is so much later than I wanted it to be, my computer and I are still not friends but we have come to an agreement!  Thanks for your help Amy and Laura!)

I am demostrating fabric collage for our meeting.  I had the pleasure of taking a class with Susan Carlson to learn this technique.  Check our her website for ideas and patterns.

Susan Carlson

It is a fun project that uses up scraps, creates a work of art, and is a great way to practice free motion quilting.

Supplies:
Muslin - a bit larger that your project
Pattern - simple, not much detail needed.  Flowers, bugs, fish, etc.
Scissors
Black Sharpie
Pins
Bag of fabric scraps
Glue -Aileen's Tacky or water soluable fabric glue.

Here is my finished project and the pattern I used.

See you in June,
Samantha

June Meeting Agenda

Our next meeting will be held on June 1 from 10:00-12:00 at the:

Town Hall Annex

1910 Office Building
381 Main Street
West Newbury, MA 01985

Agenda:

• Vote on bylaws
• Vote for officers
• Block lottery
• Fabric Collage workshop

Samantha will be leading the fabric collage workshop and will be blogging about the details later on this week.  She will provide a supply list as well.

I think she is planning another block lottery as well so there will be details forthcoming.

Please make every effort to come to this meeting since we need a 2/3 vote in order to pass the bylaws and elect officers.  We need to do this at the June meeting in order to apply for MQG membership in July.  If anyone is interested in the Philadelphia Sew Down, this is the only way for us to get our MQG discount in time for that event as well.

Snacks will be provided by Judy and Amy.

Future meetings (all are the first Sat. of the month from 10:00-12:00):

 

July:  Sew In to make pillow cases/sacks for children to be distributed by social workers in MA and NH--Town Hall Annex, West Newbury, MA

August:  Town Hall Annex, West Newbury, MA

Sept:  A Gathering of Stitches, Biddeford, ME

Oct:  Nominate Officers, Stratham Library, Stratham, NH

Nov:  Annual Meeting, Stratham Library, Stratham, NH

Dec:  Fremont Library, Fremont, NH

 

Agendas for many of the meetings are still in the works.  If you have a suggestion, please email me at amybfriend@gmail.com.

 

 

May Meeting

Big thanks are due to Diane and Paula, who hosted our May meeting on May 4 at the Barnard School in South Hampton, NH. They taught three methods of fabric surface painting and design, and most of us left with some hand-printed fabric to use for a fun project.

Our meeting began with a round of Show and Tell. Kim brought three quilts to share: 

her Stack & Whack Kaleidoscope quilt,

her "Cotton Candy" Batiks 2.5'' strip quilt,

and this incredible beauty: a 120''x120'' quilt of her own design. Two people held it, but maybe it could even have used three! 

Gail brought her One-Block Wonder to show. She used only one print to make the 

hexagons in the top!

And here is Gail's Four-Patch Posie Quilt. I believe she said this is also only one print! 

Paula showed off her finished Asbury Challenge flying geese + raw-edge applique table runner. 

Karen decided she wanted her pile of leftover batiks to make a "modern" quilt. We agreed that she succeeded!

Karen said this quilt was made of leftover English Paper Pieced hexagons. (Karen has some great leftovers.)

These fabric flowers are a Japanese technique called Kanzashi that Karen learned. She says they are quick and easy to make. Her half-square triangle border was pieced using Thangles. 

Jessica brought a quilted Asbury challenge quilt. The texture does not show well in this photo, but it is densely free-motion quilted in a variety of patterns. She did all of the quilting herself. All of the prints in the top of the quilt came from the one Asbury charm pack provided by Andover Fabrics!

Robin pieced her Drunkard's Path blocks from our March meeting's Sizzix tutorial together in an interesting design.

Sam showed off some bee blocks she made (some of which she loves more than others); she also showed two To Boston With Love flags. Her sons suggested a dinosaur motif!

Nancy showed off her To Boston With Love flag. 

Laura brought her low-volume scrap quilt.

After Show and Tell, Sam collected all of the blocks for the first block lottery. The response was great. We counted nineteen blocks! Each member was invited to make as many Wonky Pinwheel blocks as they liked. For each block, they donated $1 towards the guild's 2013 National Modern Quilt Guild dues, and received one entry in a raffle to win the pile of blocks.

Jessica was the lucky winner. (That is her block in the lower right of the four laid out together.) 

We then discussed the proposed draft of the Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild Bylaws. Michelle and Paula worked to create the first draft, and will incorporate all of the changes that we agreed to at the meeting. Some notable changes include: 1) only two officers (the President and the Treasurer) will have signing privileges on checks, and only one of their two signatures will be required; and 2) we will hold our Annual Meeting and Elections in November, with all changes to take effect on January 1, and nominations for officers will occur at the October meeting. 

A revised draft of the Bylaws will be provided for the review of all members before our next meeting. Voting on the Bylaws will take place at the June meeting. We will need a 2/3 majority to pass the Bylaws.

Voting on interim officers (to serve June-December 2013) will also take place during our June meeting. The following people were nominated to serve as officers:

President: Amy 

Vice President: Peg

Treasurer: Becca

Secretary: Laura

Please plan to attend the June meeting prepared to think and vote. The current Bylaws do not make a provision for absentee voting, so your presence is required!

Finally, Diane said, "Let's paint!", and she and Paula taught us how to screen print using freezer paper stencils:

They also taught fabric painting, using stencils. There were a variety of animal and geometric design stencils to use.

Or, we could choose to do a marbling technique, using, of all things, shaving cream (!) and paint. 

A thank-you to all who attended, and the biggest thank-you to Paula and Diane, and the Barnard School, for allowing us to use their classrooms. 

Our next meeting will be held Saturday, June 1, 2013, at the West Newbury Town Hall Annex, in West Newbury MA. Our workshop will be on Fabric Collage--check back here at the blog or watch your email for supplies requirements and more information.

Art Spark Challenge

The Northwest Ohio Modern Quilt Guild is kicking off a challenge called Art Spark and has invited other modern quilt guilds to join in.

The idea behind this challenge is to visit your local art museum and find a piece of art that inspires you. Any piece! A sculpture, a piece of glass, an oil painting, anything! Classic, baroque, modern, contemporary - your choice! 

To read the rest of the rules, click over to the NW Ohio Modern Quilt Guild.