Patchwork Please!

We've decided to vote for the Riley Blake Challenge winner within our own guild with a popular choice vote, as we did with the Madrona Road challenge.  The prize will be a copy of Ayumi Takahashi's book, Patchwork Please!

Remember, to sign up to vote for the challenge you must complete your online registration on the Modern Quilt Guild's web site and then locate the Group called Seacoast MQG and leave a comment in the Riley Blake thread.  If you are having trouble with that, please email me.  So far we have 12 people signed up!  The deadline to signup is this Friday.

Riley Blake Fabric Challenge

The Modern Quilt Guild has just announced the annual fabric challenge.  This year, Riley Blake Designs is sponsoring.

The challenge will be to use their Basics! Each member will be provided with 6 fat eighths from their Basic category. Each member will be receiving fabrics like these colors and patterns.

Guidelines

• The challenge runs from September 2013-December 2013.
• Members can make anything they want as long as it is quilted!
• Add in any solids or Riley Blake printed fabric.
• You do not need to use all the fabrics given to you.
• Upload and share your photos to the Fabric Challenge Forum on the Community site.
• MQGs can create guild specific challenges, as long as the other guidelines are upheld.
• Don’t forget to use the #mqgrileyblakechallenge on Instragram and Twitter!
• See the members Community site for sign ups.
• Fabric sign ups end Aug 31st, 2013

For our guild, the challenge projects will be shared at the January meeting but if you decide to join, you must share your pictures on the Fabric Challenge Forum and Community site as called for in the guidelines by the December deadline.  This means that you must have completed your registration process on the MQG site.

If you would like to join the challenge, go to themodernquiltguild.com.  Log in and search for the Group "Seacoast MQG."  Follow that group.  Leave a comment in the Riley Blake thread to join the challenge. You must complete your registration first so that I know you'll be able to share your pictures.  Thanks for understanding.

September Block Lottery

I love the block lottery!  Not only do we have the opportunity to help fund the guild, we can try out a new block without committing to a whole quilt, unless you win the raffle!  

We have some new members so here are the facts:

Each month we post a tutorial and a color scheme for a block.

You can make as many blocks as you wish.  

One dollar is donated along with each block entered.  The money goes into our guild fund.

Each block entered gives you a chance to win all the blocks.  What a great head start on a quilt!

Is everyone up for a challenge?  Stars!  Choose a star pattern that will challenge you!  Wonky, paper pieced,  or even colors out of your comfort zone all work.  

Background: White or read as white (can have text or pattern)

Color:  Scrappy

Size:  The equivalent of  a 12x12 square or larger.  It can be a rectangle block, a strip of stars, etc.

Inspiration:  Pinterest search for  quilt star blocks or modern quilt star blocks.  Make sure you set a timer or you will look up and see the sun rising!

This month the stars will be unique to each person, so it would be great to show them at show and tell!

See you in September!

Samantha

September 7th Meeting

The next meeting of the Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild will be held on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2014 from 10:00-12:00 at the newly opened A Gathering of Stitches in Portland, ME.

The directions can be found on A Gathering of Stitches web site.  We will receive a tour of the facility by guild member and owner, Samantha.

Samantha has offered to provide a snack and Robin will be sending out an email looking for help with the rest of the refreshments shortly.

At this meeting, we will have our usual show and tell and we will also hold our 3rd block lottery.  Samantha R. will be posting details of the block lottery soon.

Since we will be in the vicinity of Marden's, I have arranged for a group discount of 10% off the already super low prices on designer fabrics.  All you need to do is mention that you are with the guild if you stop to shop on Saturday afternoon, following the meeting.  The discount is only good for the afternoon of the 7th and they close at 5:00.  If you haven't been to Marden's, it is worth the trip!  They sell discounted designer fabrics from companies like Free Spirit and Blend for under $5 a yard.  They also sell batting, laminate, fleece and trims.  Marden's is located at:

1247 Main Street
Sanford, ME 04073
(207) 324-1239

August Meeting Recap

Our August meeting was held at the clubhouse at Riverwalk and Drake's Landing, in Hampton, NH. 

We opened the meeting by discussing some business items. Amy made a guild financial statement available. She also asked everyone to make sure they join the National Modern Quilt Guild website, using the email that was sent several weeks ago. If you experience problems while trying to register with the MQG website, please contact Amy.

We'll also look forward to a blog post from Samantha about a block lottery in September. These block lotteries are a great way to raise funds for our MQG membership fee--and they are a lot of fun! 

Amy collected pillowcases from our last meeting's sew-in. We had 56 total. The pillowcases are to be divided between Joanne in MA and Michelle in NH, and distributed to children and families in the foster care system.

We also collected and admired our Indian Summer baby quilts. These quilts were made using materials donated by Sarah Watson from her Indian Summer for Art Gallery Fabrics line, and Kona solids donated by our own Peg of Sew Fresh fabrics. Amy took the quilts home and made their glamour shots; she did a great writeup of the project at her blog.

These quilts will be donated to babies and their families who lost their nurseries in the Moore, OK tornadoes of early this summer.

Thanks to all who participated in the project, and to Amy for these lovely photos. Amy mentioned that guild members who have a personal blog and would like to write about this project may borrow photos from her blog post, with a credit given back to her.

At show and tell, Kali showed her Elizabeth Hartman modern frames quilt top, made with the line Piper by Dear Stella.

Joanne (with Peg's help--this is a big quilt!) showed off her Kaffe Fasset bed quilt. She quilted the whole thing on her home sewing machine. 

Gillian made a gender-neutral baby quilt using Lizzy House fabrics. 

Jessica made a sleeping bag for her iPad.

Mary showed off her new Cloud 9 bag, made from an Anna Maria Horner pattern

and her brand-new Anna Maria Horner Washi Dress. 

Stephanie showed off a mini quilt she made using one of her daughter's drawings as inspiration:

And she showed off her mini quilt for the Boston MQG mini quilt challenge, to be shown at the Lowell Quilt Festival as a group:

Here is Samantha's entry for the same display:

Samantha brought a long-awaited finished quilt. She has been working on this quilt for her sister for a long time, and she is happy it is finished. The front:

and the back:

Laura brought an x-plus quilt made with Liberty fabrics:

Barbara shared hand-stitched wool pillows that she made on vacation. She did all the applique by hand!

Peg showed off a "quick-sew" skirt (see the Anna Maria Horner print at the bottom? Must be the print of the month!)

Amy's quilts are both made using BasicGrey for Moda fabrics, and were quilts she made to accompany patterns she wrote for BasicGrey. These quilts just came back to her after being displayed at Spring Quilt Market.

Karen showed off a pocketbook (that I did not get a photo of--sorry Karen!) and a collaborative kaleidoscope top that she and some other guild members had passed around, back and forth, until she finally finished it. Great collaborative work!

Candace brought a table runner she made for Mother's Day. 

Our speaker for the August meeting was Erin from Pellon. She distributed samples of Pellon's battings and interfacings. 

After telling us a little about Pellon's batting production processes--I now know what needle-punching and scrims are--Erin helpfully walked us through some recommended uses for Pellon's different interfacing projects. She helped us decide which interfacing to use for a T-shirt quilt project (try Shape-Flex); garment projects (start with fusible Sheerweight, and move up to the woven Shape-Flex if you need more crispness and definition); and bag projects. 

Erin gave away several door prizes. I'm looking forward to everyone's reports on the new products they got to try out of her door prize goodie bag! 

Finally, we enjoyed baby shower goodies provided by Samantha and Robin, and Erin opened a few baby presents--bibs and burp cloths--made by Barbara and Amy. 

Here is a link to a zip file Erin made with more information about Pellon products. The zip file includes:

-- Legacy™ Batting Info Chart (also in the printed materials)

-- Legacy™ Laundering & Care (also in the printed materials)

-- Legacy™ How Batting is Made (also in the printed materials)

-- Legacy™ FAQ

-- Batting 101

-- Pellon® Quick Guide (our full product line minus HomeGoods and brand new products)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/36526293/SMQGMaterials.zip 

Erin also sent along the following note to share with our group:

To all of the fabulous women in the Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild --


Thank you so much for welcoming me into your group! It was wonderful to meet you all and so much fun to get to chat a bit. I also wanted to say how impressed I was by all of your creations — quilts, bags, dresses, skirts — you are an incredibly creative and talented bunch! One thing I forgot to mention is that I oversee Pellon®'s Project Designer Program. You can take a peek at some of the projects that are currently available, along with our current line-up of designers at our website — http://www.pellonprojects.com. If you might be interested in working with us on a project pattern or tutorial, I'd love to talk to you. Please feel free to email or call should you want to learn more. My contact info is listed below.

Thank you again for all of your well wishes and for your sweet baby gifts! I hope that you all have a lovely last month of Summer and I hope that we'll meet again sometime soon!Best Wishes,Erinerin.sampson@pellonusa.com207-615-0474