January 2014 meeting recap

Despite the foot or two of snow we all got at the end of last week, we held an informal sew-in for our first meeting of January 2014. We had a pretty good turnout given the snow! I counted eleven people at our meeting.

The first item business is that we have rescheduled our photography workshop for the April 2014 meeting. So if you weren't able to back out of your driveway, no worries! Plan to bring your camera in April.

The most important item of business is that all dues must be paid to the SMQG by Friday, January 10. If you have not yet paid your dues, you can mail a check to the PO box address (click the "Contact Us" link on this page). Please send an email to one of the officers (Peg, Judy, Laura, or Robin) to let us know your check is coming. Paying your individual dues on time is crucial as the amount of dues we pay to the National MQG scales to the number of people in our group. We want to have an accurate count!

(If you're not sure whether you've paid your dues or not, you can check with Laura!)

All Riley Blake Challenge projects are due at the February meeting. The deadline for posting photos to the MQG site is February 17.

At the February meeting we will resume our block lottery! Samantha has chosen the Economy block. This block is a simple paper-pieced block. (Please do not make the traditionally-pieced block because of size discrepancies.) The paper-piecing template for the blocks is at Rita of Red Pepper Quilts' blog, here. You will have to download the template via Craftsy, but the template is free.

For each entry, please make TWO blocks (they are small and simple) and bring $1 to contribute towards our guild's MQG dues. Color scheme is scrappy! I watched Mary whip up two or three of these blocks in a short time during our sew-in, so I think this is a fun block choice with a lot of potential to show off your treasured novelty fabrics.

As I was editing these photos I noticed that we had a very colorful show and tell this month! Us New England quilters must all crave color in the wintertime. Peg started us off with a beautiful leaders-and-enders top she found while New-Year cleaning:

She knows she cut the Kona Coal for that bottom border but can't find it anywhere! (If you got a mystery 6'' strip of Coal in your Sew Fresh order, speak up! :) )

Karin showed off a tablet case she made--see her and Peg admiring it in the top photo. Instead of adding a separate, loose lining, she backed the pieces before quilting and assembling so the lining is quilted together with the front and isn't all loose. Smart.

Karin also finished her Catvent mini top. (To learn more about the Catvent quilt along, check out Elizabeth Hartman's blog.)

And here is a teal and orange baby quilt that Karin showed. I love this color scheme for winter--makes me think of places more tropical than Massachusetts!

Mary is ahead of the game having already finished her Riley Blake Challenge top. She even started quilting it at the meeting, so watch out.

Amy recently had a project pattern published in the book Playful Little Paper-Pieced Projects. She made this sweet--but not-too-sweet, and not at all cheesy--Valentine's Day journal cover. She pointed out that she used a stamp to make the kiss detail!

Amy also showed off her Squircle Quilt, which she designed to showcase Angela Walters' Legacy line for Art Gallery Fabrics. When I first saw photos of this quilt I thought it was a mini but it is quite big! The scale of the center squircle and the outside partial squircles make this a very interesting, modern twist on a classic square-in-a-square design.

Paula has finished the pillow top she started at our guild's first sew-in in December 2012. She embroidered a sweet quote around the outside border while she sat in the evenings. Hooray for finishing things!

Nancy and Debbie showed off a secret project--no photos allowed! Barbara showed off some knitting project bags she made to tote around her gift knitting. I think I need to make a few (dozen) of these for myself!

I finished my first quilt as a Do Good Stitches quilter. It is backed in gray minky dot and yes, it will be hard to send it away!

And I showed an almost-finished quilt made out of Leah Duncan's line Tule (Peg is carrying some of these prints in her shop!). 

As usual, I was too busy chatting to take photos during our sew-in, but people were quite productive with their knitting, block-piecing, EPP, and hand sewing. Thanks to all who braved the snow and bitter cold to join us! Hope to see all of you at our February meeting in Stratham, NH at the Stratham Public Library.