October meeting reminder

This coming Saturday, October 4, our October meeting will be held from 10 am to 12 pm at the Fremont Public Library on Jackie Bernier Drive in Fremont, NH. This promises to be a busy meeting, and there is a lot of prep work to do this month!

Remember:
--your house block for the QuiltCon Charity Challenge. PLEASE see your email for the specific instructions and ongoing discussion regarding this project. It is vital that these blocks be handed in to Jessica at the October meeting so that she can puzzle together the top. If you are making a block and will not be able to attend the meeting, please mail the block to the SMQG's PO box. (Click the "Contact" link at the top of this blog for the address!)

 --all the supplies for Paula's handquilting workshop. Check out the list, here

--officer nominations! If you would like to serve on the executive committee, please consider nominating yourself. The election will be held at our annual business meeting in November.

Hope to see you all for a morning of peaceful hand stitching!

Poll: 2015 Retreat Dates

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September meeting recap

Our September meeting was held on September 6 from 9 am to 12 pm at the Wiggin Memorial Library in Stratham NH. In the photo above, you'll see three of our members wearing handmade dresses and another working on a handmade knitted accessory! 

Peg opened our meeting with some important items of business. We're gearing up for an exciting fall! 

• The mini quilt swap with the Northampton MA guild is ON. Peg has a list of 10-11 names of participants. The mini quilts should be less than 20'' x 20'' and our theme is "a sense of place." The minis are due at the November meeting, and they will be shipped to Northampton. If you have signed up for this swap, get making your minis!
• Laura is looking into dates with the Franciscan for a 2015 retreat. I will keep the group posted on what is happening; Paula requested that we go ahead and look into 2016 dates and I have emailed my contact. However, we may need to look into other options for places to hold the retreat. Watch out, there may be a poll coming that may ask you questions such as what time of year might be convenient for you and how much you would be willing to pay.
• As a group, we "appointed" Amy (who really kindly volunteered!) to contact some possible speakers to do lectures or workshops. I can't share any real details yet, but hold on--things are happening here! (really!)
• The Gathering exhibit is still happening in 2015. Peg, Mary, Diane, and Amy have volunteered to be the committee in charge of our exhibit. At next month's meeting we'll have a discussion about what they will expect from the group in terms of our contributions. I'm excited to get sewing on my show quilt!

We had some great pieces shown off at Show and Tell this month.

Amy received her Sweet Tea quilt back from Spring Market. I love how this design looks classic but a bit unexpected too--check those secondary crosses!

Diane finished a quilt using some blocks from an online block of the month. She ended up not loving the blocks so she cut them up and set them in a very modern setting. See the quilting in the lower right area of the quilt? She used a very elongated zigzag stitch on her Janome to achieve that look. She said it is called "honeycomb" quilting. So neat! And I love the way she used the Marimekko large neutral print as background. Those lined-up bottom circles are such a thoughtful detail!

Mary is a little sad to have finished her beautiful Chicopee quilt because she had to take it to its new home right after the meeting. The good news is she has scraps to make another quilt! The saturated colors of Chicopee really pop against the Essex linen background, and the simple design lets her quilting shine. She's also modeling her brand-new Tula Staple Dress!

We had to twist Stephanie's arm to show off this gorgeous paper-pieced rainbow quilt that she is working on handquilting. My (sad) iPhone photo is blurry, but each star center is a fun fussy cut alphabet letter. I know her daughter will treasure this rainbow quilt.

Sarah is performing a public service by sewing fall into existence. Her scrappy leaf is appliqued onto a chartreuse (is it Mochi dot?) background. Bring on the apple cider!

She also made a Barn Bats mini that will become her Halloween decoration. Sarah, I think the weather FINALLY heard you!

Kali made this quilt from a bright fabric combo. She quilted apple peels in the squares. Her mom has expressed dislike for it but I think it is great.

Kali also finished this beautiful quilt as a gift for a friend. I didn't even notice at the meeting but it is a Friendship Star--so appropriate. She used a mix of deep stash cream-to-white prints and more modern low-value prints as backgrounds for the solid blue stars. She says this is the work she is most proud of to date, and I think with good reason. Hooray for the deep stash!

Jess showed off a beautiful Texas Lonestar piece that I didn't get a photo of (because I was busy running my mouth?) but I did get a photo of this piece. She says she is not sold on it, so I am looking forward to seeing what it becomes. I think some of those prints are Tula so this top is much too precious to abandon.

Laura made a Swedish Bloom-Time quilt (from the book Patchwork Please!) for her sister out of some brand-new Cotton and Steel. It was SO good to cut into new fabric right away.

Karin's beachy, sunny quilt is for her son (Karin--son-shine?) and was a Sizzix tutorial as well. The cornerstones that look like half equilateral triangles are a smart touch to make the border look even more sunshine-y.

Karin made this quilt as part of the Fat Quarter Shop's Jelly Roll Jam blog tour. It is so cute and colorful! The straightforward design really shows off the colors of the Lotta Jansdotter prints.

Karin also made this seaglass-inspired table runner as a tutorial for the Sizzix blog. Sarah's convinced me I'm ready for fall, but these beachy colors make me think I am not quite ready to let go of summer yet.

Karin also finished her fun Fruit Ninja quilt. She designed the paper-piecing pattern herself. It is so brightly colored, vibrant, and fun! Karin also showed off a purple tumbler baby quilt that didn't make it into my bad iPhone photo roll.

Nancy is smiling because she is so glad to have finished up this WIP! Maybe if you squint you can see the hibiscus flowers the quilter added to her brightly colored quilt. So appropriate and tropical.

This quilt Nancy made as a wedding gift. One of the couple likes purple, the other likes green, so this quilt helps them meet in the middle! 

Judy is calling this project her "Clamshell Bailout." She wanted to finish a project with her clamshells from Amy's workshop a couple of months back, but didn't particularly enjoy sewing those small, tight curved seams. So she figured out a modern setting for the clamshells and added some scrap strips. I think this is a really stunning, smart way to finish a project she was tired of!

Peg showed off a Washi Dress muslin she has been working on. She intended it to be a wearable muslin, and I think our group *may* have convinced her to finish it up and wear it. Now that she has all her fit adjustments done, she can Washi with the best of us! (Peg, I am sorry, the one photo I got is unusably blurry!) 

The rest of our meeting was devoted to planning our guild's QuiltCon Charity Quilt Challenge quilt. If you were not at the meeting and would like to participate, please check your email right away and read Judy's very detailed email about the project. Some details to note: fabric will come from Peg (THANK YOU PEG for donating the fabric for this project!) and we are to use ONLY the fabric in Peg's bundle; blocks will be due to Jess at the October meeting, so we really need to be sewing these now. Please refer to your email for the full details.

Thank you to all who attended, and I hope to see everyone at our October meeting in Fremont, NH. Paula will be teaching handquilting, so there are some supplies you will need to prepare/purchase if you would like to participate (save those Joann's coupons!) You can find the supply list HERE.

Officer nominations will also occur in October, before our annual business meeting in November. If you would like to serve on the executive committee, please consider nominating yourself!