August meeting reminder

Our August meeting is scheduled for Saturday, August 1 from 10 am to 12 pm at the Newmarket Public Library in Newmarket, NH. The library is located at 1 Elm St, Newmarket, NH. (Our Google Calendar has been updated with the correct location, and will show a link for a map with directions, if you need it.)

Please bring your show and tell to this meeting! If you participated in the Riley Blake challenge, we'd especially like to see your Riley Blake challenge piece.

Please also bring your Little Vines lottery blocks to this meeting. One lucky contributor will be walking away with enough blocks to start a Little Vines quilt! Mary's writeup of the blocks is on her blog!

The second half of our meeting will be turned over to our Gathering exhibit committee. Please bring a quilt or quilts you would like to submit to the show. Mary and Laura will help you photograph your quilt(s), Peg will help you with the details of submissions, and Diane will help you create a brief maker's statement to be printed and hung with the quilt.

If you have a laptop computer, you may want to bring it to help in writing your statement.

Please check your email for a worksheet to get your wheels turning about your statement, as well as a sample maker's statement, both created by Diane!

See you Saturday!

July Meeting Recap

Summer brought a smaller than usual crowd to the Stratham Library but everyone came ready to sew on the Modern Quilt Guild's 2016 Charity Challenge - Improv with Intent!

Business items first: (Thanks to Laura for the detailed agenda to copy/paste.)

1) August meeting at new location! We will be at the Newmarket Public Library, 1 Elm St., in Newmarket NH. Thanks to Jess for securing this location for us. We’ll be meeting August 1, from 10 am to 12 pm (our usual time) for a regular meeting plus show and tell (I hope there is a lot of it!) and then our Exhibit Committee will be walking us through our show submissions process. We’ll include a photography session, so bring quilts that you’re thinking about submitting to the show and let Mary help you take great photos of them.

2) MQG news: Riley Blake challenge quilts are due at the end of July. Please post your project photos online (path is: mqg.com  click Community  Login  Forums  MQG Fabric Challenges (will need to scroll down a bit)  Upload photos for the 2015 Riley Blake Fabric Challenge Here! (only, don’t actually post your photos here, sigh, follow Andreas’ instructions for how to post your picture). We’re not holding voting/prizes for this round in our own guild, but please bring your projects to show off at the August meeting!

Two separate individual member challenges for QuiltCon West: the Triangle challenge, the Michael Miller challenge. Signups for the “free stuff” part have already passed, BUT it is my understanding that the free stuff was so limited that many people will be left purchasing their own rulers or fabrics. If you’d like to participate and enter a project in this special quilt category at QuiltCon, see: quiltconwest.com/quilt-show/categories

3) Gathering update: show submissions still due September 15! Bring your quilts to the August meeting to get them submitted! Mary will have the quilted raffle quilt ready for binding handoff at that meeting. If you've requested a tee shirt, make sure Mary has your size or you may use a guild apron with the logo.

4) Retreat 2016 update: Jess will send off the deposit check to hold our spot at the Franciscan next April, weekend of the 15th.

5.) The Little Vines lottery block has been extended until the August meeting. Still time to make one if you haven't already.

Then, with machines readied, palette picked and improv direction from Kali, we began to make improv blocks to create our New England winter scene.

First some snow.

Then some sky, sun and the beginning of a barn-like structure.

More was added.

Hands were busy.

Then Sue Ann's design wall could no longer bear the weight of the blocks.

On to the floor for more placement decisions.

Collaboration!!!

Assessment and adjustment, finesse and fine tuning.

And then it was nearly a quilt top!

Some informal sewing time will be needed to complete the top. It is in the hands of Jess and Mary, with plans to include Kali, our charity challenge conductor. There will be more work for assembly and we'd like to include this in the Gathering exhibit, so be sure to volunteer for some binding or sleeve when necessary.

July meeting reminder

This is a reminder that our July meeting will take place on Saturday, July 11 (NOT this coming Saturday, because of the July 4 holiday) at the Stratham Public Library in Stratham, NH.

This meeting will be a teamwork, improvisational sew-in for our QuiltCon Charity Challenge quilt. Please bring two fat quarters in the color scheme of the photo in Peg's recap post, below. We are planning to improvise a wintery scene, so lean on low-volume white prints and the light blue out of the colors above.

We are able to stay at the Stratham Library until 3 pm and sew. If you are able to stay late and work on our group quilt, SMQG would love to buy you a pizza lunch from Domino's! Please email Laura and let her know if you would like to stay late to sew and enjoy lunch together.

Paula will be organizing our usual meeting snacks for the morning, as well. There will be bottled water provided, but if you would like a particular juice or soda to go with your pizza, please plan on bringing it along.

Little Vines block lottery blocks are also due at the July meeting. Mary posted a tutorial here (with a h/t to and permission from Elizabeth Hartman!)

Hope to see you all there!!