October Meeting Recap

We met at the West Newbury Old Town Hall for our October Meeting. We had show and tell, a retreat committee update, 2017 executive committee nominations, and a zipper demonstration and some time to sew charity pouches!

There are still open spots in the Christa Watson Free Motion Quilting Class that is happening on October 8th (this Saturday!). Please get in touch with us if you are interested in joining!

The first MQG Town Hall was held this month. The recording can be found here! The MQG is looking for volunteers for a number of Task Forces, and you can sign up here.

Entries for QuiltCon 2017 are currently open from now through November 30th. Enter your quilts here if you are interested.

We are currently looking for a venue to host a monthly sew-in on the third Sunday of the month. Please contact Mary if you know of somewhere we may be able to use.

The two quilts that were made with the solid rainbow blocks that were signed at the Portsmouth Pride Parade are completed and we will be donating one of these quilts to the Zebra Coalition in Orlando. The quilt will by hung in a youth center for LGBT+ youth.

JoAnne delivered an update on the planning for retreat 2017. We have reserved space at the Franciscan for Thursday May 25 - Sunday May 28th. The retreat will be open to SMQG Members only. Each attendee will have 6 feet of sewing space in the gymnasium. Please complete the survey in your email to help the committee begin to plan for how many people to accommodate.

Voting for the 2017 Executive Committee will occur at the November meeting. We will be voting at the meeting, and offer an opportunity after the meeting to vote via e-mail as we need a quorum of members to vote as stated in our bylaws. The nominations are as follows:
President: Paula
Vice President: Nancy
Treasurer: Barb
Secretary: Kali

Show and Tell
Barb shared these two vests that she has made our of flannel to donate for the neonatal unit.

Laura shared this quilt top made out of Liberty of London that will be for her daughter.

Paula shared this quilt that she received as a part of the Teal Swap to raise awareness for Uterine Cancer.

Diane shared these paper-pieced dragonflies that she pattern tested.

She also shared this mini-quilt that uses photo-printed fabric. She used a combination of hand quilting and machine quilting while finishing this quilt.

Lu had fun this month making a variety of zip pouches! She recommends using a non-matching zipper to add color and fun to the pouches. She also told her hairdresser about our goal to fill the pouches with small toiletries and received a donation of samples for us. Thanks Lu! She also shared this blue and white feathered star quilt.

Kali shared this scrappy baby quilt that was hand tied.

Allison shared her completed Donkey Kong quilt top.

Jess shared her massive take on Jen Kingwell's My Small World Quilt.

Amy shared her Caged quilt.

Kathy shared her cute little paper-pieced Outhouse block, by Carolyn Friedlander.

She also shared two quilt tops that she finished recently.

Zipper Demonstration
I gave a demonstration on how I sew the zippers into my favorite zippered pouch, the Pleated Pouch by Skip to My Lou. The page I have linked also details the process for inserting a zipper with photos!


Our November meeting will be held in Hampton at the Lane Memorial Library in the basement of the library. When you enter the library, take an immediate left and go downstairs. We will meet in the Lane Room. We will have elections, any announcements, and show and tell. We will also be collecting any zippered pouches that you have made to donate.
If you are interested, please also bring a special quilt to share. It can be the first quilt you finished, the quilt that you are proudest of, or the most used quilt that you have.