March at the JSMQG was all about shamrocks. Our block lotto participants made two each of a shamrock block, one for the winner Brigit C, and one for a donation quilt for Team Shamrock. Team Shamrock has an annual fundraiser in August at Bar A in Lake Como. For the past two years we’ve been donating a quilt for their gift auction. Last year that event netted over $40,000 for Tunnel to Towers and we are always happy to lend a hand. This year their event happens to fall on our meeting night and our members voted unanimously to attend it in lieu of a meeting. Stay tuned for pictures from that night.

And as always, show and tell.

That about wraps up March for us.

Our first exhibit, commemorating our tenth anniversary as a guild, was a whopping success! The month long event at the Belmar Arts Council was well attended by the public, we had viewers still coming in as we were taking the show down. Opening Reception was literally standing room only. Refreshments, wine, and entertainment provide by local musician, Matt Trice, was enjoyed by all. I do believe records were broken at the BAC!

There were 56 quilt entries from the JSMQG and 7 entries from the public. Without these two men it would’ve taken so much longer than the two days it did to hang the entire show.

The exhibit, opening reception, and the response from the public went far beyond any expectations I had, it was nothing short of phenomenal.

Some of the quilts that were on display. There is an awful lot of talent amongst us!

Success! A great experience all around. With the influx of new members, this event allowed us to take time to form new friendships and bond as a guild. We are more than just a group of quilters, we are friends! Here’s to us!! The Jersey Shore Modern Quilt Guild. See you in 2025!!

https://starnewsgroup.com/2023/02/22/quilts-for-today-and-tomorrow-exhibit-now-at-belmar-arts-center/?fbclid=IwAR25pXpmQOr_yn5iWCWGJwe9-7Zttlkrz2f-bXFRxRedisPKWP378roeFOc

Here we are in February already and our ever popular block lotto block was “Hearts on Point”. Brooke told us to make scrappy hearts in pink or red on a scrappy low volume background. How stinkin cute are these and lucky Denise got to call them hers! I cannot wait to see how she puts them together.

Our meeting consisted of a quick business portion and show and tell. We had so much to talk about our exhibit that was opening in just a few days that we skipped having our monthly program. So here’s our little quilt parade.

Last but not least, Sherre missed a meeting so she had quite a few finishes to show us.

That’s it for now.

Hope to see all of you at our first official quilt exhibit at the Belmar Arts Center. The show runs from 2/14-3/11. Join us for our opening reception on Saturday February 18th from 3-5!!

Stay tuned for lots of photos from this event.

Another jam packed meeting at Old Spool Sewing Studio, where we once again added two new members! Warm welcome to Camille and Laura, we’re happy to have you on board!!

We are just weeks away from our first ever quilt exhibit and knee deep in planning, organizing and advertising. We have a gorgeous quilt to raffle, with all proceeds to fund supplies we need to continue to support the community with quilts and handmade items for donation and fundraisers.

If you are reading this blog, we surely hope to see you at the Belmar Arts Center between February 13th and March 11th 2023 to see our work! There will be an Opening Reception with entertainment on February 18th from 3-5pm, come and join us and say hi! Information about the show and the Arts Center can be found here https://www.belmararts.org/

Our resident bag maker and entrepreneur Pam H, gave a wonderful presentation on everything zippers! She went through every possible zipper choice and their applications.

Our monthly Block Lotto program is always wildly poplar. Brooke introduces a block to us every month and gives us instructions and design parameters and we all make one block. The blocks are collected and one winner takes them home to make a quilt for themselves. Here’s Januarys blocks on display, a poinsettia

As always our members have been busy creating

That’s it for January, if you’re looking for us we’ll be at our machines getting ready for our exhibit.

In our own quiet way, the Jersey Shore Modern Quilt Guild has been supporting our community through quilts for raffle, quilts for comfort to individuals, and other handmade items for ten years. Most recently, we presented twenty quilts, made and donated by our members to Mary’s Place by the Sea in Ocean Grove NJ. Mary’s Place is a respite for women battling cancer, a place where they can take a pause and relax in the most beautiful, serene setting one block from the ocean. While there, the guests are treated to a plant based diet, oncology massage, Reiki, counseling, yoga and so much more and it is all available at no cost. Mary’s Place is funded through local and corporate donations, grants and volunteers.

On the last day before the world shut down for the pandemic, we delivered a sizable batch of quilts to Mary’s Place. Two years later when they opened back up for guests, we received a beautiful, heartfelt letter of thanks from a woman who spent the first weekend they were back open there. Reading that letter was so heartwarming. We rarely get feedback directly from a recipient of our work and it got us all excited to continue doing this. It’s the collective thing that we all love to do and it’s truly making a difference. A win win!

2022 has been a whirlwind of a year for this guild. We are wrapping up the year with 28 paid members and a few more promised, that is more than double where we were when the world shut down. That is crazy! We had a full house in December, literally, with members, a half dozen guests, the local press and their photographer. And our long awaited guest speaker Kathy Cunningham, board member and top fundraiser for Tunnel To Towers. We have been partnering with Kathy and her Team Shamrock for quite some time, providing a quilt for her big fundraiser every summer at Bar Anticipation, as well as making quilts for the catastrophically injured service members for whom Tunnel to Towers and Team Shamrock build smart homes. Most of our members hadn’t previously met Kathy so we invited her to come speak. Kathy told us about how her brother perished on 9/11 and she made it her mission to do good and never forget. She gave us so much insight into what the organization does and it’s plans for the future. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and now there’s a face to the name.

Laura was our Block Lotto winner this month. She literally won a forest full of trees!

Here’s next month’s

This year, we challenged our members to take a step outside of their comfort zone and make a mini art quilt. Shortly after that challenge went out, an opportunity arose for us to have our first ever public quilt exhibit. So, as part of our exhibit there will be a special display of our shore themed art mini quilts, each of which will have a reference to the number ten in honor of our tenth anniversary and as a challenge to our guests to find the number 10. Here’s a peak at a few that have been

It was also our holiday party. There were lots of treats to eat and a pincushion swap. A fun time was had by all!

2023 is already shaping up to be another fun filled year. Stay tuned for lots of details about our upcoming exhibit in February at the Belmar Arts Council, so exciting!!

Happy holidays!!

November in New Jersey is typically all about crisp weather and an explosion of Fall colors, we’ve had the colors but not much chill in the air. It’s coming though! Members made chevron blocks in Fall themed colors for our block lotto drawing and wowza they looked awesome. Congratulations to new member, Katie who won these. We cannot wait to see this as an awesome quilt!

On to trees for the December block, these are cute!

We are knee deep in preparing for our first ever Quilt Exhibit to be held at the Belmar Arts Council in February 2023. All of us are working on a mini art quilt, inspired by the Jersey Shore and with a nod to the number 10 somewhere to commemorate our 10 year anniversary. I’m excited to see museum goers trying to spot the “10” in our art!

This amazing collaborative quilt, spearheaded by one of our newer members, Helen, and pieced, quilted, and bound by members will be up for raffle the entire month of our exhibit and beyond. Whatever proceeds from the raffle will go towards purchasing supplies for our work in the community.

Speaking of Community, we will be making a donation of approximately 18 quilts to Mary’s Place by the Sea in Ocean Grove in early December. Mary’s Place is a retreat for women battling cancer where guests stay free of charge thanks to the generosity of their supporters. Women stay for a weekend and are treated to nutritious meals, counseling, therapy and their spa, all in the beautiful Victorian building with multiple porches lined with rocking chairs, just steps from the sea. Stay tuned to see the amazing work of our guild members when we make this donation.

Part of every meeting is our Program segment. These are member led and have proven to be both educational and very well received. This month Linda Duffy demonstrated several methods for making multiple half square triangles. Whether you’re new to this craft or have been at it for years, there is always something to learn Sewing strips together to produce half square triangles was new to me! Linda is also a firm believer in starching fabric prior to cutting for precision cutting and piecing and she touched on that in her tutorial, but has promised to devote an entire Program to starching, different types and even mixing your own next year. Thanks Linda

Last month our Program was about unusual machine feet led by June Mellinger. At that time June, who had a 25 year career at Brother Sewing Machine, offered a foot of the month for us. So this month she schooled us about the benefits of a binding foot. Very interesting. While she was demonstrating that someone noticed the embroidery on the back of her jacket. According to Junes husband, no surface is untouched by June’s machine embroidery. All of her quilts are quilted using her Brother machine embroidery function.

More show and tell!

And a whole cloth baby quilt backed with minky!

That’s a wrap for November. Next month we’ll be celebrating the holiday together with a little party and a pincushion swap. Looking forward to that and winding down the year. Plans are being made for 2023 with lots of new and fresh ideas. Our little guild had gone from a handful of members to 30 and counting and I could not be happier about that. The more the merrier!!

Happy holidays to all!

Nothing says Fall like some pumpkins and it was a pumpkin party at our monthly meeting last night. Brooke gave us this awesome block for the Block Lotto and finally….she won them herself! Don’t you just love a good fall quilt!

Next month we’ll be completing a chevron looking block in fall colors, that’s going to be a fun one too!

There was much to talk about regarding our Quilts For Today and Tomorrow exhibit coming in February 2023 at the Belmar Arts Council. Everything is moving ahead and coming along quite nicely. Lucky for us that Virginia took the lead on all of the designing and printing of pamphlets and raffle tickets and our hostess, Julia is getting all the technical stuff organized. Thank you ladies June and I were able to participate in the intake of the BACs new show opening this Saturday night. It gave us the chance to see the inner workings and answered a ton of questions for us.

We had a fabulous program about machine feet. June, our foot specialist talked about some unusual machine feet. Isn’t it just the best when you learn something new. More than one of us was going home to make samples of different stitches using different feet. This will be a regular feature in our meeting now.

Something else that’s been happening regularly is guests. We’ve been having guests at almost every meeting lately and a majority of them end up joining! Last night we had two local ladies join us!

And now for your viewing pleasure, a little show and tell

Also from Sherre, she used this photo from her daughters room to create the quilt above. Nice work!

MaryJane also brought in this mini to show and so that we could see her method for hanging minis. Thank you.

Members were also reminded that MQG Mini Swap is still open for sign ups if you’re interested. June talked a little about the process and showed us the quilt she received in the last swap.

Happy sewing!

Not long ago, Brandy told us about a family in Jackson who had lost their home and pets in a fire. She asked us if we’d like to help her make them a quilt. JSMQG members are always at the ready to help so when Brandy asked for a couple of Wonky Cross blocks to construct a quilt for this family it will come as no surprise that she received so many she was able to assemble two quilts! Sherre donated her longarming services and quilted these up.

Fast forward to tonight, when Brandy and I headed over to meet Michelle and Warren for the first time at their rental home. What a nice couple! Michelle was excited to tell us that her grandmother was a quilter and of course they had many quilts from her and she clearly could relate to the power of quilts. So just in time for quilt weather and while they’re waiting for their home to be rebuilt, Michelle and Warren were overjoyed to receive their new quilts from us. Just look at those happy faces, doesn’t that say it all!!

Once again the JSMQG comes to the aid of our community! Thank you ladies!

We had a full house this September and they had no clue what they were about to learn! Our hostess extraordinaire, Julia, taught this month’s program. I like to call it “Everything you Wanted to Know About Fabric But We’re Afraid to Ask”!! She really outdid herself with the slideshow presentation. Afterwards everything got heated as we burned fabric to determine fiber content. It was enlightening. Patrick made sure we had bowls of water and a fire extinguisher on hand just in case, safety first!! Everyone enjoyed it. Thanks Julia

Linda Duffy took home the block lotto this month. Lucky Linda! These are going to make one fantastic quilt !

Helen assembled the blocks we made for the Ocean Waves quilt and added a small navy border. It looks amazing. It then went to Sherre to work her quilting magic!

There was no shortage of show and tell either. So many beautiful quilts. Mary Jane had a few and she also brought in her prize winning button art!

Sherre did GE Designs Ukrainian quilt

And a few others

Looking forward to October, Kathy Cunningham founder of Team Shamrock, who has raised over $1.5 million dollars for Tunnel to Towers, will be stopping by to speak to us.

Happy Fall and happy sewing!

Not to sound like a broken record but gosh there is so much happening for our little guild!!! We are adding new members almost monthly and last night was no exception as we welcomed Denise to our guild. And, we had a surprise visit from our favorite Coast Star reporter, Brigit Carlson, whose interest is both personal and professional. She brought a photographer along who was trying to capture the chaos of a group of women assembling an ambitious quilt. Speaking of which, we had a very brief meeting, mainly about our upcoming quilt exhibit at the Belmar Arts Council, which now has an official name, Quilts For Today and Tomorrow!! Post meeting our goal for the night was to assemble our Ocean Waves quilt which will be showcased at the exhibit and raffled off, the proceeds of which the will be used to fund our community outreach work. Call me corny but it was super heartwarming to see all hands on deck, including Brigit who jumped right in and did the pressing, and to witness Helen’s hard work and vision come together by, and I quote our hostess and cheerleader Julia, the “magical members of the JSMQG” it is going to be a beautiful quilt.

So here’s a few shots of the Ocean Waves quilt coming together

See you in September when we return to our regular meeting.