Signs of Spring have shown up here on the Jersey Shore and these butterflies are here for it! Lucky member, Susan A got to take them all home and corral them into a quilt. We are taking advantage of the beautiful weather with outdoor festivities, like ice dying. Laura S is going to school us in this technique in her yard next weekend. Plan to see some mandala inspired projects post ice dying!! Our June meeting is one of my personal favorites, it’s a backyard potluck/meeting. This year Linda D is hosting us at her Bradley Beach home just steps from the ocean. These are my favorite because they are low key gatherings where we get to connect on a more casual level while sharing food and projects. They’ll be a fun game of Left Right Center, the fat quarter version led by Denise R. I’m looking forward to just relaxing and chatting with everyone.

Our member led program this month was all about using social media. Instagram in particular. Brigit C gave us a really good presentation and slideshow about everything Instagram like privacy, and how to use hashtags, both as a “filing” tool and a method of researching. Some of us who considered ourselves seasoned even learned a few things, thank you Brigit!

And that’s a wrap for May! There’s a lot of fun stuff happening here so stay tuned. See you in June

Would you look at all of those amazing tulips!!

Some of us took the tulip theme next level and couldn’t resist making all sorts of things

We had a JellyRoll Reunion! some of us who made jellyroll race quilts at our last sew in reunited them at our meeting!

Every meeting of the Jersey Shore MQG includes an educational/instructional portion. This month our resident Art Teacher, Brooke C, gave us an in depth look at the Color Wheel. Brooke schooled us in color and value, secondary and tertiary colors, and how to use the color wheel to pull fabrics for a quilt. It was really very interesting. Thank you Brooke!

Never a shortage of Show and Tell from our membership either. This month we tried something a little different and asked to see Spring themed projects

It wasn’t all flowers and bunnies though, here’s some more pretties from our members and guests

Sherre was busy this month. Here’s a few she turned out!

There’s lots of good things in the works here at the JSMQG including ice dying, barn quilts, our annual outdoor meeting and potluck and a trip to a bar! That’s right! We will be attending the annual fundraiser of Team Shamrock as a group, at Bar A this summer where we will have a quilt as part of the gift auction. That should be so much fun. Stay tuned!

We had a race! Not your typical race but a JellyRoll race. More importantly though, we raced together, a whole bunch of us on a rainy, cold Saturday in March at Old Spool Sewing. It was the perfect day to sew-in, who am I kidding they’re all perfect days, and we sewed and laughed and chatted and ate. Somehow there’s always food involved! Our youngest member and queen of the jelly roll quilts, Brooke C, had the idea to get us all together. She showed us most of her quilts and talked about different ways to make jelly roll quilts. Then it was time to put the pedal to metal and get sewing. It was such a fun day! We have so many newer members to our guild it was an opportunity to be together outside of a meeting in a much more relaxed atmosphere and really get to know one another. It was great!

There was also shopping as our host and owner of Old Spool Sewing Studio offered us a generous discount on backing and binding fabric for our JellyRoll quilts and come on you know we can’t stop there! It was just an all around great day!

Please enjoy our mostly finished quilt tops!

Love these days of sewing together with friends!

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!