Thanks to everyone who came to the meeting tonight!  It was a fun meeting.  We did our usual business, then show & tell, and then we discussed English Paper Piecing, and I shared a bunch of my finished and in-progress projects.  Thanks, Brandy, for being our photographer!

Sherre started us off.  She had an adorable Elizabeth Hartman fox quilt, an awesome alphabet, by Lori Holt, and a medallion of her own invention, using Allison Glass and Victoria Findlay Wolfe elements.

Eileen has been cranking away at her Village quilt – isn’t it amazing?  And her pouch of the month from Sew Lux is perfect, as always.  She’s participating in the Kingfisher Stitch Along, too, with a gorgeous pile of hexie flowers.

Amy shared a wonderful purse she crocheted, and some really nice vinyl pouches.

Deb L made two placemats for our ongoing charity project, and two baby quilts for some coming soon babies.

I showed off some blocks from the soon to be released Summer Adventure quilt by Kitty Wilkin, my Sew Lux pouch, and a purse I made.

Then it was time to talk about English Paper Piecing.  I had a few projects to show off – I like to try all different kinds of things, from the traditional Grandmother’s Flower Garden, to more interesting things.

If you are having trouble getting started with EPP, or would like to borrow any of my books, just let me know.  I’m happy to help, and as you can see, I’ve tried just about everything.

The Kingfisher Stitch Along is a great one to try out, if you are tempted by EPP.  It uses 1″ hexies, and appliqués them to a diamond, so you don’t have to do a whole huge quilt with just hand piecing.  It is the perfect summer take-along project.  Plus, Eileen, Deb H and I are all doing it.  You don’t want to be left out, right?

Thanks for a great meeting, ladies, and welcome to our new members!

–Jen

We had a great meeting this month!  Show and tell is always my favorite part.

We started out admiring Bonnie’s entry for our New Jersey QuiltFest display.  This is called “Jewels on Snow” and is so lovely.

Brandy shared two quilts.  The first is her entry for the display, and the second is a gift for a family member with a very specific request for a quilt with squares and lines.

Sherre had a slow month this month, with only 5 large quilts to share.  Let’s all hope she is back on track next month.

Arlene finished this gorgeous appliqué top in a class at Mouse Creek Quilts.

June made some lovely pouches, and is cranking out houses for her Sewing a Village project.  She moves pretty fast and was hard to photograph.

Eilieen finished off the project we started at the February sew-in.  Her points are fabulous!  She shared a few pouches she had completed, too, but the photographer tonight was fairly sucky.

Deb brought in denim pillows, a lovely large quilt, and some little hearts she plans to leave around to brighten people’s day.

Allison brought in her pouch, and this adorable fish quilt!

Thanks, ladies, for all of the fabulous inspiration.  I will endeavor to do a better job with my photography next month.

Lots of our members have jumped on the sew-along hosted by Stitch Supply Company to create a massive 132 house “Village” quilt over approximately 5 months. The official start date is February 5th – plenty of time to order your pattern, The Village by Jumble, Miss Rosie’s Quilt Company and start choosing your fabrics – this quilt is EXTREMELY scarp and charm square friendly! Fussy cutting the doors is a big part of the fun! Finished quilt is 65″ by 79.5″. There will be prizes every week, graciously provided by Stitch Supply Company , who will be hosts of this Instagram sew-along. If you are new to the IG quilting community, or interested in getting your feet wet – this is a great opportunity. Post pics of your houses each week straight from the camera roll on your phone, and add the hashtag #sewingavillage to join in! (As your loyal social media gal, I would love it if you would tag @jsmqg as well!) If the pattern is unavailable at Stich Supply, here are a few places that also have it in stock: Eleanor Burns , AZSewingWorld , EQuilter and Vintage and Vogue

In my internet travels, I recently stumbled across Paige Miller’s shop in Point Pleasant, NJ – she has what looks like a wonderful community focused maker space in Point Pleasant, NJ. Frame and Fiber is a frame/yarn/fabric shop that also sells local artists’ work and offers a wide variety of classes, in knitting, sewing, and crochet. Amanda of Daisy Laine designs is their on-site sewist.

I haven’t made it down there yet (I hope to soon), but have spoken to Paige and it seems like a great addition to our brick and mortar resources here on the Jersey shore. You can see some of the fabrics offered in their etsy shop, and all have quite a modern sensibility – Joel Dewberry, Denise Shmidt, Erin McMorris, and Amy Butler, among others. If you have the time to venture down to Paige’s shop, say hi from JSMQG!

Brandy will be bringing everything we need to make seventeen draft dodgers for some well deserving rescue pups. See you 10-6, Saturday the 13th, at Colts Neck Reformed Church. Don’t forget to Paypal $5 to the guild to cover the cost of the space!

I have been sorely missing my sewing time in this crazy build up to the holiday season, but as Christmas approaches, I am hoping to join in the Ornament Along hosted by Wefty Needle and Mr. Domestic. That pinecone! That Kdusuma Ball! Maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to crank one out to top every present we give this year. How about you? You can find info and tutorials for all of these ornaments on the hosts’ websites, instagram (hashtag #ornamentalong ) and youtube channels. For this ornament along, Mathew and Tara alternated, with each posting a new ornment and tutorial every other week for six weeks. Mathew’s supply list can be found here and Tara’s here. Happy sewing! And don’t forget JSMQG members, our holiday party, fabric bucket exchange, AND board election is this coming Wednesday, December 20th!

Hello Modern Quilt Guild Members,

We would like to inform you and your guild members of a few exciting details of the Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival, April 6, 7, 8, 2018:

~Quilt Guild Challenge- see attached details for rules, theme, etc.

~An invitation to showcase your Guild’s work (a mini representation of the work that you have done, in an exhibit open to Modern Quilt Guilds.

~An invitation to your guild to meet at our event with other MGQ members in a designated MQG lounge area. (members from different cities and states can meet up and share  work/ideas, etc., hosted by Hoffman Fabrics.)

~Hoffman Fabric extravaganza AND Challenge exhibition with a chance to buy a huge variety of fabrics directly from their showroom (fat quarters to cut off the bolt)

~Classes taught by fellow MQG members

And a variety of other activities all 3 days:

~A different Make it and Take activity each day

~Creative Open Studio with sewing machines provided for you use and play with all materials provided to try your hand at new surface design/fabric making technique

~A vibrant marketplace for all of your creative and sewing needs

~Ongoing interactive demos throughout the market floor

~ Over 90 Classes that include:

    Sewing, quilting, embroidery, slow stitching, dyeing, nuno, block printing, weaving, spinning, surface design, knit, crochet, wool flowers, silk flowers, paper crafting, and more!

Group rates are available.

If you would like to make special arrangements for your group or guild , please let us know and we can assist you with any  details and arrangements.

FYI: Megabus stops directly in front of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center!

• Nightquilter‘s take on the One Hour Basket
• Imfeelincrafty‘s One Hour Basket swap with the Seattle MQG
• Sonic Stitch’s long and lean take on the One Hour Basket (to better fit fat quarters!), a modification she calls the Eliza Basket, that she taught to the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild for their holiday swap last year.
• Sew DeliciousSew Delicious made hers out of selvedges!

Our charity quilt for the MQG Challenge “Modern Traditionalism” is coming together well, thanks to the efforts of our charity quilt committee and all the members that contributed blocks and their time. We spent our last sew in assembling!

Eileen is collecting blocks to send to the Las Vegas MQG chapter as part of their #quiltsforvegas initiative. The pattern requested is Cluck Cluck Sew’s “Grayscale” block, and each quilt will also include a heart block (the same design that was used for #quiltsforpulse). The quilts are being made in whites and bright primary colors (prints ok). Eileen will be collecting at our next meeting – please contact her with any questions you might have. Thank you.

We know them, we love them, we covet them – our own Eileen D is going to lead us through the somewhat daunting process of making our own Sew Together Bags at our September sew-in: Here’s the info! The pictures above are a few examples of front panels Eileen has made up for this class.

Hey kids, September is right around the corner and if you are interested in taking my “class” at the September Sew In we should probably talk about school supplies!!

First, and foremost, you will need to purchase the pattern. It is the Sew Together Bag and it is available for purchase at sewdemented.com in PDF form for $12.  I have been told it is available in some quilt shops but I don’t remember which.  If you do purchase in PDF form make certain you print in “Actual Size” as there is one paper pattern piece included.

Before you consider fabric choices and how you may or may not want to piece or embellish your Exterior Panel, I strongly urge you to use Instagram and check out the hashtags for some super creative ideas   #sewtogetherbag #sewtogetherin2017 and #sewtogethersewalong  or simply use Google Image and search Sew Together Bag.  

Materials:

Exterior Fabric:  The pattern calls for one Fat Quarter of fabric.  Now if you want to simply have your exterior made from a single piece of fabric this is the way to go.  If you would like your Exterior Panel to be made from patchwork or some other form of piecing please keep in mind that the actual, unfinished size of the panel is  13 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches and this piecing needs to be completed before the class.

Lining Fabric:  1/2 yard x WOF  Self explanatory and this will yield all the same interior bag linings.  I would stick to this for your first go at it, but you certainly don’t have to.  If you want to go all out and use more than one interior lining fabric you will need to cut four pieces,

B1, B2, B3, and B4   8 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches.  The fabric you need for the side panels (the actual pattern piece included in the pattern) is  also included in the lining fabric 1/2 yard.

Pocket Lining Fabric:  1/3 yd xWOF   Again this will yield three pocket lining of the same fabric.  Here I like to use three different fabrics and simply cut (2) 4 x 9 3/4 inch pieces of three (3) different fabrics and use some colorful, coordinating zippers.

Binding: 1 Fat Quarter

Batting or Fusible Fleece: (1) 18 x 22 inch piece.  I personally, use a thin batting but either is perfect and work equally the same.

Interfacing: 1 yard of lightweight fusible.  I highly recommend Pellon ShapeFlex SF101.  Me personally, I would not bother using anything else.  (I am not being paid to say that!!)

Zippers: (1) 18 inch zipper.  This is for the outside of the bag and there is no deviating in size.  (3) 9 inch zippers: This size is perfectly fine: however, if you fear the zipper I urge you to buy longer such as 12 inch or any size that is longer than 9.  I do not fear the zipper and I always use longer because it allows me to easily install it without the fear and the bulk of the zipper pull and stop and we will cut it after we finish installing it. NYLON ZIPPERS ONLY – NO METAL ZIPPERS!!

You can definitely pick up zippers at Joanns or Walmart. I order mine in bulk from Zipit and I will be placing an order before we have class so if anyone wants one in particular let me know I will include it in my order and I do own a lot already and I share nicely.

I love hearing from all of you so if you have and questions or concerns call or text me.

Next up, things you need to do prior to class!!

You guys are going to love this bag!  Thanks for having the confidence in me to teach it to you..

Eileen

At this month’s meeting we will be finding out more about the prep for this year’s QuiltCon 2018 Charity Quilt – remember, the theme this year is modern traditionalism – something I think our group really excels at! The Charity Quilt committee has asked that we pull tone on tone fabrics from our personal stashes in this year’s colors – remember, solids and prints are both ok, but the prints cannot contain colors outside of the palette below. Scraps? We got this. 🙂

Hey all! Our tried and true charity chairwoman, Eileen, will be collecting hexagon blocks for the Manchester Quilting Bee effort. We would love to see everyone contribute at least one if you can find the time! Here are the details (and here’s a link to all their info on facebook: Manchester Quilting Bee). A very  brief summary: Use the templates linked below to create a 5″ hexie that can stand up to washing, then applique it onto a 6.5″ fabric square – please don’t trim the fabric underneath the hexie, as they’d like to keep it for stability. If you are making several, feel free to piece them together. Eileen will be collecting and mailing, or you can mail directly to Chris in Jersey City – just make sure to mail so they arrive before June 11th!  But first a little background info: Why hexies? Why bees? In the 1800s Manchester was awash with textile mills that were commonly described as ‘hives of activity’ and the workers inside them compared to bees. It has been a symbol of the city ever since – I’ve included some images of bee artwork found in and around Manchester as inspiration below. Embroidery and piecing are welcomed as part of your hexagon design.

“This project is already growing far larger and quicker than we ever imagined – thanks so much for wanting to be involved.

Realising that we’re probably going to receive a large number of hexies, we’ve decided to save time in piecing them by asking you to applique them onto squares of fabric (instructions below). If you’d prefer to send just the hexies that’s fine too but you’ll appreciate that it’ll be easier for us to work with squares and to adapt any discrepancies in size 😀

Block Instructions:
Size: to create a 5″ hexie – you can use the google doc or dropbox template provided in the links below – please unclick ‘fit to page’ and print out at actual size or 100%. Alternatively, the length of each hexie side is 2-7/8″ and the distance across the block is: flat side to a flat side 5″; point to point 5-3/4″. The unfinished block is 5″ and there is a 1/4″ seam so the workable, finished block is 4-1/2″.

Template Links:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zm7i73qt7pe…/quilt%20template.pdf…

https://drive.google.com/…/0B4cKopbPENr1TzR3WUlRWEM4T…/view…

Fabric + Embellishment: please use any colour of quilting weight cotton to make your blocks. Blocks can be left blank or embroidered, appliqued or decorated in any way, but must be able to survive a wash, and any beading or raised decoration should be away from the 1/4″ seam.

Papers: if you use a paper template to create your hexie and don’t wish to applique it to a fabric square (see below) we don’t mind whether you remove or leave the paper in place when mailing. For ease, we’ll be quilting most of these hexies directly onto a larger fabric but some may still be joined using the EPP method, we’re happy to receive with or without paper 😀

INSTRUCTION UPDATE
Applique: in an update to our original instructions we would love you to machine or hand raw-edge or turn-edge applique the hexies onto 6-1/2″ fabric squares (please remove papers before appliquing). When complete, don’t trim away fabric from behind the hexie as the square fabric will help stabilise the block. If you make more than one block feel free to join them together. We’re trying to make the piecing process faster now it seems like there will be a larger response than initially envisaged and this will allow us to machine piece the blocks easily. Note: if you have already made your hexies, as in the original instructions posted, you are still welcome to send them in as hexies. However, given the scale things have grown to, it will be helpful, but not essential, if you can applique them to squares 😀

Deadline: we now have a deadline for receiving blocks – Monday, 11 June 2017.

UK mailing address:
Michelle Burridge
c/o Manchester Quilting Bee
25 Stretford Road,
Urmston,
Manchester
M41 9JY
ENGLAND

US mailing address – ONLY AVAILABLE UP TO 11 JUNE 2017
(please don’t send items to arrive after 11 June as Chris is travelling to Britain to deliver the items that week and then moving home. Items arriving after that date may not arrive/be lost so, please send late items to the UK address only)

Chris Dodsley @made by ChrissieD
c/o Manchester Quilting Bee
110 River Drive #2307
Jersey City
NJ 07310
USA

Canada mailing address:
Amanda Elias @Atelier Fiber Arts
c/o Manchester Quilting Bee
3993 rue Wellington,
Verdun, Quebec, Canada
H4G 1V6

Getting Involved
If there are any quilting groups who could get involved it would be hugely appreciated!

Piecing Parties
We’ll be updating the page with news of piecing parties once the blocks have arrived.

Donations
We’d love backing + binding fabric and batting/wadding donations along with offers for long arm/machine quilting services. Please private message us 😀

If there are any questions, don’t hesitate to message! We’re completely new to all of this and a bit overwhelmed by the response so far! 😀 ”