Show and Tell:
- Pat- Wonky Diamond quilt top, for St. Jude’s, using latest charity block design, Anita’s Arrowhead quilt top, for St. Jude’s, using collected charity blocks, Wonky white and blue blocks quilt top for St. Jude’s, using collected charity blocks
- Rachel- Anita’s Arrowhead quilt top, for St. Jude’s, using collected charity blocks, Star Blocks quilt top, for St. Jude’s, using collected charity blocks
- Lael- Strawberry quiltSquares/Rectangles quilt in blue and teal
- Jan- Southwestern quilt, hand quilted
- Elaine- Commissioned baby quilt using sentimental/memorial fabrics of very different textures
Next Sewing Saturdays
- May 24th- Open sew with emphasis on small projects to go in the library window.
- June 14- Open Sew and Elaine will demo improvisational piecing and her technique used in her “It’s Loud in Here” quilt
- June 28 - *bumped forward due to July 4th. Strips and Curves available with Jan.
- July 19th –Photo day for MQG Fabric Challenge. Karen will bring DSLR to take Hi-Res photos
- Aug 9th
- Aug 30th
Any suggestions on workshops or quilt alongs you would like to do? Is there anyone who would like to run a workshop or quilt along?
Upcoming meetings – Second Tuesday of the month at 6 PM- Morton Hall UAH Campus
- June 10- Ugly Fabric Challenge due, bring your completed Charity quilts
- July 8
- Aug 12
- Sept 9
Modern Quilt Guild Challenge- Due July 25th. Remember that your item has to be quilted. It can be anything, but must be quilted. Winners will be announced Aug 8th.
Jen’s Ugly Fabric Challenge- We need to have something made from it, preferably quilted, and it’s due at the June meeting. There will be two categories- “Everyone’s Favorite” and the “Most Modern”.
Events
- June 5-7- Alabama Quilt Symposium- register now for classes. Karen Combs, Sharon Shamber, etc. http://www.alabamaquilts.com/index.htm It is at Bumpus Middle School in Hoover. You can submit a quilt for the symposium up until the deadline of May 1st. Go to http://www.alabamaquilts.com/quilt-show.htm
- September 10-13- Chattanooga quilt show
- Dye Day - Taught by Jen is canceled due to date conflicts. Decide on a day in the fall and have everyone put it on their calendar. Karen and Jen will attempt to reschedule in fall.
Quilting Retreat for next year
The Chattanooga guild contacted us after their last meeting and said that they are confident they will be able to join us at the Grand Oaks. At the March meeting, the majority decided that the Grand Oaks was preferred over the Snowbird. It was more comfortable, has great food and is closer. Once a group gets the week/time slot, it remains their week/time slot until they no longer wish to go there. We may not get another chance at getting a week because of that. Most groups continue to go there every year so vacancies rarely open.
We can have the weekend of March 13-15. The price is $210 with meals included- check-in on Friday afternoon and checkout Sunday afternoon.
The Snowbird is currently available March 21-23, Jan 3-5, 10-12 and 17-19. The price is $175. There is a minimum of 6 people to attend.
Vote on which location -This is a big decision for our guild. Should absentee votes be included?
Attending members voted to set up a Facebook Poll to decide this.
Guild News
Library Update- We now have our ladder at the library so we will be able to hang the quilts ourselves.
Next hang dates: Beginning of August, Beginning of November for Christmas quilts and early January to take down the Christmas quilts and hang new ones. The library has requested no Halloween quilts since they will be hanging Aug - Oct. Halloween would look out of place in August and September. For the November quilt change, Christmas or winter holiday quilts will be gladly accepted and encouraged. Please lend your quilts to be displayed. Remember that quilts can also be sold there. We currently have 6 quilts that are for sale right now.
Library Window Display- We have the months of June and July to show our small quilted items like bags, baskets, pot holders, small wall hangings, placemats, etc. Be thinking about what you can share. Deb needs these items in late May, before the beginning of June. If there is not enough to display in the window for June, she can fill it with crocheted items and we can display in July.
Charity Quilt Block Update – Our current block is the Wonky Diamond block. The tutorial is on the facebook page and on our website. Please bring your blocks in when you have them made.
St Jude’s Children’s clinic will be receiving our charity quilts which there are around 13 or so that are being finished. There are mostly just toddlers (2 and under) and teens that are current patients so we have adjusted the quilt sizes to fit this (45” x 45” and (45” x 60”). Once we get them all finished, we will deliver them to the clinic and leave them with the Child Life Coordinator, Beth Daniel to distribute.
Volunteers to quilt/bind assembled tops?
Update on the charity sewing day - 14 quilts were assembled or are in progress
Those that were present requested doing it again. When is a good date to do that?
1) Day to “play” with donated fabric and make blocks/tops
2) Assembly day to assemble donated block
Attending members agreed to the following:
- Hold another Charity quilt assembly day in January
- Some quantity of donated fabric should be made available at Open Sew days for those wishing to work on charity block.
- Using donated fabric for workshops, in which everyone builds a block during the workshop then the finished blocks can all go together to make a quilt since they will be made with matching fabrics.
Guild Purchases
- Renewing our membership in the MQG will be $250 due in January (for 16-25 members, we currently have 18 paid members, at 26 it bumps to $400).
- We owe $75 for the ladder, to cover until the library quilt sells (unless we want to make that a straight up donation.) Our current funds are: $517.71
- We discussed a couple of guild purchases: labels and fabric
- Labels saying Rocket City Modern Quilt Guild- here are some options
- https://www.etsy.com/listing/175225262/80-fabric-labels-sew-on-fabric-labels?ref=sr_gallery_1&sref=sr_9000a770fee7569dd6b2d96b211d6fe9f0d11893a703ee232629f402267fafd0_1399237438_14110063_quilt&sref2=MTc1MjI1MjYy%3AcXVpbHQ.%3AMTQxMTAwNjM.%3AZmFicmljIGxhYmVscyBjdXN0b20gcXVpbHQgLWVtYnJvaWRlcmVk%3AdzA.%3AMTM5OTIzNzQzOA..%3AMjoxMzk5MjM3NDM4OmVialNqeFFUclRpQlRQc20ydDl0NkF5eHZ6QWc6SWhrWHgxR3BlWWxxd1NHdUhJN0JOWjFmdDVwQTphOTRhNGJlMjgxM2I2N2YwNjBkZjJiNzI5ZTNiNWU2Nzk2MDI5YmEyMzBhY2RhMjg3Y2NjNTI0ZGIzNGQ5MjUy%3A451cfc7657cb7931b074ed7f292a22225732769a&ga_search_query=fabric+labels+custom+quilt+-embroidered&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_&ga_view_
b) Custom labels printed on 1” wide cotton twill, 6 yards (at 2” that is 108 labels for $47.50 (includes shipping)
- https://www.etsy.com/listing/89413295/your-custom-labels-printed-in-full-color?ref=related-7
c) Custom print yardage from Spoonflower for labels. Attached to the back using Fast Finish Triangle technique during binding (hat tip: Elaine)
MQG officers will investigate proposed option C to compare to options A and B and the guild will vote again.
Fabric
- A bolt of kona white for assembling charity blocks (Est $100, would need to look into pricing)
Demo sign ups- June- Lael; July- Deb; August-Karen; September- Jan; October- Amanda; and November is open.
May Demo- Pat
- Sliver Quilts by Lisa O’Neill, C&T Publishing, 2012. Available at Huntsville Madison County Public Library – Bailey Cove branch
Quick Tips
- Iron background fabric RIGHT sides together.
- Iron sliver fabric WRONG sides together.
- Place your sliver in the crease of you background fabric and sew a ¼” seam along the crease to attach your sliver.
Things Pat learned the hard way:
- Cut your squares 1.5” larger than your desired finish block size. You’ll lose a little with each seam and you can always trim down the extra.
- Cut your slivers a little longer than your background fabric to hold them in place more easily during sewing.
- If you’re going to use your slivers to frame a contrasting fabric in the center, be sure the slivers are wide enough to cover the edges of you fabric insert for topstitching.