The
meeting started with discussion of several items of business:
- Annual dues: Those
present voted to raise the annual dues by $5 to $40 for the 2015/2016 fiscal
year. This increase is necessitated by the increase in dues to the national
organization based on our current level of membership. Membership dues need to be paid at the July
meeting. If you cannot attend the July meeting please contact the guild to
arrange to have your payment mailed.
- QuiltCon
charity quilt: When making last year’s QuiltCon
charity quilt we had great participation and produced a really nice quilt, but we also
learned a lot of lessons along the way! The plan this year is to start with a
clear vision and to have the guild purchase the fabric to achieve a more
cohesive look. We are looking for volunteers
to sit on a committee to plan and coordinate the QuiltCon collaboration. If you
think you might be interested in this, and did not already do so, please take a
few moments to respond to the survey that was emailed out last week.
- Pittsburgh Project quilt:
Each
year the PghMQG donates a quilt to the Pittsburgh Project Auction.This is the major fundraising event for the
Project, and they are very generous with space for our meetings. Sarah is
collecting 12 ½” by 18 ½ “ blocks in green, blue and grey for the 2015 quilt. This
quilt needs to be completed by the end of November, so please consider making a
block. Here are the blocks that we have so far:
- Raffle quilt: We
discussed again the extra quilt from last year’s Pittsburgh Project donation.
We would like to raffle this quilt off as a fundraiser for our group. We discussed pricing and locations. Amanda will follow up and arrange for tickets
and signs to go with the quilt.
- Sherri Lynn Wood workshop: We
have an opportunity to have nationally known quilter, Sherri Lynn Wood, conduct
a workshop on October 4th from 12-6:00pm. This is a great opportunity
for our guild. For this reason you were surveyed to determine interest and
willingness to pay the costs. The leadership has discussed ways to market the
workshop to other guilds in the area. Please have a look at Sherri Lynn Wood’s
website to see if this interest you and let us know, if you have not done so
already.
-
Schedule changes: With
the possibility of the workshop we have made some changes to the meeting schedule.
Please have a look at the meeting tab of this website for the currently planned
schedule.
That
concluded the business portion of the meeting.
The
June FQ Club installment was handed out at the meeting. Please head over to the
FQ Club tab on this website to view the latest selections. Lauren selected 6
great fat quarters. Yes, that’s correct; we each received 6 FQs this time due
to some left over money from the last month and some savvy shopping by Lauren.
Thanks, Lauren! Mona and Stephanie will
choose the fabric for September. The
payment ($12) is due in August if you wish to participate.
There
were quite a few lovely pieces displayed during show and tell. Gerry, as usual,
has been busy – piecing a quilt top using the blocks made at the retreat and
the circles that she created for her demo.
She also made a great bag.
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| Gerry's quilt top constructed from the raffle blocks she won at the retreat! |
Mona
brought in several projects that she recently finished:
 |
| Mona's cool little mini quilt |
Melissa
showed a finished quilt and the hand piecing that she does in the bus!
 |
| Melissa's charming charm pack project |
Michelle showed off this impressive EPP project that is almost completed.
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| Michelle's EPP mini for a swap |
Pleas see the guild Flickr page for photos of all of the show and tell items from this meeting.
Finally, Lauren
discussed improv piecing with us after generously sharing some of the fabric
that she felt needed to go to other homes. She showed several of her quilts as
examples and discussed her approach with each.
Some of her suggestions:
a) Take some old
blocks, overlap them and then just cut a straight line through them and then
mix and join
b) Give yourself
a rule and then modify as you go along.
Maybe you are going to create strips of three and then join in different
ways or vary color etc.
c) Use scraps and
build small units and then see how you can combine the smaller units to make a larger
one and continue expanding to desired size.
 |
| Lauren explaining her improv process |
 |
| A cool curved improv piece from Lauren |
Several
people tried this to create a block for the Pittsburgh Project charity quilt.
The next meeting will be Sunday, July 12th (please note that this is the second
Sunday in July). We will be discussing Foundation Paper Piecing with Amanda. Look for
details to be posted in a few weeks. Meanwhile, if you have not done so, please
respond to the survey sent out last week regarding interest in the Sherri Lynn
Wood workshop and the QuiltCon project.
Happy
sewing!
PghMQG
