March 2020 Sew Day & Meeting Recap

The fist sew-day and meeting for our guild was one for the books! For the day we had 30+ members, 3 new members, and 2 guests! Totally proud of everyone who came out to share in a day of quilting and quilt knowledge swapping! 

At this meeting, we had our customary 1 p.m. business meeting followed by show and tell. 

Financial Report: We took in $75 in for three new half-year memberships.

Our first quarter challenge quilts were due. 8 members finished their quilts with 3 near to completion! Great job everyone!

Our next quarter challenge is all about Stripes!


SHOW AND TELL!

FIRST QUARTER CHALLENGE!! Game Board Inspired!

Monopoly

Risk

Deck of Cards

Checkers

Chinese Checkers

Sorry!

Lawn Darts

Chinese Checkers

February2020 Meeting Recap

The February meeting was held on the second Sunday of the month, February, 9th. During this meeting, we discussed the upcoming March Sew Day, upcoming quarterly challenge, and Nikki and Gerry spoke to the group about thread, needle, and everything batting.


The guild's first quarterly challenge of 2020 is to create a quilt inspired by a board game (or lawn game, computer game, ect.). These quilts are due at the March 7th sew day meeting! To be entered in the yearly raffle the quilt must be finished, including binding. Use the hashtag #pghmqggamechallenge on social media!

Financial Report:We took in $125 in January for dues, and we spent $1062.70 on MQG dues, rental space for the Spring workshop, purchasing a new projector, and postage/supplies to send the quilt to Quilt Con.

It will please the group to know that our charity quilt has made it safe and sound to Austin! 
Don't forget if you are going to QuiltCon to meet up with others from the guild to get a photo with our beautiful creation! 

Leadership also met in February and has been hard at work completing the program set for 2020, and it's shaping up to be an awesome year! 

The guild's first workshop will be Foundation Paper Piecing with B on Saturday, April 18th. This will be a split day workshop!

9am-12pm: FPP for beginners

12pm-1pm: Break for lunch (option to purchase lunch)

1pm-4pm: Designing patterns for FPP (prior FPP knowledge req’d.)

Watch your emails for the invitation!

Show and Tell:

Missy B with some fun folded fabric!

 And this striking color on the gray quilt!

 The wonderful B with her color-blocked pillow.

Sharon showed off her scrappy color quilt. 

 Mim has been making use of fabric to make these cuddly guys!

 The black fabric really sets off the colors in Cheryl's quilt!

 Nikki has been practicing free-motion writing!!

Zsofia! All the tiny piecing and TULA PINK pants!

 A Georgia EPP pillow from Courtney.

 More fantastic tiny piecing by Tracy

 These bright and dark quilts are just wonderful!

Get excited everyone! Our March meeting is our first Sew Day of 2020! So, mark your calendars for  Saturday, March 7th. We will be meeting at St. John Lutheran Church - Highland. Sewing is from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. with a short business meeting at 1:00 p.m. Don't forget that your game quilts are due! Be sure to RSVP in the evite that went out.

January 2020 Meeting Recap

We met for our monthly meeting on Sunday, January 5th. This was our annual meeting at which we voted on any bylaws changes and voted on guild leadership for 2020.
All changes to bylaws were voted on and accepted. The current bylaws are available to view on the website.
The following new leadership was voted into office for 2020:
President - Nikki
VP of Programs - Jeanne
VP of Membership - Missy
Treasurer - B
Social Media - Courtney

Thank you so much to Amanda, Sandy, and Zsofia, who were part of leadership for 2019!

The Quiltcon 2020 charity quilt is being bound and labeled by Zsofia and Julie, and then we will send it off to the show!

The current quarterly challenge is to create a quilt derived from a board game. These quilts are due at the March 7th sew day meeting! To be entered in the yearly raffle the quilt must be finished, including binding. Use the hashtag #pghmqggamechallenge on social media!

Financial Report:
The guild had net earnings of $1053.46 for 2019!
Dues to MQG are paid for 2020.

We discussed the programs survey that was sent out last fall, and we discussed possible 2020 programs. As always, send any suggestions to Jeanne at her programs email!

Show and Tell:

Michele showed us a rainbow quilt that she made from swap blocks:

Nikki showed us a scrap quilt:

Zsofia made 2 zip pouches, one was made from a Starbucks coffee bag!

Pam upcycled picture frames and framed tree blocks to give as gifts:

Sandy showed us a queen size quilt that she made for her daughter:

And Karen used her free motion practice pieces to create a tote bag!

Our next meeting is on Sunday, February 9th. We are meeting in the Holy Spirit cafeteria, 1pm-4pm. Gerry will be talking about thread and needles and Nikki will be talking about quilt batting. We hope to see you there!

December 2019 Sew Day and Meeting Recap

December Meeting Recap

We held our annual December sew day / meeting on Saturday December 7th. Many members showed up with prepared projects to complete by the end of the day. Our most important project was our QuiltCon 2020 Charity Quilt. Guild members pieced the blocks and then we pieced the top together at the sew day. Thank you to all who contributed to the 2020 Charity Quilt. Huge thank you to B for designing and organizing!

We had a quick business meeting with a few important announcements:

-Leadership nominations are in:

• Peresient:        Nikki
• Programs:       Jeanne
• Treasurer:        B
• Social Media:  Courtney
• Membership:   Missy

We will vote on leadership positions at the January meeting.

Bylaws final draft will be emailed out by Dec 15th. This is the draft we must vote on at the January meeting.

Please complete the 2020 programs survey. We will further discuss the results in January.

The next MQG sessions is open for MQG members. You can only register through the email sent by the MQG. Topics : handwork. May 7-9, Denver CO.

The Three Rivers Quilt Show is now accepting entries! 

Theme: Mariner's Compass

For entry information go on their website : www. threeriversquilter.org

2020 Q1 challenge announcement: quilts inspired by a board game!

Requirements: no smaller then 30"x30"

When you post on social media make sure you use the : #pghmqggamechallenge hashtag

Show and Tell

Handwork challenge

Our January meeting will be held on Sunday, January 5th 1pm-4pm at the Holy Spirit cafeteria. We hop to see you there!

November Meeting Recap

We had a really great meeting in November! We covered the following in the business meeting:

QuiltCon 2020: Member pricing for workshops ends on November 30!

• Stripes Challenge for QuiltCon - entries are due December 2
• Indah Batiks Me + You Challenge for QuiltCon - entries due December 2
• General quilt show entries due December 2
• Blocks for our guild QuiltCon 2020 charity quilt have all been taken! If you didn't turn in your blocks at the meeting, please mail them to B or bring them early in the day to the sew day on December 7th.

Registration for the next MQG Sessions opens on December 1st. The topic is handwork, and the location is Denver, CO.

MQG is celebrating their 10th anniversary!

They are having a virtual sew day on Saturday, November 9th. Use #mqgsewday to tag your social media posts.

MQG is also having a "Spend 10 days with MQG" event on Instagram and Facebook from November 4-13. Check out their social media for daily prompts to play along.

Our 2020 retreat is booked!

May 15-17, 2020

Martina Spiritual Retreat Center

Eventbrite sign up will open in spring 2020.

We are now taking nominations for 2020 leadership. You can nominate yourself or someone else at the December meeting or by emailing Pam: yopamm@yahoo.com. We are especially in need of a nomination for social media! If you're interested in that position or any other, reach out to a member of leadership and we can give you more details.

The programs survey for 2020 has been sent out. We've had a great response so far! Please respond if you haven't already done so.

A copy of the by laws with proposed changes will be sent to all members later in November. We will vote to accept the changes at the January 2020 meeting.

Amanda gave a cost breakdown for the Making Faces workshop. Our actual costs were $70 less than our projected costs, the workshop was a huge success!

Our current quarterly challenge is hand work! Use the hashtag #pghmqghandwork when posting your quilts. These quilts are due at the December 7th sew day. We will also be drawing the 2019 quarterly challenges raffle winner that day and announcing the first challenge for 2020!

Our next meeting is an all day sew day from 9am-9pm on Saturday, December 7th. We will be assembling the QuiltCon charity quilt top, if you're interested in helping with that please bring a neutral grey thread and your sewing machine. We will have a brief business meeting at 1pm.

Bring your own projects to work on and a snack to share! Guild will provide meatball and veggie meatball subs for dinner. An evite will go out to all members soon, please RSVP and let us know if you're planning to stay for dinner!

NOTE: There is a location change for the sew day! We are meeting in the Holy Spirit Lyceum. It is across the street from Holy Spirit church. You can use the address: 110 North Ave, Pittsburgh, PA in your GPS to find the building. It's a small brick building with red doors.

Don't forget to bring your mug rug to swap with your partner! Use the hashtag #pghmqgMugRug when posting online!

Show and Tell:

Gerry brought some faces quilts that she created:

 Amanda showed us her completed face from the Making Faces with Melissa Averinos workshop:

 And Amanda finished her hand applique Carolyn Friedlander quilt:

 Courtney showed us her newest pattern, which she was inspired to create from our Drunkard's Path challenge earlier this year:

 Our newest member, Ricki, showed a Pittsburgh quilt that she designed herself!

 Missy had two quilts to show, one is a Christmas quilt and the other has machine appliqued leaves:

After show and tell we had a presentation from Nikki about quilt shows. She talked about why one may want to enter shows, what quilts to consider entering, how to enter a show, how to prepare a quilt once it has been accepted into a show, and what judging is like. We ended with Nikki sharing her judging sheets from several different shows and then we saw the quilts and talked a little bit about the judges' comments. One of our former members and good friends, Stacy Koehler, gave us this great handout for what judges are looking for in a quilt.

We hope to see you at the December sew day! A few things to remember:

-Slight location change, we are meeting in the Holy Spirit Lyceum

-Bring neutral grey thread if you'd like to help piece the QuiltCon charity quilt

-Bring your completed Handwork challenge quilt

-Bring your mug rug to swap with your partner

-Bring a snack to share and RSVP to the coming evite with whether you'll be staying for dinner!