June Meeting Recap

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 4^th 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.

 

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.

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 12^th (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