January meeting announcement

The new year is upon us! Soon! Please join us on Sunday, January 3rd 1:00-4:00 for our first meeting of the new year. We will be meeting at the usual location, The Pittsburgh Project (2801 N Charles St, Pittsburgh, PA 15214). 

We will be holding leadership elections, discussing program planning for the next year, and coloring! We will have some beautiful coloring books and colored pencils on hand, but also feel free to bring your own! If you have any thoughts on what you would like to learn, experience, or explore in the coming year please bring those ideas as well. Feel free to bring any sewing projects that you may want to work on after the business meeting and of course we want to see those show and tell goodies!

If you have been thinking about joining, your first meeting is free and we would love to see you!

December meeting recap

Thank you to everybody who came out to the December sew-in and meeting this past Sunday. It was great to see you all and what you are working on! About 18 people joined us for the meeting portion of the day. Some stayed all day, others part of the day and some joined us for talk, food and discussion.

Some highlights from the meeting:

• The proposed changes to the by-laws were voted on and unanimously approved. The major changes involve rearranging the guild leadership organization. Going forward, the leadership positions will consist of a President, VP of Programming, VP of Membership, Treasurer, and Social Media coordinator. By now everyone should have received an email describing the duties of each position and calling for nominations. Elections will be held at the January meeting. Pam is acting as the election official and you may email her your nominations. Thanks, Pam! 
• Melissa stated that we would be sending our national dues this month.The membership is currently at 33 members. We have grown a lot over the past year and are now at the high end of our membership category.Welcome to all the new members! :) 

• Sarah showed the finished quilt that we donated to the Pittsburgh Project’s auction. Sarah pieced our blocks and Sandy did the quilting. Great job, ladies! We would really like to thank Sarah for taking the reigns on this project and getting it done! The quilt raised $85 for TPP. 
• Our raffle quilt raised $320 and Mona’s friend Robin M.was the winner. Mona will arrange to get the quilt to Robin. Thank you to everyone who sold and bought tickets!  

PghMQG quilt donated to The Pittsburgh Project

• The next quilt to “oh and ah” about was our entry for the QuiltCon charity quilt challenge, which is currently kicking up a social media sensation. :) It's awesome how all the individual blocks came together so cohesively! Amanda did an amazing job of conceiving of the idea, organizing the work into manageable blocks, and encouraging everyone as they worked. Thanks, Amanda! Most people agreed that the project pushed them out of their comfort zone and they enjoyed the results. There was also agreement that the sewing day together was really important. It enabled people to get guidance and encouragement, but, more importantly, allowed everyone to feel like part of a community (a great result from the combined synergy of our guild). Amanda has discussed some possible names: "33 Sisters" or "Sum of Its Parts". The quilt is currently with new member, Nikki, for quilting! Thanks, Nikki! 

PghMQG QuiltCon charity quilt challenge project

• After show and tell (pics below and on the guild's Flickr page and Instagram, @pghmqg) we drew tickets for door prizes. There were several fat quarter packs and tickets to the “Knit and Crochet” show in March. Please share photos of what you do with your prizes, ladies! Don't forget to tag your photos with #pghmqg so we can all see each other's lovelies!

Show and Tell:

Gerry's almost finished pieced from the Sherri Lynn Wood workshop

Michele's stunning two sided beauty!

Pam's festive pot holder!

Another holiday inspired piece from Cheryl!

Vivian wowed us with this colorful piece

Sandy has been on trend for years apparently, having shown us this lovely she made some time ago!

The next meeting will be Sunday, January 3rd at 1:00pm. Look for the meeting announcement to be up in a few weeks, but be prepared to bring colored pencils and some pretty coloring books if you have any! Once again, please consider running for a leadership position for 2016! It's looking to be a fun year and we need a few good (wo)men. 

See you soon!
PghMQG

Woah

I don't know if you know this or not, but this thing is going viral. 

Our quilt top for the 2016 QuiltCon charity quilt challenge is complete and off to the quilter (new member, Nikki Maroon)!

This quilt was improv pieced (pieced without following a pattern) by many members of the PghMQG. An image of the iconic Roberto Clemente bridge was blown up to quilt size by member, Amanda Hancock, and then broken down into individual blocks. Each member who participated was given a copy of their portion of the image, a bag of small pieces of fabric (no bigger than an eighth of a yard, mostly small strips), and one main instruction: make it.

In the end, Amanda put all of the blocks back together, and, man, it turned out great. This beauty will be sent to hang at the QuiltCon exhibit in Pasadena Feb 18-21st along side the work of many other guilds who participated in this challenge. In the end this quilt will be donated to a charity (TBD), but we are interested in showing it off around town a bit first. If you think you can help with this, please email the guild! 

We would like to thank everybody who is giving this quilt their love! We are pretty proud of it! 

PghMQG