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!

October Meeting Recap

At our October meeting we started off with a few important announcements.

  QuiltCon 2020
 -Member priced registration for workshops closes on November 30th.
 - Quilt submissions close on November 30th.

 We are working on our QuiltCon charity quilt. At the meeting members picked up fabric pack to make blocks for the charity quilt. Completed blocks can be dropped off at the November meeting or at the December sew day. We will assemble the quilt top at the December sew day! If you have questions or need help with the blocks please let us know.

  Our Making Faces Workshop  was a big success. Our members learned a new technique and created some fun faces.

  2020 Leadership Nominations

  Nominations can be made at the October, November and December meetings. Elections are held at the January meeting. Check your email for position details and responsibilities. Nominations can be submitted to Pam Morris via email.

We will send out a program survey for 2020. Stay tuned for more info.

Show and Tell 

We had a great workshop on handwork. Our fabulous presenters were: Julie, Amanda and B.

EPP (English Paper Piecing) by Julie: we learned how to glue baste, what kind of needle and thread to use while sewing. And Julie gave us tips on how to hold shapes together for best stitching.

Needle turn applique by Amanda: she explained the basic technique of needle turn applique. Showed us her work. Recommended needles and super fine thread to work with.

Hand embroidery by B. B taught us basic stitches and how to make a French knot. We worked with wool pieces and different colored embroidery thread.

Great workshop to support our last guild quilt challenge for the year: Handwork . Create a quilt using some kind of hand work, due by the December meeting. Hand stitched binding doesn't count! Participants will receive a ticket for our prize drawing. The prize is a spot at our May 2020 retreat.

Our next meeting is Sunday, November 3rd 1pm-4pm. We will meet in Millvale at the Holy Spirit Cafeteria.

Topic will be: Applying to a quilt show and prepping quilts for a quilt show.

We hope to see you there.

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Tutorial for QuiltCon 2020 Charity Quilt Blocks

We are really excited to create another charity quilt for QuiltCon! Please use the following tutorial to aid you in piecing your block(s).

Finished blocks can be turned in at the meeting on November 3 or the December sew day on December 7. We are assembling the quilt top at the sew day. If you can not attend the November or December dates, please mail your blocks to B:
B Cain
PO Box 1115
Wexford, PA 15090

General notes:

• Patterns were drafted for traditional piecing. If you are a confident English paper piecer or foundation paper piecer, feel free to use one of those methods. Remember to reverse the pattern for either of these methods!
• Piece blocks in numeric order. Some blocks must be pieced in alpha numeric order and then those pieced sections are joined together.
• If you find yourself short on fabric or in over your head, don't stress! Bring what you have completed to the sew day and we will sort it out!
• Please return any scraps that are 3" square or larger.
• If you believe there is an error with your pattern, please contact B: 412-551-9590

Below you will find instructions for piecing a block with curves and a block with straight piecing.

Blocks with straight seams:

Gather your fabric and pattern.

Carefully cut apart the pattern pieces. Put aside the block label, finished block diagram, and instructions.

Lay out all light pieces on the light fabric and dark pieces on the dark fabric before cutting to ensure you don't run out of fabric! Remember that all pieces need a 1/4" seam allowance added on, so pieces must be spaced at least 1/2" apart. Pattern pieces should be RIGHT SIDE UP on top of fabric, which is also RIGHT SIDE UP.

Use a loop of tape to secure the paper pattern pieces in place on the fabric.

Cut around all pattern pieces, ADDING A 1/4" ON ALL SIDES. 

Piece the block together following the numerical order of the pieces (i.e. begin by piecing #1 to #2, next add piece #3, etc.). Some blocks must be pieced in alpha numeric order (i.e. piece the A section in numeric order, piece the B section in numeric order, etc. Then the pieced A and B sections can be joined together).
When piecing, fabrics should be placed right sides together. Remove the pattern pieces as you go so that you remember which is the right side!

Press seams towards the dark fabric as you go. This is very important and will help us when piecing the whole top together!

Check that your block is 6 1/2" square and looks like the finished diagram.

Stay stitch around the block approximately 1/8" from the raw edges.

Pin the block label to the block.

Blocks with curved seams:

Gather your fabric and pattern.

Carefully cut apart the pattern pieces. Put aside the block label, finished block diagram, and instructions.

Lay out all light pieces on the light fabric and dark pieces on the dark fabric. Remember that all pieces need a 1/4" seam allowance added on, so pieces must be spaced at least 1/2" apart. Pattern pieces should be RIGHT SIDE UP on top of fabric, which is also RIGHT SIDE UP.

Use a loop of tape to secure the paper pattern pieces in place on the fabric.

Cut around all pattern pieces, ADDING A 1/4" ON ALL SIDES.

Piece the block together following the numerical order of the pieces (i.e. begin by piecing #1 to #2, next add piece #3, etc.). Some blocks must be pieced in alpha numeric order (i.e. piece the A section in numeric order, piece the B section in numeric order, etc. Then the pieced A and B sections can be joined together).
When piecing, fabrics should be placed right sides together. Remove the pattern pieces as you go so that you remember which is the right side!

Press seams towards the dark fabric as you go. This is very important and will help us when piecing the whole top together!

Clip curves as needed.

Check that your block is 6 1/2" square and looks like the finished diagram.

Stay stitch around the block approximately 1/8" from the raw edges.

Pin the block label to the block.