PGH MQG has an Award Winner at the Three Rivers Festival

Melissa stylishly posed with her quilt, City of Bridges.

Congratulations to Melissa, who won second place in the Small Wall Hanging category for her City of Bridges quilt at the Three Rivers Quilt Show in March. As many of you know Melissa made this quilt for the Modern Quilt Guild's Madrona Road Challenge earlier this year.

Melissa and Charming Stars

Melissa was fortunate to have another one of her quilts selected for the show. Pictured above is her Charming Stars quilt.

If any other members of the PGH MQG had quilts in the show please let us know and send us photos to feature on the blog.

Post-workshop silliness before venturing out into the cold....brrr!

Melissa also joined Gina and me on the Friday of the Three Rivers show to teach a workshop on making blocks using modernized triangles. The three of us had a wonderful time demonstrating several ways modern triangles can be used in blocks. The group asked a lot of great questions, and we talked about the awesomeness of modern quilting and the PGH MQG. Our audience seemed very interested in this modern interpretation on a classic pattern used in quilting. They were also incredible kind and enthusiastic.

We really appreciate the Three Rivers Quilt Guild for allowing us to have a presence at the quilt show and hope to continue developing our relationship with them.

See ya'll Sunday!
Jodi

April Meeting is This Sunday: Let's Get Our Mod Mood On!

Gina's Mod Mood WIP

Greetings modern quilters!
This Sunday, April 7, the Pittsburgh Modern Quilt Guild will embark on its first-ever sew-a-long. Thanks to a suggestion by one of our members the group will be making indivudal modern mood quilts. This quilt was originally conceived by quilter and fiber artist, Sherri Lynn Wood, who hosted an online quilt-a-long in 2010. You can see some of the mod mood quilts from the original quilt-a-long on the Flickr page.



Getting Started

Local guild members were asked to spend the month of March compiling the fabrics for the quilt based on their moods. They were to use the color guide suggested by Sherri on her website, Dainty Time. We will begin the April meeting with a brief piecing demonstration to get everyone started. We will also have a few examples of mod mood WIPs to help participants to visualize the process. 

Piecing the Mod Mood Wedges

Our April meeting is a "sew & show"
Sew: Members and guests are encouraged to bring along their sewing machine and current WIPs to work on during our meeting time. For those not interested in making the mod mood quilt, please feel free to bring along a project you are currently working on and sew with us.

Show: Members and guests are encouraged to bring any recently completed modern quilt projects or WIPs to share with the group. It's an opportunity to celebrate our creative successes and/or ask for advice and guidance.

In May we will continue with a demonstration on piecing curves, which is key component to piecing the quilt together.

The meeting details are the same:
Sunday, April 7, 2013
1:00-4:00 PM
The Pittsburgh Project 
(We meet in the cafeteria located in back of Mosaic Community Church)
2801 North Charles Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15214

Guests are asked to contribute $5. This may be done for the first and second meeting. By the third meeting guests are asked to join the guild for $15. The $10 paid for the first two meetings is taken off the $25 annual dues.

International Quilt Day

Did you know that Saturday is International Quilt Day?  Are you doing anything to celebrate?

Kathy just let us know that The Quilt Show will be celebrating by providing free access to over 140 of their online shows during March 15-17.  They're also having a huge giveaway - the grand prize is a Bernina 550QE sewing machine. 

Good luck in the giveaway and be sure to let us know if there are any activities going on for International Quilt Day!

-Melissa

March Meeting Wrap-Up

The March meeting of The Pittsburgh Modern Quilt Guild was highly anticipated by all members!  In addition to many wonderful regularly seen faces, we had a few new guests and added to our membership!

Guild members were able to experience QuiltCon 2013 courtesy of Jodi McLaughlin, President of the Guild.  Jodi attended and volunteered at QuiltCon (the historic inaugural quilt show presented by The Modern Quilt Guild) in February.  Jodi came prepared with a slide show highlighting some of the award-winning quilts, as well as pictures of quilts made by PMQG members and the Guild’s shelter quilt.  Jodi attended lectures and workshops presented by Yoshiko Jinzenji, Rachel Hobson, and Anna Maria Horner, and she shared what she learned with Guild members.  Jodi encouraged Guild members to visit Craftsy.com to view the free series of lectures from QuiltCon.  At the conclusion of her presentation, Jodi informed Guild members that The Modern Quilt Guild plans to host “quilting retreats” at various locations throughout the US in 2013 and 2014.  She also shared that MQG is considering implementing annual dues for member guilds.  The PMQG leadership will update Guild members as more information becomes available.  Many thanks to Jodi for sharing highlights of her trip with the PMQG!

Next up - Melissa and TaMara jointly presented information to Guild members about Flickr and quilt blogs.  TaMara used the Flickr website to walk Guild members step-by-step through the process of becoming a member and uploading photos.  TaMara highly encouraged Guild members to join Flickr and share their quilts on the PMQG website.

Melissa led a discussion about quilt blogs; specifically focusing on PMQG members who currently host a blog (links can be found on the PMQG website - let us know if you would like yours added to the list!) and answering questions from those members who might be interested in constructing a blog of their own.  Thank you to Melissa and TaMara for sharing their wealth of knowledge!

Gina, Guild Vice President, introduced the guild’s first quilt along. Last year, guild member Stephanie suggested the guild participate in the Modern Mood Quilt Along, originally created and executed by quilter, Sherri Lynn Wood. Guild members interested in participating are encouraged to read about the process on Sherri’s blog. Participants were asked to spend the month of March collecting fabric based on their various moods. At the April meet-up, which is a “Show and Sew”, participating guild members should bring their selected fabrics and sewing machines to begin piecing the quilts together. (Please note: These quilts can be any size.) Gina and Jodi will briefly discuss Sherri’s improvised piecing technique and everyone will begin putting their mood quilts together. At the May meet-up we will work on putting together the curved pieces created in March using machine and hand techniques. There are some really great examples of quilts made during the original quilt along on the Modern Mood Flickr page.

The March meeting concluded with a “show-and-tell” session.  Such talent! One of our new guests, Akemi, who also happens to be new to quilting, showed off the first item she ever quilted, a sewing machine cover.

The next meeting of the Pittsburgh Modern Quilt Guild will be held on Sunday, April 7, 2013 from 1-4pm at the Pittsburgh Project. As noted above we will begin working on our individual Modern Mood Quilts. The April meet-up is a “Show and Sew”. If you are not interested in participating in the quilt along we encourage you to bring another work in progress and join us for some fun, creative time!

P.S. Someone asked about creating photo mosaics on Flickr. Big Huge Labs is one of the free online mosaic makers. Check it out!

Tina Brewer Class and Out of Hand at the SCC

Saturday, March 9th is a busy day in Pittsburgh for the craft community.

From 10:00 am - 2:00 pm quilter and fiber artist, Tina Brewer, will be teaching a class on story quilts. More information can be located here. And, if you aren't familiar with Tina's work please check out her website. Tina is very active in the local community sharing her love of quilting with children.

Later that evening from 7:30-10:30 the Society for Contemporary Craft (SCC) will be hosting its annual fundraiser, Out of Hand. Tickets to the event are what you might expect if you were attending a gala, but the organization is a worthy cause. The SCC is one of the oldest craft institutions in the U.S.  providing a local discourse on the contemporary craft movement and regularly offers fiber-related classes. More information about Out of Hand can be found here.

March Meeting Announcement

The March meeting of the Pittsburgh Modern Quilt Guild will be held on Sunday, March 3 from 1-4 pm at the Pittsburgh Project (our usual meeting location).

QuiltCon Best in Show: Victoria Findlay Wolfe's Double Edged Love

We have an exciting, information-filled agenda to share with you this month! Here is what we will be covering:

• QuiltCon: Jodi just returned from Austin and will be sharing her amazing experience with us!!
• Social Media: Many members have expressed interest in learning more about social media and how to use it as a modern quilting tool.   Melissa and TaMara will be doing a quick presentation about social media in modern quilting including a look at our Guild's social media, how to use Flickr, and a group discussion about blogs.
• Modern Mood Quilt: We will also be introducing this as a future guild project.
• We will have our usual show and tell at the end of our meeting.

We look forward to seeing you there!

-Melissa

2013 Three Rivers Quilters Show

If you are thinking of entering a quilt for this year's Three Rivers Quilters show, make sure you get your entries post marked by tomorrow!  This year's theme is Tessellations and the show will be held March 21-23, 2013.  There are several categories - you probably have a quilt that will fit into one of them!  The show entry form is available on their website.  Hopefully we'll be seeing some of our members' work on display at the show!

-Melissa