December Meeting Recap

December's Inspiration Challenge Blocks

Pittsburgh Modern Quilt Guild members enjoyed a day of sewing and camaraderie this past Saturday at The Quilt Company in Hampton Township. A brief business meeting was held in the afternoon to discuss the following items:

• We will be running a UFO Finish Along in 2017! Rummage around in your sewing space and scrounge up all those UFOs (Unfinished Objects) that you keep meaning to finish and bring them with you to the January 8th meeting. Are you working on the Inspiration Challenge blocks? Hey! That counts! We will log your UFOs and as you finish them throughout the year you will get a ticket for each one to enter in an end of year prize drawing. UFOs must be at least partially started for this event. 

• Monthly Sew Days will begin in 2017! The first one is scheduled for Saturday, January 21st from 12-5 at Carnegie Library Allegheny branch on the North side. An eVite will go out to secure your seat as space is limited. These are free events, but please do not sign up if you are not able to attend so others can join in on the fun. Keep an eye on the Meeting Dates and Events page on this blog for future sew day dates!

• The Upcycled Clothing Challenge is going on now. See this post for all the deets. The finished minis are due at the FEBRUARY meeting and not January (as accidentally stated previously). February. For sure. 

• Leadership nominations were due at this meeting. We will be voting on the 2017 leadership positions at the January 8th meeting. 

• By-laws updates coming soon. Voting on minor proposed changes to by by-laws will also happen at the January 8th meeting. Keep an eye on your inbox for a copy of the proposed changes soon.

After the business portion of meeting we all enjoyed show and tell and some door prize drawings. Thank you very much to Sally, Sandy, Robert Kaufman fabrics, and Sew Many Creations for the items donated for this month's prize drawings! 

Diane's FIRST quilt for herself! What!

Diana's cool sampler quilt

B showing off her version of the Snow Covered Trees block and generally looking like a bad ass.

Anna's cool string quilt

Thanks to everyone who came out and assisted with the clean up! Happy Holidays and we will see you all in January (look for the meeting announcement to be up soon)!

PghMQG

February 2017 Meeting: Organizing Your Fabric Stash

We will be meeting February 5th from 1-4pm at The Pittsburgh Project. Can't wait to see you there!

Did you make a New Year’s Resolution to organize your fabric stash?  If so, you are not alone.  That’s number one on the quilter wish list, according to American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine.

Karen Womack will share tips, techniques and her personal organization journey.  Bring your questions/frustrations, a pen, and pre-printed address labels to participate in a drawing or two.

Other things to remember for this meeting:

• This is your last opportunity to bring in those UFO's if you wish to participate in our UFO Finish Along in 2017
• Let's see your Upcycled Clothing Challenge minis! This is the final deadline for entries. Please have a label with your name attached to the back.
• Don't forget your Inspiration Challenge block 
• Projects for Show and Tell
• The QuiltCon charity challenge quilt will be attending the meeting before it makes its journey to Savannah!

See you soon!

Pittsburgh MQG

November 2017 Meeting: Finding Quilt Inspiration

We'll be meeting at The Stephen Foster Community Center, 286 Main St, Pittsburgh, PA 15201, this month November 5, 2017 1-4pm.

Don't forget about our UFO challenge! You have until the end of the year to bring in your finished projects.

Melissa Jennings will be talking about finding inspiration for quilt designs. 

Bring your quilts for show and tell and we'll see you then!

January 2017 Meeting : General Meeting

If you only make it to one meeting this year, this is a good one to shoot for.  We will be voting on the by-laws, swapping scraps, electing officers

and getting member feedback for programming this year.

Cross your fingers that the QuiltCon quilt will also be ready for its big reveal!

*Members bringing scraps get first choice, of course.

*Don't forget that we will also be having a January sew day independent of the general meeting.

Since it's a fresh, new year - a blank slate - why not assess those UFOs you have and bring them to the meeting?  Get some input from your quilty friends and find some motivation to get it done or get rid of it!  (Sometimes, finished IS better than perfect.) We will be running a UFO Finish Along in 2017 to keep you motivated. We will log your UFOs at this next meeting and as you finish them throughout the year you will get a ticket for each one to enter in an end of year prize drawing. UFOs must be at least partially started for this event. 

See you January 8th at 1pm at the Pittsburgh Project!

November meeting recap

We talked about finding inspiration for your quilts last month with Melissa Jennings.

Submissions for QuiltCon are open until November 30th. You've still got time to enter a quilt!

Congratulations to all of our members that entered quilts in the Beaver Valley Quilt show! You can see more info about the PGHMQG at the show here.

Leadership elections are coming up! Members please check your e-mail for information about the positions and how to contact Pam our Elections Officiate.

2017 is almost over. How are your UFO's coming along for our challenge? You need to have completed projects by the January meeting in order for them to be counted.

Show and Tell:

April 2017 Meeting: Quilt Judging

This month we'll be at The Pittsburgh Project on Sunday April 2nd from 1-4pm. 

Ooooo, pretty fabric!

We have a lot of exciting things to talk about this month, including our new Modern Solids Challenge. Look at these beautiful fabric bundles all ready to go for the challenge! FQ bundles will be available at the meeting for $10. Please bring cash or check if you are interested in purchasing a bundle.

Our program this month will be presented by Stacy about quilt judging. She will discuss:

• Difference between jury, judge and exhibit.
• The context for judging/what it's for.
• What the judge's role is and isn't.
• Where judging criteria come from

She has prepared an outline which can be viewed here. Please print this if you would like a copy for the meeting!  She will also show examples from her own quilts.

Stacy will be happy to answer questions during her talk. You can also e-mail her before the meeting at: skoequilt at aol.com 


As always,bring your show and tell items,your inspiration blocks, completed UFO projects, and your smiling faces! 

October Meeting Recap

Diane Denardo spoke to us this month. She led us through a series of prompts designed to help us a design our own quilt block based off a story from our childhood. Please share your blocks if you end up sewing one of your designs! It was a fun exercise to get some creative ideas going.

Leadership elections are coming up! If you are interested in running let our elections chair, Pam, know. An email will be sent out soon detailing the responsibilities of each position and Pam's contact info.

We'll be doing an ornament swap for our meeting in December. This is an optional swap and the rules are simple: make a holiday ornament and bring it to the meeting. Anything handmade is fine, it does not have to be quilted! We'll do a swap at the meeting and if you participate you'll walk away with a handmade ornament. Check out our Instagram feed for links to an ornament-along if you want some inspiration.

B shared with us some information about the hohl challenge. Further instructions can be found here: hohl challenge.

Our next meeting will be November 5th 1-4pm at the Stephen Foster Community Center. Melissa Jennings will discuss quilt inspiration.

Don't forget to work on your UFO challenge quilts for a chance to win FREE registration to the Spring sewing retreat! That challenge runs through the rest of 2017. You've still got time to finish some things (UFOs must have been previously registered with the guild to be eligible for this challenge, see the Guild Challenges and Swaps page of this blog for all the details)! 

The #makemeamini challenge was so much fun! We gave our partners their quilts this month and saw some beautiful completed projects. If you have any photos of your mini to share please do so! I had a bit of camera trouble at the last meeting.

Show and Tell: