Randomness #6

It's been a while since we did one of our Randomness posts; and since there are alot of things happening we thought you would enjoy a recap.

• First up for all you St. Louisians, the Bits 'n' Pieces Quilt Show "Fanfare of Quilts" is Saturday/Sunday March 17 and 18th at Queeny Park.  There will be 400+ quilts, vendors, special exhibits (including some of our STLMQG Solids Only Challenge Quilts), and demonstrations.  If that wasn't enough, there will be door prizes and raffle items too.  No matter what style of quilting you enjoy, there is sure to be something here for everyone.  Let's show our support for not only our STLMQG members; but for the St. Louis Quilting Community. 
• Tickets for each raffle are $1.00 each or 6 tickets for $5. All raffles will be drawn on Sunday afternoon of the show. You do not need to be present to win.
• Babylock Sofia 2 embroidery and sewing machine, donated by Jackman's Fabrics, MSRP approximately $1000.00. 
• Bits raffle quilt, "Sunset over the Valley" -- a beautiful queen size batik with amazing machine quilting.
• Ticket raffle for charity, this year 100% proceeds go to the Humane Society of Missouri. Lots of nice hand-made items and donated items -- small quilts, decorating items, gifts and so on.
• Multi Purpose Cutting Table, donated by Unique Sewing Furniture (vendor with Cobblestone Cupboard at the show). This table (MSRP approximately $1100.00) will be in the ticket raffle for the Humane Society.
• If you didn't sign up for the MQG Newsletter, then you may have missed out on the huge annoucement that went out last Monday, introducing QuiltCon.

• This inaugural convention and quilt show by and for Modern Quilters happens February 21-24 2013 in Austin, TX and will feature top modern quilting instructors and will attract attendees from around the world.  You can read all about QuiltCon on the official website found here.  For all you STLMQG members, we have some exciting news to share with you during next month's meeting...stay tuned.
• Have you been paying attention to the MQG 100 Days of Modern Quilting series?  You may have noticed a few familiar names appear recently.  A handful of your fellow STLMQG members have been featured on the site.  We've created a collection of their links here.  Stay tuned because there are more STLMQG members coming soon.

=============================================

We'll have another Flickr Feature Friday contributor later in the week and then announce our meeting agenda next Tuesday.  Until then, we hope that you are finding a few minutes to Quilt...and/or working on your Secret Pouch Swap that is due in a few weeks.



 

Flickr Feature Friday #11

About this time each week, I'm always so excited to see what wonderful images will be included in our Flickr Feature Friday segment and this week is no different.  I hope this scrappy collection brightens your day.

#11

Here's the Code:

1. Leila's scrappy leaf key fob pattern!, 2. Heroes Helping Heroes Quilt, 3. teacher thank you gifts, 4. Ringo PIe--October--Amy, 5. Hexagon Bag, 6. herringbone quilt., 7. Pretty Little Pouch Swap Sent!, 8. Scrapbuster Swap - Depression Block 10, 9. A Zig and a Zag clutch

______________________________________________

This weeks' Flickr Feature Friday is brought to you by Mary Claire

Fall/Winter Charity Event Conclusion

We came. We saw. We made pillowcases!

227 to be exact.

Did you get that? 

Two Hundred and Twenty Seven.

 Dear St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild members - our hearts overflow with gratitude!

How wonderful that we will be touching the lives of 227 people! 

Our sincerest thanks to everyone who contributed.

About 1/5th of the pillowcases were delivered to Hospice Compassus where they will bring joy to patients and families in Hospice Care.  A huge thank you to Nancy for suggesting this donation and making the delivery!

Nancy reports that the staff was thrilled to receive the pillowcases!

The remaining pillowcases were donated last Friday to the kids at the St. Louis Children's Hospital.  Up until now the only children receiving pillowcases were cancer patients and so our donation has allowed the Hospital to extend the service to other patients as well. 

Lets not forget our amazing sponsors!

Robert Kaufman Fabrics

Westminster Fabrics

Reliable Iron

Mary Claire Allen

Kristy Daum

Elizabeth Williams Jewelry

We were able to give away some fun prizes at the February meeting! 

Westminster Fabric scraps!

Elizabeth Williams Jewelry!

Zakka Style Book!

Scrap Republic Book!

Reliable Irons!

Both of these wonderful members walked away with a Reliable Iron thanks to their
contribution of 20 pillowcases a piece.

Flickr Feature Friday #10

This is our 10th edition of Flickr Feature Friday here at the STLMQG.  We hope that this tradition helps bring a little inspiration to help jump-start your weekend.

#10

 

Here's the code:

1. Joseph's Coat Quilt Top, 2. Ned's Quilt, 3. Hand quilted Baby quilt, 4. Turquoise and black spirals, 5. IMG__2701, 6. Mosaic, 7. Merrill's diamond stars, 8. prada quilt finished, 9. Pattern envy, 10. zigzag quilt -- Ziggy, 11. PTS6 finished front, 12. abstract mini inspired by Yoshiko Jinzenji

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

This week's Flickr Feature Friday is brought to you by Lynne



Pouch Swap Information

We are very pleased that the Member's Swap/Challenge Committee has announced their 1st activity...a Pouch Swap.  Jessica introduced all of us to these delightful little containers on Saturday, and showed how they can hold a wide range of items from left-over change, and knitting supplies, to travel accessories.

Since you are making a little pouch for someone and someone else is making a pouch for you...maybe you want to help steer them in the right direction, and a Mosaic is great for that.   Here is an example of a Mosaic filled with lovely little pouches.

If you'd like to make a Mosaic all your own, check out BigHugeLabs.  If you are unfamiliar with this tool, this tutorial might help.  We'd love for you to share your Mosaic with the other STLMQG members, so feel free to upload it to our Flickr Photo Pool.

Need some further inspiration, tutorials or patterns...here are some ideas to get you started.

Noodlehead:   

http://www.noodle-head.com/p/tutorials.html

KeykaLou:   

http://keyka.typepad.com/my_weblog/tutorials/

Quilted Pouch:  

http://luannkessi.blogspot.com/2009/12/quilted-zipper-bagtutorial.html

Triangle Pouch: 

 http://www.myinnocentia.com/2010/10/triangular-pouch-tutorial.html

Boxy Pouch:  

 http://prettymodern.typepad.com/its_a_pretty_modern_life/2009/08/zippered-box-pouch-pattern-and-tutorial-fully-lined-with-photos.html

Pleated Pouch: 

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2010/04/27/pleated-pouch-tutorial/

Patchwork Pouch:   

http://ayumills.blogspot.com/2010/08/tutorial-patchwork-wristlet.html

Round Pencil Case:  

 http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2010/08/back-to-school-pencil-case/

Embroidered Pouch: 

http://www.sublimestitching.com/zippered+pouch+tutorial

There are hundreds of tutorials and patterns out there, so don't feel limited to just the ones above.  Let your creativity run wild, just remember it's a pouch, not a totebag.

Can't wait to see your finished pouches next month!

Meeting Recap (February 11th, 2012)

Thanks to everyone who ventured out in the cold today to attend our meeting, it was another packed house as we swapped magnets, collected pillowcases and discussed some upcoming activities.  Stay tuned to this blog for more information regarding those upcoming activities; but in the mean-time here is what transpired.

• Lynne, Secretary-extroidinaire, announced that we were at or near 60 members when we started the meeting today.  Yet, she was super busy collecting renewals and signing up new members, so the final #s will be in next month. 
• Jamie, Cara and Mary Claire showed off some notions, new fabric and a book during our "You Oughta Know" segment.  If you'd like to participate next month, make sure that you sign up here.
• We agreed to amend our By-Laws; which can be found here, or in their permanent home in the About Us/Contact tab at the top of the Blog.
• There was a discussion of adding some Speakers to our calendar.  Patty Young and Aby Garvey were both mentioned and you can learn more about them by clicking their names above.  Please let us know your thoughts as we will be making a decision soon.
• During January's meeting, the topic of Social Media resurfaced and we felt like it would be beneficial for our membership to learn about the ways in which they can stay connected to not only our guild; but the modern quilting community as a whole.  We will be offering a Presentation/Workshop combo in March and April and hope that you'll bring your questions as well as your enthusiasm.  If you are interested in being a Demonstrator, please contact us at stlmqg@gmail.com
• Wendy and Nancy talked about the Bits & Pieces "Fanfare of Quilts" Show that is coming up March 17th and 18th.  You can read all about it here.
• The Members Swap/Challenge Committee was introduced.  Jessica, shared with all of us their 1st activity; which is a Pouch Swap.  Check our blog on Tuesday, as we will be providing lots of links and tutorials to get those creative juices flowing.  As names were secretly swapped, Jessica mentioned how you could "stalk" your Partner; by checking out their Blog, Flickr Favs, etc.  If you would like to make a Mosaic to help aid your partner too, we have created this handy tutorial on how to use BigHugeLabs.  We encourage you to upload your Mosaic to our Flickr Group Pool.
• Our members have been working in miniature the last few weeks making their Itty-Bitty Magnet.  Wouldn't you like to have some of these little cuties on your fridge.

• Finally, we waited in anticipation as Mary Claire, our VP and Charitable Committee Chair, announced whether or not we had met the pillowcase goal that we had set for ourselves.  As you all know the pillowcases we were collecting were part of the American Patchwork & Quilting 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge.  When all was said and done, we had shattered our goal (150) thanks to our members' extroidinary generousity...they made an astounding (227) pillowcases.  Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

Come visit our blog on Tuesday as we share lots of inspiration for the Pouch Swap, and later on Friday for our Flickr Feature Friday segment.

Meeting #18 - February 11th, 2012

Hello Modern Quilters,

Our meeting this Saturday is jam-packed with lots of activities, announcements, etc...so let's get right to it.

Date: February 11th, 2012
Time: 10am - 12:30pm
Location:
The Heights
8001 Dale Ave.
Richmond Heights, MO 63117

================================================================

Agenda:

     -Welcome & Guild Business
          :: Membership #s for 2012
          :: Financial Information
          :: Special Announcements/Quilting News
     -ByLaw Review & Discussion
     -Speaker Proposal Discussion
     -Social Media Needs & Conversation
     -You Oughta Know "Notions/Gadgets"
     -Member's Swap/Challenge Committee Introduction & 1st Activity Announcement
     -Fall/Winter Charitable Gathering (Pillowcases are Due)
     -Itty Bitty Magnet Swap (Have you made yours yet?)
     -Show & Tell
     -Questions/Comments
     -Mix & Mingle

**Show & Tell is back, please bring no more then 2 items (books, fabric, WIP, Quilt, etc) and remember we are a Modern Quilting Guild.

**Make sure to wear your nametag...and if you haven't made one yet, what are you waiting for.  It can be any size, should include your first name and the more unique the design the better.

**In preparation for the ByLaw Discussion, Here are our currently approved ByLaws and Here is what we are proposing changing them to.  We will be discussing the proposed changes at the meeting; but wanted to provide you with the above documents so you could review them.  The reason we are reviewing our ByLaws is to make sure that they resonate with our Guild's current practices and don't include unnecessary "red-tape". 

**Additionally, if you haven't already signed-up for the MQG's new newsletter, we would encourage you to do so.  They are hoping to send out their 1st edition soon and want to make sure that as many MQG members are signed-up as possible.

We'll see you Saturday!!

Flickr Feature Friday #9

Here we are again with another fabulous edition to Flick Feature Friday.  We hope you enjoy this explosion of color.

#9

Here's the code:

1. Ringo PIe--October--Amy, 2. Poem Quilt, 3. finished lion for gather here, 4. Quilt on a line - Ringo Pie Bee, 5. A Day at the Aquarium Front, 6. Block for Darci, 7. Mug Rug finished, 8. Pillow Talk Swap 6, Finished, 9. Oregon born, NC bound, 10. Shattered, 11. Pacman_Ghosts_DQS10, 12. Ferris Wheel Ticker Tape

----------------------------------------------------

This week's Flickr Feature Friday is brought to you by Juli Ann