What's happening in 2012 ?

As we prepare for the New Year festivities,

we wanted to share with you some points of interest for 2012.

• Did you hear that Pantone, the world's color authority, has selected it's "Color of the Year" for 2012.  It's Tangerine Tango.  On the heel's of this announcement, Erin and Ali, created the Tangerine Tango Quilt Challenge.  You can read all about it here and here, and if you want to get in on the fun, check out their Flickr Group here. 
• You may remember us announcing that The International Quilt Festival was hosting a Modern Quilt Guild Showcase and was looking for MQG members to submit some of their best work for possible consideration in aspecial exhibit shown during Quilt Market/Festival.  Registration opens Jan 6th, 2012 and closes March 2nd, 2012.  It's not too late to start something.
• The Sewing Summit, a blogging and sewing conference; which Cara briefly talked about at our November meeting, is happening again in 2012.  If you'd like to learn more or are interested in attending, make sure that you sign up for information.  It will be October 11th - 13th in Salt Lake City, Utah.
• Let's not forget that the Bits 'n' Pieces Quilt Show "Fanfare of Quilts" is March 17-18th at Queeny Park.  This is a huge Quilt Show; which the STLMQG is proud to be a small part of, as some of our members will be showing their Robert Kauffman "Solids Only" Challenge quilts.  No matter what style of quilting you enjoy, you can surely find something to appreciate at this event. 
• Quilt Market 2012 is coming to a town (sort of) near you...in Kansas City.  It's May 18th-20th and there is likely going to be a MQG Market Meetup.  We are in talks with the KCMQG to co-host the casual event, which brings together lots of people from the Modern Quilting Community for an evening of drinks, food delights and dishing on everything Modern Quilting.  Sounds like a great time for a weekend getaway.

• Did you enjoy our STLMQG Sew-In Saturdays?  Well, get excited because they are back and better then ever.  We were able to secure 4 fun-filled Saturdays in 2012 (March 31st, April 28th, July 28th, and September 29th) and are you ready for the big news...doors open at 9am and close at 9pm.  Yes, that is 12 full hours of nothing but quilting, chatting, and munching with your closest STLMQG friends.  Sew-In Saturdays are of course for due-paying members only and reservations will be required...stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.
• We are continually blown away by the creativity of our members and look forward to seeing what you'll be sharing with us in 2012.  Do you love Swaps and Challenges as much as we do?  Not only will our Members' Swap / Challenge Committee be hosting their swap and Challenge; but both Mary Claire and I will be too.

On behalf of your STLMQG Officers, we would like to wish you and yours a

Happy and Safe New Year!!!

Meeting Recap (December 10th, 2011)

A BIG Thank You to everyone who attended our meeting, I hope that it was a great close to a great year.  I and the other Officers (Mary Claire, Lynne and Rene) would like to Thank everyone for continuing to make the 2nd Saturday of the month, a day to look forward to. 

• We started off the meeting with collecting Ticket Raffle donations and as expected...our members were very generous.  We definately raised some money for our guild and had fun along the way.  This event will certainly be coordinated again in the latter part of 2012 and Rene will give us an update in January of how much we collected.
• Candy and Jamie shared with us a few notions that they couldn't live without as part of our "You Oughta Know" segment.
• The remaining pillow kits were distributed as part of our Fall/Winter Charity Event, and I was thrilled to see that our members already started coming through.  We collected 28 completed pillowcases already...putting us 19% towards our goal of 150 by February.  WooHoo!!!! 
• We've created a separate Charitable Activities tab at the top of our header; which will give you quicker access to the current events we are participating in and what we have done in the past. 
• Paper Pieces, a company based in Sycamore Illinois generously donated some Hexagon sample kits for our members to try.  Be sure to check out their website where you can find several different shapes and kits. 
• We announced that this coming week was SewMamaSew!'s bi-annual Giveaway Day...which due to its popularity has now been extended to an entire week.  Make sure you hop over to their blog starting on Monday, December 12th to learn how you can participate in this event.
• Several of our members participated in the extended edition of Show & Tell, where we saw lots of great quilts and completed quilt tops.

We want to give a special Thanks to the Kirkwood YMCA and especially Judy.  Thank You for allowing our guild to meet in your facility.  We've appreciated having a place to call home the last couple of months.

Starting in January, our STLMQG meetings will be held at The Heights and our meeting time has changed to 10am-12:30pm...allowing our members to get a jumpstart on their afternoon.  Hope to see you all in 2012.

  Happy Holidays!!

Meeting #16 - December 10th, 2011

Hello Modern Quilters,

It's that time of year, where we have given Thanks to all that we have in our lives and now we start the holiday season celebrating with Family and Friends.  We hope that you will join us at this month's meeting, where we close out 2011 with a Bang!

Date: Saturday, December 10th

Time: 10:30am-1pm
Location:
Kirkwood Family YMCA
325 N. Taylor
St. Louis, MO 63122
Map

**Remember, if you cannot find or don't want to hassle with street parking, there is a big FREE parking lot, behind the Church lot; which is accessible from Jefferson, 1 block south of the YMCA.

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

Agenda:


- Welcome & Guild Business
- Special Announcements / Quilting News
- You Oughta Know "Notions/Gadgets"
- Ticket Raffle
- 2012 Dues
- Show & Tell (Extended Edition)
- Remaining Questions / Comments
- Door Prizes
- Mix & Mingle

**We will be collecting 2012 Membership Dues, which are $30 a year.  Please remember cash or your checkbook.

**As Mary Claire, our VP and Charity Rep, mentioned in this previous blog post...Thanks to a generous donation from Michael Miller Fabrics we will have more pillow kits available for those who want to participate in our Fall/Winter Charitable Event.  Those that did not pick up a kit at November's meeting and want one, will have first opportunity.  Remember, you don't need a kit to participate and in order to reach our Feb 2012 goal of 150 pillowcases, we'll need your help.

**It's Ticket Raffle time.  All the info you need can be found on this blog post.  Remember to bring your donations, small (address size) stickers with your full name if you don't want to write your name over and over on your tickets, and some extra cash if you want to buy more tickets (3 for $1).

**Show & Tell Extended Edition is sure to be lots of fun.  What have you been dying to share with our group?  Maybe it's your newest modern quilt, maybe some new Fat Qtrs you just got in the mail, or maybe it's some news.  Gather up to 5 items that you would like to share with our members...and don't forget your camera.  As always, remember we are a Modern Quilt Guild.

Happy Holidays!!

Ticket Raffle - The Ins & Outs

Come join us as we end 2011 with our 1st ever Ticket Raffle.

Goal:
--To have fun and make a few extra $$ for the STLMQG; which will go towards Rental Space, Speaker's fees, Workshops, Retreats, etc.

Tickets:
3 for $1

Donations:
--Donations should be things that you would like to win.  We appreciate all types of items; both quilting/craft related and non.  Be creative!  While there could be more excitement surrounding certain items, we love all of them equally and appreciate you generous support of our STLMQG.

Ticket to Donation Exchange Rate:
If the estimated Retail value of your entire donation is…
$10 or less = 5 Tickets
$11 - $30 you receive 10 Tickets
$31 - $50 you receive 15 Tickets
$51 and up = 20 tickets
**While we know that the #s above to not equate to selling tickets 3 for $1.  We are happy to have your support and while you will feel warm and fuzzy inside, we also wanted to provide you with a little something in return for your donation.    Keep in mind that this is a fund-raising effort for our guild, so we hope that you'll buy tickets as well. 

Raffle Directions:
Buy your tickets, or use the ones you received in exchange for your donation.  Write your full name on the ticket, or make up small stickers (Return Address size) to place on the back, if you don't want to write your full name over and over.  Find the item/items you wish to take a chance on, place your ticket into the corresponding bag and cross your fingers. There is no limit to the amount of tickets that you can place into each bag, so if you really want an item…put “all your eggs in one basket”.  Winners will be randomly selected.  There is no limit to the amount that you can win. 

Misc:
If you have any questions, do not hestiate to ask.

------Exciting News------

We already received the following donations:

Pretty in Patchwork, donated by Lark Needlearts

2 "Charm Packs" of Echo by Lotta Jansdotter,
one of which was donated by Missouri Star Quilt Co.

Modern Mix by Jessica Levitt

Sew Darn Cute by Jenny Ryan

Last Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson

1/2 yd bundle of various DS Quilts prints

Fat Qtrs of various Tula Pink's Parisville prints

...not pictured 8" Gingher Shears w/tin and cover

$10 iTunes Gift Card

Handmade Quilt

...more to come

Flickr Feature Friday #7

Step away from the Thanksgiving Grocery List for a minute and come enjoy a little bit of inspiration by way of Flickr Feature Friday. 

#7

Here's the code:

1. In A Spin ~ Quilt top, 2. Charming Triangles Quilt Top, 3. Neptune bento box quilt, 4. stlmqg habitat challenge, 5. "time traveler" quilt, 6. Sweet Daisy Quilt, 7. Five Frames, 8. hope valley quilt 1, 9. Flora & Fauna Quilt, 10. quilt #2 (waiting for a good name!), 11. Pink, 12. Love in Wonky Stars with do. Good Stitches

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

This week's Flickr Feature Friday is brought to you by Tracy B.

Fall/Winter Charity Event

As the weather cools and we spend more time indoors,

do you think you could whip up a pillowcase or two for a good cause? 

For our Fall/Winter Charity Event we've decided to participate in the

American Patchwork & Quilting One Million Pillowcase Challenge!

We've set ourselves a lofty goal of 150 pillowcases by February 2012.

You can grab this button (and others) for your blogs here!

Free patterns are available here!

For every pillow case you make you will be entered into our prize drawing!

You could win:

 a Reliable V50 Iron (generously donated by Reliable)

a gift card from Sew Mama Sew

Sarah Jane Children at Play Panel (courtesy of Michael Miller)

Sarah Jane Children at Play Panel and scrap pack (courtesy of Michael Miller)

a selection of scrap packs (courtesy of Michael Miller)

check back as more prizes will be added!

Westminster Fabric has made a generous donation to our guild's effort that allowed us to make over 60 pillow case kits available to our members.  50 kits were snatched up at the November meeting; thank you!!!We'll bring the remaining kits and hopefully a few more to the December meeting!

Michael Miller has made an amazing donation of wonderful modern fabrics!  We've made over 40 pillow case kits with fabrics such as Sarah Jane Children at Play and Violet Craft's Peacock Lane!  These new kits will be available at the December meeting!

As always, our deepest thanks for your support of our charity events!

Meeting Recap (November 12th, 2011)

Thank you to everyone who attended our meeting yesterday, and for our regulars who couldn't make it...you were missed.  Let's hop right into what happened.

• Our Fall/Winter Charitable Gather will be making pillowcases as part of the American Patchwork & Quilting One Million Pillowcase Challenge.  Westminster Fabrics graciously donated bolts of fabric; which our VP, Mary Claire, cut into kits.  Please keep your eyes here tomorrow for a blog post about our goals, links to tutorials, prize incentives, etc.  Pillowcases are due in February 2012.
• Cara, back from her visit to Salt Lake City, gave us a recap of The Sewing Summit and topped it off with some giveaways.  Weren't you all loving her DIY messenger bag?
• We *tried* to play Rob Your Neighbor; but no one wanted to steal from one another...finally, after some gentle pushing and prodding, we had a quick game and it was over before we knew it.  Note to self: don't play this game again :-)
• Our members starting paying their 2012 dues.  Rene, our new Treasurer, had a line of "customers"; which is exciting to see.  YAY!!!
• Finally, we discussed what was on tap for December's meeting which will include an extended edition of Show & Tell where each person is encourage to bring up to 5 items to show-off.  Additionally, we discussed the Ticket Raffle and showed off a few of the items that have already been donated.  We'll have a blog post up next week giving your more information about how you can participate in this event.

Finally, here a few other things that were mentioned that you might want to know about.

• Nancy P. shared 2 postcards that she got from Houston Market; which she felt captured the Modern Aesthetic.  Abbey Lane Quilts and SUCH Designs
• I let you all know that Sharon Bailey, Coordinator for the Quilts of Valor Foundation, will be coming up from Arkansas to do a community outreach program. There is no cost for the workshop, which is December 10th from 1-4pm at the Missouri History Museum.  It is open to the public, and she'd love for local quilters to show up to support their foundation's efforts to cover our wounder warriors with quilts. Sharon will be teaching whoever wants to learn, how to make a string block.

See you all next month.  Let's keep the conversation going on our STLMQG Flickr boards. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!