SewMeSTL 2019 Recap

This weekend, we celebrated our members at the 6th annual Sew Me St. Louis retreat. This was the second year of our new three-day format, which meant even more time for sewing, socializing, and fun.

We also moved to a new venue, which allowed us to include almost 100 members in the fun with a lot more space to spread out.

The SewMeSTL Committee worked so hard over the past few months to ensure this was our best retreat yet. From finding a great new venue to collecting awesome raffle prizes, organizing 12 demos, and brainstorming lots of fun new activities, they really took the retreat to the next level. Thank you so much to the committee!

The weekend was packed full of bonuses as well, including the ever-popular scrap dash; a hand-sew happy hour; stretching and yoga sessions; a pajama party and games; and demos on a wide range of tasks, from machine binding and English paper piecing to making chicken pincushions and board basting. Thank you to the wonderful members who took the time to share their knowledge in the demos.

Our members also enjoyed an exciting pouch swap. It was almost as fun to see what goodies each swapper had stuffed inside their pouch. You all did some wonderful work!

One of the best parts of any retreat is seeing what everyone else is working on, and our members certainly had some beautiful projects to show off. Check out the @stlmqg IG feed and #sewmestl for lots more pictures of everyone's projects and the nightly Show and Tells.

We're so glad that so many members were able to join us, and we're already dreaming of next year's event. We hope you all had as much fun as we did!

Ticket Raffle 2019

Our STLMQG Ticket Raffle is always a lot of fun, and the money we raise goes right back into our guild. This will be our 9th year hosting the raffle, and while many of our members are well aware of how it works, we want to make sure that everyone can get in on the fun. Plus, we're making a few changes this year to hopefully improve the process, so be sure to read through the full post.

How the Raffle Works:
Members donate fabulous items at the November and December meetings and are issued tickets in exchange for the retail value of their complete donation. (If you donate items in November, we will make a note of the number of tickets you should receive in December. All tickets will be handed out in December.) Items are bundled, if necessary, and displayed at the December meeting. In December, members can purchase tickets and/or use the tickets they are issued for their donation to take a chance at winning donated items.

What Should I Donate?
Donations should be things that your fellow members would like to win and should generally be modern, new, and unused. There are, of course, a few exceptions (for instance, books may be gently used). The key to donating is to ask yourself -- will others in the modern guild be excited about this item? If the answer's yes, bring it on! If not, leave it at home. Do not use this as an opportunity to unload your magazines from 1997, that box of items you were going to donate to Goodwill, your more traditional fabric and items, or items that would otherwise be trashed or placed on the freebie table. 

Acceptable Donation Items:

• Quilt-shop quality modern fabric (pre-cuts, yardage, gallon-size bags of useable modern fabric scraps, etc.)
• Patterns for totes/handbags, modern quilts, etc.
• Finished handmade items (modern quilts, handbags, wall hangings, pillows, pincushions, etc.)
• Quality thread (quilting, applique, embroidery, etc.)
• Crafting supplies and sewing/quilting notions (English paper piecing supplies, embroidery kits, quilting rulers, etc.)
• Sewing-themed decor and art
• Quilting and sewing books
• Be creative! We've had donations of wine, chocolate, and restaurant gift certificates in the past, which are also fun.

Ticket-to-Donation Exchange Rate (November and December):

If the estimated retail value of your entire donation is…

$10 or less = 5 tickets

$11-30 = 10 tickets

$31-50 = 15 tickets

$51 and up = 25 tickets

Tickets for Purchase (December):
1 ticket for $1
25 tickets for $20

Ticket Raffle Directions (December meeting):
Buy your tickets and/or use the ones you received in exchange for your donation. On each ticket, write your last name and first initial or your full name (tip! bring return address labels to use if you don't want to write it out). Find the item(s) you wish to take a chance on, place your ticket(s) in the corresponding bag, and cross your fingers. There is no limit to the amount of tickets you can place in each bag, so if you really want an item, go ahead and put all your eggs in one basket. After the meeting break, winners will be randomly selected. There is no limit to the amount you can win.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Reminder: No October meeting

Reminder!

We don't have a monthly meeting in October because we'll all be having a blast at Sew Me St. Louis next weekend. You can find all the details about our in-town retreat here and in your guild emails.

You can also join us for hand-sew happy hour on Tuesday, October 22 at the St. Louis Bread Co. in Brentwood (details here).

Otherwise, we've got lots of deadlines coming up for our November meeting, so there's plenty to keep you busy:

• Last drop off for Project Linus quilts
• QuiltCon charity quilt blocks due
• Final Rainbow BOM blocks due Nov. 2 (we'll announce prize winners at the meeting)
• Mini Masterpiece Challenge quilts due

Giucy Giuce's Visit to the STLMQG

A few weeks ago, we had the absolute pleasure of welcoming Giuseppe Ribaudo (aka Giucy Giuce) to the STLMQG. The weekend kicked off with his wonderful trunk show and lecture on Friday night.

Giuseppe told us all about his unconventional journey into sewing and quilting, his work at Andover, his creative process, the stories behind his fabric lines and quilts, and so much more.

The photos don't lie -- Giuseppe's talk was a ball. His personality shines as much as his talent, and everyone walked away from the presentation with a smile on their face.

On Saturday, the fun continued with a workshop on Giuseppe's signature Tiny Piecing. Members in attendance were challenged to see just how tiny they could go using several of Giuseppe's paper-piecing patterns. The workshop was filled with lots of tips and encouragement.

On Sunday, we flipped gears with a workshop on Giuseppe's EPP pattern, Moonstone. After walking us through the actual process of EPP and letting us in on all of his favorite tools, we worked on fussy cutting and layout and then dove straight into our blocks.

You can find lots more photos of the weekend and our projects on our IG feed, as well as #stlmqg and #giucyvisitsstlmqg. Thank you again, Giuseppe, for a wonderful weekend. We all learned so much and had a ball doing it!

Meeting Recap (August 10, 2019)

Thank you to everyone who came out to Saturday's meeting! We hope everyone had a great time.

• Gayle, our Treasurer, gave us the updated financial info. You can still pay your 2019 dues; because we're past the halfway point of the year, dues are now just $20 for the rest of the year. You can pay via our Paypal link or mail a check to Gayle (see our member roster for her contact info).
• Krista, our Secretary, announced our membership numbers and passed out our MQG and STLMQG membership pins. We passed 150 members this meeting! Note: This year, the MQG is no longer sending printed membership cards. If you'd like a paper copy to use for discounts, etc., you can access and print it online. To access your digital card, log in to your MQG account, click on "My Dashboard" in the right sidebar, then click the orange "Membership Card" link at the top of your profile page.
• Marie, our VP, announced several pieces of quilting news and happenings (more about these will be sent via email).
• Jessica, our President, covered several items:
• This month's Hand-Sew Happy Hour will take place on Tuesday, August 20 at the St. Louis Bread Co. in Brentwood. More info here.
• In September, we're welcoming Giuseppe Ribaudo to the guild for a lecture and workshops. You can find more info about his visit here.
• SewMeSTL registration will take place this week! Be sure to read the email we sent last night with lots of info, as well as the new blog post here.
• QuiltCon will be held in Austin Feb. 20-23. Member registration for classes and entries for the quilt show are now open. Terry Darling and Marge Thomas are organizing our charity quilt efforts this year. They revealed the design and distributed packets for all of the blocks. If you missed the meeting, you can help out with assembling the quilt or other tasks later in the fall.

• Heather Benz told us about all the fun things the SewMeSTL Committee has planned for our retreat, which is coming up October 18-20. On behalf of the Member Swap and Challenge Committee, Terry also announced our final swap of the year, which will take place at SewMe. More info on both can be found here.
• The Charity Committee announced our fifth long-arm quilting winner for the Project Linus project. Congrats to Jessica Schunke, whose quilt top will be quilted by Jamie Mueller. Thank you both for participating! Keep working on those quilts; the final collection will take place in November. You can find all the info on the project here.
• For this month's activity, we celebrated the color wheel. We began by watching Heather Jones’s Creativebug class, Color Theory for Modern Quilters (we watched chapters 2, 3A, and 4). Then, using a variety of paint chips, members chose 3-4 colors in one of three categories (Monochromatic, Analogous, and Complementary/Split-Complementary). After the break, we then explained that members would use those colors to participate in the Mini Masterpiece Challenge. All the details on the challenge can be found here.

• Marie collected the cutest stack of pumpkin blocks for our third and final Block Lotto of the year. Congratulations to our winner, Nancy Dlugosz.

 

 Photo courtesy of Erin Chan

• We announced that the Rainbow BOM skill for August is fussy cutting (details here)! Then, we raffled off a copy of Fussy Cutters Club: A Boot Camp for Mastering Fabric Play by Angie Wilson to those who brought their completed July log cabin/courthouse steps blocks to the meeting.
• We wrapped up the meeting with another great Show and Tell. Keep an eye on our Instagram page to see lots more pics of the meeting, show and tell, and our members' projects throughout the month.

Important Reminder!

We will not have monthly meetings in September or October. Instead, we hope you can join us for Giuseppe Ribaudo's visit in September (info here) and/or Sew Me St. Louis, our annual in-town member retreat, in October (info here). Our next monthly meeting is November 9.

Mini Masterpiece Challenge

As part of our August meeting activity, we announced the "Mini Masterpiece Challenge," a fun challenge to help us wrap up this year of color. Here are the details:

We began by watching Heather Jones’s Creativebug class, Color Theory for Modern Quilters (we watched chapters 2, 3A, and 4). Then, using a variety of paint chips, members chose 3-4 colors in one of three categories (see Heather's class for further descriptions of the three):

1. Monochromatic (uses variations in lightness and saturation of a single color/hue),
2. Analogous (uses colors that are next to each other on the color wheel), or
3. Complementary/Split-Complementary (uses colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel/in addition to the base color, it uses the two colors adjacent to its complement).

If you weren't at the meeting, you can still participate! Just head to your local home improvement store to grab the paint chips. Try to branch out from your usual color scheme, and be sure to choose colors from the color wheel — avoid neutrals. (If you need a color wheel, check out this post on Shannon Brinkley's blog, which is all about color cards. The post also includes two color cards (one with a 12-color wheel and one with a 24-color wheel) that you can download for free. In addition to being helpful, they make cute artwork for your sewing room.)

To participate in the challenge:

1. Use your three to four colors to create a mini masterpiece.
2. Using any design and method(s) you want, create a finished work measuring 10” square or less.
3. The piece must be quilted but does not need to be bound (you could mount it to a canvas, for instance).
4. You can add neutrals in small amounts, but the three to four colors you chose should be the focus. Prints and solids are fine, but do not introduce any additional colors.
5. We’ll have four gift card prizes: one randomly chosen from each category (Monochromatic, Analogous, and Complementary/Split-Complementary) and one viewers’ choice prize.
6. If you'd like, post pictures of your paint chips and/or projects to Instagram so we can see what you're working on. Use #stlmqg and #stlmqgminimasterpiecechallenge.
7. Minis are due at our November 9th meeting.

Happy sewing!

SewMeSTL 2019 Announcement

Please join your fellow St. Louis MQG members at the sixth annual Sew Me St. Louis weekend, where there will be lots of laughs, sewing, and opportunities to make memories. For the second time, SewMeSTL will take place across three fun-filled days!

Friday, Oct. 18 and Saturday, Oct. 19
8 am-midnight

Sunday, Oct. 20
9 am-5 pm

Marriott St. Louis West
660 Maryville Centre Drive
St. Louis, MO 63141

:: All Day / All Night Open Sew ::

:: Swaps, Demos, Raffles, and More ::

This event is open to current St. Louis MQG members. Members must register, and space is limited to the first 80 registrants. We will also have a waiting list. The registration link will be sent out via email.

The cost is $20 per day. This fee helps to cover the rental cost of the ballrooms, swag, and other incidentals. Information on payment options will be sent after registration.

As always, don’t forget to use #SewMeSTL and #STLMQG on social media. Interested to see how much fun we've had in the past? Check out #sewmestl on Instagram.

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

Your registration secures a place for you in the All Day/All Night Open Sew Room. It’s a large ballroom fitted with standard-size tables, chairs, access to electricity, and way more fun than you can imagine. This communal room is where everyone will be hanging out, chatting, quilting, hand sewing, knitting, etc. until midnight on Friday and Saturday and then again until 5 pm on Sunday.

Food and drinks are allowed in the ballroom, so members are encouraged to bring something to share with the group -- a batch of brownies, veggies, fruit, chips, etc. For your main meal, consider visiting the hotel restaurant or checking out any of the fabulous restaurants in the surrounding area for lunch and/or dinner.

Door Prizes:: The SewMeSTL Committee has secured a number of exciting door prizes, which will be raffled over the course of the weekend. We'll be posting "sneak peeks" on Instagram in the coming weeks.

Scrap Swap:: Love scraps? Then this easy swap is for you. Just bring a quart- or gallon-size plastic bag filled with scraps and take home an equal share from the large pile of everyone's scraps. Just remember … we are a modern guild, so this is not the time to unload your upholstery and/or traditional fabrics. Scraps should be a usable size -- at least 2.5" square. The swap will take place Saturday evening.

Pouch Swap:: The Member Swap and Challenge Committee has created a fun blind swap for us this year.  All SewMeSTL attendees can participate. Those who wish to participate should use this tutorial by Anna Graham (aka Noodlehead) to create an Open-Wide Zippered Pouch using modern fabrics. You can choose any of the three pouch sizes in the tutorial. For fun, please also add a fun item or two to the pouch -- maybe a fat quarter or neat notion, some chocolate, a mini wine bottle, or so on. Pouches should be brought inside a bag (lunch sacks or plastic grocery bags work well) tied up with a piece of ribbon or selvage so participants will know which bag is theirs (so they don't pick their own). Do not put your name on the outside of the bag, but please include a "made by" note inside the pouch with your name so the recipient can thank you! The swap will take place on Saturday.

Weaving Class:: Jamie Willis, a member who is also a weaver, will be teaching a workshop on Saturday afternoon on making beautiful woven bracelets like the one shown below. The class will be three hours. You must register for the workshop when you register for SewMe. The class is limited to 12 members. Jamie will supply the warp linen, looms, tapestry needles, and clasps ($15 kit fee required), which are yours to keep. A list of other supplies will be provided after registration.

Demos:: The committee is organizing several short demos throughout the weekend. Members can sign up to present a demo during registration.

Other Fun::
--One night will be a pajama party! Wear your pjs, and we'll play silly games in the breakout room. Not into games? Keep right on sewing in the ballroom.
--Daily show and tells
--Daily chair yoga/stretching sessions to keep you limber

We can't wait to see you all there!