The STLMQG welcomes Latifah Saafir to St. Louis

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We are sad to have to announce that this weekend's visit with Latifah Saafir has been canceled due to a personal medical emergency for Latifah. We are so sorry to everyone who was looking forward to her visit. We are hoping to be able to reschedule with Latifah in the coming months and will keep you updated as soon as we have more information.

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The STLMQG is so excited to be bringing Latifah Saafir to St. Louis this June and is pleased to extend an invitation to her trunk show and lecture to the entire St. Louis-area quilting community.

   

Latifah Saafir is a pattern and fabric designer, teacher, and speaker who is known for her bold and innovative modern quilts. Combining her training as an engineer with her lifelong passion for sewing, Latifah creates designs that are graphic and contemporary, featuring challenging techniques with meticulous attention to detail. She is a co-founder of both the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild and the worldwide Modern Quilt Guild and has contributed to numerous modern quilting books in addition to creating her own extensive line of quilt patterns. Her popular Glam Clam quilt pattern epitomizes her fun, unique take on modern quilting.

To learn more about Latifah and her work, visit latifahsaafirstudios.com or follow her on Instagram @latifahsaafirstudios.

Latifah will be presenting a trunk show and lecture on her quilting journey and how she found her voice. The presentation is open to the public, and we hope you can join us! Details below.

When:

Saturday, June 9, 2018

   --Doors open at 6:30 pm

   --Lecture starts promptly at 7 pm, followed by a meet and greet

Where:

The Center of Clayton
50 Gay Ave.

Clayton, MO 63105
Meeting Rooms B & C (First Floor) 

Cost:

--Free for STLMQG members

--$5 for non-members 

Latifah will be selling her patterns onsite.

If you are a local shop or quilt guild and would like to use this announcement,

 you can download a copy here.
 

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Latifah will also be teaching two full-day workshops on Saturday, June 9th (Molehills Quilt) and Sunday, June 10th (Glam Clam Quilt) from 9:00 am-4:00 pm with a one-hour lunch break starting at noon.

Spots are still available in both workshops. Workshops are open to both STLMQG members ($45 fee) and non-members ($75 fee). Individuals who register for a workshop will receive a confirmation email with information on payment procedures and supply lists. You can read all about both workshops and the additional trunk show/lecture here.

Member registration can be done here, and non-member registration can be done here.

    

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We hope to see you there!

Shannon Brinkley's Visit to the STLMQG

This past weekend, the STLMQG was pleased to host Shannon Brinkley, a quilter, pattern designer, book author, and creator of the Scrappy Applique technique. She hosted two workshops for our members on her signature technique and color confidence for quilters, as well as a trunk show and lecture that was open to both members and the public.

The weekend started with the Scrappy Applique workshop. Shannon showed everyone how to use interfacing and improv-cut pieces of fabric to create fun collages in a a variety of shapes, from city skylines to globes, trees, and elephants. It was a freeing and fun class!

 

Here are just some of the lovely finished pieces! You can find lots more pictures of the workshops on our guild's Instagram page.

A large, attentive crowd joined us that night for the trunk show, in which Shannon showed off many of her lovely pieces and told us more about scrappy applique and her creative process.

We finished off the weekend with the Color Confidence for Quilters workshop, in which Shannon guided members through color theory, helping them to divide their stashes into specific colors on the color wheel, make their own color wheels, and create usable fabric palettes.

It was such a fun, colorful weekend, and we're so pleased Shannon was able to join us!

Meeting Recap (March 10, 2018)

Thank you to everyone who came out to Saturday's meeting! It was great to see everyone and have some fun!

• Gayle, our Treasurer, gave us the updated financial info.
• Krista, our Secretary, announced our membership numbers and passed out our new MQG membership cards and pins.
• Marie, our VP, announced several pieces of quilting news and happenings (more about these will be sent via email).
• Jessica, our President, covered a whole host of items:
• The hand-sew happy hours and location for the entire year have been posted to the blog. This month's meet-up will be on Tuesday, March 20.
• SewMeSTL is going to be three days of fun this year (October 5-7)! Info on hotel rates and how to reserve will be sent via email.
• Sign-ups for the Latifah Saafir workshops in June will be going out this week, so keep an eye on your email. Info on the workshops will go out Tuesday, and the link for registration will go out Friday morning.
• Jessica announced the next Rainbow Block of the Month (BOM) Challenge color -- green. Save your citrons and teals for future months; this month, we want true green. You can find all of the details (and picture examples) here.
• Cindi and the Charity Committee reminded us about this year's charity project, which will be making normal quilts for Nurses for Newborns. You can find all of the details here.
• Emily and the Member Swap and Challenge Committee announced this year's challenge, the Colors of the Year Challenge, celebrating Pantone Ultra Violet and Kona Tiger Lily. You can find all of the details here.
• Emily and the committee also hosted our first swap of the year -- coasters! We had almost 40 members participate in a fun, rob-your-neighbor style game, and everyone who participated went home with a cute set.

 

Coasters and photo by Laura Patterson

• For this month's activity, we played a fun game called Block Relay, in which teams raced in several rounds to construct traditional blocks from the paper pieces provided. Hopefully, we weren’t too hard on you. The winners took home little bundles of low-volume stash builders.

Photo courtesy of Kristy Daum

 

• Marie collected the remaining blocks for our first Block Lotto round. The response was huge, and we ended up collecting enough blocks for 5 winners (4 received 35 blocks each, and the final winner received 27 blocks). Great job, guys! One of our winners, Kerry Caverly, already has her blocks up on her design wall.

 

 Photo courtesy of Marie

 

 Photo courtesy of Kerry

• Marie also announced the details for our second Block Lotto round, which is all about flying geese. You can find all of the details here. These blocks will be due in May, with no early collection due to the Shannon Brinkley workshops in April.

 Photo courtesy of Krista

• We wrapped up the meeting with a great Show and Tell. Projects by Annie Cook, Jamie Mueller, and Amanda Zericki are shown below. 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.

 

 

Remember that we don't have a regular meeting next month because of Shannon Brinkley's visit, but we hope to see lots of you at the workshops and trunk show. The details on her visit can be found here. Be sure to invite your friends to the trunk show, which is open to the public. See you in May!

2018 Colors of the Year Challenge

At our March meeting, the Member Swap and Challenge Committee announced this year's challenge, the Colors of the Year Challenge!

Items made for the challenge should have one of the colors of the year -- either Pantone Ultra Violet OR Kona Tiger Lily -- as their focus.

 

Requirements:

• You do not have to match the focus color exactly, but it should be in the "spirit" of the color. Get as close as you can.
• You may add in as many other fabrics and colors as you like, as long as Ultra Violet or Tiger Lily remains the focus.
• You may use both modern prints and solids.
• You can submit as many entries as you like in as many categories as you like.
• Entries are due at our November 10th meeting (NOTE: The deadline has been extended to our November meeting so you have more time to participate.)
• There will be three categories: minis, quilts, and just-the-top: 
• Minis: Shortest side measures less than 30" (pillows, table runners, place mats, mug rugs, quilted bags, etc. all count as minis) 
• Just-the-Top: Unfinished quilt tops, any size from baby to bed (shortest side must be at least 30”)
• Quilts: Finished quilts, any size from baby to bed (shortest side must be at least 30”) 

Prizes:

• Each valid entry will receive one raffle ticket. A drawing will be held to choose one random winner in each category.
• The prizes will consist of gift certificates in the following amounts: $15 for minis, $25 for just-the-top, and $35 for quilts.
• In addition, there will also be one viewers' choice prize. All members in attendance at the November meeting will vote on their choice for the best project across all categories. The person with the most votes will win a $25 gift certificate.