July 20 Meeting - Show & Tell

Business

We discussed the pros and cons of joining the Modern Quilt Guild (MQG).  Trudy moved that we vote on it and Mary seconded the motion.  We unanimously voted on having our guild become an official Modern Quilt Guild.

Stefanie will be looking for volunteers to help revise our by-laws and to take care of other things that need to be done to prepare us for our official MQG status.  Our dues will go up but that probably will not go into effect until January 2014.

Block of the Month

Stefanie created this curvy modern pinwheel block made from traditional drunkard's path blocks.  Go here for the pattern.  She explained two different techniques used in curved piecing.  One way is to ease the two fabrics into a 1/4-inch seam allowance after aligning and pinning the center points and the two outer edges.  This technique requires lots of pins.

The other option is to use the Curve Master Presser Foot.  Stefanie loves gadgets and says this one works like magic.  It comes with a bunch of shanks which allow it to fit on almost any machine.

Check out this tutorial.  Pretty cool discovery Stefanie! 

Show & Tell

Trudy recently finished this very boyish quilt for her future grandson.  Make sure you zoom in and read the quotes on the center panel.  Trudy did lots of quilting on this.  She kept the lines straight by using her foot as a guide for each row.

Here's a quilt by Stefanie.  Zoom in and check out her stippling.  Her stitches are amazingly even!  She likes to use the Red Pepper Quilts binding technique.

We all went crazy over Stefanie's giant churn dash quilt.  She promised herself that she wouldn't start any new quilts until she finished all her WIPs (works in progress), but couldn't contain herself and 'churned' out this beaut in just a few hours.

This quilt is made from a Bonnie & Camille happy-go-lucky jelly roll.  Stefanie found the Hashtag pattern in a Craftsy class called Pre-Cut Piecing Made Simple.  If this all sounds like a strange new language to you, join our guild and we will interpret/translate for you.

This is Jenny's first tote bag - not to own, but to sew.  It's for her sister who picked out the fabrics which come from Anna Maria Horner's Loulouthi line.  Go here for the pattern.
 

Mary was elated to announce that she finally finished her Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt top.  It's the biggest quilt she's ever made.  And she finished just in time, before she would actually start her own trip around the world to England.  We are excited for her and sad for us.  We will miss her great spirit and contagious enthusiasm.

2013 Block of the Month: July

Our next installment in our Block of the Month series comes from (yours truly) Stefanie Williams. When we devised this series originally it was a way to impart some instruction/guidance for various piecing techniques into our monthly programs without doing a full-blown workshop. For this month, we focus on Curved Piecing. Before you click away, please give it a try. It's definitely not too difficult, and it will open your quilting world to lots of new possibilities. So, get ready to learn more about curved piecing with our striking new block.

Modern Pinwheel by Stefanie Williams

click here to download the tutorial

We'll see you back here soon with our next block!

July Meeting Reminder

Don't forget to join us this Saturday, July 20 at 10 a.m! If you've never been to our meetings, we meet at the First Presbyterian Church located at 101 Legends Club Lane in Franklin. You can find a map to the location on our website (click on the tab above).

Our agenda includes: 

Business 
We have some decisions to make.  The original Modern Quilt Guild (MQG) is going international. Here's how it would affect us to join them:

• We would be able to keep our current guild name, otherwise we'd have to remove the 'modern' from our name.
• We would qualify for 501 (c) (3) status through them.
• They would provide us with a website and we would be linked to all the modern guilds via their website and social media.
• We would have to pay annual dues to them, of approximately $15/member, which would increase your total dues to approximately $40/year.
• We have already adopted official Bylaws and Standing Rules, and have the required EIN. Our bylaws  would need some minor revisions to meet the MQG criteria.

At our July 20 meeting we will discuss further and vote on it.  IMPORTANT!  Please review this document before our July 20th meeting.

BOM Presentation
Stefanie Williams will be presenting the 7th block in our 2013 BOM program. 

Show & Tell
If you have some fun modern projects to share with the group, please bring them along to share with the group.