December 2024 Sew Day
Our Dec Sew Day was a hit!
Before we get to the nitty-gritty of the recap, can we just take a moment and recognize something? When our guild has a potluck, members SHOW up. If you skipped the sew day, you didn’t just miss great quilts, lots of laughter and holiday cheer. You missed bagels, mini sliders, multiple soups, salads, cookies (so many cookies), a box of chocolates, cakes and pies… Not only are our members creative people, they are great cooks. Thank you so much for all of your efforts in the potluck department!
Let’s start with the latest announcements. Registration for the 2025 Retreat at Camp Crestfield is open! You can go here to enter your information. All of the information is on that page, but if you have any questions, please reach out. Something different this year, Cheralee is good to go with payments if you would rather do installments. All balances still need to paid by the deadline, March 22. 2025.
We are also partnering with Quilt Company East to give you two opportunities to see Tara Faughnan, the 2025 QuiltCon featured speaker! First is a Zoom lecture, Value Creates the Design, on April 21, 2025. The cost is $6 and we committed to 40 spots for our members. The second event is an improv workshop, the Give & Take Quilt. This workshop is also through Zoom on May 3, 2025. (This does clash with a special Saturday guild meeting, just so you know.) We have committed to 8 spots in this workshop. The cost is $70 and is 6 hours long. Both events, and more information, can be found here.
We still have room in our Quilted Jacket workshop! We have opened it up to non-members and need to get it filled. If you’re on the fence, please let us know if you have any questions. Find more info here.
If you didn’t hear the announcement, we have the candidates for the election next month! You can read a short bio for each woman in the email sent out December 12, 2024.
President - Nicole Gallagher
Programs - Rose Saville-Iksic
Membership - Connie McFadden
Treasurer - Cheralee Stover
Social Media - Jennifer Mack
You’ll be able to vote on Zoom this year, and we have other exciting announcements, so please make a point to join us next month!
Here’s the last, most important, news. ;) The Q4 UFO challenges are due in January. You are encouraged to bring no more than 5 UFOs for Show & Tell. If you received an email from Cheralee regarding previously submitted UFOs and photos, the deadline to respond to the email is Tuesday, December 31, 2024. To get credit for them, please submit photos for the previously completed UFOs if they aren’t on the Challenges page. This doesn’t apply to the projects you are bringing to the meeting. If you already replied, THANK YOU.
The last day for hashtags to count for THIS year’s round of tickets is December 31, 2024. Instagram has made some changes and we will need to count them by hand. This gives us enough time to make the counts and ensure you get credit.
September 2023 Recap
September was a sew day and we assembled out community quilt!
First, we want to thank every one who took a block kit and braved the scant quarter inch seam allowance! We had 100% of the blocks returned and we were able to get most of the quilt assembled before everyone headed home. Special thanks to Rose and Connie, on our community charity quilt committee. Also, thank you to those members who were willing to tweak blocks and remake the ones we couldn’t for the front. We see you and we’re so grateful!
We have confirmed the Sarah Goer workshop, Building An Improv Toolbox, for October. Supply lists will be gong out this week!
October’s meeting is all about fabric weaving! We’ve already sent out emails with the supply list, but here they are, one more time:
Supplies you will need to bring:
some kind of weaving tool… see options below
pins
Scissors
strips of fabric at least 9" length, prepared by either:
cut 2.5" strips (or use a jelly roll!), fold in half lengthwise and sew the long edge together with a 1/4" seam, turn the tube so the seam is on the inside and press. You will then have 1" wide strips
cut 2" strips and press the long edges to the center for a finished 1' wide strip to work with.
Tips for picking fabric:
Coordinating colors
Color gradient
2-3 similar tones with a contrasting pop
"ugly" fabrics can look better as small strips
Want some ideas for this project? Visit Weftyneedle.com and check out the blog.
** You can purchase a Wefty needle, but if you’re not sure if you want to commit, here is the Wefty and two alternatives - a bodkin and a homemade Wefty from template plastic:
Image 1 from the Wefty website, Image 2 from Joann.com
We also REALLY want to get the 2023 charity quilt into a new home. If you have ANY suggestions, bring the organization’s information with you for the October meeting. We’re voting on where Meet Me At the Point should go.
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Things we want you to remember! Now functional on the website: Workshop Registration, Submit Bio, Guild By-Laws, Suggest A Shop, Submit Show & Tell, Membership Roster buttons are all good to go. The roster button is also live.
August 2023 Recap
Whew! August was chock full of information, plus we had cupcakes. Community blocks went out, we covered QuiltCon registration and framing quilt blocks.
Whew! This meeting set a record! We had 38 attendees, including 4 guests! Thank you so much for showing up to celebrate our guild’s birthday! I did a little digging, and it appears that the “birthday” of the guild is July 7, 2012. So, we’re 11 years old! We gave members their new MQG member pins (now with snazzy magnetic clasps) and everyone could enjoy cupcakes in the guild’s colors.
Programs:
The first part of programming was Cheralee talking about framing quilt blocks; this was a survey result back in February. She gave three examples with variations: framing using paper, canvas, and using an embroidery hoop. Additional links can be found in the meeting slides. Most of the supplies can be found at your local craft store or on Amazon to DIY the project.
The second portion of programming was Rose & Cheralee explaining the scant quarter inch seam allowance needed with an assist by Mary. Lo & Behold Stitchery wrote the pattern we are using for the charity quilt this year and the instructions call for a scant quarter inch seam. There is a link in the meeting slides as well as in the post written for anyone who was struggling with their block. Community Quilt Block Tips We distributed the blocks for the cahrity quilt and ask that all blocks be ready for the September 9, 2023 assembly day.
The current challenge is to make any quilt using just 3-5 colors. Please use the #pghmqgltdcolor hashtag!
Future programming:
September - Sew Day
October - Fabric Weaving
November - Temperature Quilts
December - Winter Party & Sew Day
President:
Mary covered the information necessary to prep for the August 15th registration for QuiltCon. The email that you provided through the registration with the PghMQG is the email we provide to the MQG. Your PghMQG membership includes membership to the MQG. If you aren’t receiving the weekly MQG emails, please let Gail know. QuiltCon offers discounts and a free 4 day pass to members who register before 11/30/2023. You can find out more about entering your quilts, the challenges being displayed at the 2024 location (Raleigh, NC) and more at QuiltCon.com
We are still acccepting registrations for the improv workshop in October! This is a 2-day Zoom workshop, so wear your PJs, we don’t care! The cost is $40 for members, and we will be opening up the registration to other guilds and the public at large in September. We only have 20 seats, so hurry up and RSVP! You can commit to the workshop through the registration button in the Members-Only section of the site. Then send or bring your payment in. Building An Improv Toolbox with Sarah Goer
Social Media:
The migration of the Facebook accounts is ongoing, but the August goals include moving the 700+ photos we currently have on Flickr to the Archives here on our own site. Maintenance to the Flickr account lapsed sometime around 2017 (?) and reducing the number of websites that we have profiles on was one of the goals leadership identified when we first began building the new site. Linking more of the old content to the new site from the old blog as well as adding more programming content is also ongoing.
Treasurer:
Jen presented our Fiscal Year 2023-2024 projected budget. It includes amounts for some new equipment, and also emphasized that we don’t aim to make a profit off our our workshops. You can check that slide out in the Archives, found through the Members-Only portion of the site.
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Things we want you to remember! Now functional on the website: Workshop Registration, Submit Bio, Guild By-Laws, Suggest A Shop, Submit Show & Tell, Membership Roster buttons are all good to go. The roster button is also live. The Beaver Valley Piecemakers show is accepting entries, too! You can find more info in our calendar. ONE LAST THING, our own member, Karen, is running in the Region 3 MQG election. You should have received an email from the MQG regarding the candidates. Voting ends Sept 7, 2023.
