February 2024 Recap - All About Scraps!

February is usually a drab, post-holidays blues month, but it took a whole new hue at our latest meeting! It was nice to see the display of colors, as our members showed their latest projects, and brought in their scrappiest quilts!

President: Shared the details of the Retreat (May 3-5th, at the Crestfield Conference Center in Slippery Rock, PA; prices range from $140 for day-retreat with food and no accommodations, to $275 for a single room with accommodations and food included); Registration and Payment are due on Mar. 3rd - register now via the Jan 29th e-mail link, or by clicking “Members Only Content” on the top of this page and “Event Registration”

We also voted for the destination of our community quilt (“Sweater Weather”), which is going to the Children’s Home of Pittsburgh, a local non-profit that works to “promote the health and well-being of infants and children”

Social Media: We will continue to win tickets for the year-end drawing, with two changes: (1) no more paper tickets; tickets will be tallied digitally and (2) a new prize of $200 that can be used towards the retreat or a gift certificate

Program: Asked our members for facilitators for upcoming programs, including: June Round Robin - Surface design (twilling stitch, big stitch, embellishing, couching, fabric painting), Quilted clothing, Pixel quilting, and Quilt design apps

Our February program was All About Scraps, and Mary facilitated discussion on how to store and use scraps! There was a lot of discussion in the room, from how much fabric to save, to how to use it, to differences between traditional and modern scrappy quilting. Thank you so much Mary!

We also asked our members to bring their scrappiest quilts, and look at all the beauties they brought to share:

Quarterly Challenges:

Our 1st Quarterly Challenge is Temperature Quilts, and the last day to bring yours in is on the April meeting

Our 2nd Quarterly Challenge is Scrap Quilts, and we want to see them from May to July. We are looking for a quilted item from the leftover “Scraps” from past quilt projects, utilizing modern characteristics. Your quilt can have a maximum of one new / non-scrap fabric.

As I look ahead to the coming months, I do so with gratitude for the inspiration that our guild brings into our lives. Until the March 3rd meeting, Happy Quilting!

January 2024 elections and recap

Hello and welcome 2024!  We had a great meeting with elections for new officers, a speaker from the Heinz History Center and a review of Quilt Market in October.  Because of a last-minute Covid diagnosis, I missed the December meeting/sew day, so I have a few updates there, too.

Eric Lidji from the Heinz History Center came to talk about an upcoming exhibit (September 1, 2024 through April 2025) featuring the work of local quilter, Louise Silk.  Silk’s journey from 1970s textile artist and home ec teacher are on display as well as today’s works that are more personal and comprised of family clothing. It promises to be both deeply personal to her and to speak to the creative soul in each of us.  Lidji explained that the first half of the event will be creating stitched pieces that will be added to exhibit for public display and the second half will be where the public can take the tiny pieces home with them.  You can see examples on Silk’s Instagram account, @silkquilt. The name of the group of volunteers who will be piecing and stitching these small works will be BubbeWisdom Stitching Circle.  If you are interested in participating, get the email from Mary pghmqg.programs@gmail.com 

·        President:  The new officers for 2024 are Connie in Membership, Luiza in Social Media, Mary in Programs, Cheralee in Treasurer and Michele as President.  Congratulations to the new officers and thank you to the 2023 officers: Mary, Gail, Jen, Erin and Cheralee. The retreat drawing winner was Zsofia!

·        Membership: We now have 60 members, with 16 new members joining in 2023!

·        Treasurer: A year-end update was shared and you can find that in the meeting slides in the Members-Only Archive.  Our dues to the MQG increased because our membership grew as well.

·        Programs: Weaving challenges were due at this meeting!  The 2024 challenges were also shared – Q1 Temperature Quilts, Q2 Scrappy Quilts, Q3 Color Challenge and Q4 UFO Challenge.

Nicole and her mom, Kim Nixon, from Sewing Original Stitches treated us to a Quilt Market review. Quilt Market is an industry show for shops and professionals and showcases new products, new lines, etc. It happens twice a year, with one event always happening in Houston and the other rotating throughout the country. New products they brought to share were TenSisters Easy Piecing Grids, OdiShine glitter gel, and fusible scrap tape. Kim noted that handsewing’s presence at Quilt Market is on the rise, and also that some noted quilters are retiring. We really enjoyed learning from a shop’s perspective about choosing the range of products to offer. Thanks so much to Nicole and Kim!

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December notes: The Meet Me At the Point charity quilt was donated to the Women’s Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh. It looks like everyone had a great day sewing and the swap of thread catchers was a festive success.

November 2023 Recap - Temperature Quilts

The November meeting was low-key, with just a few leaders and a smaller attendance than what we normally see. That didn’t prevent us from covering a wide variety of topics or taking care of some administrative work! This month we voted on accepting an updated version of the by-laws. Key changes included upgrading the social media position to be on par with the other leadership as far as title and candidate eligibility. Social media has come a long way since the guild began and the part it plays deserved a more thoughtful definition. We also updated our definition of modern quilting to align with the new Modern Quilt Guild website. Leadership terms were clearly spelled out as one year long, and references to a specific month for the General Meeting were removed to reflect that the calendar for the guild has shifted since Covid. The new , and approved, by-laws will be found under the tab in the Members-Only portion of the website. The vote to make the changes was unanimous.

President: Mary wasn’t able to join us, but Erin reviewed the need for new candidates for the upcoming election. Judy Irving is our election official and as of Sunday, nobody had submitted their names. ALL positions are open, as the current leadership will be leaving or vacating their current position. PLEASE consider running for office. The guild cannot function without volunteers and the changes you saw this year were done with an eye to making the roles run more smoothly. Our motto in leadership was that the decisions we made weren’t for today, but were intended for tomorrow. Ask any officer if you have any questions and remember to speak to Judy by the end of the day Friday, November 24, 2023. A ballot will be prepared and shared at the December meeting. Voting will be at the January 2024 meeting (which WILL be in-person.) Our community charity quilt for QuiltCon has been submitted, too!

We added a social time at the beginning of the meeting. What did you think?

Social Media: A progress report on the tasks outlined in the June meeting was given. Over 1, 000 show and tell photos have been added to the archives for member viewing. The Facebook page and members-only group are now linked for cross-posting. The Instagram account cannot directly link to the Facebook account at this time because of limitations in creating profiles in Facebook. Video tutorials were made for the future social media officers to use the new website as well as written instructions. The Flickr photos are 90% moved over and a little clean up needs to happen before that account can be deleted. An emphasis on simplicity and streamlining the job of social media was made, plus a description of the duties required versus personal choice was explained. The Monday Member Roundup feature, for instance, is a personal choice to create. Future officers should feel that they can continue or discard these optional activities as they see fit while fulfilling the duties of the role.

Membership: Two new biographies were added to the website in the members-only area. Thank you, Gerry and Merrilee! We currently have 58 members and 33 attended the October meeting on weaving. Make sure to pick up your MQG membership pin from Gail if you didn’t get it in July. Also, please confirm that you are receiving the weekly emails from the MQG. Your PghMQG membership includes membership to the MQG.

Programs: The meeting topic was Temperature Quilts, quilts that use weather data to determine something about the pattern, usually fabric color. Erin covered how to create a color range for the temps, where to find historic temperature date and how you could add details like precipitation to your design. Anne W brought a temperature quilt that she had previously made as an example. Temperature Quilts are the focus of the Q1 2024 quarterly challenge, due in April 2024. We have a great resource from a guild in Erie, PA that has an algorithm that will take the guesswork out of choosing colors. The email to receive this customized info can be found in the slides rather than here as it was shared with us with special permission. Erin also has many links to accompany this program, also found in the slides. Just a reminder, the Q4 2023 challenge is to include weaving in a project. Due January 2024!

Special MQG Report: Karen Womack, PghMQG member, was elected our regional rep to the MQG board. She shared that the MQG is looking to diversify the programs it offers to include more individual members. We saw the International Scrap Sorting Day and an upcoming Quilt Back Challenge was discussed. Another line item was that QuiltCon is the main source of funds for the MQG. They are looking to apply for grants, so requests for demographic information may be coming in the future to help determine which grants will work best for us all.

Don’t forget:

• December will be our holiday sew day & luncheon. Come sew with us December 2, 2023, from 9am-8pm. We are exchanging thread catchers! Links to ideas are on the meeting slides in the archives.

• Pam Bice has reserved an AirBnB for QuiltCon and is looking for roommates. Please email or text/call her for more information. She can be found in the roster in the members-only area of the site.

• All 2024 dates have been added to the website calendar, including meetings, sew days, etc.