August meeting recap

We had a great meeting tonight - lots of items to talk about, lots of show and tell, lots of participation!  Here are just a few.

 Everybody (well, almost everybody) brought in their Lonely Crayon blocks - we have 30 of them with another two promised from Jeanine and Debbie. I brought them home with me tonight and couldn't resist taking pictures of some of them.  The range of color and design is wonderful and they should make a lively quilt.  We are getting together on Sunday, Sept 23 at Rock Paper Scissors, 12:noon to lay out the blocks and hopefully, get the top put together.  So far, we have 8 or 9 volunteers.  Here are some of the blocks I pulled out randomly.  Tip of the iceberg!

We are planning a quilt retreat,possibly for March.  People signed up for further info; if you did not, please email us nnjmodquilts@gmail.com and we'll put you on the list.

Kelli Puryear is in charge of the shelter quilt project we're going to do in conjunction with QuiltCon. More on this at next meeting, which is September 20th.

Also due at next meeting, your before and after blocks.  Some of them came in tonight and were fun to see. 

Don't forget - if you want to post anything at all to the blog, let me know and I will send you an invitation to be a contributor.  How about it??

Till next time.

Events to check out

If you want to keep up with information, announcements and your fellow NNJMQG members, PLEASE subscribe to this blog by email. Just put your email address in the subscribe box at the top of our sidebar! News will come into your mailbox when there is a new post.  We only send out meeting reminder emails, but all the news and announcements (topics for discussion between meetings, brainstorming, ideas, discussions what's doing) are on this blog!

We have posted links to some of our favorite blogs on the sidebar- if you have favorite Modern Quilt blogs, please email us and we'll add them to the sidebar.

ALSO  - We notice that the other MQG blogs have members who post their works-in-progress, ask for feedback, etc. and keep up with one another.  It would be great if you would sign up to be an author and we can get to know one another by featuring profiles of our members periodically  Please email us
NNJModquiltst@gmail.com and we'll put you on as an author so you can post any time.

LINKS
To find out about participating in the Modern Quilt Guild's Community project that Kelli Puryear is spearheading
http://themodernquiltguild.com/

Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza Sept 13-15  Sept 15 -Bus Trip from Clifton! http://quiltfest.com

Quilters Take Manhattan Sept 15 (The Quilt Alliance) Denyse Schmidt, Jennifer Chiaverini, Mark Lipinski.  Tickets: $45 for Alliance Members, $60 for non members, $25 for "Home" tickets  (see site for explanation) http://www.allianceforamericanquilts.org/

City Quilter Gallery:

• Lisa Call Sept 11-Oct 20 Judi Blaydon Nov 6-Dec 15 Gallery Talk 6 PM, Sept 11, preregistration required: http://www.cityquilter.com

• Tula Pink Trunk Show, Sept 26 12-2, 6-8 (City Quilter) Tula has an amazing book, is a fabric and quilt designer.

• Victoria Findlay Wolfe, Dec 6 (City Quilter) MQG NYC trunk show, presentation, book launch, 15 Minutes of Play- Improvisational Quilts

    Long Arm Event  Dec 15 (City Quilter) Demos of HandiQuilter's Sweet Sixteen and the HQ Avante 18.

Last but not least, go to Craftsy's free Block of the Month class and have some fun!

That's it for now!  

Lonely Crayon Block & Other Free-Flowing Thoughts...

A Few Shades of Gray

When we decided to think about our least used crayon, it was a no brainer for me.  While I'll say I fear no color (or cloth), I have never used gray in one of my quilts. Gray is really popular these days with the mqg (Modern Quilt Gang) and that has lead to there being a lot more shades of gray (not close to 50, though!).  Needless to say, I've fallen in love with my blocks and the color gray. I kept making them, winding up with a small quilt (12 blocks).  This is a Kaleidoscope block, and I made use of a ruler which I have owned for some time, but never used, Marti Michell's Kaleidoscope Ruler. 

Unfortunately, I will be absent from tomorrow's meeting, but have been in touch with Rayna, and passing along ideas. I'm sorry I'm going to miss the layout of the Lonely Crayons quilt and choosing a sashing color.  If you'd like to get together and piece the quilt, be sure to let Rayna know. We just need to get it assembled and quilted in time to send it to Austin.  (October, I think!)

Please bring a tool or book you'd like to share and sign up to present at a future meeting.  I've signed up for next month. We'll cover one a month, and it will be similar to Rayna's demo of  how to do facings. I'll bring the ruler, and take a few minutes to show you how to use it during our Tips, Tools, Books segment.  There are things I like about it, and things I don't.

I am just back from a really wonderful quilting retreat weekend, and would love to plan one for the NJ MQG chapters (there are three!)  It was the most productive quilting time I've had in a while. I'm almost giddy because tomorrow is one week away from registration for QuiltCon.  If you're interested, please put your name on the list. 

I'll see you all soon, and hope you will post as often as possible!

NEXT MEETING AUGUST 23

Posting another reminder that our meeting this month is on the 4th Thursday - August 23rd. 7:pm
Mark your calendars, bring your Lonely Crayon blocks, and we'll see you then!!