March 2, 2019 - Quilt Finishing Techniques

This month, we'll be improving our quilting skills in one of our favorite learning formats, the Round Robin. Our focus will be on finishing your quilt (don't we all love to do that?!) with binding and facing techniques that are a bit out of the ordinary. Everyone will have a chance to visit each "station" for demonstrations on specialty bindings such as machine binding, facings, odd angles and curves. Please join us for these small group demos.

A few meeting reminders!

• Do you have any sewing items that you no longer want or need? Find them a new home by contributing to our "Free To A Good Home" sharing table.
• You can still sign up for the Kitty Wilkin workshops this Spring. The Tiny Piecing Workshop is full, but we have started a waiting list. The remaining 2 workshops still have a few openings. Cost is $30, cash or check.
• There is one opening left for the Spring retreat, April 25-28th. Cost is $235, cash or check.
• This month's Block of the Month is Round About.
• Please return any library books that you have checked out.
• Be sure to pick up your free Greenville MQG button at this month's meeting, if you didn't get one at QuiltCon.
• As always, we're excited to see your Show and Shares!

Hope you can make our meeting this month and learn a new skill! Join us on Saturday, March 2nd, from 1-3 pm at St. Giles Church, 1021 Hudson Rd., Greenville, SC.

Highlights from the February 2019 Meeting

Negative Space in Modern Quilt Design

The use of expansive negative space is a defining element in modern quilt design. In this month's program, Valorie Kasten gave us an in-depth look at the use of negative space. We learned that creating 1/3 or more negative space on the quilt is considered modern design. She also discussed how to create negative space and some ideas on how to quilt it.

For more information, be sure to check out these resources:

• Accentuate The Negative by Trisch Price of Hadley Street Quilts
• The Quilter's Negative Space Handbook by Sylvia Schaefer of Flying Parrot Quilts
• The Modern Quilt Guild - search Negative Space
• Notan, the Japanese study of light and dark

Announcements

Membership

• We welcomed 39 members, 3 new members and 5 guests to our meeting this month for a total of 47 present.

Sew-In Days

• The next Sew-In Days are Friday, March 15th and Friday, May 10th from 10-4. 
• The Sew-Ins are held at Bernina, We're In Stitches. We ask that you purchase 1/2 yard of fabric from the store. There will be a drawing at the end of the day for one lucky winner.
• Bring anything you'd like to work on for open sewing.

QuiltCon

• QuiltCon is this month, February 21-24 in Nashville, TN!
• NOTE! Special Greenville Modern Quilt Guild buttons have been ordered for our members to wear at QuiltCon. The buttons are free and Sandy Helsel will distribute them at the Thursday evening Happy Hour,  sponsored by Bungalow Quilting and Yarn, that runs 6-8 pm at the Music City Center. (Check info at QuiltCon for the exact location). Sandy will be at the entrance at 6 pm or you can call her to make arrangements to pick up your button during the show. Buttons will also be available at the March meeting.

Spring Retreat

• There are currently 2 openings (one male and one female) for the retreat on April 25-28 at Wildacres Retreat.
• Contact Sandy for more information at shelsel65 at gmail dot com.

Kitty Wilkin Workshops

• There are a few openings left for the Photography, English Paper Piecing and Small Piecing Workshops on May 31st and June 1st.
• The workshop price is currently $25, but goes up to $30 on February 15th.
• Contact Cheryl for more information or to sign up at cheryljbrickey at gmail dot com.

Block of the Month

• Our members got a great start on the 2019 BOM, Licensed to Quilt, designed by Travis Seward! Here is the first block,  Intersection.

• This month's block is Round About. Follow the link for the pattern and find the templates here.
• Travis recommended this YouTube video for sewing curves. (Pressing instructions can be found at 11 minutes 18 seconds)

Upcoming Meetings

• March: Round Robin Binding and Facing Techniques
• April: Color Theory lecture by Lewis Carl
• May: Choosing Fabric for Your Quilt

Philanthropy

• We collected NINE quilts for our Quilts For Kids Program. Thank you!!!
• The North Carolina Quilt Project is collecting twin size and larger quilts for victims of last Fall's two hurricanes. Follow the link for drop-off information. Bonnie Cunningham has also volunteered to deliver any quilt donations.
• If you would like to get together with other members to make quilts for the NC Quilt Project, contact Faye Jones at birdie1345 at aol dot com.

Free to a Good Home Table

• Do you have sewing items you no longer want or need? We're offering a great opportunity to share them with someone who would! Our members enjoyed scooping up some treasures from our "freebie" table this month. 

Show and Share

• Marilyn and Darlene showed the Landrum Quilters' raffle quilt for the Quilt Show, June 13-15.

Raffle Quilt for the Landrum Quilters Show - June 13-15

Dagmar Theodore

Carol Alperin

Rita Sassone

Rita Sassone

Rita Sassone

Rita Sassone

Michele Blake

Dana Blasi

Jill Erickson

Faye Jones

Carrie Barcroft

Valorie Kasten

Chris Foster

We hope to see many of you at QuiltCon this month!

Our next meeting will be Saturday, March 2nd from 1-3 pm  at St. Giles Church, 1021 Hudson Rd., Greenville, SC.

GMQG 2019 QuiltCon Charity Quilt

"Art lives from constraints and dies from freedom"  --- Leonardo da Vinci

The QuiltCon 2019 Charity Challenge, issued by the Modern Quilt Guild, was to create a twin size quilt that used the color palette featured above and small piecing in the design. Elise Dunbar and Cindy Lammon formed a planning committee and came up with the idea to create a child's quilt that would be similar to a play mat. The quilt would be built with roads, buildings, trees, and a river that would be loosely modeled after a map of our city, Greenville, SC. How much fun would it be for a kid to play imaginary town with his/her bed quilt?

Fabrics were purchased from our local quilt shops and blocks were designed. We cut the fabrics into small pieces and provided our members with simple guidelines for piecing houses, buildings, roads, trees and mountains. We encouraged everyone to use the patterns/guidelines to precision or improv piece all the elements we needed for our town. Two "sew days" were scheduled at our local shop, Bernina, We're In Stitches for community sewing.

Sandy Helsel piecing roads

Valorie Kasten piecing mountains

Didi Salvatierre piecing trees

Dana Blasi piecing background

Our members busy at work!

The results of our "Sew Day"

Once all the blocks and elements for the quilt were completed, our team, consisting of Paige Alexander, Didi Salvatierre, Cindy Lammon and Elise Dunbar, went to work to put them all together. The quilt was designed from the top down, and constructed using both improvisational and precision piecing.

Assembly Team - Didi Salvatierre, Cindy Lammon, Elise Dunbar and Paige Alexander

Three of our guild members, Cindy Lammon, Faye Jones and Cheryl Brickey, machine quilted the quilt using straight lines and free motion quilting. Straight lines echo the roads, large free motion swirls are featured at the top and the river/park area has smaller swirls for texture. Paige Alexander finished the quilt up by adding the binding. Be sure to notice the detail in the binding, where the blue of the river continues into the binding!

Playing off the name of our city, Greenville, and the design that created roads for toy cars, we decided to name the quilt, "Zoomville".

The quilt hanging in our beautiful downtown!

One of our city's taglines is "#Yeah That Greenville" and we chose to improv piece the letters and add it to the back of the quilt.

We're super proud and happy that we took the challenge this year! Many thanks to our members who supported the project and helped bring it to completion.

After hanging at QuiltCon in February 2019, "Zoomville" will be donated to a local children's charity.

February 2, 2019 - Negative Space in Modern Quilting

One of the characteristics of modern quilt design is the expansive use of negative space. We know that negative space is the empty space or background that surrounds the design elements, but do we know how to incorporate it into our own quilts? Sometimes the best way to learn is to see it used visually. So this month, for our program, we'd like to show multiple quilts that incorporate various amounts of negative space.

And that's where YOU come in! Please bring any quilts you've made or own that use negative space in a modern way. Even if you've shown the quilt during our regular Show and Share - we'd like to see it again! Hopefully, we'll all go home inspired and ready to use expansive negative space in our own quilt designs!

Reminders

• Sign-ups continue for our Spring Retreat at Wildacres, April 25-28. Cost is $235, cash or check.
• You can still sign up at the early-bird prices for our Spring workshops with Kitty Wilken. Cash or check, please.
• We can't wait to see your January Block of the Month, Intersection.
• In addition to your quilts with negative space, please bring any recent creations for our monthly Show and Share.
• Don't forget to return any books that have been checked out from our library.

We hope to see you at our February 2nd meeting, from 1-3pm at St. Giles Church, 1021 Hudson Rd., Greenville, SC.

Highlights from the January 2019 Meeting

How to have a successful experience working with a longarm quilter.

Carol Alperin, Fannie Wengerd, and Johellen George

Sending your quilt top to be quilted by a longarm quilter is a partnership. Whether they are doing custom or edge-to-edge quilting, the most important lesson we learned this month is that communication is critical.  Let your quilter know what you expect and listen to her suggestions.

Our expert longarm quilters shared many of their recommendations in this month's program. Batting choice, thread choice, backing size, and border application were some of the important things to consider before turning your quilt top over to a quilter. Looking for quilting ideas? Carol suggested the book,  Listen to Your Quilt.

Thank you so much Carol, Fannie and Johellen!

Announcements

• We're excited to be meeting in a new and larger location at St Giles Church. We need to set up and take down the room each month for the meetings. If you can volunteer one or two months, please contact Nancy de Jong.
• We welcomed 48 members, 7 new members and 1 guest this month, for a total attendance of 56.
• Thanks to everyone who completed the 2019 Member Survey. The Board is using the information as we plan this year's programs.
• Reminder that January 31st is the last day to pay your membership dues of $50.
• Since Paige Alexander has been our treasurer for several years, we are looking for a volunteer who would like to work and train with her this year, with the possibility of taking the position next year.
• We presented Susan Rink with a "Thank You" quilt for serving as the 2018 GMQG President. The blocks were made by the Board Members, quilted and bound by Valorie Kasten and signed by our members.

Susan Rink - 2018 GMQG President

Sew-In Day

• Our first Sew-In day for 2019 is Friday, January 11th, from 10am-4pm. The Sew-Ins are held at Bernina We're In Stitches, 2310 East North St, Greenville, SC. You are welcome at any time during the open hours and bring anything you'd like to work on.
• We ask that you purchase a half yard of fabric from the shop. All the half yards will be raffled off at the end of the day to one lucky participant!
• This year, Faye Jones will bring a charity block project that you can make if you choose. This project is completely optional. January's block will feature easy curved piecing. Please bring primary solids and juvenile prints to make the block.

Spring Retreat

• The 2019 retreat is scheduled for April 25-28 at Wildacres Retreat. Cost is $235 and includes lodging, meals, gratuity and use of the sewing room.
• As of January's meeting, there were 3 spots left. Contact Sandy Helsel (shelsel65 at gmail dot com) to register or be added to a waiting list.
• This year 2 participants may split a spot (one staying 2 nights  the second one night). We ask that you pay for the retreat with one payment.
• A fun time for all, this year's retreat will include a project and several mini demos!

2019 Workshop

• We're excited to announce that Kitty Wilkin from Night Quilter is coming to Greenville to present a lecture and 3 workshops!
• All the information for the classes can be found here: 2019 Workshop Announcement
• Sign-ups have begun and there are currently spots left for all the workshops. Reserve your spot by sending your check to Cheryl Brickey or contact her by email (cheryljbrickey at gmail dot com).

Block of the Month

• This year's BOM is designed by Travis Seward and called Licensed to Quilt - Permit(ssion) to Test.
• There will be 1 block released at each meeting from January to October, for a total of 10 blocks. Travis has designed 2 possible settings for the blocks to create a finished quilt. 
• You're encouraged to play and create using the blocks each month. Travis will be adding more quilt designs for each block on social media to spark new ideas.
• If you post your blocks on social media, please use the hashtag #licensedtoquilt and be sure to follow Travis on Instagram @travlis and our guild @GreenvilleMQG.
• The pattern for each monthly block and layout options can be found on Travis' website here: 2019 Block of the Month.
• January's block is Intersection.

Upcoming Programs

• February - Negative Space We're asking you to participate. Please bring any quilts you've made that incorporate negative space (even if you've brought them for Show and Share previously) as we explore different ways to create modern quilts with negative space.
• March - Color Theory
• April - Choosing Fabric for Your Quilt

Philanthropy

• Many thanks to those of you who are able to donate quilts for our Quilt 4 Kids Program!
• Wanting to learn more about where your quilts go? We've updated the Charity Program information on the About Our Guild Page.

Library

• We have a number of modern quilt books in our library that you are free to check out for a month or two at the most.
• Donations of modern quilt books for the library are welcome!

QuiltCon

• QuiltCon is next month and four of our members will have quilts in the show! Congratulations to Cheryl Brickey, Paige Alexander, Mitzi Schafer, and Cynthia Steward.

QuiltCon Charity Quilt

• We were excited to reveal our 2019 QuiltCon Charity quilt at this month's meeting. It was truly a group effort! Thanks to all out members who pieced blocks, Elise Dunbar and Cindy Lammon who co-chaired the design committee, Paige Alexander and Didi Salvatierra who helped design and assemble the blocks, Cheryl Brickey, Cindy Lammon and Faye Jones who did the machine quilting and Paige Alexander for finishing it up with binding.

Show and Share

Lynn Harrill

Didi Salvatierra

Cynthia Steward - Michael Miller Challenge going to QuiltCon

Delia Dorn

Susan Sinclair

Dagmar Theodore

Jackie Callis

made by Cheryl Brickey's son, Christopher - going to QuiltCon

Cheryl Brickey - Two Color Challenge, going to QuiltCon, Michael Miller Challenge

Cindy Lammon, Charity quilt on left

Faye Jones - Charity quilt left

Michelle Blake - bag made with waxed canvas

Travis Seward - Michael Miller Challenge

Travis Seward - Curve Challenge for Curated Quilts

Valorie Kasten - Charity Quilt

Valorie Kasten - Michael Miller Challenge on right

Quilts donated for Charity

Paige Alexander - Michael Miller Challenge going to QuiltCon

We started the year with a new and bigger space and found that we filled it with friendship and a mutual love of quilting. We hope you can join us next month, February 2nd, from 1-3pm at St. Giles Church, 1021 Hudson Rd., Greenville, SC.