Highlights from the December 2018 meeting

Our Annual Holiday Party and Auction!

This month we celebrated a great year for Greenville MQG with a holiday party!

Many thanks to our 2018 party planners, Darlene, Sandy, Jill and Dana! Thank you also to Leslie for decorating and hosting, all of those who brought food and dessert and everyone who contributed items for our auction.

 As you can tell from all the smiling faces, a festive time was had by all!

We enjoyed a beautiful holiday atmosphere, wonderful food and many went home with one or more gorgeous raffle wins.

Announcements

• Thank you to the 2018 GMQG Board Members and anyone who volunteered this year! 
• Thank you to Leslie and the staff at the Bernina Store for hosting our guild the past several years!
• Reminder: Our meetings will be moving to St. Giles Church and we will be switching to the first Saturday of the month. For January 5th only, the meeting will be held from 12-2 pm. The meetings will be held the first Saturday of the month from 1-3 pm for the remainder of 2019.
• Your 2019 dues of $50 are due by the end of December. Checks can be mailed to Paige Alexander.
• The December BOMs, the Chicken and Dog Gone Cute blocks, can be turned in at the January meeting.
• Cheryl Brickey is presenting a workshop, "EQ8 for Beginners" on January 26th, from 2-5 pm at the Taylors Library. The workshop is free, but you must register. Find all the details here.
• The 2019 Retreat will be held April 25-28. Registration will open at the January meeting and is limited to 24.
• Our program for January will feature longarm quilters, Johellen George and Carol Alperin. They will be sharing all you need to know about having your quilt tops quilted.

Kitty Wilkin Lecture and Workshops

• We are excited to announce that GMQG will be hosting Kitty Wilkin from Night Quilter in 2019! She will be doing a lecture on Friday evening, May 31st and two classes: a 3 hour class on May 31st and a 6 hour class on June 1st.
• We would like to have your input before choosing which of Kitty's classes to offer. A description of all the lectures and classes are listed below. Please read through them and use the Survey Monkey link below to rank your favorite topics. We'll be announcing the results in a future post and you'll be able to start signing up for classes at the January meeting. The survey will be available until December 19th.
• Kitty Wilkin (Night Quilter) Lecture and Workshop Survey

Lectures

Meticulous Magic: The Many Faces of Fussy Cutting
Explore the world of fussy cutting and see the many ways you can apply it to your projects to take your quilting to another level. Fussy cutting, or the practice of intentionally cutting a specific motif from a fabric design, is a fun technique that can be applied to any project. There are many different ways to add a touch of meticulous to your quilting projects, whether traditionally pieced, foundation paper pieced, or English paper pieced. Kitty will show examples of the many ways fussy cutting can be applied to quilting, will show ideas on how to make your own planning templates, and will share tips and tricks on successfully cutting, basting (if applicable), and accurately stitching your carefully cut fabrics so that you can use some meticulous magic to transform your next project.

Quilts to Mark Milestones

What do you get when you combine journaling with quilting, and add a little bit of photography? Milestone quilts! Come explore the world of quilts created to mark milestones, and see why these quilts are a fun and meaningful solution to joyful sewing in this busy world. Join Kitty as she shares the milestone quilt she created for her third child to mark his first year of life, and explores other life events that can be documented through the creation of a quilt. Leave feeling inspired and ready to document your days through quilt-making, one attainable goal at a time.

Three-Hour Workshop Topics

Fearless Foundation Paper Piecing

In this workshop, you will learn the basics of foundation paper piecing, but also an arsenal of tips and tricks to ensure you never have to rip seams again (well, or at least very, very rarely!). Foundation paper piecing is a quilting technique with which you sew fabric pieces to a paper foundation by sewing along predrawn lines, allowing for perfect points, easily duplicated blocks, and the creation of just about any pictorial or geometric design sewn with fabric. With a bit of practice and some helpful hints along the way, foundation paper piecing opens a whole new world of quilting.

Tiny Piecing

Come sew tiny with Kitty! Explore the world of tiny piecing in this playful class where we’ll experiment with sewing blocks that finish at a whopping 1 1/4” square! Kitty will share tips and tricks for sewing tiny so that you can set yourself up for success in your future tiny stitching endeavors. Beginning with traditionally pieced and improv blocks, and moving to more intricate and precise foundation paper pieced blocks, you’ll leave this class giggling at the absurdity and marveling in amazement at your teeny tiny sampler-style quilt blocks.

Pollinate EPP

In this workshop suitable for all skill levels, you will learn all about English Paper Piecing using Kitty’s Pollinate Quilt pattern. The class will cover everything you need to know to get you started on your Pollinate Quilt, including how to choose fabrics, the basics of English Paper Piecing, and tips for how to use fussy cutting to create stunning secondary designs within the quilt. Kitty will share different methods of basting and stitching, tips and tricks for success in EPP, and will share examples of the diversity of designs that can be emphasized through fabric choices and placement in Pollinate. (This workshop will require the purchase of a kit.)

Tips for Meticulous Cutting (AKA Fussy Cutting Fun)

In this workshop, we will talk about the practice of intentionally cutting during the piecing of a quilt, often called fussy cutting, and what it can bring to your quilt making. Kitty will teach methods and share tips and tricks for incorporating fussy cutting into traditional piecing, foundation paper piecing, and English Paper Piecing. We will talk about identifying the focal fabric feature, making your own fussy cutting templates, and how to piece your meticulously cut features accurately. Students will be able to practice their new skills in the beginning of a fussy cutting project of their choosing, and will leave feeling ready to meticulously cut to their heart’s desire.

Photographing your Quilts

You’ve spent countless hours planning, cutting, sewing, trimming, basting, quilting, and binding your quilt, now how do you document your masterpiece!? Whether you have a point and shoot, a fancy DSLR but simply don't know how to use it, or even a smartphone, Kitty will teach you how to make the most of the tools you have to get great quilt photos for your blog and Instagram. Kitty will discuss photography basics, lighting, composition, and staging, and will share a few inexpensive tools that you can find around your house to take your photos from good to great! Complete with hands on practice, you will leave feeling confident that you, too, can take great quilt photos without buying any fancy equipment. Please bring your camera or smart phone, and a finished quilt (optional—and if time permits)!

Six-Hour Workshop Topics

Pollinate EPP

In this workshop suitable for all skill levels, you will learn all about English Paper Piecing using Kitty’s Pollinate Quilt pattern. The class will cover everything you need to know to get you started on your Pollinate Quilt, including how to choose fabrics, the basics of English Paper Piecing, and tips for how to use fussy cutting to create stunning secondary designs within the quilt. Kitty will share different methods of basting and stitching, tips and tricks for success in EPP, and will share examples of the diversity of designs that can be emphasized through fabric choices and placement in Pollinate. (This workshop will require the purchase of a kit.)

Photographing your Quilts

You’ve spent countless hours planning, cutting, sewing, trimming, basting, quilting, and binding your quilt, now how do you document your masterpiece!? Whether you have a point and shoot, a fancy DSLR but simply don't know how to use it, or even a smartphone, Kitty will teach you how to make the most of the tools you have to get great quilt photos for your blog and Instagram. Kitty will discuss photography basics, lighting, composition, and staging, and will share a few inexpensive tools that you can find around your house to take your photos from good to great! Complete with hands on practice, you will leave feeling confident that you, too, can take great quilt photos without buying any fancy equipment. Please bring your camera or smart phone, and a finished quilt (optional—and if time permits)!

Our next meeting will be Saturday, January 5, 2019 from noon-2pm at:

St. Giles Church

1021 Hudson Rd.

Greenville, SC 29615

EQ8 for Beginners Workshop

Are you new to Electric Quilt 8 and don't know where to start? You can leave your pencil and graph paper behind when you learn the basic functions and explore the versatility of EQ8.

We are happy to announce a free workshop with Cheryl Brickey in January of 2019. This is the same class that Cheryl will be teaching at QuiltCon in Nashville. Some of the topics that will be covered include: how to navigate the block and quilt worktables, use library blocks and fabrics, create your own blocks, and build a quilt top using different block settings, colors, fabrics, sashing, borders and more

WHEN: Saturday, January 26th, from 2-5 p.m.
WHERE: Taylors-Burdette Branch Greenville Library System, 316 W. Main Street, Taylors, SC 29687






The workshop is open to all! Bring your laptop with EQ8 installed and activated OR attend the class and watch the demonstration. Either way, you're sure to go home knowing more about quilt design with the program.

Lunch (completely optional)

Meet for lunch at noon at Panera Bread, 6015 Wade Hampton Blvd, Taylors, SC 29687 (in front of Target)

For More information

Use the following link for more information and details: EQ8 for Beginners Workshop

How to Register

Click on the address below (or enter it into your browser) to register via Google Forms:

https://goo.gl/forms/SFx52u2jyx5F8JJW2

Questions? 

Contact Cheryl Brickey at cheryljbrickey@gmail.com

December 8, 2018 - Holiday Lunch and Auction

We're celebrating a great year of learning and growing as modern quilters with a holiday luncheon on December 8th from noon to 2 p.m. at the Bernina Store. This will be our last meeting at Bernina, due to our move to St. Giles Church in January 2019. Please join us for a fun, social meeting!

Lottery Auction

In addition to lunch, we will host our annual Lottery Auction this month. Your donations of quality items for the auction are welcome and appreciated. Please consider donating anything that you know a fellow quilter would love to win.

You will also have the opportunity to bid on the auction items. Tickets are a dollar each, cash or check. This is our guild's only fund raiser and a great chance for you to win something awesome.

Reminders

• Dues of $50 for 2019 are now due and will be collected at the December meeting, cash or check. The deadline for dues is the end of December.
• No Show and Share this month.
• Please return any library books that have been checked out.
• Our BOMs are the Chicken Block in colors used by Quilty Love and the Dog Gone Cute Block.

Our meeting starts at NOON this month! Hope to see you at:

Bernina Sewing Center

2310 East North Street, Suite A

Greenville, SC 29607

"Subtracting for Minimalism" Workshop

This past Saturday, a group of our members thoroughly enjoyed a workshop with Cheryl Brickey called "Subtracting for Minimalism".

Cheryl spent the morning explaining the idea of starting with a simple quilt pattern and then taking away elements randomly, to create a modern, minimalistic quilt. She offered several options for design, including EQ8, Power Point and pencil and paper. She then showed us how to turn our designs into a pattern to make a quilt.

With pencil and paper, we all played with a Flying Geese block and each person came up with their unique design.

Cheryl was full of advice and ideas as we designed.

In the afternoon, we were able to take our designs to fabric and get a start on making our own minimalist Flying Geese quilt.

It was an inspiring and fun workshop and we all left with a great, new design tool!

Thank you, Cheryl! You can find more from Cheryl on her website, Meadow Mist Designs.

Highlights from the November 2018 meeting

Mitzie Schafer awed and inspired us with her quilting journey and trunk show this Saturday! She encouraged us to be fearless in our craft and we loved seeing all her beautiful creations. The scope of her work is amazing and equally amazing is the fact that she doesn't have any UFOs (unfinished projects). Thank you, Mitzie for sharing your talent with us! Visit Mitzie's website for more info and to shop her patterns at Jittery Wings.

SC MQG Swap

On November 3rd, several of our members traveled to Columbia, SC  to swap mini quilts in person. What a fun activity and look at all those happy faces!

Our members who attended, as proud owners of the lovely little quilts that they received:

Attendance

• We had 38 members, 2 guests and 2 new members present at our meeting this month.

Shop News

• Leslie just returned from Quilt Market and has a lot of new products and fabric coming to the shop!
• Amanda Murphy will be teaching a class: "Machine Quilting With Rulers on a Domestic Machine" in December. Contact the shop for dates and to sign up.

New Location for GMQG Meetings

We are excited to announce a new and larger location for our meetings, beginning January 2019! We will be meeting at the Fellowship Hall at St. Giles Church, 1021 Hudson Rd in Greenville. This location is about 3 miles from our current location and offers us more space as our guild grows.

Because of the move and the availability of the space, our meetings will change to the first Saturday of the month beginning January 5, 2019. Please note that on January 5th, the meeting will be held from 12-2 p.m. For the remainder of the year the meetings will continue to be held at our regular time of 1-3 p.m.

Election of New Officers

• The membership voted in favor of following slate for the 2019 GMQ Board:
• President - Elise Dunbar
• Vice-President - Valorie Kasten
• Secretary - Cindy Lammon
• Treasurer - Paige Alexander
• Membership Chairs - Sandy Helsel and Dagmar Theodore
• In addition, it was announced that Travis Seward will head up the Block of the Month, and Nancy deJong will serve as head of a newly formed Facilities Committee as we make our way to a new location
• Cheryl Brickey has taken the position of Coordinator for Outside Speakers as of September.

Junior Membership

• The membership approved the following dues proposal: Junior membership will be open to any interested quilter age 18 and under, at one half the regular membership rate. Junior members will have the same benefits of a regular membership. Junior members under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult member at all guild meetings and activities.

2019 Dues

• Membership dues of $50 for 2019 are now due and must be paid by December. Mail your dues to Paige Alexander (her address is in your Directory) or bring your cash/check to the December meeting.

"Subtracting for Minimalism" Workshop

• The workshop will be held on Saturday, November 17 from 10-4 at the Bernina Store. The workshop is limited to 20 people and is currently full. Please contact Valorie at spydeeland@aol.com for cancellations, to be added to a wait list or to get a supply list.

December Christmas Luncheon and Auction

• Our Christmas lunch will be held on December 8 from noon to 2 p.m. at the Bernina Store.  Please RSVP to Sandy at shelsel65@gmail.com by November 24th if you plan to attend. Sandy also needs one more volunteer to bring dessert. Let her know if you can help.
• In addition to the luncheon, we will also have our annual Lottery Auction. This is our only fundraiser and a super fun activity! You can purchase tickets for $1 and bid as many tickets as you like on each item. A winner is drawn from the tickets bid.
• Please bring new or slightly used, quality items to be used in the auction. These can be quilt related, such as fabric, books and finished quilts. We also love having decor items, artwork and gift certificates. Anything you know a fellow quilter would love to win!

2019 Retreat

• Mark your calendars! The 2019 Retreat will be held at Wildacres in Little Switzerland, NC from Thursday, April 25 to Sunday April 28.
• Registration begins at the January 2019 meeting.
• The 3 night slots may be split between 2 people, but must be arranged by the individuals and paid with one payment.
• The cost is $235 and includes the double occupancy room, meals, gratuities and use of the sewing room.

January Meeting

• Our program in January will be presented by our member long-arm quilters. Learn what you need to know before sending you quilt out to be long-arm quilted!

Block of the Month

• We have 2 fun blocks for you to try this month!
• The first is a Chicken Block. Please use the colors choices found at Quilty Love. You'll find the block tutorial at Sew Inspired. 

• The second block is Dog Gone Cute from Sew Fresh Quilts. Choose either dog #5 or #6 or do both!

Show and Share

Cindy Lammon - Swap quilt on right

Didi Salvatierra - Quilts of Valor Quilts

Faye Jones - center and right, Charity Quilt

Johellen George - sweatshirt jacket

Jackie Callis 

Denise Frick - Art journalling turned into Mini quilts

Denise Frick

Joan Manfre

Sheryl Sane - Swap quilt

Johnnie McKenzie

Johnnie McKenzie

Dagmar Theodore - Swap quilt

Carrie Barcroft - Triangle Transparency Workshop

Debbie Graves - Swap quilt and Cow from Mitzie's class

Cheryl Brickey - Swap quilt on left

Helen Hale 

Paige Alexander - Swap quilt on left

Pat Davies - Needle Felting

Ruth

Tonya Maxwell

Leigh Ann Lukens 

Hope you can join us for our holiday luncheon and auction on December 8, 2018 from 12-2 p.m. at:

Bernina Sewing Center

2310 East North Street, Suite A

Greenville, SC 29607

November 10, 2018 - Mitzi Schafer

 

For this month's program, we are delighted to welcome Mitzi Schafer, a GMQG member.

Mitzi is a self-described, hyperactive, never idle, joyful realist living with a rare neurological disorder, Tarlov Cysts. She enjoys making a "life that soars" by embracing her jittery limbs and ADHD which gives her business it's name - Jittery Wings. Mitzi's interests include not only quilting, but creating a handmade wardrobe, writing and camping with her family.

Mitzi's quilt designs fall into 3 distinct categories: paper piecing, modern and art quilts. She isn't fond of being held to any particular box. Her greatest loves are designing and quilting. She is the creator of Quilt Yoga, a method for teaching free motion quilting that involves learning one's own body to encourage more fluid and comfortable quilting. Her Quilt Yoga concept was featured in Make Modern Magazine, Issue 24. She has 2 patterns published with Make Modern as well, and will soon have a quilt of the month with MQG, as well as a monthly block study in the e-news sent to members. She has a number of patterns available on her website, Jittery Wings.

A Few Reminders:

• Be sure to take a few minutes to complete your 2019 GMQG survey!
• Our Block of the Month is the Bulls Eye Block. Please use 10" background square, bright colors and leave your block in one piece.
• November will also be "Amnesty Block" month. Blocks from previous months may be brought in (maybe blocks were started and not finished) or you may bring back blocks you brought home, but couldn't come up with a good idea for using them.
• We'll be voting on new officers for 2019!
• We look forward to seeing your "Show and Shares" this month.
• Please return any library books that have been checked out.

Hope to see you, Saturday, November 10, 2018 from 1-3 PM at:

Bernina Sewing Center

2310 East North Street, Suite A

Greenville, SC 29607

Highlights from the October 2018 Meeting

October brought a very special guest to Greenville MQG! Yvonne Fuchs from Quilting Jet Girl traveled from California to share her tips, tricks and designs for creating transparency in quilts.

We enjoyed a lecture and mini trunk show on Friday evening, followed by a workshop on Saturday. Twenty of our members participated in a fun, relaxed and inspirational class on making Yvonne's Triangle Transparency pattern.

We not only enjoyed the pleasure of sewing together, but found inspiration in each person's fabric choices and interpretation of the design. Some of the highlights of the weekend in pictures:

Announcements

• In case you missed it, this month's announcements can be found in the previous post.

2019 Survey

• If you haven't completed a survey yet, we would appreciate you taking a few minutes to do so. Your input will be a valuable tool in planning programs and activities for next year.
• GMQG 2019 Survey

November meeting

• Our speaker will be Mitzi Schafer from Jittery Wings.

Hope you can join us for our next meeting on November 10, 2018 from 1-3 pm at:

Bernina Sewing Center

2310 East North Street, Suite A

Greenville, SC 29607