Highlights from the June 2019 Meeting

This month, we were excited to welcome a special guest who traveled all the way from Maine to Greenville, SC! Kitty Wilkin inspired and taught us all her tips and tricks for meticulous cutting (aka fussy cutting), English Paper piecing, Tiny Piecing and Quilt Photography.

In Friday morning's workshop, we learned to make the most of the tools we had to shoot great photos of our quilts and projects. Kitty also suggested the use of some simple and helpful items to ensure even better results.

On Friday evening, Kitty presented a lecture on what she likes to call meticulous cutting rather than the common term used in quilting, fussy cutting. She shared examples of some wonderful designs that can be created by meticulously and intentionally cutting specific motifs from fabric for piecing.

On Saturday morning, Kitty taught a workshop on English Paper Piecing for beginners, including 3 methods for basting and 3 methods for sewing.

The workshop presented on Saturday afternoon was Tiny Piecing. We were amazed at these 1 1/4" blocks, but Kitty made it easy for us to create our own.

Thank you, Kitty, for sharing your time and knowledge with us! We saw a lot of smiling faces as we stretched our creativity and enjoyed the community of our fellow guild members and guests. We hope to see more meticulous cutting, EPP and tiny piecing in our future Show and Shares!

Be sure to follow Kitty on her blog: Night Quilter and on Instagram @nightquilter

Important Reminders this Month:

• Fall Retreat - Sign-ups are now open for the Fall retreat, November 8-10. The details can be found in the May meeting post and you can register online: Fall Retreat Registration. (If you prefer not to register online, email the guild at greenvillemqg@gmail.com)
• Block of the Month - The June block is called Cul-de-sac. The pattern: Cul-de-sac and the Templates. We'll be sharing both the May and June blocks at the July meeting.

• Philanthropy Request - We received a request from a nurse for Nurse Family Partnership. They are a free home visiting service for first time, low-income moms, serving clients through pregnancy and until the child is 2 years old. She would like to provide her clients with small quilts to be used for supervised infant tummy time. The organization serves Greenville, Pickens, Laurens, and Oconee counties. The website is Nurse Family Partnership. If you would like to take on this project or know a group that would, please email us at greenvillemqg@gmail.com for more information. 

Our next meeting is Saturday, July 6th from 1-3 pm at St. Giles Church, 1021 Hudson Rd., Greenville, SC.

May 31 - June 1, 2019 - Lecture and Workshops with Kitty Wilkin

Greenville MQG is thrilled this month, to host Kitty Wilkin from Night Quilter! Kitty is a national instructor, lecturing and teaching at QuiltCon 2018 and 2019.  Her quilts have been featured in international magazines such as Love Patchwork & Quilting, Make Modern, and the Quilter's Planner.  Kitty has produced professional photography for the Quilter's Planner, Aurifil, and Amy Butler's magazine.

The details are here and the schedule is listed below along with links for all the Workshop Supply Lists. The Friday night lecture is open to all members and guests free of charge, The workshops on Friday morning and Saturday are for registered participants only.

Friday, May 31st: Photography Workshop, 9 am - 12 pm

• Photography Workshop Supply List

Friday, May 31st: Lecture - Meticulous Magic: The Many Faces of Fussy Cutting

• Social Hour, 6-7 pm
• Lecture, 7-8 pm

Saturday, June 1st: English Paper Piecing Workshop, 9 am - 12 pm

• English Paper Piecing Supply List

Saturday, June 1st: Tiny Piecing Workshop, 1-4 pm

• Tiny Piecing Supply List

Please note:

• There will be no regular business meeting this month. This includes no Show and Share, Library or "Free to a Good Home Table".
• Fall Retreat - We will be taking sign-ups for the Fall Retreat. You'll find all the details in the previous blog post. You can also sign up online using the Fall Retreat Registration Form.
• 2019 Crayon Challenge - Valorie will have her bag of crayons available if you still need them to participate in this year's challenge.

This is bound to be an inspiring and fun weekend to learn from one of the best! You don't want to miss it! All events will be held at: St. Giles Church, 1021 Hudson Rd., Greenville, SC.

Highlights from the May 2019 Meeting

Choosing Fabric for a Quilt

This month two of our members, Cindy Lammon and Faye Jones, gave us some guidelines to use in choosing fabric for a quilt, no matter what the style. We learned that we should consider not only color, but value, type and scale of print, background color and more. 

We then broke up into small groups and used our scraps to come up with some winning fabric combinations. 

As suggested in the program, for color inspiration, be sure to check out Design Seeds.

Attendance

• We welcomed 2 guests and 1 new member for a total of 33 present this month.
• Please note that our 2020 meetings in July and September will fall on the second Saturday due to holidays.

Sew-In Days

• Our next Sew-In Day is Friday, May 10th from 10-4 at Bernina, We're In Stitches. Stay as long as you like and work on a charity project or your own project. We ask that you purchase a half yard of fabric at the store to be raffled off to one lucky winner.
• Future Sew-In Days are July 26th, September 13th, and November 8th.

QuiltCon Charity Quilt Donation

• We have decided to donate our charity quilt to SYNNEX Share the Magic, which benefits local SC Children's Charities. The quilt will be auctioned at their annual event which takes place October 5, 2019.
• The auction goes live 30 days before the event and the proceeds from our quilt will be split between the four children's charities that they support.
• Items in the past have met or exceeded the value placed on the donation. We're hoping our quilt provides some ample funds for children in need!

Spring Retreat

• The Wildacres GMQG Spring Retreat,  with its beautiful surroundings and ideal weather, was again a terrific time for all. Adding another day and night gave the group more time to sew and engage in  projects lead by Michele Blake and Cheryl Brickey, whose methods and techniques were outstanding.

•  Most everyone completed both a Needle Case and a Cathedral Window pincushion while at the retreat, and worked on many new projects, as well as completing some UFOs! 

• Our surprise entertainment was our own “stand-up comic” Dana Blasi! She was adorable, and has plans for more next year. Hiking among the beautiful wild flowers and trees, against the breathtaking bright blue sky, was all part of the experience.

Fall Retreat Proposal

• We're excited to propose an opportunity for an additional retreat in the Fall!
• Dates: Friday, Nov. 8 (sewing room available at 1 p.m.) through Sunday, Nov. 10 (depart by 6 p.m.)
• Location: Charlotte Marriott South Park Hotel. Adjacent to the hotel is a small pedestrian plaza with restaurants and a French bakery. The South Park Mall is located one block away and offers numerous restaurants and shops. There are at least two quilt shops within 20 minutes of the hotel.
• About the Retreat/Sew-in: This event is being sponsored and organized by GMQG and is open to all GMQG members and their guests. In addition, we are considering opening this event to the Palmetto, Charleston and Charlotte Modern Guilds to help us extend our outreach to other area guilds. As part of the planning process, the retreat committee will identify opportunities for demos, mini-classes and/or trunk shows throughout the weekend. 
• About the Sewing space: We will have exclusive use of the hotel’s well-lit ballroom, with enough space for every attendee to have their own 6’ rectangular work table, plus at least 4 raised cutting/pressing stations, heavy-duty electrical outlets/extension cords, vertical space for design walls, classroom space for demos and Show and Share, free WiFi, dedicated restrooms and a private outdoor terrace with tables, chairs and heating towers. The hotel’s security staff will monitor the sewing room after hours to ensure that only registered attendees can access the room.
• Registration Fee: $200 per person for all three days. Registration fee includes access to sewing space, catered breakfast on Saturday and Sunday, boxed lunch on Saturday, WiFi in ballroom. Additional amenities may be added depending on number of participants. (Note that the hotel has requested that we not bring outside food or beverages into the Sewing space, but hotel guests are welcome to bring food and beverage to their hotel rooms and consume either in their room or in public spaces (e.g., lobby and pedestrian plaza outside the lobby).)
• Sleeping Rooms: The hotel has reserved 25 guest rooms for us at the rate of $139/night single or double occupancy (Includes free parking, free WiFi in guest room.) All rooms are recently renovated and are equipped with mini fridges and coffee makers). Attendees will make their own room reservations and may elect to stay elsewhere if they so choose, or commute from home.
• Registration: Register by completing the registration form: Fall Retreat Registration Form. Registration must be accompanied by a check for $200 per attendee, made out to the Greenville Modern Quilt Guild. Please note: The registration form is publicly accessible. If you prefer not to use the online form, send the required information to Elise Dunbar (her address is noted on the form) and your information will be kept private.
• Cancellation Policy: Once we have paid registrations from 18 participants (to cover the cost of the ballroom and the hotel’s food and beverage minimum), we will send our non-refundable deposit to the hotel. Any cancellations prior to that time will be refunded in full, and if we fail to reach our 18-participant minimum, all registration fees will be refunded. 
• Once we have committed to the hotel, participants who cancel their registration before October 31 will be refunded as long as we maintain our minimum of 18 participants. Cancellations on or after November 1 are non-refundable. 
• Registration is now open!

Philanthropy

• Thanks to our very talented and generous members, we collected an all time high of 14 beautiful quilts this month, one large quilt for the hurricane relief project and 13 quilts of various sizes for our Quilts For Kids project. These quilts mean so much to the recipients and provide much needed comfort in the greatest time of need. Most go to very young children who have suffered unimaginable abuse and the larger ones to young women who have received services after sexual abuse. Old wives tales claim that quilts have magical healing power and I do think there is some truth in this! A million thank yous to all - Faye Jones  Philanthropy Chairman
• PS- I cannot stress enough that these quilts do not need to be perfect -  they are loved just as they are!!

Block of the Month

• The May BOMs, Parking Lot, from this month's meeting:

• This month's block is Yield. Find the templates here.

Guild Challenge

• The 2019 GMQG Challenge is due at the August meeting.
• Find all the details here.

Local Quilt Shows and Events

• There are several local shows and events happening in May! All the details are on our Events Page.
• Be sure to let us know via email about any local happenings that aren't listed so we can add them to the Page.

May/June Workshops with Kitty Wilkin

• There are still a few openings for the workshops coming up next month.
• Details are in the workshop blog post along with links for all the Workshop Supply Lists.

Show and Share

Cindy Kaiser

Leigh Ann Lukens - charity quilt

Bonnie Cunningham

Paige Alexander - wrote the foreward for Mitzie Schafer's new Machine Quilting book

Ruth

Cynthia Steward - Hurricane Relief Quilt

Michelle Blake

Michelle Blake, quilted by Valorie Kasten

Valorie Kasten - charity quilt

Rita Sanssone - minis from Gee's Bend Retreat

Faye Jones - framed batik and charity quilt

Faye Jones

Susan Rink

Susan Rink

Susan Rink - all quilts above for charity

Nancy deJong

Darlene Morse - wallet and bodice for dance outfit

There will be no business meeting next month. Our regular meeting will feature a lecture by Kitty Wilkin called "Meticulous Magic: The Many Faces of Fussy Cutting" on Friday evening, May 31st. Social hour begins at 6 pm and the lecture will begin at 7 pm. All members and guests are welcome free of charge. The lecture and all workshops will all be held at St. Giles Church, 1021 Hudson Rd., Greenville, SC.  You don't want to miss this fun evening!

May 4, 2019 - Choosing Fabrics for your Quilt

As quilters, don't we love fabric? We buy it, hoard it, pet it, and ooh and aah over it - but sometimes, when it comes to cutting it up for a quilt, we live in fear of making a mistake. This month, Cindy Lammon and Faye Jones will try to allay some of that fear. After discussing some ideas to consider when choosing fabrics for a quilt, we'll break up into small groups and practice combining prints that play nicely with each other.

To facilitate the exercise, we ask that you bring a bag of about 20 scraps of modern prints from your scrap bin, cut up into 5" squares. We'll be sharing these in our groups, so no worry if you don't have any scraps to spare - there will be plenty to work with.

Meeting Reminders:

• Please return any library books that you have checked out so that others may borrow them.
• Valorie will have the "Crayon Bag" for our 2019 Guild Challenge if you would like to participate and didn't get your crayons last month.
• This month's Block of the Month is Parking Lot.
• Bring any sewing related items that you no longer need for our Free To A Good Home Sharing Table.
• We look forward to seeing your projects for Show and Share!
• This is the last month to sign up for workshops with Kitty Wilkin.

Kitty Wilkin Workshop Supply Lists

We now have the Supply Lists for the workshops with Kitty Wilkin on May 31-June 1. They can be found by clicking the workshop links below:

• Tiny Piecing
• English Paper Piecing
• Photography

Many of our members have expressed an interest in adding a Fall retreat to our guild's activities. We have researched several options and will be sharing all the details and a proposal for our membership to consider at this month's meeting. Hope you can join us on May 4, from 1-3 pm, at St. Giles Church, 1021 Hudson Rd., Greenville, SC. 

Highlights from the April 2019 Meeting

Art work by Lewis Carl

Lewis Carl awed, inspired and had our heads spinning with color as he presented a program on "Color Theory" this month. We learned that color is "tricky", "deceitful", and "personal". The good news is that there are no wrong colors! Lewis shared many examples of quilts that illustrated his concepts and also included some resources for creating color schemes or palettes.

Membership

• We welcomed 45 members, 2 new members and 3 guests to our meeting this month for a total of 50 in attendance.
• Membership cards and pins are now available!
• Be sure to pick up your 2019 Membership Directory.

Sew-In Day

• Sew-In day is May 10th, from 10 - 4 at Bernina, We're In Stitches. We ask that you purchase a half yard of fabric to be raffled off to one lucky participant.
• Bring anything you'd like to work on. We will also be piecing curved blocks for charity quilts, if you choose.

2019 MQG Charity Quilt

• Our Charity Quilt is back from Quiltcon and we are ready to donate it to a children's charity. If you have a suggestion, please email Cindy Lammon (cindy at hyacinthquiltdesigns dot com) and Elise Dunbar (elisedunbar at gmail dot com) with information about the charity you're recommending. We will accept suggestions until Saturday, April 13.
• The Executive Board will review the suggestions and make a final decision.

Spring Retreat

• The Spring retreat is this month! There is currently one spot available for a female to join us. Please email Sandy (shelsel65 at gmail dot com) if you're interested in going.

Spring Workshops

• There are a few spots left in the Photography and English Paper Piecing workshops with Kitty Wilkin. Contact Cheryl Brickey (cheryljbrickey at gmail dot com) if you would like to sign up.

Block of the Month

• Next month's block is Parking Lot.

• Look at all the great City Block blocks shown this month!

• Did you know our BOM designer, Travis, has quilt ideas for using each block of the month? Find them on his website home page here.

May Program

• The topic for our program in May is "Choosing Fabric for your Quilt". Do you have any "fabric choosing" dilemmas? Email Cindy (cindy at hyacinthquiltdesigns dot com) or Faye (birdie1345 at aol dot com) with your questions and we will try to incorporate them into the lecture.
• Please bring a bag containing 20-25, 5" squares of modern fabric from your scrap bin. We'll use these as part of a group activity during the program.

Philanthropy

• We collected 10 charity quilts for our "Quilts for Kids" program.
• Blocks for the NC Hurricane quilt drive have been started. Please contact Faye (birdie1345 at aol dot com) if you would like to participate.

MQG Riley Blake Challenge

• The rules for this year's MQG Challenge have been announced and can be found here.
• If you were unable to get the fabric from the MQG, you may purchase it from your local shop or online retailer.
• The deadline is May 31, 2019.

Upcoming Classes and Workshops: Visit our Events and Shows Page for details of the following upcoming local events!

• Mitzi Schafer will be teaching "Quilt Yoga", a free motion quilting workshop, at Busy Bees in Fountain Inn on May 7th.
• The Shady Ladies Quilt Show and the Western NC Quilters Guild Show are both in May.
• Did you know that you have access to Creative Bug classes through the Greenville Public Library? Here's how: 
• Sign in to your library account.
• Put "Creativebug" into the search box and search "site".
• Nicole McClelland is the District 1 Representative for the Quilters of South Carolina. She shared all the fun activities offered by the organization, including a Sew-In, Quilt Show and Retreat. Be sure to visit the Quilters of SC website for all the information.
• The Professional Arts Quilters Alliance has posted pictures of all the quilts in the show on their website here. Our own, Lynne Harrill has a quilt in the show. Show details are listed on our Events Page.

2019 GMQG Challenge

• This year's challenge was announced at the April meeting!
• Find all the rules and details here. 
• Challenge quilts are due at the August meeting. We can't wait to see your creations!

Show and Share

Paige Alexander showing Tula Pink Persimmon fabric, a match for the 2019 Pantone Color of the Year Challenge

Lynne Harrill

Didi Salvatierra

Bonnie Cunningham, Quilt of Valor

Cheryl Brickey

Cindy Lange

Leigh Ann Lukens

Nancy deJong

Nancy deJong

Nancy deJong

Ruth

Michele Blake

Faye Jones

Chris Foster

Susan Sinclair

Nancy Schlepphorst

Denise Frick, Carrie Barcroft, and Elise Dunbar - Class with Sherri Lynn Wood

Elise Dunbar - Class with Chawne Kimber

Elise Dunbar - Our January BOM, Intersection

Valorie Kasten

Travis Seward

It was fun to see so many Show and Shares this month!

Our next meeting will be Saturday, May 4th from 1 - 3 pm at St. Giles Church, 1021 Hudson Rd., Greenville, SC.