Thursday, April 29, 2021

Upcoming Meeting - Saturday, May 1, 2021 - 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Please join us this Saturday, May 1st, from 1-3 p.m. for our monthly GMQG meeting and take note:  Zoom access starts at 12:50 p.m. with the meeting beginning promptly at 1:00 p.m.  If you are not a member and would like to join, please contact us at greenvillemqg@gmail.com.  

Agenda


.  President updates; Hybrid Meetings - Brooke Stambersky

.  Treasurer updates, Financial Report - Cindy Lange

.  Show & Share - Susan Rink

.  Program:  Gee's Bend Presentation - Faye Jones, Anne Larkin, & Rita Sassone

.  Annual Challenge Announcement

.  Programs/Workshops:  June Workshop Details


Stay in touch:  

GMQG Gmail:        greenvillemqg@gmail.com        

GMQG Instagram:  @greenvillemqg (#greenvillemqg)

GMQG Website:     greenvillemodernquiltguild.com 

GMQG Facebook:   Private - Greenville Modern Quilt Guild Members Only Group

                            Public - Greenville Modern Quilt Guild

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Upcoming Workshops


June 5:  Karen Eckmeier - Wiggles and Waves
Afternoon Lecture:  Inspired by the textures, lines and colors found in nature, Karen shares her love of curved piecing and collage, and how it led to the creation of her layered topstitching technique. Wild curves and dramatic angles may look difficult to do, but the process is really easy and quite relaxing!
Karen Eckmeier's
Wiggles & Waves

Color Twists & Leaves
Karen Eckmeier

Karen's Workshop (morning, 9-12 on June 5):
Color Twists and Leaves - Ease in to gentle free-form, topstitched curves in this technique and design workshop.  We will make abstract flowers that twist round and round and pairs of Layered Leaves embellished with yarn. Then experiment with different combinations to see which design layouts appeal best to you for making your choice of a wall hanging, table runner, table topper, a bag or the beginnings of a quilt top. Workshop cost: GMQG Members - $20/person; non-members $30.





Nov. 6 - Debbie Grifka - Lecture & Workshop - details forthcoming

Friday, April 9, 2021

2021 Programs Schedule Update

PROPOSED SPEAKERS/PROGRAMS FOR GMQG 2021

- UPDATE -

Jan. 2     Johnnie McKenzie –“Inspirations”

Feb. 6    Travis Stewart – Men in Quilting

Mar. 6    Favorite Books

Apr. 3    1. Modern Quilt Guild Admin – tour of MQG Website; 
                 2. Maria Shell – Virtual Lecture + Workshop

May 1     1. Gee's Bend Lecture – via Zoom - Faye Jones, Rita Sassone & Anne Larkin
               2. Annual Challenge Announcement:  From Rita Sassone, "I recently heard this quote, which I think is important to share with my fellow quilters:  'You have to go by instinct and you have to be brave.'  This is my challenge to you all!  After experiencing Maria Shell's workshop and hearing about the Quilters of Gee's Bend, your task is to create an improv quilt (top, batting, back, quilted and bound) no smaller than 16" x 16" nor larger than 20" x 20" (doesn't need to be square) to showcase all you have learned.  Be sure to add a label on the back to identify yourself.  Remember, be bold and be brave!  Can't wait to see your creations in October!"*

June 5     Karen Eckmeier – Virtual Workshop via Zoom before meeting – Color, Twists and Leaves, 9 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
                 Membership Meeting Lecture - Wiggles and Waves, 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. - Hybrid - Karen via Zoom; Membership in person &/or via Zoom.

July 10 –    Janelle Schwartz stepping in for Katie Lewis, a Certified "Scrappy Appliqué" teacher, to share Shannon Brinkley's Scrappy Appliqué Method - Lecture  via Zoom.

Aug. 7 –     Timna Tarr – Virtual Lecture via Zoom; Membership Hybrid - in person or via Zoom.

Sept. 4 –     Cheryl Brickey will share her newly published Just One Charm Pack Quilts book with Member Trunk Show of two versions of 17 quilts (for a total of 34) from the book.  Cheryl in person; Membership Hybrid.

Oct. 2 –      Annual Challenge Reveal:  'Gee's Bend Quilts' Improv Quilt, Hybrid - *This meeting will be in person and/or via Zoom.  For those who participate in the Challenge who are unable to attend the live meeting, prior to the deadline and no later than Friday, Oct. 1st, you can either 
1) make arrangements to drop off your quilt with Faye Jones or Dana Blasi, or 
2) have your quilt picked up by Dana or Dagmar Theodore, and 
3) we will be happy to submit it for judging and show your quilt at the meeting on your behalf.  

Quilt Challenge Reveal:  Saturday, October 2nd.  In any case, we ask that all participants please remember to send a good photo of your creation to Susan Rink so we can provide Zoom attendees with clear visuals of all the submitted quilts.

Nov. 6 –     Debbie Grifka - Lecture & Workshop - details forthcoming.

Dec. 4 –      Christmas Luncheon and Auction

**This calendar may be subject to change.**

Quilt Quark Gallery - Cindy Lange

Cindy Lange created 1) her multi-colored solids “Lava Lamp” charity quilt backed by rainbow-people fabric to practice sewing curves, and 2) her “Midnight Stars” half-rectangle quilt, reminiscent of a pattern named “Harlequin,” in solid and patterned red, white and black fabrics, with a few round floral appliques sprinkled in.

Cindy Lange - "Lava Lamp" Charity Quilt
41" x 51"

Back of Lava Lamp


Cindy Lange - "Midnight Star" Charity Quilt
41" x 51"







Quilt Quark Gallery - Nancy deJong

Nancy deJong used up part of a basket full of her half-square-triangle scrap stash to create her Falling Triangles (pattern “probably from Missouri Star”), which is going to Faye for philanthropy.

Nancy deJong - "Falling Triangles" Charity Quilt
45" x 50"


April 3, 2021, Meeting Highlights

.  Contact Information – to reach a member, please find contact information in the GMQG 2020 Directory and/or use our guild email greenvillemqg@gmail.com.  A new 2021 Directory is in the works.

.  Thanks again to the Modern Quilt Guild (themodernquiltguild.com) for the use of their Zoom account.  If any member would like a recording of today's meeting, please email Brooke Stambersky or Dana Blasi within 14 days of the meeting date and she will send it to you.

.  Our next meeting will be held on Saturday, May 1, 2021, from 1 to 3 p.m.  Log on between 12:50 and 1:00 p.m. for a short visit prior to the start of the meeting.  Members will receive an email notice containing the Zoom meeting link and passcode prior to the meeting.

ST. GILES - FELLOWSHIP HALL UPDATE:
Due to the many uncertainties caused by Covid including St. Giles not voting until May 4 whether to allow people to meet there, the intricacies of obtaining & using technical equipment for hybrid meetings, & fluctuating Covid numbers in Greenville County, the Board decided to table the prospect of meeting together in person for now.

SEW-IN:
There is not enough interest from our guild at this time to schedule Sew-in dates at Bernina, so we have tabled scheduling until later in the year.

WILDACRES RETREAT:
Sandy Helsel reported the results of interest in attending Wildacres in the Fall has been great.  We have 14 definitely interested and a few more depending on dates and restrictions.  Faye Jones is awaiting a response on our request for rooms in the months of Oct. or Nov.  We must keep in mind that staff will not return to Wildacres until this month so it may be a while before we know the availability for our group.  Sandy will get information out to those interested as soon as we know.

MEMBERSHIP:
We welcomed 26 members to our April Zoom meeting.

2021 MEMBER DIRECTORY:
The 2021 membership Directory has been updated, and we’re excited to now include the sewing machines we have as a means of support to one another.  Please let us know what sewing/quilting/embroidery/serger machines you have, including year obtained or number of years used, by emailing Dana Blasi at greenvillemqg@gmail.com or her personal email so that we may include them under your information.  Thank you!

MQG WEBSITE RESOURCES:  AMANDA HINES BERNAY
Amanda Hines Bernay of MQG gave a tour highlighting features of the website resources on themodernquiltguild.com website.  Login and it will bring you to your Dashboard where, among other things, you will find the option to print your membership card. 

On the upper right-hand corner are Quick Links where you can update your information under Profile.  While there, if you do want to be seen in the MQG Directory, you must opt in (at the bottom of the page); you are not automatically shown in the Directory. 

Also under Quick Links, you will find Resources.  When selected, a pop-up will appear asking you to click on it.  This is because it is another website.  The volume of pictorial files is so large that the MQG website alone cannot handle it.  Once you click on it, it will ping back to the MQG website to check your logged in name, making all Resources available to you regardless of when you joined.

You will now see most recent content at the top, going back in time as you move down the page.  With 45 pages of content, the Filters by Category or Types on the right or the Search field at the top left will make it much easier to locate things or people.  Just some of the free wealth of information includes all three seasons of Fresh Quilting as well as Webinars (104 at last count!) on numerous topics at a quality level not unlike classes you would pay for. 

The Quilts of the Month (currently numbering 99) contain full patterns, some of which are made with Block Studies from Blocks of the Month, patterns for which are included as well, which you can save to your computer.  And be sure to take a moment to check out the member profile interviews written by Elaine Musiwa found under Member Spotlight.  This month’s Member Spotlight just happens to be on our own GMQG member, Nicole McClelland!

If you ever have any access or technical problem getting to what you need, rather than spending a lot of time on it and/or getting frustrated, simply send MQG a note at info@themodernquiltguild.com.  Amanda and their new office manager, Jennifer, keep a close eye on this inbox and will help you.

MEETINGS & PROGRAMS


MAY:  GEE'S BEND PANEL - FAYE JONES, RITA SASSONE & ANNE LARKIN
The May program will be dedicated to a glimpse into the Quilters of Gee's Bend by our members who have visited and participated in a workshop in Gee's Bend, AL. These talented quilters are descendants of slaves from an isolated plantation in rural Alabama.  Without much exposure to the outside world and no art education, many generations of these women created stunning quilts which caused a sensation in the art and quilting world.

JUNE:  KAREN ECKMEIER LECTURE AND WORKSHOP - COLORS, TWISTS AND LEAVES


APRIL 3RD PROGRAM:  MARIA SHELL LECTURE AND WORKSHOP
Maria Shell of mariashell.com virtually presented her lecture on “Building Community Through Quilts.”  Maria had two quilts in QuiltCon Together this year for which she won Best Machine Quilting, Framed, for “Mosh Pit @ the Golden” and First Place in Piecing for “Everything All at Once.”

 “In 2014, Maria Shell spent two months as an artist-in-residence at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation in Charlotte, NC.  While there, she worked weekly with a formerly chronically homeless community now living in Moore Place.  By teaching basic sewing skills to the residents, she developed a relationship with the residents of Moore Place that eventually led to the making of a community quilt that celebrated the residents and their journey towards finding a home and a community.”

Immediately following the guild meeting, Maria conducted a virtual workshop on Making Prints Out of Solids.  “Using solid-colored quilters’ cottons, students [learned] how to stitch an assortment of pieced prints including stripes, tracks, dots, and grids.  While learning these new techniques, [attendees were] given information about selecting a color palette, improvisational piecing techniques, and ideas for taking these techniques and creating original quilts.”

SHOW AND SHARE / QUILT QUARK GALLERY:

.  Nancy deJong – "Falling Triangles" 45” x 50” charity quilt;

.  Cindy Lange - 1) “Lava Lamp” charity quilt, and 2) “Midnight Stars” half-rectangle charity quilt; 

.  Sandy Helsel - “Warm Hugs” for her 14-year-old granddaughter;

**********To see the above quilts, please go to the Quilt Quark Gallery*********

.  Lynne Harrill shared an improv WIP (work in progress) using some of her many personally hand-dyed scraps that eventually will be part of a triptych.

.  Travis Seward shared a quilt he made based on some of the Amish quilt color theory he acquired as a child using a combination of Bella and Kona solids in white, Gotham Gray and four shades of red (including Tomato to break up the grid).  He started with designing his stars, bounded them with courthouse steps, and then played with the purposely inexact placement of the four reds.

Please click on the Quilt Quark Gallery to see the quilts shown today!

Thanks to all our quilters for their Show & Shares!  Please continue to share your quilts with us by emailing photos either to greenvillemqg@gmail.com or to Secretary Dana Blasi.  Please take note:  if you are sending photos for Show & Share any later than 2 days prior to the membership meeting, please send them directly to Dana.  Inexplicably, we have experienced not receiving your photos in time for the meeting when sent to our Gmail up to 2 days prior to the meeting.

CLASSIFIED ADS SUBCOMMITTEE:

Johnnie McKenzie is spearheading the Classified Ads Subcommittee.  Classified ads on our blog will allow us to post quilting goods and services, etc., for and by our members.  More details to come. 

HYBRID MEETINGS:
The poll on meeting types indicates the majority of members are interested in hybrid meetings, which would allow for both in-person and virtual attendance.  There is a lot of work involved to set it up and the Board is looking into it.  More details to follow. 

OTHER NEWS:
.  Gees Bend Retreats is going to open up registration in April 2021 for the next retreat to occur in 2022.  For further information, contact past attendees Faye Jones or Rita Sassone and/or go to geesbendquilting retreats dot com and sign up to be notified.  We are told it fills up fast.

.  Check out GMQG’s Facebook account and the GMQG Instagram account at @greenvillemqg (#greenvillemqg).

.  If members come across a link or other information they would like to share, they may forward it to President Brooke Stambersky to be shared at the next meeting.

See you next month!




Quilt Quark Gallery - Sandy Helsel

Sandy Helsel created “Warm Hugs” based on a pattern by Cheryl Brickey for her 14-year-old granddaughter using a popular-according-to-the-kids new green and other colors found in the upper-left-hand multi-colored strip.

Sandy Helsel - "Warm Hugs"
Gift Quilt for her Granddaughter

Sandy's Granddaughter, Anika