Upcoming Meeting Details

The next meeting of the BMQG is this coming Saturday, October 20th, 2:00 - 4:00, at Strawberry Patches. Jane will be showing us the details on how to properly prepare a quilt for domestic machine quilting. We will also be discussing a variety of battings and how/when to use them. 

Our next sew-in will be held at Strawberry Patches, 10:00 - 4:00, on Saturday, October 27th. Bring a snack to share and a project to work on. It doesn't have to be a quilting project. Bring your crochet, knitting, needlework, or anything else you want to work on while enjoying a fun day with some wonderful people!

The November meeting date needed to be moved, because Strawberry Patches will be hosting Barri Sue, of Bareroots, on our regular meeting day. We have moved the date to the 10th of November. The time will remain the same. Make sure you mark your calendars so that you don't miss it! 

The end of the year is quickly approaching, which means that it'll be time to elect new officers. If you enjoy this group and want to see it continue, then you need to consider stepping up and serving. We have a great foundation in place, and there will be plenty of support for new officers. Here are the positions and the descriptions:

BMQG President

-Primary function is to see to the smooth running of the BMQG. Organization is necessary and follow through is a must.

-Arrange, schedule and facilitate monthly meetings of the BMQG, as well as for officers of the BMQG.

-Assist in maintaining blog and Flickr, and other duties as necessary.

- Take suggestions from all members under advisement. Works with individuals as needed.

-Prior to officer and BMQG meetings, the President, with input from other BMQG officers, is to prepare an agenda. This is to be emailed to all officers before the monthly meeting. In addition, a brief general description of upcoming activities/meetings is to be posted on the blog.

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BMQG Vice President

-The vice president will perform the duties of the president if needed, including running the monthly meeting.

-Assist in maintaining all online media (blog, Flickr, etc)

-Attend monthly guild meeting. Arrive 1/2 hour before BMQG meetings to assist with meeting set up and stay for clean up.

-Attend monthly board meetings. Actively participate in guild leadership and making decisions regarding activities and growth of the BMQG.

-Collect and maintain door prizes. 

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BMQG Secretary

-The primary duty of the BMQG secretary is to take notes at all monthly BMQG meetings and officers’ meetings. In a timely manner, a summary of these meetings will be sent to all Board members. The secretary will also assist in posting pertinent guild information to the blog/web page, including announcements, guild business, presentations, show and tell, shop hops, sewing nights, charity work, etc. Picture taking at monthly meeting is also helpful, and this responsibility will be shared by everyone on the board.

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BMQG Program Coordinator

-Supports the planning, implementation, maintenance, and documentation of BMQG’s public programs and educational activities.

-Actively recruits a guest speaker and/or arranges group activity for each BMQG meeting. Works with the speaker on presentation, offering help, encouragement and support.

-Actively works on future month’s meeting: content, lectures, social events, sewing projects, etc.

-Coordinates give-aways, challenges, swaps, and guild activities.

-Encourages members to be involved in presentations.

-Have on-hand filler material or a ten minute tutorial on hand in case a meeting runs short, and/or program changes.

All positions require the require the following:

-Officers are expected to represent the guild in a honorable manner, in all communications and interactions related to the BMQG.

-Ability to speak in front of a group

-Can actively seek new information from people and groups, via internet, phone, etc.

-Organizational ability and attention to detail

The time commitment for each position is about 10 hours per month, which includes monthly BMQG meetings and monthly officers’ meetings.

We would also like to get involved in a local philanthropic project. The Board has some ideas on what we could do, but we need a philanthropic coordinator for the group. That person would coordinate the gathering and delivering of donated quilts to the specified group. In addition, the coordinator would be responsible for communication between the Board and the designated charity contact person. If you think you'd like to fill this position, please let one of the Board members know. 

We are running low on door prizes. All of the items that we've given away have been donated by our members. If you have extra fat quarters, patterns or notions that you'd like to donate, please bring them to the meeting and give them to Christy. Your generosity is much appreciated!

Looking forward to seeing you all on Saturday!

Lynn, Christy, and Laura

Question of the Week

This week's question is about what you listen to while working on a project. Do you listen to music, audio books, the t.v.? What gets your blood pumping and ready to create? 

Color Play Class With Nancy Rink

Award-winning quilter, author, designer and teacher, Nancy Rink, will be teaching a color theory class for our guild on Saturday, December 10, 10:00 - 3:00, at Strawberry Patches.

If you have signed up for the Color Play class and don't yet have your supply list, please e-mail me at LongarmLynn@aol.com, and I'll e-mail it to you. The Ultimate 3 in 1 Color Tool by Joen Wolfrom, is required for the class. The Joen Wolfrom book, Color Play, is recommended, but not required. As of this morning, Strawberry Patches had 8 of the color tools and one copy of the book left. The class is a half day, hands-on workshop, and lunch will be provided. (The class is full) *Please bring small/medium cutting boards, as we will be sitting 4 to each table. If you don't have one small enough, there will be a few extras available.*

I look forward to spending time with my BMQG friends, learning skills that we can all use in our future quilting adventures!

Lynn

Your Friendly Neighborhood Program Coordinator

October Meeting Habitat Challenge Reveal!

We all started with a project that most of us thought " what do we do with this".  Watching the transformations of this "out of our element fabric", forming into quilt projects has been quite an amazing journey for our guild. Creative genius came out of each member with an interpretation of what this fabric spoke to them, and resulted in the best eye candy a quilter could ask for.

Our next meeting Saturday October 15th from 2pm to 4pm over at Strawberry Patches quilt shop will be just that. The long awaited reveal of this several month long project. We are very excited for everyone to share the story of their journey making these quilts.

We also have a new swap reveal planned so come on down for a bit of fun, and bring a snack if you'd like to. We can't wait to see everyone on Saturday!

A BIG hit ~ Thank you

Thank you to everyone who came out this past Saturday for our meet and greet. The quilts, and conversations were phenomenal. I was so enthralled in every ones talent I forgot to get pictures, so thanks to those few who stayed a little late to let me photograph them. I was so excited to see that people had brought things to show off.

A HUGE thanks to The staff of Strawberry Patches for donating their space and accommodating our every request. They even went as far as offering a discount for our new guild.

I look forward to seeing everyone again on February 19th for the Hexie project. A complete supply list will be posted next week, this is something that you can pull out your scrap bin for.

Megan, Jen, and I want to give an extra special thanks to the new friends we met on Saturday. Everyone was so welcoming and eager to learn. We loved that about the group, and we are happy to teach everything we know. 2011 will be a great year for Bakersfield Modern Quilting.

A HUGE THANK YOU AS WELL TO

Hawthorne Threads

and

Simply Solid Fabrics

FOR THE FANTASTIC DONATIONS.

There is a survey on the blog if you would like to put in a requests as to what day of the week would be better for your schedule. We hope to get a day that can accommodate everyone.

Also if you have a website or blog you would like posted here as well just let us know.

Thank you again for a great turnout with new friends.

A few tidbits to get you excited

Let me say first that the group we are already forming is absolutely amazing. Both in personality and talent. I have had the chance to meet a few local quilters here and even stop by a few blogs to see all the excited faces getting ready to be a part of this internet phenomenon we call Modern quilting.

I will be posting soon about how to get started in project modern if you are interested in the second round. You can find the details here if you cannot wait to read about it.

Also a few people have taken the initiative to do whatever they can to make this a true community of quilters, and friends. Meg has started a flickr group for everyone to share photos of there quilts with the group now before we all meet in January. Flickr is a free website for photo sharing and has become a great resource for us modern quilters.

We have also added tabs to this blog sharing free patterns and tutorials with some of our favorite modern quilts. It will also offer business services, other internet quilters photos to inspire you, and any up an coming events. Please feel free to share any events that you may know about by leaving a comment with the link.

Also a BIG announcement! Me and Jen were in Strawberry Patches today when Suzanne's excitement reared out of  her and she showed us all the pretty Kona solids that she had ordered. 60 colors to be exact! And she will be offering these at a fantastic price for retail customers as well as an added discount for the modern guild.

A big thanks to everyone who has helped spread the word, we are all looking forward to meeting the faces behind the quilts very soon. this group is community run and we would love to hear any input on what you would like to see from our modern quilting group.

Welcome to BMQG

Welcome to the BMQG!

Bakersfield Modern Quilt Guild

We are excited to officially launch the blog for all modern quilting enthusiasts here in Bakersfield or other surrounding areas. As the first meeting is being planned, we encourage everyone to follow the BMQG blog for updates and exciting news.  To follow us just click the follow button at the top right of this page.

We would like to extend our modern quilting group to all members, whether your a traditional quilter who would like to learn modern quilting, someone who just wants to learn how to quilt, or even a modern quilter already.

Please feel free to view the tabs above where we will provide wonderful links to other modern quilters throughout the Internet.

Do you have a blog? let us know and we will link it to our guild sidebar for everyone to meet you as well.

A BIG thank you to the main branch of MQG as this would not have came about without the fabulous idea to bring our modern craft from the Internet to our local cities.

A very special thank you to a few ladies who made this branch possible

Jennifer

Megan

Terri

We are excited to have been offered wonderful meeting spaces with some fabulous local shops to start meetings once a month, as well as sewing sessions, and we will provide dates when those have been decided.

A huge thank you to Robin of  "To Quilt 'n Sew" for offering her space to us for sewing sessions once a month. These session will be approx 4-6 hours long and will offer a fantastic space for everyone to bring in their machines to finish WIP's and gab with other modern quilters. You will also have the freedom to come later or leave earlier. Robin will also be going to quilt market very soon so if there are some collections that you would like her to check out please send her an email here  toquiltnsew@sbcglobal.net

I would also like to thank Suzanne of "Strawberry Patches" For offering her beautiful shop for our main guild meetings. These meetings will be only about 2 hours long and will provide show and tell times, swaps, tips and tricks, guest speakers, book reviews,  and much much more. Suzanne will also be attending Quilt market and you can also send your requests to her at spatches@etcrier.net

Thanks to everyone who helped get this started and we all look forward to meeting you at our first meeting.

Stay tuned for dates! We hope to see you there.