Saturday Sew-In

This month's sew-in will be on Saturday, November 26, 10:00 - 4:00, at Bolts to Binding, 2437 Oak Street. If you want to bring your lunch, the shop has a frig and a microwave that we are free to use. There are also places nearby to get a bite to eat. People come and go throughout the day, so drop in at any time!

Reminder: There will not be a sew-in for the month of December.

Upcoming Activities

At the meeting of November 19, we will be swapping hand-made pin cushions. There are dozens of free patterns online, and the local quilt shops carry several patterns, too! If you want to participate, bring your hand-made pin cushion to the meeting in a plain paper bag. Anyone who brings one, gets to take one!

Our December program will be a color theory class taught by award winning quilter and pattern designer, Nancy Rink. The class will be held at Strawberry Patches on Saturday, December 10, from 10:00 - 3:00, with a short break for lunch. We still have openings, and you don't have to be a member of the BMQG to sign up for the class. The fee for the half-day class is $20.00. Suzanne, at Strawberry Patches, is ordering the books and tools you'll need. If you want to sign up for this class, contact Lynn at LongarmLynn@aol.com.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the BMQG meeting on November 19, 2:00 - 4:00, at Strawberry Patches!

Your friendly neighborhood program director,

Lynn

October Recap - Habitat Challenge.

Our reveal was a huge success!

Thank you to everyone who completed quilts to show at our October meeting. For those of you that were absent or have not yet finished, please bring them to show and tell at the next meeting. we would still love to see them.

Here was the goodness revealed

Bob Miller

Lana Elfstrom

Pam Gavin

Nicci Pannell

Jane Mulligan

Terri Harlan

Christy Hall

Laura Haywood

(hers was Awesomely quilted but we did not get a clear picture of the finished quilt) So sorry Laura

The team

Thank you again for the wonderful turnout.

On the agenda for next meeting is an introduction to the Slice machine. Bring your scraps to play with the Slice and Go Baby Machine!

Also don't forget we are doing our next swap - Pincushions!  Bring a handmade pincushion to the next meeting. Wrap in a concealed bag for the swap at our November Meeting on the 19th. If you bring one, you get to take one home.

Important Announcements::

- Pincushion swap swap next meeting in November

- Sew-In Schedule had been made switching between two wonderful shops. Here is the Sew-In Schedule

We also welcome two new members

Debbie and Jennifer

Welcome to the group.

See you all soon!

Sew-Ins Schedule - See shop name next to date

November 26th - Bolts 2 Binding 10-3pm

December no sew in it's Christmas Eve

January 28th Bolts 2 Binding - 10-3pm

February 25th  Strawberry Patches - 10-4pm

March 24th Bolts 2 Binding - 10-3pm

April 28th Strawberry Patches - 10-4pm

May 26th Bolts 2 Binding - 10-3pm

June 23 Strawberry Patches - 10-4pm

July 28th Bolts 2 Binding - 10-3pm

Please also Remember that our New Scheaule for Meetings is on Saturdays at Strawberry Patches. Here are the next few dates.

Meeting Schedule - All Held at Strawberry Patches

November 19th  - 2-4pm

December 10th - ?? (class time)

January 21st  - 2-4pm

February 18th - 2-4pm

March 17th - 2-4pm

April 21st - 2-4pm

May  19th - 2-4pm

June  16th - 2-4pm

July  21st - 2-4pm

Saturday Sew-In

We are having a sew-in this Saturday, October 29th, at Bolts to Binding, 2437 Oak Street. The shop is located behind the car dealership that sits on the northwest corner of Oak and 24th Street, and opens at 9:00. We have a blast at our sew-ins, and it's a great way to get to know each other! There's plenty of room to cut out a project, sew something, do handwork, or just sit and visit a spell! See you on Saturday!

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!

September Meeting Program

Our focus topic for the next meeting of the BMQG will be tips, tools, and notions! Do you have a favorite book or magazine that you regularly refer to? How about your favorite pattern? What notion do you think you couldn't live without! Have you picked up a great tip along your quilting/sewing journey? We will have a round robin style of discussion, so this is your chance to share what you know about. I'd love to have everyone participate! Looking forward to seeing all of you at our next meeting on Wednesday, September 7th, 6:30 at Strawberry Patches on Ming Avenue!

Member Feature- Meet Nicci!

My name is Nicci Pannell and my birthday is January 21. I am a single girl (should I make the quilt?) with no kiddos, but two pretty cute pups. I love travel, cooking, gardening, reading, camping, most anything outdoorsy, my yoga practice and volleyball (hoping to get back to that soon), hanging with friends, learning new things and having new experiences, long walks on the beach,  yadda, yadda, yadda.

                                     With my sis, Mindy, hanging with the balbals in Burana, Kyrgyzstan)

How many years have you been quilting?

I made my first quilt about 15 years ago.

What inspired you to start?

I was first inspired to start quilting by a sweet bundle of 1930’s fat quarters from Strawberry Patches. I had a nephew on the way and was trying to figure out what to do for a gift.

This seemed like a good thing. Here’s the finished product then….…

and now…

It’s a bit faded, but still used very regularly. Not bad for a tied quilt with the binding folded over from the back. Hey, it works!

What is your favorite part of quilting?

Planning the quilt is awfully fun. Picking the fabrics and visualizing the finished project really gets me inspired. But I would have to say that binding the quilt is my favorite part. I guess it is like frosting the cake….you know that you are close to getting to the good part. Enjoying it!

What is your least favorite part?

Oooh, if I could skip basting my quilt, and sometimes quilting it, I would be in heaven!

Do you have a specialty? (HST, appliqué, any specific technique?)

I don’t know if I am accomplished enough yet to claim a specialty. I will say that I am really enjoying expanding my skill sets at the present time. In the last week, I added the starch method of applique and foundation piecing to my list of skills (that need lots of practice).

Do you enjoy any non-quilty sewing? (garments, bags, etc.)

I used to be an avid counted cross-stitcher and sewed many of my own clothes. Now, the closest I get to that is an occasional apron, potholder, coaster or one of those great zipper pouches Suzanne at the Patch inspired me to try. Thanks Suzanne!

Have you ever entered a quilt show, etc?

 Nope. I read somewhere once that the author felt she could point out more mistakes in her quilts than any judge. She didn’t feel the need for someone else to do that for her. I kinda feel the same way. I sure do enjoy seeing others’ work, though. Maybe I should look at it differently and share the love!

Have you been featured, received recognition, or won any awards?

Nah, but my MQG friends sure are supportive, encouraging and say really nice things. That’s good enough for me.

How did you find out about the Modern Quilt Guild?

 I happened to be cruising online sometime around the end of the year and started to wonder where the closest MQG was. I thought, for sure L.A. and possibly Fresno. Much to my surprise, the BMQG popped up in my Google search and the blog had just been posted within the last couple of days. What luck! My life has been forever changed. J

What about modern quilting are you most drawn to? (What inspires you?  What would you like to try?)

The freedom of self-expression is the aspect of modern quilting that most appeals to me. If you view my flickr page, I don’t think that I have a particular style. I love trying new things and mq lets me do that. I would love to learn to long arm and when I upgrade my machine, I will move beyond straight-line quilting.

Is there anything else we should know about you?

We have some really talented people in our group, and I am so happy to have met such a great group and I truly appreciate their generous tutelage.