Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Nursing Home Visit


Tuesday we had a wonderful visit to the Health Center of Windermere in Orlando.  Approximately 25 residents and staff plus 8 people representing the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild got together to celebrate the Holidays with the presentation of gifts made by members of the guild. Beth did a wonderful job presiding as the Master of Ceremonies at this successful presentation. All the gifts were appreciated and the lap quilts in particular were a big hit with the residents. What follows are pictures from the event, many showing the residents with their new chair sized quilts.






























Sunday, December 12, 2010

Workshop Information

Juanita Yeager is having a five day workshop February 14-18, 2011 at the Ramada Inn, 150 Douglas Avenue, Altamonte Springs.  Complete information is available on the website www.artwithcloth.com.

For an in-depth look at the quilt made by Juanita and her resume, visit her website www.juanitayeager.com.
 

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Health Center of Windermere

Tuesday, December 14th is our visit to the Health Center of Windermere when we will distribute the items our guild has made for the center's long term residents.  Beth has been working hard making and collecting items as well as working with the HCW director to coordinate this event.  

Quilt made and donated by Margarita

PLEASE RSVP if you are planning to join us!  
We will meet at 9am at the Panera inside Millenia Mall.  The Panera is located on the back side of the mall (upper level food court across from California Pizza Kitchen) and has it's own entrance.  This will give us a chance to socialize before heading over to the nursing home.   Health Center of Windermere is expecting us at 10:30 and will provide some refreshments.  Their address is 4875 Cason Cove Drive, Orlando.

Don't forget to wear festive attire for our group photo!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

More Sew Day Fun

Once again our Sew Day was a day full of talk, laughter and sewing.  Here is a tiny glimpse into last Saturday, the 4th of December.






Tuesday, December 7, 2010

An Interview

Have any of you heard of Susan Brubaker Knapp?  If you've ever picked up an issue of Quilting Arts, then I am sure you have.  Thanks to a friend, I recently discovered she also has a website called Blue Moon River.  Susan's website is full of gorgeous eye candy!!!  There are also links to other great resources.


The best link, however, is to her blog which includes a wealth of information.  For example, I discovered this blog post  which features our very own Margaret Travis of Eazy Peazy designs!  Susan interviewed Margaret during Quilt Market.  Go check out this blog post.  You will learn more about Margaret, see photos of our own Julie, and have a chance to win some great gifts!  (Hurry the giveaway ends soon.)

Clicking here will take you to a free tutorial on how to face your quilts.  Juanita showed us this technique at her workshop.  If you are like me, a refresher (and printed instructions) is greatly needed.


Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Sew Day Fun!

The November Sew day was a lot of fun.  We talked and sewed and talked.






And then we talked, collaborated, ate and talked some more.


Then we snacked some more, talked and even almost finished some projects.



I have a lot of UFO's so I am glad it is Sew Day again this Saturday, 12/4 from 10 am until 4:45 pm at the Southwest Branch of the Orange County Library System.  Hope you will join us!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

December dates

We will NOT have our normal first Wednesday of the month meeting at The Sewing Studio in December. Instead, we will meet for coffee Tuesday, December 14th before delivering items to the nursing home.  We are still scouting the best place to meet, but it will be in the area of the Millenia Mall.

Pillowcases by Cara

You can drop off your handmade items at The Sewing Studio, and I will pick them up.  Just make sure they are labeled with OMQG, and that you email me when you have dropped them off.  I will pick them up that same day.  

Better yet, bring them to Sew Day this Saturday, December 4th.  As usual, we will be at the Southwest Branch of the Orlando Public Library from 10am to 4:45pm.  

Friday, November 19, 2010

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Five Easy Steps to Navigating Our Site

Have you noticed our new look?  We have a new logo, banner header and button with warmer, richer colors!  There have been several questions about our new site including how to post comments, becoming a Follower, and where to find certain information.  I thought this would be a good opportunity to tell you in five easy steps how to navigate our site.  Here goes:
  1. Bookmark our site for easy reference (and to save time in typing the long name next time).  The site address is http://theorlandomodernquiltguild.blogspot.com.  Once you are here, at the top of your internet browser, click on Bookmarks then Add Bookmark and then you can name the bookmark (Orlando Modern Quilt Guild) and choose where to save it (Bookmark Folder).
  2. Explore the tabs underneath our header.  Home is the main page with the recent posts and tons of information.  About Us explains all about the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild, our mission and how to email us.  Calendar lists dates of upcoming events and links to past event details.  Links has shortcuts to many great sources including our Flickr page, an email form if you'd like to ask us a question or leave a comment, online shops, tutorials and other interesting sites of interest.  FAQs answers common questions such as "what is modern quilting", "when are the meetings", "what do I get for joining" to name a few.  How to Join provides information on joining our guild.
  3. Check out the sidebar boxes for great information and links.  On the left side you will see Upcoming Events (information on our next get together), Discussions (clicking on a topic takes you directly to that discussion),  Member Blogs (lists, by most recent post, links to our members who have their own blogs), Followers (shows people who have become Followers....see #5).  On the right side you will find Welcome to the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild (shows our awesome blog button), What We've Made (has five random pictures from our Flickr group as well as a link to Flickr), Project Modern (links you to information on Project Modern), Modern Quilt Guild (clicking on the button takes you to the main Modern Quilt Guild site), Officers, Blog Archive (place to find older posts).
  4. Read the latest post and leave a comment (you can read older ones too).  Posts are listed by date with the most recent one first.  Sometimes there will be a link in the body of the post taking you to another place of interest.  At the bottom of the post you will see "Posted by..." and "1 comments" (number of comments already made for this post).  Clicking on the "1 comments" will take you to a page for reading comments left by others and for leaving a comment yourself.  Type your comment in the Post a Comment box.  Here is where it has gotten tricky for some of you:  There is a drop down menu for "Comment as".  There are several options for selecting a Profile, but the main ones are Google Account, Name/URL and Anonymous.  If you do not have a Google Account you can select Name/URL which brings up a box for Name and URL.  YOU ONLY HAVE TO ENTER A NAME...you do not have to enter a URL.  If you choose to enter Anonymous, please "sign" your name at the bottom.  Click the Post Comment button and you should see a message saying "your comment has been published".  If not, hit the Preview button and then the Post Comment button.
  5. Become a Follower.  Click on the Follow button under Become a Follower.  You can sign in using a Google, Twitter or Yahoo account.  If you do not have one, there is an easy link to set up a Google account.


Print out these steps and keep them close to your computer for easy reference.


What do you think?  Was this easy to follow?  Would you like similar posts such as "How to post pictures to Flickr in 2 easy steps" or what about "How to set up a blog of my own"?  I sure hope this post was helpful.  Let me know what you think and what you'd like to see.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Upcoming Quilt Shows

Below is a list of quilt shows coming up in our area:

  • January 21-22, 2011 - Florida Cabin Fever Quilt Show.  This will be held at the Central Florida Fairgrounds, 4602 W. Colonial Drive, Orlando, Florida.  Our guild will meet inside the entrance at 10am on Saturday, January 22 to see the show as a group.
  • January 28-29, 2011 - Showcase of Quilts presented by the Quilting Guild of the Villages, The Savannah Center, The Villages, Florida
  • February 11-12, 2011 - Space Coast Quilters presents Quilting from the Heart X, Brevard Community College, Titusville, Florida
  • March 3-4, 2011 - Lake County Quilters Guild, Lake Receptions, Mt. Dora, Florida
  • March 10-12, 2011 - Seaside PieceMakers hosts Collaborations! and Carnival, Melbourne Auditorium
Leave a comment if you are interested in joining other guild members in attending any of these shows.  If you know of any other quilt shows or events going on in our area, post that information here as well.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Minutes of the Meeting on November 3, 2010

Minutes for Meeting of November 3, 2010


I.  Welcome
  


The Meeting was held at the Sewing Studio in Maitland and there were 13 members present.


Approval of Minutes
The October 2010 Minutes were approved without discussion.


Treasurer's Report
Michele reported that OMQG currently has a $601.25 balance in funds and 27 paid members.


Thanks
Gifts were presented to Demo Hosts (Beth, Michele and Kathryn) from past meetings.  (Julie was not present.)

Bags of scrap fabrics and fat quarters were given to attendees.

II.  Demo
Rene presented string block techniques. The blocks in her charity quilt project were an example of string blocks.

III.  Other Guild Business


Field Trips- We discussed the possibility of a future road trip to Heartfelt Quilting in Winter Haven as well as attendance at the Florida Cabin Fever Quilters show (Jan. 21 and 22, 2011) as another field trip idea.  http://www.floridacabinfever.com/guildshow.html

Challenge/Charity Project-the bags of scraps included many patriotic fabrics.  Hope proposed and the group agreed to a challenge in which each person would make one patriotic themed string block to donate at the Feb. Meeting.  We will use the paper piecing method of string quilting for consistency in results for obtaining 8.5 inches by 8.5 inches (resulting in 8 inch blocks in the finished quilt.) The blocks will be reassembled into a quilt for donation to a military family.

Holiday Charity Project


The holiday charity items are to be given to the Windermere Health Center who has identified 25 residents who do not have visitors or relatives living nearby.  The residents include 5 males and 20 females.  Beth has stockings and handmade ornaments that will be given to the residents in addition to the creative gifts made by other guild members. These gifts are to be presented to the residents on Tuesday, Dec. 14th at 10:30 am.  A number of people showed their donation creations at the Guild Meeting. If you have not passed on your donation projects to Beth, you can get them to her at the November sew day.

December Meeting
We also agreed that we would move back the December meeting to be held on the same day as the presentation.  We will meet at 9 am Dec. 14th prior to the presentation for a social get together at a location as of yet to be determined.

Survey
We plan on sending to all OMQG members a recap of the achievements of the first months of our guild along with a survey to gather your input on what you would like to achieve in the year ahead through the guild. For example what types of challenges, programs, projects, and learning experiences would you like to participate in. We also ask everyone to think about what type of role you would like to play as elections for officers are scheduled for the February Meeting.

IV.  Show and Tell
We had a Lively Show and Tell Session.






V.  Door Prize
The door prize was won by Sylvia.

While a few photos are included in this report other photos from the meeting can be seen in the group flickr account.

-submitted by Kathryn.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Quilty Inspiration

Today marks the start of the Fall 2010 Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Amy started this in 2009 to coincide with Quilt Market for those of us unable to make it to Houston.  I stumbled across the festival last year and spent way too much time on the computer, but the inspiration gained and the new bloggers discovered made it worth while.  I encourage you to head over there to see for yourself, and to enter your own quilt if you haven't already.  The festival runs until November 5th, and there are giveaways involved as well.

Amy's Creative Side - Blogger's Quilt Festival


Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Meeting Minutes, October 6, 2010




We had a great meeting today at the Sewing Studio in Maitland with 8 members and 1 guest in attendance.

The Minutes of the September 2010 meeting were approved.

Michele gave the Treasurer's Report. We have 26 paid members and a balance of $576.25.

Charity Project Update-All the donated hand made items are due at the November Meeting. Heather turned a lap quilt. We would like to present the hand made items in person on December 14th.

The door prize was won by Judy.

The library has approved our room reservation for the first six months of 2011.
Sew dates are Jan. 15, Feb. 26, March 19, April 30, May 14 and June 18th.

We have also requested three Monday evenings as possible dates for other programs and events. Those evenings are: March 21, April 11, and June 6.

The Birthday members, July and Margaret, were not present.

Rene, Hope, Michele and Kathryn presented their items each made with a fabric from the "ugly" exchange challenge.




A number of quilts were shared during  show and tell.  These are a few examples.



Amy Allen, the founder of the non-profit group, Global Change, Inc. (www.globalchange.me) which supports clean water and sanitation for areas of poverty, spoke to OMQG about the Global Quilt Project.  Quilt blocks have been donated from around the world for inclusion in fund raising quilts.  We assisted Amy in the design of the first quilt.  The quilt is to be auctioned on November 19th, which is World Toilet Day.  



Monday, October 4, 2010

Juanita Yeager Machine Quilting Workshop

Juanita's signature hand-painted flower blossoms.
On Saturday, the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild had the wonderful opportunity to have a unique machine quilting class. The fabulous teacher was the very talented Juanita Yeager who gave us a memorable trunk show at our May meeting. Saturday, she came to our Sew Day location at the Dr. Phillips library and taught us tips and tricks while encouraging some of us to get over our fear of machine quilting. Juanita does beautiful work and makes intricate machine quilting on a home machine look very easy. We learned about lighting, ergonomics, needles, thread, batting, backing fabric, stabilizers, finishing and binding.

Juanita showing us technique on one of her quilts.
Beth wastes no time trying her hand at thread painting.
Judy gives her machine a creative workout.
Juanita shows us her facing technique for binding quilts.
Hope masters a new machine with success.
Rene' caught on very quickly. She's going to write an entire blog post with her machine next week! ;)
Mary Ann was looking stylish and having fun.
Alejandrina adds an artistic flair to her practice piece.
Margaret was quilting so fast her hands were blurred.
Michele learned more about her sewing machine.
Juanita had everyone quilting their names right away. And then we moved on to different shapes and doodles. And some thread painting. She also demonstrated quilt show worthy quilt binding and her facing technique she uses to finish her quilts. There was ample time to practice our new skills and get hands-on assistance and encouragement from Juanita. Everyone had a great time boosting our machine quilting skills.