Creativity

I have been using my computer program on the LA machine, and am getting a grasp on it.  (I LOVE IT!!)
I have done 2 quilts for ladies at the Titusville quilt guild, and they both loved the designs I used.  Well, there goes the creative aspect of LA quilting for me.
However, I have now decided to "create" something each day. (This is NOT easy for me).  I really am comfortable with lines matching, following patterns, and at least attempting to follow rules.  But I am hoping that as I try new things each day, I will "learn" to be creative. (And maybe even do something decent some day).
I will post pics as soon as I figure out how again.  LOL
I am sew looking forward to Saturday Sew Day!

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March 2, 2011 Meeting Minutes

The March Meeting was held on March 2, 2011 from 10 am until Noon at the Sewing Studio in Maitland.  There were 24 members and guests present.

I.  Rene welcomed members and guests.  She explained the Block of the Month, January Meeting Minutes were approved and Michelle gave the Treasurer's Report. As of 3-1-11 the Guild fund balance was $217.65.  March marks the start of the new Guild Year and so members are asked to renew their memberships by paying $50.00 in annual dues.

II.  Rene gave a detailed and helpful powerpoint presentation on the OMQG blog and Flickr group, including how to utilize them and how they extend and connect our local quilters to the quilt community on a national and international level.

III.  Alejandrina discussed her work to line up several programs or workshops for this year.  The first one will be held on April 30th (our April Sew Day) with Tonya Ricucci from South Florida. Alejandrina passed around a list of Tonya's workshops and asked meeting attendees to indicate which workshop by Tonya they would be most interested in attending. Tonya is the recent author of Word Play Quilts: Easy Techniques from the UnRuly Quilter.  Tonya has flickr groups for her quilts  plus one for  Word Play Quilts. You can read more information about her on her blog.

An exciting possibility for an additional workshop is Valerie Goodwin of Tallahassee, Florida. For information about her work see her website. I believe she has been featured several times in Quilting Arts and you can see one of these articles here.  Or check out her quilts on Facebook.

Alejandrina is also working out a possible field trip to visit Lisa Mullins at her long arm quilt studio named Wandering Stitches Quilting Studio in Orlando.

IV.  BOM
Alejandrina was the winner of the Block of the Month drawing.

V.  Other Guild Business
Renewing Members were given one of the new tote bags with the guild logo.

The upcoming Sew-Cial was discussed.  The hours of the event are 6:30 til 8:30 pm on Monday, March 21st at the Southwest (Dr. Phillips) Branch of the Orange County Library System.  Members are asked to come by 5 pm to assist with the room set up and to contribute the quilts and resources you plan to share.  Please rsvp so that we can get a reasonable estimate of the number of members who will be present.  Let Hope know which quilts you plan to make available to display (think modern) and any resources (books, magazines etc.) you would like to loan for the event to display as favorite resources. We will also display our Kauffman Challenge quilt tops at the Sew-cial. Please invite any of your friends you think might be interested in becoming members and if you need flyers to display please contact Hope.

Door prizes were won by Sylvia and Leslie.

VI.  Show and Tell: The pictures tell it all.

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Mosaic Tile Block

April's Block of the Month is a mosaic tile block.  The pattern is from Oh Fransson's mod mosaic pillow tutorial and can be found here.  {She has a link to a pdf file with the pattern.  Please note that her pattern is for a floor pillow.  It is just the technique that you will be following.}  

Sample mosaic tile block

As with the previous BOM (block of the month), this can be made with scraps you already have on hand.  Use a white/neutral fabric for the 1" strips and green fabrics for the "tiles".  Your block should be 5" by 7" unfinished.  

Participation in the Block of the Month program is optional.  You can choose to make one block, two or more blocks or no blocks.  Participating members, bring your block(s) to the April 6th meeting.  Each block you bring gives you a chance at the drawing for all the blocks.

Please feel free to email or comment with any questions you may have.

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February Sew Day Recap

February's Sew Day was held Saturday, February 26 at the Dr. Phillips branch of the Orange County Public Library. One Saturday a month we meet together for a full day of fun. Everyone enjoys sewing together and there are lots of tips, tricks, and laughter shared throughout the day.

Mary Ann was hard at work on her Hoffman Challenge quilt. It's going to be a stunner. Margaret and Rene' are in the background concentrating on their projects.

We had eight members sewing, chatting, and eating Saturday. We bring everything but the kitchen sink, but only because there's a kitchen sink already there!

Julie has channeled her inner geek and is making a Super Mario quilt for a colleague. It was fun to see her put the design together in our big library room. It's the perfect room for big projects.

The patriotic string blocks everyone made from our string goody bags are put on the "design floor" for layout. Don't they look great? Hope has the honor of putting the top together. I'm sure the guild will find a good home for this quilt.

Hope and Heather are having fun with their pretty fabrics. Sew Day was relaxing and fun. If you haven't had the chance to join us, please do. The next Sew Day will be Saturday, March 19 from 10 am to 4:45 pm. If you need an excuse to get out of the house, that day is National Quilting Day! See you there!

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March Guild Meeting

The Orlando Modern Quilt Guild is about to kick off its second year!  Time sure does fly, doesn't it?  Thank you to all our members for making OMQG's inaugural year a great one!  Are you ready to get started on an awesome second year?  Here are some details regarding the March meeting:

OMQG tote bag and name tag

When:  Wednesday, March 2, 2011

             10am - 12pm

Where:  The Sewing Studio, Maitland

What to Bring:  If participating in BOM, your cross block(s)   Info here

                       cash or check for renewing membership

                       Show and Tell

Agenda:

-February BOM turn in and drawing

-New OMQG tote bags and name tags for renewing membership

-March BOM sample block

-Blogs and Flickr presentation

-Other Guild Business

-----Robert Kaufman challenge

-----National Quilting Day

-----March Sewcial

-Show and Tell

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Sew Day on Saturday

February's Sew Day is this Saturday, February 26th from 10am-4:45pm at the Southwest/Dr. Phillips branch of the Orlando Public Library.  

For those of you who have not been, come check it out.  The library provides a large private room with big tables and plenty of chairs.  There is great lighting, and we also accomplish quite a bit while enjoying each other's company and creativity.  

Please add a comment if you plan to attend, what snacks you are bringing, and if you are bringing an iron or ironing board.

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OMQG First Anniversary SEW-cial on March 21

Hello Quilters!

It's time to plan our SEW-cial event to celebrate Orlando Modern Quilt Guild's one -year anniversary!

The event will be held on Monday night, March 21 from 6:30 - 8:30 pm at the Dr.Phillips/Southwest branch of the Orange County Library System. (it will be in the same room that we have our Sew Days) The goal of this event is to celebrate and socialize, introduce ourselves to the community and prospective members, and to hopefully welcome that evening any new members who may want to join our group!

The planning committee is coordinating flyers to promote the event, a notice in the Southwest Bulletin ( local comm. newspr.) room setup and refreshments, table-top displays highlighting our first year including our charity quilts as well as an informational brochure to be given out to prospective members that evening.

What we need from YOU, our members is the following:

1. Your attendance! Please rsvp now and commit to being there to help us celebrate!

2. Let us know what quilt(s) or other quilted items you'd like to bring for our displays...we will have some wall space to hang quilts as well as table top areas. When trying to decide what to bring for display - remember to keep it MODERN! Please include your Kauffman solids challenge piece - we'd like to have a special area just for those pieces.

(we will also have a small demo area going on, that Beth will coordinate, but we really want to have lots of completed work to show, as we all know - seeing is believing!)

3. We plan on having a resource table showcasing our favorite publications and periodicals, if you've got a favorite book or resource to share that evening, please let us know and bring it along!

4. If you live near or frequent a a particular local quilt shop (LQS), let us know and we'll get some SEW-cial promotional flyers to you, that you can ask the shop to display.

*we are purchasing light refreshments for this event, so thanks in advance but we do NOT need you to bring any snacks, etc.

We are hoping for a great turnout from our OMQG members as well as interested newcomers. Please share this info with your friends and family and tell them to "save the date"!

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Thank you and congratulations

I want to congratulate all new officers, and thank all the returning officers.  I love this guild, and look forward to a great 2nd year.  I love the Sew Days with all the socializing, and seeing the ideas everyone brings.  I hope we continue to grow, and bring many other talented people into our group.  Thank you everyone.

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Meeting Minutes, February 2,2011

GUILD MEETING

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2011

10 AM -12 N00N

THE SEWING STUDIO

I.  Welcome and Introduction

     15 people in attendance

     Approval of January Meeting Minutes

     No Treasurer's Report as the Treasurer was unable to attend the meeting.

     There were no birthdays in February so no February Birthday Fat Quarters to distribute.

II. Introduction of Officers for the new Year, March 2011 through February 2012

     President: Rene

     Vice President: Beth

     Secretary: Kathryn

     Treasurer:  Michele

     Membership Coordinator: Julie

     Program Coordinator for Workshops: Alejandrina (If you have suggestions send to Rene who will share with Alejandrina)

     Program Coordinator for Meetings: Rene  (If anyone would like to volunteer for this position     please contact Rene.

     Charity Coordinator: Beth

III. Guild Block of the Month

     We are going to start having Block of the Month beginning with the March meeting.  A block is announced with general guidelines.  Participants put their block or blocks in a drawing.  You get as many  chances to win as the number of blocks you bring to the meeting. Winner takes all blocks.  The first Block of the Month is a 6 inch unfinished cross block on a white back ground.  Information and instructions are already posted on the OMQG website. These are to be brought to the March Meeting.

IV.  Spiderweb Block Demo

     This month's demo was on how to make a spiderweb block and was given by Rene.  A tutorial can be found online at A La Mode.

V.   Other Guild Business

    --Patriotic Blocks were collected as this is the final date for them to be turned on for this donation quilt. We have a total of 27!

    --Robert Kaufman Challenge.  The final reveal for these quilts (finished or quilt tops) is the Sew-cial on March 21st.

    --Alzheimers Quilts-Rene shared her participation in this project and answered questions for others who might be interested in getting involved.  For information go to the website of the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.

    --Reminders about other guild quilt shows were given.  Feb. 11 and 12th the Space Coast Quilters host a show in Titusville at the Brevard Community College, March 3 and 4th the Mount Dora Lake County Quilters hold their show in Mount Dora.  March 10-12th there is the Seaside Piecemakers Quilt Show in Melbourne.

    --Next Sew Day is Feb. 26.

    --Sew-cial to be held on Monday, March 21st was discussed.  The Dr. Phillips Branch meeting room has been reserved for 6 to 9 pm.  Input was requested by the group.  Many good suggestions were noted.  Hope, Julie and Kathryn will be heading up the planning for this event.  Plus Julie and Michele will work on fliers.

    --Door prize was won by Sonia!

VI. Show and Tell

     The pictures tell the story...

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February's Block

We are implementing a new and fun Block of the Month program.  Each month will feature a different block.  The block chosen will be fun to make, require materials that can easily be found in your stash, fit our modern theme, and when put together results in a fabulous quilt.  At the next month's meeting, a drawing will be held from members who make blocks, and one lucky person takes home all the blocks!

February's block is a cross block. Block size is 6" unfinished, 5 1/2" finished. Tutorials can be found in various places including here and here.  Your cross can be wonky or not, made with solids or prints.
To ensure everyone's blocks play well together, use a white (or neutral light) fabric for the background....and think modern ;-)
Here is how I made mine:

You will need two outer strips (mine are white) approximately 3 inches wide and 6 inches long.  You will sew a contrasting strip in between.  My strip is 2 inches wide.  Yours can be narrower or wider.  It is up to you.

This is how it should look at this point.

Use your ruler to cut the block in "half".  Have fun here...you can cut in exactly in half or not...straight across or at angle.

I cut mine at an angle and not quite at the midway point.

Sew a strip in between these two sections.  Again, I used a solid purple 2 inches wide.

You will have a block that looks something like this.

Square up your block to 6 inches, and pat yourself on the back!

See how differently the block looks if the cut is not quite so wonky?  

Have fun trying out different fabric combinations, widths of the cross strips and angle of your cuts!

How this will work:  Each month bring your block to the meeting and add it to the design wall; for each block you make, enter your name for the drawing; the winner of the drawing will receive all the blocks.
This BOM is entirely optional... make one block, two blocks, three blocks, etc. or no blocks at all.  Sound like fun?

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