October meeting and Feather Swap

Hi everyone,

finally getting my act together to post pictures and stuff from our wonderful October meeting and sew-in!
First things first - thank you Karie and Aurora sewing Center for hosting us!
It was great to be able to spread around, sew, and even have a bite or two - big thanks to Robi for bringing refreshments!
It was so great to have several new potential members too, hooray!

Also very important to note - we were so well behaved and had ALL our business stuff done FIRST, before all other fun, thanks to our awesome President, Rebecca! :) So we got a lot done and we had fun too! Here is the business part - Minutes from October meeting:
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-Sign in, welcome, introduction

-in attendance:  (members) Rebecca, Stephanie, Anne, Karie, Robi, Marija, Kim,

(potential members: Todd, Elaine, Carol, Todd and Debbie)

***Thank you to Aurora Quilt shop and Karie for providing your shop as our meeting space, and for the sale prices and great deal on that Kona white!!

***Thank you to Marija and Robi (any anyone else who brought stuff) for the yummy goodies and delicious baked goods!  What a treat!

-Membership requirements (2 meetings/dues --> login/password for MQG international website).  and mentioned that our WNY guild has a local FB group which is quite active and also a Flickr page and a blog.

-Meetings - going forward - Nov and Dec 2014 are planned and dates/info on FB. Meeting dates and topics for 2014 will be set ahead of time and dates will be announced so that everyone can plan accordingly.  In general, we meet the third Saturday of every month.  Special Events and Holidays may shift the date.

     -Proposed for 2014: minimum of 4 meetings at various quilt stores; others at various regional locations and/or events/quilt shows.  In addition, we will plan some "field trips" during the year.

-our field trip to Chautauqua was a success and Anne will look into requirements for WNYMQG members making entries for next year.

-Rebecca presented another successful MQG talk at Creekside fabrics recently.

          -Robi mentioned that she attends a retreat in the area near Creekside fabrics...perhaps a future audience for Rebecca at the retreat?

(If anyone else would like to give a talk to a group, feel free! Just remember to let us know because these count toward our ' providing education ' as a non-profit.  If any monies are received they are put into our account due to rules of not receiving payment personally as a non-profit.  Note that Rebecca earned our guild $75 from her talk at the Amherst Quilt Guild. Thanks Rebecca!!

-2014 Budget to be discussed/determined.  Any members with ideas/concerns please let one of the officers know!

         -One idea is to put together a brochure regarding the talks offered by our guild (aka: Rebecca).  (Frankly, Steph and Anne are very glad that Rebecca likes to do the talks. )

-Outline/discussion of officer duties/roles.  The position of President (Rebecca) and Treasurer (Steph) will remain the same for 2014.  The positions of General VP (to assist Rebecca), Secretary/communication (take notes and post on blog, etc.), VP/events (plan field trips, some meetings) are open for nominations.  We will post all nominations after the November meeting, and vote in December. 

     -Anne nominated Marija for Secretary, Marija accepted the nomination. Rebecca nominated Stephanie for general VP and Anne for VP of events.

-Rebecca stated her big job for 2014 is to make sure we are compliant with NYS as well as Federal laws as a 501c3 non profit. 

   -We are under the larger umbrella of the intl. MQG for most items, but we need to be sure to comply with the NY laws also. 

-Stephanie contacted several companies and got SWAG for our guild! Go Steph!

There will be opportunities to win/earn some of the goodies...but you need to do your name tag.  No Tag, no Swag is Stephanie's motto.  I'm not going to argue with her.

-The Riley Blake challenge is due Feb 17, 2014. See MQG site or our blog for rules, entry info. Fabric was distributed to members at the Oct meeting. There are some extra packets available to the next few members...what a great time to join - reduced membership for the remainder of 2013 and you get fabric.  Seriously, why wait?

-Feather swap - this is a local chapter thing.  Marija made awesome patterns, we decided on the 6x12.  So far 14 people + one for a charity quilt to donate.  If more people join, we may need to make more!  We have white background fabric purchased by the guild for members (again, a perk!) and we use our own scraps for the feathers.  Only rule: no batiks.  Due date on this is March 2014.

Over and out for now!

Anne

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Thank you Anne for great Meeting Minutes!

Now on to the fun stuff!!
SHOW AND TELL:
Kim is on a roll to quilt and finish her 13 quilt tops - here are #2 and #3 from the list! Go Kim, go!

Robi could not wait till' she gets home from our Chautauqua field trip (more about that later!) to cut (free-hand!!!) and sew with her newly purchased, beautiful, one-of-a-kind hand-dyed Pat Pauly fabric...and VOILA! - she completed this awesome quilt! I am so totally impressed. The name is Autumn Forest:

 Really, really, REALLY love the quilting!

Robi also made two blocks that Stephanie needed to complete her quilt, (to make up for internet Bee member who couldn't do it) - look at these beauties:

And here is the rest of Stephanie's blocks - can't wait to see this quilt together!!! (no pressure, Steph! ;) )

Stephanie also made a beautiful memory/T-shirt quilt for her grandfather (of her grandma's shirts!) - I just love the creative design with black frames around each piece and great layout. Frogs were grandma's favorites, so they are featured in a fun print. Steph was on a tight deadline for this and I was happy to help her quilt this lovely creation. She chose this beautiful blue Aurifil thread and it worked so great - I had lots of fun with quilting!

Rebecca proudly showed her beautiful Name Tag - paper-piecing, stamping and embroidery ALL in this little tag!!

We had wonderful show and tell even from our new, potential members! Here is Todd with his work in progress - amazing colors, right?

Debbie showed us two of her beautiful quilts - here is a fun one made by cleverly using great prints:

And the back is fun too:

She also made this amazing quilt that comes with a great story:

 

After a lovely show and tell, we had some fun sewing! Stephanie went on binding grandpa's quilt asap:

Rebecca was busy finishing Christmas presents for her daughters:

Robi and Karie cutting away, while Anne is having some good time:

All in all, everyone had fun!

OK, OK...I did not do much, except chatting and having fun, but if it is any defense, I did bring paper foundations for our Feather Swap!! Does that count? :)

Oh yeah - Feather Swap! If you missed the basic information about it, find it HERE , together with the link to the original, Anna Maria Horner's Feather quilt and free pattern. We decided to do our feathers by paper-piecing, so I re-created the block in my trusty EQ7 software and hence was also able to print foundations in many different sizes.
You can find PDFs with these paper foundations as follows:
for a 2"x4" size  HERE, for a 3"x6" HERE , 4.5"x9" HERE , 6"x12" HERE , 6"x12" with strips HERE , 9"x18" HERE and 9"x18" with strips HERE .
Please note that larger sizes, 6"x12" and 9"x18" ones come in two variations - with and without strips inside the feather, and also will print on multiple sheets of 8x11 paper, so you will have to glue these together for the complete foundation (using lines provided).
For the swap: we will be swapping ONLY 6"x12" block size, with strips inside the feather!
Update on swap rules:
- Guild did buy white background fabric and it has been distributed to members who were at the meeting and the rest is with Stephanie, so for all of you who did not get it, she will somehow give it to you
- List of participants grew to 13 (possibly 14) and since we agreed to make ONE EXTRA block for a charity quilt (to be made and donated later), each of us needs to make 14 (or 15) feather blocks, using the same white background fabric and ANY prints or solids (no batiks!) for all the feather strips
- Swap deadline will be March 2014 meeting - so plenty of time to complete your feathers!
The deadline was chosen so that all members who are also participating in MQG Riley Blake Basics Challenge (deadline in February) will have time to work on both.
For new, potential members - yes, we did get the lovely RB fabrics, it was cut, folded and even tied with a lovely string by Stephanie (thanks Steph!), distributed at October meeting - and YES! there is more for several new members who join the WNY MQG! How is that for a nice membership perk? :)

Now on to thinking what to make with it....daydreaming quilts is what I do best!!
Wishing you a lovely week, till' the next post (soon! I promise!),
Marija