February meeting - Crafty Clean Out at Orchard Park Library

February Meeting - Crafty Clean Out!

Hello! Anne here filling in for our secretary Marija - and a little nervous doing my first blog post. (Marija, Rebecca and Steph are tough acts to follow!)
Here goes!!

At our meeting today we brought things that we no longer needed or weren't inspired to use, and there was a lot of laughing and exclaiming over new-found treasures!  Luckily, since we are such a well-mannered group, there was no hair pulling, name-calling, or fist fights.  Very impressive. 

We also brought our Riley Blake challenge pieces for a final show and tell, and a group portrait of all of the pieces.  They were all very well done, and so cheerful! 

Of course, we also had other projects to show and tell, because we are such a busy and productive group...I love this part of the meetings - so inspiring!!  I am ever impressed with the talent and creativity in this group.  One of our new members mentioned that she loves the "good energy" we have together - such a nice compliment and I have to agree.

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Check our our Flickr page for more photos from the meeting!  

Items discussed:

• Michael Miller fabric challenge coming up: check out the MQG main website for details. Let Rebecca know if you are interested in participating!
• Quilt Con: coming up - any members planning to go may want to discuss further re: planning and arrangements.  Sounds like a good time!
• Feathers - see earlier post re: rules, etc.  Basically, we are using the pattern that Marija developed from Anna Maria Horner's design. We are each making (15) feathers, the 6x12 size out of prints or solids. (no batiks) then we will swap so that everyone gets one feather from each participating member, extras to be made into a quilt for charity.
• The Chautauqua Quilt show was so much fun last year (we went as a group) that we would like to plan to attend again this year. We also would love to each enter a quilt in the Modern style to make a guild display.  Rebecca will use our WNYMQG logo to make some lables using Spoonflower to place on the back of these entries. Cool! (If anyone has not yet played on the Spoonflower website, you must do so very soon.) :)
• Enter something in the Amherst Quilt Guild show! See Marija's post!! Yes, do it!
• Anne will be planning a field trip to the Botanic Garden within the next month or so, it will be on a weekend. We can take photos and sketch for quilt inspiration or just breath the lovely fresh air. Maybe get lunch? Stay tuned.
• Next month at our March meeting, bring a pen, pencil, and some paper to sketch on as well as some photographs or magazines you would like to use as inspiration. We are going to do a motif workshop.  Learn how to develop your own motifs and make them into quilts or quilt blocks.  If you have ever wanted to do a little improvisational design in your quilting this will get the creative juices flowing.

Finally, a very warm welcome to our five new members: Marcia, Lisa, Victoria, Sharon, and Katherine!  We are so glad to have you aboard - remember to make a name tag and bring it to each meeting.  You never know when some swag will be on the line!  Stephanie's rule of "No Tag/No Swag" is firm.  :)   Besides, it's a fun, quick project and it helps everyone to learn names faster.  

Happy sewing, till next time!
Anne