This will be the last meeting of the Brighton Modern Quilters. It has been a fantastic journey, and I am so lucky to have met such great women. Unfortunately, life is moving on and choices have to be made. I am working more at the shop and teaching more. My husband and I volunteer as well. Something had to give. So, it is with some sadness that I have decided to dissolve the Brighton Modern Quilters. I hope to still see you in the shop and at quilting events, as you are all such talented women! I hope you don’t find yourself alone in the quilting world, as a great group of women has started a modern guild in Ann Arbor. Also, CQK is having a free sit and stitch monthly in the store. Thank you for all of your inspiration. It has been an incredible journey!

Andrea 

So, here’s the idea: let’s bring our scrap bins for a scrap swap to fill in the gaps of colors for our own quilts! You know the saying about one man’s trash. Well in our case, it could be one quilter’s trash is another’s treasure!  Also, we have some new quilters in our group that may not have a significant stash yet, and sharing scraps would certainly help them add variety to their projects.  We had also talked about doing our own Tokyo Subway Map quilt-a-long to work on during our meetings. Since this quilt has a bazillion 2″ sqrares, it may be significantly less daunting to make it together!  Anyone need orange? I seem to have an abundance!

Here’s the link for the quilt-a-long info:

http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransson/tokyo-subway-map-quilt-along.html

Congratulations are definitely in order for Debbie Grifka! She entered one of her stunning quilts in the AQS show this spring, and she won first place in her category! Now we can all say we knew her when! Way to go, Debbie!

http://www.americanquilter.com/shows_contests/paducah/2011/quilt_contest/quilt_winners.php

Well, that’s all for now. I hope to see you on the 25th at our next meeting!

This is to remind everyone about tomorrow evening’s meeting at 7 pm at Creative Quilts.  Here’s an excerpt from Andrea’s posting a few weeks ago – just so that everyone that is planning on coming knows about this:

 (April’s) meeting will be a real treat because Sarah (Hip to Piece Squares) will be giving a tutorial on how to make zipper pouches. If you haven’t seen her pouches (and other most excellent handmade items) visit her etsy shop. You can do so via her link on the right side of this page. They are gorgeous! She swears it’s not hard at all to install zippers and she will share her secrets to doing so next month. So, here’s what you need to bring: a 7″ zipper, two 6.5″ x 8″ lining fabric pieces, and two 6.5″ x 8″ outer fabric pieces with interfacing fused to it. Sarah likes to use fleece to interface her pouches. Also, bring your machine and sewing supplies. Thanks, Sarah!

Hope to see you tomorrow night!  Angie

To recap, we have changed to a very casual format. Each meeting is a general sit-n-stitch with tutorials and swaps thrown in for good measure. You can bring a project to work on (or not) and chat it up with other women who have an interest in modern quilting.

 Next month’s meeting will be a real treat because Sarah (Hip to Piece Squares) will be giving a tutorial on how to make zipper pouches. If you haven’t seen her pouches (and other most excellent handmade items) visit her etsy shop. You can do so via her link on the right side of this page. They are gorgeous! She swears it’s not hard at all to install zippers and she will share her secrets to doing so next month. So, here’s what you need to bring: a 7″ zipper, two 6.5″ x 8″ lining fabric pieces, and two 6.5″ x 8″ outer fabric pieces with interfacing fused to it. Sarah likes to use fleece to interface her pouches. Also, bring your machine and sewing supplies. Thanks, Sarah!

I also wanted to take a moment to say congrats to Debbie Grifka! Her sunglass case pattern has been published in a new mag from Interweave coming out soon. It’s so exciting to see our local talent being recognized nationally! Here’s the link: http://store.quiltingdaily.com/QUilting/Magazines/101-Patchwork-Projects-and-Quilts.html?a=qp110325

See you Monday!

So, at every meeting, please feel free to bring in a quilting (or other) project to work on, as we wish to have this time to just “Sit and Stitch”.

Also, several members have expressed that it would be helpful (and fun) to make our own name tags to wear to our meetings.  So, ladies, see what you can come up with!

On Sunday, February 27th, a couple of us enjoyed a fun afternoon working with the Girl Scouts on their charity quilts.  Being a mom of two older sons, I especially had a great time getting to work with these young woman.  They are all doing a wonderful job and are learning so much.  Can’t wait until we schedule our next time with them.  Hopefully more of our guild members will be able to make it too!

Today, I noticed a couple comments from Nonnie,  nonniequiltingdreams, one of our long distance members.  Sorry, it took us a while to approve your comments (posted at the end of the January’s minutes).  Nonnie has complied a nice list of sites/podcasts to check out.  Thank you for your interest and help.  We hope you are able to come to one of our meetings one day!  (and I’ll glad to see that someone is reading my minutes!)

So, please make sure your calendars are marked for next Monday, March 28th for our next meeting at 7:00 pm. . . . and bring your name tags, projects and ideas too!     Angie P.

Speaking of calendars, it was suggested that we try using the calendar widget on WordPress.  Well,  I have checked it out, and it seems that this calendar does not have the capability of being a scheduling tool.  It looks like it only highlights the dates when blog posts are made. If someone figures this out differently, please let me know.  In the mean time, when we have meetings, Andrea or I will send out a post.  I’m open to suggestions, so please let me know what you think!

FYI, JoAnn Fabrics has a great VIP discount card available to anyone that is a member of a sewing guild.  Check out this site for more info on how you can save an extra 10% anytime you shop there.

Also, check out My Sewing Circle, an online group dedicated to sharing project ideas, organizing your stash, and lots of other good stuff from this growing online community for quilters/sewers.  It seems to have a similar format to Ravelry, a great resource for knitters.

The first Girl Scout charity sewing group was held Sunday, January 23rd.  Sounds like Andrea had fun, was BUSY, and is looking forward to our next one planned for Sunday, February 27th.  Please let Andrea know if you are able to attend.  We’d love to have lots of volunteers to help these motivated Girl Scouts.

Laura Dolson presented a nice introduction to Google Reader, a great tool for easily checking out your favorite blogs and other sites too.  If you enjoy getting inspiration from lots of great modern quilting blogs, be sure to check this out.  It’ll save you show time so you can (hopefully) have more time to sew!  Thanks, Laura.

As usual, we enjoyed a nice Show and Tell from several of our talented members.  Here’s a few photos – make sure to check about their blogs too!  Also, we’ve picked out a couple more designs for next month’s Sampler Project.  Please see the previous post for more info and links.

Mark these dates:  Sunday, 2/27 – Girl Scout Sewing, 1 – 5 pm (come for all or part of the afternoon)

Monday, 2/28 – February meeting – Sit & Stitch, Show & Tell, Sampler Squares and . . ?

Sarah showing us her 2 newly completed beauties!

Cindy, Lynn and Andrea are so talented!

Happy Valentine’s Day!   Angie

Thought I’d practice my hyperlinking here (so it finally gets a little more ingrained in my brain!).  I am adding links to October and November’s patterns.  Please look over those blog posts for more info if you need it.  Also, refer to Debbie’s pdf that I added in November 1, 2010 posting.

Here’s the link to the page that has lots of great 12 inch patterns for to try.

October 2010 patterns are:  Rail Fence (3 rails only -use this pattern as a guide), and Simple 4-Square (didn’t see a pattern for this easy one!)

November 2010 patterns are:  Nine Patch, and Square In A Square (this is one way to do it, and is different from January’s Square In Square)

January 2011′s patterns are:  Dutchman’s Puzzle (first row, 3rd column), and Square in Square (2nd row, middle column).

Here’s Debbie with her 2 cute green blocks!  Hope she doesn’t mind showing them off here!

Now you can get started on your January blocks (if you are not shoveling the driveway!)  I’ll write up the meeting minutes and try to figure out this calendar widget next.  .  .  .  . Phew!  All this WordPress learning makes me thirsty for a beer!

Happy Quilting!  Angie the “sec” (let me know if something is not working right here!