January Meeting Recap

Mary Keasler's improv cabins

We were delighted to begin our first meeting of the year with six visitors. As of the January 9th meeting we have 38 members.

Thoroughly Modern Minis*

Our guild (along with Nashville's Music City MQG and Knoxville MQG) has been invited by the Memphis MQG to participate in a Tennessee mini-quilt swap. Participants will specify their level of expertise as well as a couple of their favorite modern techniques and their color preferences. Those from our guild who want to play will be matched with members of other guilds with similar levels of expertise and preferences. We will make quilts that measure no more than 24" per side or diameter. In a couple of months we will have the swap. We'll be notifying members via email to find out who is in. Theresa will be our guild person in charge.

*A play on the movie title "Thoroughly Modern Millie" with Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore.

Outreach Report

We have chosen Habitat for Humanity as our recipient for the charity quilts we make this year. Jean Larson will be our liaison and person in charge. Our hope is that all guild members will participate by making quilt blocks and sometimes piecing, quilting, or binding them together. Jean says Habitat expects to have six houses ready during the first half of this year.

Jean sent out a help-needed email in December to get a quilt ready for January 12. More than half a dozen of us met to cut fabric, make blocks, and piece a top together. Kelly even invited a newspaper photographer to come document the day for a feature article. Jean quilted and bound the top and had it ready in time.

This was made in late December and finished just in time!

This is the Team Janet quilt from 2014, hand-quilted by Janet.

January 12 was the dedication day for two Habitat homes. Jean and several members took the quilts to the event for the presentation.

MQG Charity Quilt Challenge

Quilting Detail

Sixteen of us made improvisational blocks for this one last September and October. Mary, Jean and Audrey put the blocks together and Carolyn worked her quilting magic. Now Gerry will bind it and we'll have it ready for its voyage to QuiltCon Pasadena near the end of the month.

Here's Carolyn with the bridges quilt. As you can see in the detailed photo above, she quilted wispy wind and wavy water, all freehand. Thank you Carolyn!

This one will be displayed at QuiltCon then returned to us.

Our charity quilt will be mailed to Pasadena, and we have at least two members headed to QuiltCon in February. Jean's modern churn dash quilt she showed us in December will be on exhibit there!

Photo Directory

Veronica has volunteered to assemble a directory for us that will include face photos, names, geographic areas (rather than addresses), phone numbers and social media information. If you hear from Veronica please respond in a timely manner. We want to get the directories printed and distributed as soon as possible.

January Program -- Quilts from Architecture

Audrey led us through her process for designing a quilt from something architectural. We brought photos, graph paper and drawing supplies. We practiced looking for basic shapes in the photo and using them in design. We talked about how to construct what we drew and we touched on how to calculate sizes using the graph paper squares.

If you drew a design, try to make a block from that design and bring it to our February meeting!

Show and Tell

Far left: a slice of Shirley's applique quilt, 11 years in the making so far!

Jackie's yellow circle quilt; Theresa's modern mini; Jackie's pillow and Kathleen's bento box quilt

The computer wants Mary's quilt at the top so that's where it is!

Thank you for a boisterous, creative and fun meeting, everyone. Next month we will have a sew-in and details will be posted and emailed.

Audrey