Such a well-attended, jam-packed meeting we had!

After greetings, thank you’s, introductions, and general guild business we got to the fun stuff.

Book + Blog + Bolt

BOOK: Heather told members about the guild library and how to access it at LibraryThing. Any members who would like to share their own books, patterns, and tools need only send Heather a photo of the items they would like added to the library.

Heather also showed and talked about a few beautiful coffee-table type “art quilt” books. Denyse is one of the few in our guild who makes true “art guilts”. It’s interesting to see that many of the gorgeous quilts in the books are also “modern quilts”. The lines between the two types of quilts are sometimes blurred. Art quilts can be a good inspirational source for modern quilters. To borrow any of these or other books, patterns, and tools, contact Heather.

Sheila also showed us “The Quilter’s Planner” by Stephanie Palmer, the Late Night Quilter. This awesome little day planner is lightweight and coil bound, has boatloads of graph paper and note sections for designing your own quilts AND includes links to a whole bunch of modern block tutorials! There is almost one in every week of the planner!

BLOG: Sheila talked about a few of her favourite modern quilting blogs. Check them out!

Blossom Heart Quilts by Alyce always has fresh and modern block tutorials and finished projects to go to for inspiration. Particularly versatile are the Bee Hive block series of tutorials. There are 24 blocks in this series which all have secondary patterns when put together! And you can turn them in many different ways for endless permutations of beautiful quilts! Case in point is Patti’s amazing quilt using the Checker Block (see below).

SMQG Modern Quilt Show, March , 2016

Kelly informed everyone about the behind-the-scenes work that has gone into the quilt show so far. Members are invited and encouraged to sign up for volunteer duties, which include putting up posters, selling pre-show tickets, helping with set-up and take-down, and working shifts at various locations during the show. Of course, everyone is encouraged to quilt like fiends to finish up projects for display in the show. Please submit your entry forms by February 3. You can find the form on the Events Page, along with all the information about the show. We hope some non-members will want to display their quilts in our show, too.

Mini Scramble

All interested members are invited to make a mini quilt due at the February meeting, after which all participants will go home with one made by someone else! Of course, the ulterior motive is to have a bunch of mini quilts for display at the quilt show! Get busy, everyone!

Traveling Quilts

Traveling Quilts Group 1 finished their blocks in the fall. Sheila brought her finished quilt top to show. It’s a beaut! She used all the blocks made by members and filled in with blocks of her own. It’s gorgeous! There will be more to come from Traveling Quilts Group 1.

Traveling Quilts Group 2 passed on some blocks.

Darla made this cool pirate ship for Nicole’s “sea themed” traveling quilt. Lisa found the teeny-tiny, temporarily missing piece to complete this fantastic grouper fish for Nicole.

Carly made a painted pebble block for Jaclyn’s “pebble themed” traveling quilt. She used a technique Jaclyn learned at a QuiltCon workshop last year. The tutorial can be found at Rossie Crafts

Jaclyn made these cute sugar loaf triangle blocks for Sheila.

Sheila made these pretty blocks for Tarra’s traveling quilt.

Sonja’s medallion themed traveling quilt looks amazing! Kim was the last to add a contribution.

Show & Tell

Elizabeth showed us this inspired quilt top that we hope she’ll finish and display in our show. She explained her themes of “steampunk” and “nature” that resulted in this beauty. Can’t wait to see what she’ll do with the quilting!

Nicole made this great, green Glimmer quilt to curl up under at home.

Nicole has also been busy making sweet baby quilts for friends. The blue one was made using a strata to build log cabins. Very effective! The pink one is one of two she made from what was going to be one large quilt. She decided it was too much pink and so she cut it up into two baby quilts. This one she brilliantly named “Drift”. She used pink ombré fabric so effectively.

Johanna showed us this pretty almost finished quilt for her wee one. It is full of wonderful texture … different fabrics and trims for baby to explore.

This was Patti’s Christmas tree this year! Such beautiful paper-piecing! She used the patterns by Lillyella.

Patti also made this oh so very modern quilt featuring Lecien’s First of Infinity and L’s Modern Basics fabrics. Patti has named this quilt “To Infinity and Beyond” (so clever) and she used the Checker tutorial by Jess who blogs at Elven Garden Quilts.

The back is great, too!

Two days before Christmas Sheila decided she needed to make wee Claire a Christmas stocking and, while she was at it, she made coordinating ones for the whole family! That’s 4 stockings. Two days before Christmas. Crazy!

Sheila’s modern maples quilt is beautiful.

She backed it with a swath of Tula Pink.

This little feather mini is Darla’s first try at paper-piecing, a technique she has since been embracing with gusto (note the pirate ship earlier)!

Darla also made this modern wonky star mini.

Tarra made this beautiful green quilt for a favourite aunt.

The FreeFall backing fabric by Tula Pink that Tarra backed her quilt with is incredibly soft to the touch.

Marilyn showed us the stack of oven mitts she made as a “green project”. She recycled old towels as the batting and she also used these to teach herself free motion quilting. By the time she finished these oven mitts she said she surprised herself at how well she was able to keep her stitches even.

I hope you enjoyed the show! If you aren’t a member, consider joining the fun!