Free Spirit Designer Challenge

Guess what came in the mail last week? Our BMQG Habitat fabrics for our participation in the Free Spirit Designer Challenge arrived! We received a little less than 1 yard each of eight prints for our 10 participants. Those enrolled in the challenge, who attended last Saturday's meeting, have received their packets and the others were mailed today. (Current, 2011 paid members were given the opportunity to sign up for this awesome opportunity.)

We have not received a lot of direction from Free Spirit on how our guild should run the challenge and therefore have decided to have a very loose/unstructured contest among our participants. Simply make what you would like with your fabrics - it does not have to be a quilt - but please make sure to not add other printed fabrics (solids are okay). Just do your best to utilize/showcase the fabrics you have received. We will vote on the best completed project at our September meeting and the winner will receive a $25 gift certificate to SewFreshFabrics! If you cannot attend the September meeting, please make sure to add a picture of your project in the flickr group.

I can't wait to see what people come up with!!!! Please let me know if you have any questions.

latest meeting

Someone out there has some high-stakes photos from our last meeting, when many of us shared our first quilts! I don't remember who was responsible for photographing the other day, but I don't think we'll be sharing those photos online. :)

We spent some time talking about officer changeover, as the Magnificent Monet (and yes, that is her official name) will be leaving for law school soon -- hurrah for her! Boo hoo for us. She's done a wonderful job of founding our Boston guild, and carrying us through the first year and a half of becoming the group we are today. Thank you, Monet! We will miss you, but know we'll see you when you return for breaks (??) and online. The Great and Prolific Laurie will be taking charge as President, which is great news for the guild. I'll be the humble Vice-President (ready to serve!), Rebecca stays on as Mighty Talented Treasurer, and we will soon be announcing our new Stellar Secretary.

Laurie taught a great tutorial on Super Circles, which you can also find on her blog, if you'd like some notes on what she ran through on Saturday: http://dodgebutterfly.blogspot.com  She also taught us how to make flowers of hexagons, a skill I've been wanting to learn for those train rides/meetings/etc. for which it would be nice to have some hand-sewing.

We hope to gather for some shows this summer -- check the BigTent calendar for those dates and carpooling chats! We'll be sewing-in at Alice's in July, and at Caro's in August.

Oh, and we were all given some lovely member folders, with new member cards that we can flash at fabric shops and shows. :)

(Laurie, can we talk about the other item of business at the meeting, or is that Top Secret until a later date?)

MEMBERS -- PLEASE POST YOUR PHOTOS AND COMMENTS AND THOUGHTS!!

Grace Snyder quilt video

87,000 pieces in one quilt!? Can you imagine? Maybe you can...but I usually top mine out at, um, 30....

Thought you might enjoy and find other good videos on the site.

http://www.netnebraska.org/television/stream/flash/vod.html?moviename=nes_106_stitches&width_high=640&height_high=480&width_low=420&height_low=236

June 25 Meeting

This coming Saturday our group will be meeting at the Arlington library from 12:30-2:30. We have a very full program including English paper-pieced hexagons, "super circles," and show and tell. You are more than welcome to bring whatever you wish for show and tell. We are also encouraging everyone to bring one of the first quilts they have made - a fun exercise that will show how far we have come/how our sewing has evolved.

I will be teaching the program on Saturday - which motivated me to finish up a mini quilt many months in the making: You can learn more about this quilt on my blog. I hope everyone can make it on Saturday - you don't want to miss this FABULOUS door prize!!!

Please take a minute to RSVP on our BigTent page so that I can know how many materials to prepare for the meeting.

All the best,

Laurie Matthews

Donation Quilts

I recently donated a quilt to a woman with a terminal illness who was a patient at Mass General. I didn't realize the impact it would have, and how meaningful it would be to her and her husband. I made a little label for it, wishing her comfort, and sent it along with my aunt, who's a long-term volunteer at the hospital.

So, my goal is to donate another quilt around the holidays, and I wondered if other members would be interested in donating a quilt this year. There are no specific parameters or guidelines; you can do whatever you want, in any material, any size. It could be made by a single person or as a collaborative effort.

I'm hoping that we could donate a quilt a season as a guild (so, four by next summer). I can send them along through my aunt, who will find the people who need them most. If you want to, you can hand-deliver it to the patient, too.

What do you all think?? Any suggestions or other ideas are more than welcome!

the sew-in was SEW fun!

(That pun goes out to you, Monet.)

On a stormy Thursday evening, we met at Gather Here http://www.gatherhereonline.com and had a rolicking good time. About ten of us gathered 'round the big table and worked on hand and machine projects. Sewn cards by Heidi, mega-hearts-quilt-binding by Laurie, Alice's beautiful ocean quilt and WWRD binding, Maritza's summer hexagons, Mel's pretty blue queen-sized work-in-progress, and Taz's paper piecing were just SOME of the lovely works underway. There may have also been some fabric-buying...and lots of snacking and laughter.

(I wish I had some pictures to show but was too busy sewing and talking to snap any photos...)

June's meeting holds a couple of surprises...we can't wait to see everyone there!

Who's Ready to Sew-in??

I'm excited to meet at Gather Here this Thursday for our Sew-in! It's such a cute shop, with tons of great fabric...and comfy chairs...and scones... Who can say no to a scone?

Check it out here:

http://www.gatherhereonline.com

Hope to see you all soon!