June Meeting Recap

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Julia

What a meeting! June was our first meeting in our great new location: Harts Fabric!

First of all, the SBAMQG would like to give a big THANK YOU to SueDee’s for welcoming us into their space from our inception and being so instrumental in helping us thrive and grow so big that we had to re-locate. We look forward to planning events and sew days at SueDees moving forward.

Also, big thanks to Harts for letting us move-in and use their expanded space. We had a big turn out and 8 new faces! Welcome Peggy, Barbara, Jeanie, Tsoniki, Elizabeth, Anne, Julie and Jennifer. We hope to see you at future meetings and events!

Now to business:

We held sign-ups for our Weeks Ringle lecture and sew day on at the meeting. We still have a few spots open to SBAMQG members. if you’re interested contact any guild officer. Tickets are $45, the event is on August 3rd at the Community Center in Aptos. On June 11th, if spots are still available registration will be opened up to our sister guilds. Get on it while there are still spots!

The Pay it Forward committee reiterated that the Jacob’s Heart 31 quilts in 31 days was a huge success, and Mariah informed us that about $42,000 was raised at Mama’s Night Out, the event at which our quilts were displayed.

Upcoming PIF projects include 1 quilt for Community Bridges due at the August meeting for those interested.

The other big one is the You are My Sister event hosted by Heather Ross and Harts Fabric to aide Heather’s twin sister in offsetting the cost of her Breast Cancer treatment. Christie is a councilor at Scotts Valley High School, and an influentual and well-loved member of our community. The event (on June 30th) will include an auction of a stunning array of items donated by Heather, Windham, Walden, Denyse Schmidt, Amy Butler, Lotta Jansdotter, and many more generous and amazing people. SBAMQG is hoping to put forth an effort to pull together a quilt for auction. Details are forthcoming, so check your e-mail often.

A new addition to the meeting format is Rebecca’s Fabric Feature! We spent a moment geeking out about out and upcoming fabric lines that we love. Rebecca highlighted Sarah Watts’ and Blend Fabrics’ Timber and Leaf collection, and Anne showed us a super special sneak-peek at Carrie Bloomston’s Collage collection for Windham.

: Collage by Bloomston

: Timber and Leaf by Watts

Another new addition is the modern quilting principle feature in which each month, a different aspect of modern quilting will be featured and discussed. This month Tina highlighted the beauty of improv piecing and inspired us with images and books highlighting improv quilts.

Tina then dazzeled us with a demo on an applique technique that she learned from Anna Maria Horner at Quilt Con involving a combination of machine and hand stitching.

And then, of course, there was some pretty incredible quilts at Sew and Tell! Here is just a small selection:

: Blocks from Tula Pinks City Sampler

: Rebecca’s Lotta Courthouse Steps

: Julia’s Irish Chain

: Pam’s Floorplan Quilt

: Tsonikis Houndstooth quilt

: Karen’s Lightning Strike

We can’t wait until next month! See you at Harts Fabric at 6:30 PM on July 2nd!

To Jacob’s Heart – Made with Love

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Tina

Never underestimate the power of love (or a quilter for that matter

When members Susan Raineri, Mariah Flanagan and Pat Goulet decided to spearhead a charity quilt committee, none of us had any idea how much our guild could do in such a short time-frame. The first project for our committee; make enough quilts to create a quilt for all the kids served by Jacob’s Heart in Santa Cruz who are fighting cancer.

“Jacob’s Heart Children’s Cancer Support Services mission is to improve the quality of life for children with cancer and support their families in the challenges they face.”

We then learned that 31 kids are currently being helped by Jacob’s Heart. Was it really possible for our guild to made that many quilts in as many days? Despite the wild enthusiastic response at our meeting, we were concerned that we could meet the deadline. Leaving out even one child was not an option. We had our list of ages, and gender of each child and we got to work. We started seeing progress on our Flickr page. Oh, maybe we could make one more for an older boy, someone asked. We got together and pieced and quilted in our homes and at Mariah’s restaurant Woodfire Woodie. We emailed, texted and checked in with each other throughout the month. Some of us made one or even several more than originally promised.

And at the May meeting, we all brought the quilts we had finished, and this is what it looked like:

We had actually exceeded our goal and the grand total ended up at an incredible 36 quilts!!

During the meeting, members sat and attached labels to the backs of the quilts and we shared what we had made with each other. The happiness in the room was evident on everyone’s faces.

It was decided that the extra 5 quilts will be donated for the auction that will be held at “Mama’s Night Out” an annual fundraiser that benefits Jacob’s Heart that will be held this Saturday in Santa Cruz.

Our guild plans on many more projects to Pay it Forward, but our first project will always hold a special place for us as when we remember how we were able to stitch 36 quilts with love. Here are some more examples of the quilts…

Quilts for Boston

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Tina

The community of Boston has been changed by recent acts of violence. There are hundreds of people who are not only suffering from bodily harm and physical loss, but also invisible wounds from witnessing and hearing what occurred. Quilters are always quick to respond in situations where comfort is needed and in this difficult time, naturally we want to respond.

The Boston Modern Quilt Guild has put a call out for blocks.

From their blog:

“As a guild we plan to make and distribute quilts to those who would benefit from a show of support, and we need your help. We are asking the modern quilt community to support our efforts by sending us blocks for these quilts. Additionally, we will accept donations of fabric to be used for binding, sashing, and quilt backs. We would like to have the quilts ready to deliver to those in need as soon as possible, so we ask that you send your blocks to us within a month, by May 24th, 2013.

Blocks sent to the Boston Modern Quilt Guild should be blue, yellow, gray, and white. All blocks should be 12½” tall x the width of your choice. That could mean 12½” x 7”, 12½” x 12½”, or anything wider, more narrow, or in between. Please machine piece your blocks in any style you would like. Please use only “quilt shop quality” 100% cotton or cotton/linen fabrics. Both print and solid fabrics are welcome. Our preference is white or light gray 100% cotton thread, but any coordinating thread of good quality will do.”

Do you have an hour or so to make a block for our sister guild? Show your support and dive into your scraps and your stash and send a block off to Boston!!

From their blog:

“Our goal is to make bright and modern quilts that will bring cheer to those who need it most! We chose this color scheme as these are the colors of the Boston Marathon, and have become the colors representing the One Fund, an organization formed to accept monetary donations for the victims, as well as the tribute tees sold to benefit the One Fund. Be creative with your blocks, and make any pattern or design that inspires you!”

Please mail all blocks and fabric to:
Quilts for Boston
P. O. Box 79225
Belmont, MA 02479

A Little Sparkle, a Lot of Punch!

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Tina

Have you all chosen your fabrics for our Sparkle Punch Quilt-Along? The more of us who play along, the more fun we’ll have! Remember, this pattern can be adapted to something as small as a pillow or a table runner. There is so much that you can do with this simple star pattern; from fabric choices, different background colors, star size and more. (Do you have a few charm packs you’ve been saving for a special project? Here it is!) Check out this version using Flea Market Fancy fabrics…

Karen has assembled lots of inspiration on her Pinterest board of different sparkle punch quilts. They can be found HERE.

In case you missed Jenny’s demo at the April meeting, Tina put together a photo tutorial on how to easily make the star tips. That tutorial can be found HERE.

And remember, this quilt-along has NO deadline! Just bring your progress throughout the year for sew and tell. So….go sew!!!

April Showers Bring Spring Quilts

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Julia

Another month, another batch of quilts!

The March 22 Sew Day was another great success! The next Sew Day will be on April 26th from 9m-5pm at the usual location, the Community Foundation of SC County in Aptos. We hope to see you there!

Susan Raineri has officially stepped up to head the SBAMQG’s charity committee, which she has named PIF – Pay it Forward. The Pay it Forward committee plans to rotate through charities with new charity goals/deadlines every other month or so. Susan sent around a sign-up sheet for a PIF project due in May which is to make a 36″ x 45″ quilt for Jacob’s Heart. They need about 31 children’s blankets; if everyone makes one or two we can come very close and even exceed this goal. These blankets do not have to be complex. Simple quilts, even quilts with no batting and minimal quilting are great. The goal is to provide these children with something bright and comforting in their hospital rooms. The goal is to have something to show and share at the upcoming Mama’s Night Out event on May 11. If you have signed up, please bring a blanket to the May meeting, or arrange to get your blanket to Susan by May 10th.

If you have any questions about this PIF project, contact one of the guild officers or Susan through out Google Group.

After the business portion of the meeting, Jenny gave us all a very detailed tutorial on the Sparkle Punch quilt (our current guild QAL). Thank you Jenny! Those of us who have not started piecing ours are now very excited to start.

And then there was Sew and Tell: