June Meeting recap

London Modern Quilt Guild Meeting June 2017
The first hottest day of the year found the LMQG members enjoying fellowship and exploring colour and minimalist quilting methods.
Joan ably led our meeting today. Highlights:

• A few spots are available to register for the July fabric dyeing workshop with Doris Lovadina-Lee.  Check here for details.  Michealanne let us know that The Marsh Store carries PDF (prepared for dyeing) fabric.
• Everyone was encouraged to pick four fabrics from the Michael Miller collection for their “Friends Forever” blocks.  From these four fabrics, create a 6 ½” square block.  These will be collected at our October meeting.  The blocks will be put together into quilts to create a rainbow of colour, and after QuiltCon 2018 will be donated to Quilts for Kids.  More info here.
• QuiltCon 2018 show catalog is now available!  Check that out here.  The 2018 show is Feb 22-25, 2018, in Pasadena CA.  The 2018 faculty for the conference is once again very impressive, featuring Carolyn Friedlander.  Libs Elliott is teaching too!
• Maria gave us a preview of the August meeting – how to print our own fabric.  Most of the supplies will be provided but bring your own fabric.  For those wanting to explore this further, Curry’s Artist Materials store has stamping tools available. 
• The Modern Quilt Guild is hosting a Creative Webinar June 14 at 9 pm EST on Fabric Design for Quilters: A Crash Course.  Check it out to get your creative mojo flowing!
• Brenda brought in assorted items that had been in a friend’s mom’s stash, looking for ideas on how to get these items out to the community.
• Veronica let us know that the LMQG library books now all have a pocket at the back with that book’s lending card.  When you take a book out, fill out the card and file it in the file box.  Be sure to check out the tools that are available in the lending library too!
• Michealanne announced her new business venture – “Stache Fabric & Notions”!  This is an online modern fabric store, and she is expecting to be ready start shipping soon!  As well as the online store, she already has a FaceBook presence - facebook.com/stachefabric.  Michealanne noted her gratitude for the mentoring and support of Shirley in her new venture.  The LMQG is happy to have Stache Fabrics & Notions as a new sponsor!
• Limberlost outreach update – the LMQG works with the Limberlost community – a program of the London Chaplaincy, providing the Tuesday Stitching Time.  From 1 pm – 3 pm on Tuesdays, LMQG volunteers work with community members teaching sewing skills.  Everyone is welcome to join these sessions – they are in a summer hiatus now and begin again in September.  They are currently looking for new blades for their rotary cutters, and solid fabrics.  Jan shared that she has a rotary cutter sharpener that she’s had for about three years that works really well. 
• Joan noted that Victoria’s Quilts has a chapter in Woodstock/Oxford now.  This organization delivers quilts to people living with cancer, right across Canada.  They started in Ottawa, delivering 16 quilts in 1999.  In 2016, 6,562 quilts were delivered.  They are happy to receive donations and volunteers.
• June 22 will be our first stitching in Victoria Park.  Bring a lawn chair and some hand work and we meet at the band shell at 5:30.  

• A great show & share session! 
  • Brenda showed her transparency quilt, a delightful giraffe portrait, a baby quilt, and her transformation of the modern block piecing sample last month, to a finished quilt.

Sheila showed one of her first quilts made with a jelly roll which sure speeds up any fabric cutting that needs to be done!

• Jan showed her Canada 150 themed quilt, with characters from Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts.

• Pat showed her quilt she created using Al Cote’s layered – slashed techniques.  She “faced” this quilt rather than using a traditional binding method.

• Maria showed a block sampler with hand quilting, and a vibrant orange/green star quilt.  Her backs were just as much fun as the fronts!

• Linda showed a quilt from the left-overs from the Nancy Trowbridge triangle quilt workshop, and the Project 48 quilt from one of the quilt-alongs she joined in 2016 .

• What a fabulous and inspiring show & share!  I don’t know about you, but it can be intimidating to bring your creation for everyone to ‘inspect’.  I worry about all the things that are not so perfect about my quilts.  It is really wonderful to realize that what people really see is your creativity.  I find so much inspiration from the work of my fellow quilters!  I love hearing the stories behind the quilts, and admire their courage in sharing their work.

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• Some of our members were able to stay and enjoyed the afternoon sew-in! Here is a baby quilt Joan was working on. 

Once again it was a busy meeting full of inspiration!  Thanks to Linda for writing our blog post this month.
Remember there is no regular meeting in July as it is our dyeing workshop- we still have spaces available so sign up and learn a new creative skill!
And hope to see everyone at Victoria Park on the 22nd.