January 2012 BAMQG Meeting Notes

The BAMQG January meeting was Saturday.

Thanks for your Service

The 2011 Officers did a great job and the guild members took it upon themselves to get some gifts together. A few people made bags and everyone else added little bibs and bobs to create nice gift bags.




A-B-C Challenge

The A-B-C Challenge is going strong. We don't have many participants, but the blocks generated are wonderful.
From left to right the participants are: Lynette, Deborah, Michelle, Kathleen and Jaye.




Above is my G block for the A-B-C Challenge. It is called Glacier Bay and is from Around the Block Again by Judy Hopkins (pg.68). It is also a 6" block and I cut everything a little bigger and then trimmed. It is still a bit wonky, but I like the general effect. I don't remember ever seeing this block before. I think it would make a really cool secondary pattern if I put many of them together.



This is a great challenge as it allows people to make one block rather than a whole something. Kathleen wants to speed it up a bit, so we will be doing two letters each month for the rest of the year. Next month are I and J.

Question of the Month

Rhonda creates the QotM and this month it was: "What are your quilt resolutions?" Most were normal resolutions about finishing and curbing buying, but there was some variety as well.

• use more than I buy
• finish one project before starting another
• buy less fabric
• use scraps to make scrap quilts
• finish virtual swaps and bees projects
• teach
• quilt one per month on the longarm
• take sewing machine to be serviced
• end year with 5 fewer UFOs than the year started with
• improvise
• organize so sewing does not take over house
• make something from solids
• stop fearing binding
• make one charity quilt
• bring something to show and tell
• spend more time with real people than with sewing machine
• trust the experience I am feeling
• don't buy fabric I don't like
• make husband a quilt
• documenting quilts (labels and such)
• be liberated and wonky
• use orange and yellow
• start a quilt/craft blog
• make mom a quilt
• try curved piecing
• re-sort/organize fabric
• finish husband's quilt
• plan less and do more

Charity Quilts

Art Gallery Fabrics offers a bag of scraps free for people who will be using the scraps to make charity/donation quilts.



Two guild donation quilts were finished. A very large number of the postage stamp kits were returned as blocks this month. Almost all of the new kits were taken to be returned in February.

Accuquilt Go Demonstration


Patti provided an excellent Accuquilt Go demonstration. She also helped the charity/donation coordinators cut squares for more postage stamp blocks. Perhaps the guild should buy one to lend to members? ;-)


Echo Challenge

Ruth is the new Challenge coordinator and her first excellent effort is the Echo Challenge. The Echo challenge is a "Just for Me" challenge. Participants are directed to make something for themselves... something that they have wanted.




Some pattern ideas are:

• Ironing board cover
• Bulletin Board
• Sewing machine cover
• Handbag
• iPad cover
• laptop cover
• Notebook cover
• Camera Strap slipcover
• t-shirt sling bag
• apron
• Placemats

Above are free patterns and they have not been tested. You can see some notes about the Sewing Machine Cover on Artquiltmaker Blog.

Schnibbles for Cat Beds

Sadly Amanda has too many scraps and will hold off taking any more until she has made more cat beds. She really needs help making the cat beds.


See you in February!

~Jaye