March Meeting Notes

The March meeting was very fun. WOW! We had a lot going on and welcomed several visitors and new members. Hope you were there and were able to enjoy it as well.

1. Getting to Know You Question: To what music do you listen while quiltmaking? OR what TV show do you watch while quilting?

The answer were fun and surprising. Not everyone listens to something while sewing. Yes, we have a few silent quiltmakers.  Many listen to the radio and enjoy stations and shows such as KFOG, Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me!, NPR, Coffee House on Sirius radio, Marketplace on NPR, the Giants' games and, surprisingly, we have two members who enjoy sports radio!

The TV watchers love NetFlix and watch various shows there. Others love romance comedies, Sex in the City, the E Network, House of Cards and other 'grownup' TV shows. Drop Dead Diva was mentioned as was Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The music crowd likes a wide variety including Jazz, Country Western, classical, ColdPlay, Adel and the dance channels.

There were some outliers who don't watch TV or listen to music in additio to the radio listeners. These outliers listen to podcasts, audiobooks and one member is trying to learn Swedish while she quilts!

This is a fun way to get to know each other better so we hope all of you will feel comfortable answering the question when attending the meeting!

2. Opportunity Quilt: the ticket sales at the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association show went well. Amanda reported that we made $240 on the sales. Many tickets were given away, as mandated by the guild's tax status. This turned out to be a great marketing opportunity as many people were willing to stop for a minute and talk. The drawing will be at the November meeting and Amanda is looking for venues to show the quilt and increase sales.

3. Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association show went well. BAMQG has 3 bays of quilts, which held about 15 quilts. The Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association show committee reported a slight decrease in attendance (under 10%), but BAMQG members who attended reporting liking the quilts and the vendors.

4. Make it Modern Challenge (Alternative Grid): <Members should check the forum for more info>. the challenge is due at the May meeting. There is some information on the MQG blog about alternative gridwork.

5. Sew Day: due to Easter and Passover there will be no Sew Day in April. Get together with a friend, if you are free, and sew some Charity quilts. The next Sew Day is May 2, 12-8 in a new location in Sunnyvale. Look for Peggy's post about it with more details and information.

6. Charity: there are a number of small and large quilts to quilt. Kits are available for the postage stamp blocks or you can make your own. The Charity Girls needs the LeMoyne Star blocks back, so if you have one bring it to the next meeting in whatever form it is in. The LeMoyne Star block pattern was the special charity block pattern from a few months ago.

7. Cat Beds: Check the email sent out before each meeting to find out if Amanda is taking schnibbles. If you are making cat beds, be sure to double stitch each seam as they get hard use and. The cat beds that come apart after being donated to the shelters are thrown out, which we don't want. Cut your schibbles to 3"-5" or less and ~11" long by less than 1.75" wide for strips.

8. Several members talked about their QuiltCon attendance. The best part for almost all of the attendees was connecting with people they know from social media. There was an amazing swag bag given out. One member took a class from Bill Kerr who reminder her (and us by proxy) not to let the quilting distract from the design. He also gave the definition of "modern quilts are quilts that relect the times in which we are living" to modern quiltmaking. One member mentioned a good blog post on judged quilts. Christaquilts blog reviewed the judges' comments on her QuiltCon quilt entry.

Advice was also given:

• don't take classes the whole time. Leave time to meet people
• take one class because it is a fun way to channel all the inspiration. It is also a good way to meet people
• arrange in advance to meet with people

9. Quilty Happenings

• SF Quilters Guild Show was last weekend. None of could go because we were all at the meeting. The show was not held on Sunday
• Saturday was also National Quilting Day
• TQS had free shows all weekend
• Stitch Modern Show is from March 27-April 25 at the Piedmont Center for the arts. Times vary, so check more info on their blog.
• Abby Glassenberg podcast, While She Naps
• Peninsula Quilters fabric sale on May 2 at the Lion's Club building in Washington Park in Burlingame, 12-3.
• There was also a fabric and craft rummage sale in Los Altos over the weekend
• The C&T Warehouse sale was over the weekend.
• The Ventura Modern Quilters are having a guild meetup, to which you are all invited, on April 18.

10. Destash Party: there was a ton of stuff people wanted to give away and most of it went to new good homes. You had to see it to believe it.

11. Show and Tell was fabulous as usual! What great work our group does! Photos are posted on Flickr and the forum.**

12. Next meeting: April 18, 1pm at Redwood City Library in the Community Room









**If you want to view the forum, you need to be a member. Send your $40 dues via PayPal to: bamodernquilt@gmail.com

March Meeting tomorrow

We look forward to seeing you at the meeting tomorrow!

Details:

Date: Saturday, March 21, starting at 1:00 pm 

Place: Redwood City Library, in the upstairs community room. 

Things to bring:

*Show 'n Tell

*Your name tag

*Finished Hawaiian quilts!!

*A bag (or two) full of fabrics for the Destash! (Check out the Ning post if you have questions)

*Charity blocks and quilts

*Small Group projects (Tula blocks, Hand Quilting)

*Schnibbles -- Amanda will be collecting these for cat beds

*Checkbook -- if you haven't paid your dues ($40) yet, now's your chance!

*Information about local/national quilty happenings

*Non-messy snacks

*Enthusiasm and a positive attitude! 

*nametag
*Schnibbles to fill cat beds. Cut into pieces no larger than 3"-5" and strips no longer than 15"

Please note: this list is not necessarily all-inclusive. It's quite likely there's something important that's been left off, so if you think of something that should be added, please speak up! 

There will be lots of time to visit, too, especially after the meeting. So plan to stick around and have some fun!. Meet new friends, chat with old friends, and eat some yummy snacks!

If you have any questions, please reply here, or see me at the meeting.

Setting up the Quilt Show

BAMQG has three bays at the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association 40th Anniversary Show and a group of us went to help set up on Friday.

This show is held in the same location as PIQF, but in a different hall (I think). I went late, but got there in time to help finish hanging the BAMQG quilts. Amanda, Kelly and Michelle had it well in hand. I added an extra pair of hands and driving skills.

There was some putting up and taking down, redoing and moving, but it went very smoothly. Kelly was well organized and Amanda has great project management skills. The quilt show has interesting tools for doing the hanging and some balance is required, especially for the larger quilts.

The biggest problem we ran into was the creases in the quilts. I know there isn't much we can do about it in general, but we went to lunch to decide on our next move. At lunch we decided that yes, we needed a steamer or a super duper steam iron. On the way back to finish our work, we stopped at Fry's to see what they had.

I have to say that steamers are the way to go. They don't, however, absolve all sins, but it did a great job with the folds, etc, from storage.The quilts looked better.

Funnily enough, everyone else at the quilt show came running over when they saw the steam, thinking there was a fire. When they saw what we were doing and that there wasn't a fire, they thought we were brilliant.

A few others, including the featured artist, asked to borrow it. Every quilt show management should have one.






Bay Area Modern Banner Pre-Steamed

Bay Area Modern Banner Post-Steaming

We thought the quilting stood out a lot of more, though I think my phone photos don't really do the work and expense justice.

We had a fun time and the quilts look great.

Jen goes to QuiltCon

QuiltCon 2015 - Austin, Texas by Jennifer J.

So Jaye asked me to write a blog post about QuiltCon. I said sure. I don’t know why. I’ve never done a blog post and I’m not quite sure what people want in one. I am not a regular reader of blog posts so I didn’t even have footing as a blog post reader. So I was left with simply sharing my take-aways, hoping that it offers something for those who take the time to read it. So here goes.

This was my second QuiltCon. I went to the first one because I saw a movement taking shape and I wanted to support it and be a part of it. Like a child's first steps or words…this movement, the Modern Quilting movement, was the real deal and, by golly, they were even having their own conference. So it was a no-brainer that I was going to go.

Attending for the second time, I got to see a reflection of how the movement seems to have grown. I don’t know the statistics comparing this year to the previous one, but it felt more mature to me. On a very practical level, the bag of swag (you know, the bag you get when you arrive and get your badge) really stood out…not just all the goodies in it (from books, to fabric, to a watch that was also a ruler...try to picture that) but even the bag stood out. I would overhear people at the show talking about how much they liked it. When I got back home my mother-in-law, also a quilter, was shocked at just how much they gave you for just for attending. During the show, someone stopped me outside of the convention center to tell me they liked my bag and wanted to know if I had made it. Imagine their surprise when I said this was the bag they gave everyone who registered for the show!

Again this year the online registration process was a little disappointing in that I was only able to get into one workshop of the many that I was interested in. It seemed like everyone had ‘early registration’ so in the end, nobody felt like they actually got to register early. I was however able to get into some lectures. The speakers I did see were entertaining and informative. One speaker reminded me that the lectures from the first QuiltCon might still available for free on Craftsy. I am hoping that this year’s lectures will end up there too so I can watch them all. I might even go back and catch some from the previous year.

The primary theme that came across to me this year, was one of connecting. How quilting was bringing people together, and through quilting, new connections were being made. The idea of connecting was all around me in bits of conversation I would hear. Speakers were alluding to it and the show itself seemed to breed it…QuiltCon’s new app allowed you to connect with others or share through social media. The idea of connecting generations came up a lot as well. I saw lots of moms with babes in arms… a rare sight I’m sure for most quilting conventions. Lecturer Mary Fons, with her mom Marianne chiming in from the audience, speaking about the quilting industry back then versus the industry now. Lecturer Heather Givans of Crimson Tate talking about when she took her mom to quilting camp. It was nice to to hear how quilting was connecting not only people are close to one another, but those who are far away from each other as well. Not to mention this year’s yoga sessions for quilters...every morning there was a large group of quilters on yoga mats, connecting with their inner selves. Connection was everywhere.

I couldn't hope to capture everything at QuiltCon, not in person nor in this blog post. If you have not gone, I hope maybe I have piqued your interest and maybe you'll consider attending next year in Pasadena, California or the following year in Savannah, Georgia.