Monday, May 18, 2015

May's Meeting Notes

Saturday offered up another great meeting!

Kelly started off the meeting, after her fabulous welcome, with the Intro question. This time it had to do with favorite fabric designers. Again, we are a diverse group and we don't adhere to the rules very well. ;-) Answers were fun and varied:
  • Tula Pink, of course
  • batiks was a very popular answer, even though batiks are not a fabric designer
  • Carolyn Friedlander (your editor loves her text and word designs!)
  • solids
  • Bonnie & Camille
  • Lotta Jansdotter
  • tone-on-tones
  • According to Peggy, there are no ugly fabrics
QuiltCon West
QuiltCon West will be held February 15-21, 2016 in Pasadena, California at the convention center. It is the ComiCon for quiltmakers. You can volunteer at one of two levels, super, which gives you lots of free stuff or regular. The deadline for regular volunteers is September 1 and you have to sign up by 6/15 to be a super volunteer.

Entering quilts will be from July 1-November 30.

If you check the Quiltcon west website you will see classes and lectures starting to appear. The full course catalog is coming with registration for classes opening on June 25. Non-member registration opens July 1. If you are a member of BAMQG, then you are a member of MQG and can sign up as a member during the member timeframe. Non-member registration opens July 1.

Thanks to Angela for compiling the dates and keeping us informed.

Retreat
The Retreat is imminent. Your registration should be fully paid by now. The improv activity has been sent out. Contact Rhonda if you did not receive it.

Charity
Due to changes at the Los Altos Library, we will only be having Sew Days once a quarter. New block is the bow tie block. August 1 is the next charity sew day at the Los Altos Library, 11-7. We will be doing the MQG challenge: Improv with Intent.

May's Charity Sew Day had a good turn out.

Recently 4 quilts were taken to the JW House at Kaiser.

Exhibition
In December 2015 there will be another exhibition of our modern quilts at the Los Altos Library. Stay tuned for details.

Quilty Happenings
  • Anderson Museum at Stanford is now open. Take a docent tour of their modern art collection for inspiration.
  • SJ Museum of Quilts and Textiles has an exhibit by Margaret Fabrizio - June 14, 2-4pm, she will be speaking on embroidery. There are Bedouin textiles in the smaller gallery.
  • San Mateo County Fair June 6-14. See Lynette if you want your quilt dropped off or picked up.
  • Sonoma Valley Museum of Art: Unconventional exhibit closed yesterday
  • Sherri Lynn wood will speak July 18 at our meeting. She wrote The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters
  • Stacy Sharman will be speaking the BAMQG September meeting
  • The Reno quilt show is in the first week of June. It is reported that they have good workshops and good speakers
  • BAMQG Improve Workshop: May 30, 10-4 with Tina Michalik at Always Quilting. $40 per person including lunch. See Angela about space.
Discussion Topic: How to Up Our Own Modern Game
Aside from classes, inspiration and blogs, how can we make our quilts more modern or think about modern design aesthetic. That was the topic we discussed on Saturday. Some ideas that came up were:

  • rearrange blocks
  • turn blocks in different directions
  • let go of preconceived notions of what is going to happen
  • take a workshop (see above!!!)
  • just sew
  • meditate - get into yourself
  • purge your stash - we do evolve and our tastes change
  • rearrange your stash
  • use the backside of a fabric. It can turn into a low volume print, it can be a softer version or subtler
  • do challenges
  • look at stuff - galleries, flowers. Ask yourself "what would I do with that idea?"
  • see your fabrics
Just for fun. We will be taking a look at other member's stashes. Post before and after picture of your stash on the Ning site as you implement some of these ideas.

Modern Elements/Alternate Grid Challenge
Results were shown. Check out Flickr.

Opportunity Quilt
  • We will be selling tickets at the San Mateo County Fair. There are 4.5 hour shifts on Saturday June 6 and Sunday June 7, 11:30-3:30 and 3:30-8pm. See Amanda.

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