December Meeting on Saturday!

The December meeting, (with sew day and Winter Extravaganza-Palooza party and swap) is Saturday, December 3! Come and join us at Grace Lutheran Church at 10am, which is when Sew Day kicks off. Stay for the meeting and party, which start at 1pm. There may be time for more sewing after all of the other excitement.

Grace Lutheran Church
3149 Waverley St
Palo Alto, CA 94306
Things to bring (in general):

• Your name tag 
• Show and Tell
• Minimalism Challenge pieces
• Winter Extravaganza-Palooza Swap gifts
• Pet Beds
• IRR Round Robin bins and bags
• Lucky Spools work 
• Charity blocks and quilts 
• Small Group projects (and ideas for new Small Groups!) 
• Information about local/national quilty happenings 
• Non-messy snacks 
• Sewing projects for after the meeting  

Amanda will be bringing schnibbles, so bring your partially filled pet beds and help her fill them them. She will be turning over the pet bed project to Angela after this meeting. Members can see more on the forum.

Alison and her team are coordinating food, so check with her about your contribution.

Agenda, BAM meeting December 3, 2016
 
Welcome and introduction of visitors
Introductions
Sign in for door prizes
Guild business:
Charity
Guild Library
Challenge- minimalist quilt due, share at show and tell followed by a group photo after Show and Tell
Thanks to Alison and Mary for organizing food for event
Dates:

• Next meeting is Saturday, January 21

Sew day?
Quilty Happenings:
Presentation: Make it Modern # 4- Karen
Extravaganza-Palooza Swap-Ruth
Door Prize drawing
Break
Show and Tell
Wrap up- Joelle


The agenda is subject to change. If you have any questions or want a space on the agenda, please leave a comment, or see an officer at the meeting.

Members can visit the BA Modern forum.   

November Meeting Minutes

Next Meeting: Dec. 3: Grace Lutheran Church!!!

The group had a great meeting on Saturday. It started out with introductions. We welcomed a few visitors: Julie from Boulder Creek, Tricialynn from Milpitas and Kathy from the Pennisula.

Introductions were closely followed by Kate, our guest speaker and the founder of the Blankets for Babies project for the NICU at Lucille Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. Look for a full account of the lecture in a separate post. Key notes are:

1. Quilts should be 30"-45"
2. Stay away from sensitive themes, e.g. religious, political.
3. It is okay to label quilts
4. Quilts should be super soft
5. Colors should be cheerful, light and fluffy. Don't have to use pastels
6. Check for pins. No buttons or embellishments

Guild Business
Charity:

• postage stamp blocks available. 
• Arrow blocks available for assembly into quilts. 
• 110 quilts have been donated to date: 53 to the NICU, 19 for Sunnyvale fire victims. Others have been donated to JW house, Twice Loved, Pulse, and other local charities in need.
• Charity Sew Day coming up on the first Saturday in February. The donated precuts will be available to use.
• There will be fabric to cut after the January meeting and the charity girls need your help
• Cat Beds: Amanda will be turning over the running of the cat beds project to Angela. Angela will need help with distribution. Talk to them about helping. The last batch of cut cat beds were distributed at the meeting

Workshops: Many thanks to Angela for her hard work
Guild Library: Kelly will be turning the library over to Leeann. If you check out a book, please leave an honest review on Amazon.
Challenge: Minimalist challenge will be due in December.
Coffee: Nicki has added decaf and hot cocoa. If you want something else, let her know. She doesn't deal with the food, so if you bring snacks and they aren't eaten, please take them home again.
Free table: if you bring something for the free table and it isn't taken, take it home again.
Holiday Meeting: Allison and Mary are coordinating food. If you want to bring food, coordinate with one of them. the Holiday meeting will be at Grace Lutheran. 10-1 will be sewing and 1-5 will be the party and the meeting. Bring your Holiday Swap/ gift exchange item for your swap partner.
Quilty Happenings: First place winners from the county fair are being displayed at the new county courthouse in Redwood City. SFMOMA has a modern graphic exhibit of Frank Stella art that will inspire your quilts.
Days for Girls project: Patti is coordinating sewists who can follow directions to make washable feminine hygiene liners for girls without the means to buy such items. She will provide kits and needs careful sewing of the items. She will provide you will precut fabric and directions. More information is on their website.

Officers for 2017
Co-Presidents: Rhonda and Gerre
Co-VPs: Mary C and Amy M
Treasurer: Claire (for 6 months) after which Nancy A will take over
Charity: Michelle & Peggy
Membership: Annemarie
Swaps: Cheryl
Blog manager: Jaye (Jaye needs a helper. Please get in touch!)
MQG Liaison: Mike
Sew Day Coordinator: Mary C
Librarian: Leeann
Photographer: Christina T and Diana L.
Space: Geri
Retreat chair: Bonnie
Retreat Committee: Amy M. Mary C., Christina T + a couple of others your editor didn't catch (so sorry!)
Random Number Generator: Cheryl

Thanks to everyone for offering their time!

Ruth provided her expertise on matching and aligning triangles in a presentation followed by a demo after the business meeting.

Meeting Tomorrow!

Join us tomorrow, Saturday November 19, 2016, for our monthly guild meeting! Join us at 1:00, at the Redwood City Library, in the upstairs community room.

Things to bring:

• IRR Round Robin bins and bags
•  Lucky Spools work 
• Show and Tell - this is a great way to get to know people
• Your name tag 
• Charity blocks and quilts 
• Small Group projects (and ideas for new Small Groups!) 
•  Information about local/national quilty happenings 
• Non-messy snacks 
• Sewing projects for after the meeting 

Saturday, November 19 Updated BAM Meeting Agenda

Welcome and introduction of visitors

Introductions of officers

Sign in for doors prize

Guest speaker from Stanford NICU- Karen

Guild business:

• Charity- Peggy, Michelle
• Workshops- thanks to Jamie and Mel Beach, and to Angela
• Guild Library- Kelly 
• Challenge- minimalist quilt due at Dec 3 meeting
• Something else- Jaye

Dates:
Holiday sew day and meeting, Dec 3 at Grace Lutheran church; 10:00 sew and
1:00-5:00 meeting business with challenge reveal, show and tell, gift exchange and food
 
BAM positions for 2017- positions filled, photographer position still open; confirmation of
presidents, vice presidents, and treasurer

Quilty Happenings:

Presentation: How to make triangles points match by Ruth

Door Prize drawing

Break

Show and Tell

Wrap up- Joelle

Small groups, stay and sew, charity work

The agenda is subject to change. If you have any questions or want a space on the agenda, please leave a comment, or see an officer at the meeting.

Members can visit the BA Modern forum.  

Walking Foot WOW! Workshop with Mel Beach

First of all thanks to Angela O for being an excellent workshop coordinator. The Walking Foot WOW! Workshop with Mel Beach was her swan song as she steps down from a few years of volunteering and takes a well deserved break.

The workshop was held at Grace Lutheran on Saturday (thanks for arranging the space, Mary C!). The task was to learn to use to the walking foot to create a sampler (or two) of several different quilting patterns. Most of the patterns were straight line, but Mel included some gentle curves as well.

Mel was well organized and had obviously worked hard to develop her handouts.

The workshop was organized so that the group would get together to learn information then go to the machines to practice. There was a lot of back and forth, which was great because it encouraged everyone to take breaks.

Mel covered taking breaks and caring for your body in addition to using tape to mark, tips and tricks for pivoting, decorative stitches and much more.

This is a good basic workshop on machine quilting taught by a calm and well prepared instructor.

You can read more about Mel's thoughts on her blog post.

Meeting Saturday November 19

Join us  Saturday November 19, 2016, for our monthly guild meeting! Join us at 1:00, at the Redwood City Library, in the upstairs community room.

Things to bring:

• IRR Round Robin bins and bags
•  Lucky Spools work 
• Show and Tell - this is a great way to get to know people
• Your name tag 
• Charity blocks and quilts 
• Small Group projects (and ideas for new Small Groups!) 
•  Information about local/national quilty happenings 
• Non-messy snacks 
• Sewing projects for after the meeting 

Saturday, November 19 BAM Meeting Agenda

Introductions (Joelle)

• Sign in sheet reminder for door prize

Speaker: A guest from the NICU at Stanford (technically Lucille Packard's Children's hospital) will be speaking pseudo-promptly at 1:15 before the regular business of the guild for up to 30 minutes including Q&A.

Welcome visitors

Guild leadership (Joelle)

• You can make a difference! BAM needs volunteers to run the guild in 2017
• Many hands make light work

Upcoming dates- Joelle

1. December Meeting will be at Grace Lutheran Church in Palo Alto on December 3.
2. January Meeting will be held on January 21.

Guild business:

• Charity Update- Michelle/Peggy
• Workshop report- Thanks to Jaime
• Retreat- Thanks to Cindy and committee
• Guild Library- Kelly
• Update on Holiday swap- Ruth

1. See list of Winter Extravaganza-Palooza swap ideas and links on the blog

• Challenge: Minimalist challenge due at December meeting 
• Additional news or information (Joelle) 

Quilty Happenings- Joelle
Show and Tell

Other

Wrap-up (Joelle)

Stay and sew, visit

The agenda is subject to change. If you have any questions or want a space on the agenda, please leave a comment, or see an officer at the meeting.

Members can visit the BA Modern forum.  

November Sew Day: Sew Together Bag Success!

BAM had our sew day last Saturday. Big thanks to Mary C for once again facilitating the use of the space!

We had about a dozen people show up, overall, about half of which were working on the Sew Together bag. This bag making effort was led by Bag Queen Jaime, who once again proved dauntless in the face of bag-making angst.

Much discussion had gone on before sew day, as can be seen in the forum discussion.

I failed to take photos on the day of, as I was conscripted to write a blog post after the fact. However, I finished my homework the night before, during #fridaynightsewalong.

While I used essex linen (no surprise), and accidentally fused all of the pieces except the binding, I was able forge through and to walk away with a nearly-finished sew together bag! I still need to sew down the binding by hand. Jaime had a different method for adding the handles that give it a cleaner look. I hope to be done by November BAM meeting day.

Given that I sat next to Jaime to hold my hand, I had no problems with the pattern. I did have a few problems with the more fiddly aspects of the project. Making this bag a second time would go faster than the first, no doubt. But I have no plans to do that anytime soon...

As always, we had a fun time sewing together! It is always about the company. 

Well, the company and getting to sew all day!

-Cheryl

Meeting Notes for October 22, 2016

Hello!

Well, if you weren’t there, you missed a great meeting! About 40 of our usual suspects (members and officers) were in attendance. In addition, we had four guests. I like to think of them as future members! Thanks for coming. We hope you enjoyed yourselves and will visit us again.  Guests are always welcome!

We started off with guest speaker Mel Beach. Mel is a fabulous quilter, and a former member of BAM as well. It was great to welcome her back. She delighted us with her Trunk Show, and a whole lot of inspiration. She showed us how much we could stretch ourselves by doing quilt challenges 

Show and Tell

After Mel’s great talk, more inspiration followed in the form of Show-and-Tell. I didn’t capture notes on everything, but here are some highlights:

•  Annemarie showed charity quilts she made from a huge cache of recently donated fabric. Heads up: There is a lot more fabric left and we’ll be making use of it at a Charity Sew Day in February. 
•  Karen brought her completed her Cargo Duffle Bag, started at the recent workshop given by Jamie. She used BAM colors – orange and turquoise. 
•  Guest Tami, of Lemon Tree Quilting, (Welcome, Tami!!) showed an improv quilt based on one of the scores in Sherri Lynn Wood’s book “The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters: A Guide to Creating, Quilting, and Living Courageously.” 
•  Catherine showed us her quilted pillow. But wait! There’s more! She pulled out the pillow’s stuffing, and, lo and behold, now it’s a quilt! She called it a “Quillow.” 
•  Amy showed off the Crown from our retreat. Amy was the maker of the Crown, and at the retreat, as each person finished making something, they got to embellish the Crown and wear it until someone else wrapped up a project. It was very fitting that Amy ended up with the fully decorated head-piece at the end. 
• Jamie showed three quilts that were paper-pieced using a pattern from Elizabeth Hartman. Two quilts had butterflies, and one had bears. All three quilts were made to give away. 
•  Joelle brought a quilt that she referred to as a “moldy oldie”, made from upcycled shirts of assorted fabrics including cotton, poly, and cotton-poly blends. Yikes! It was quilted by our very own Cyndy Church. 
•  Jaye is all ready for Thanksgiving! She brought in embroidered napkins and table runners. And that’s not all! She showed us a bag she had made, with many customized features. And she showed a HUGE “food quilt” that she made for one of her nephews. Last but not least, we got to see her beautiful “Quilt of the Year” for 2015. It contains a rectangle of every fabric she bought or used during the year. Stunning! 
•  Joy-Lily brought in a very interesting new fabric that is intended to be used for sashing and borders. The fabric is available from SashingStash.com. She says that many modern quilters are using the fabric in very creative ways. 
•  Ruth made some adorable little bags, and a handsome light-weight baby quilt made with Minky on the back and no batting. 

News, Announcements, and Quilty Happenings

Amanda is looking for someone to take over the Charity Cat Bed work. If you’re interested, contact Amanda via the Forum.

Kudos to the Retreat Committee that put on a fabulous retreat at the Wild Palms!! Thanks to Jamie for teaching a second session of the Cargo Duffle Workshop. She was fabulous!

Want to make a Sew Together bag in a group setting? Come to the November 5th sew day. See the Forum for more information.

Ruth took sign-ups for the annual Winter Extravaganza Palooza Swap. If you signed up, she will email you more information. If you’d like to get going early and need some ideas, look check out this blog post.

Quilts for the Minimalist challenge are due at the December meeting. Criteria: at least 30” by 30”, fewer than 10 colors, solids only.

Do you live in Redwood City? Are you available on the first business day of October, 2018? Would you like to help the guild by reserving our meeting room? If so, see Joelle.

A really cool craft supply store recently reopened in Mill Valley. The name escaped the note taker. Ask Allison for more information.

Charity Update 

The charity committee took in 24 finished quilts this month!! They delivered 19 baby quilts to the Stanford NICU, and 5 quilts to JW House (jwhouse.org). Altogether, the guild has finished 110 quilts in 2016, and the year isn’t even over yet!