it's almost time for our September meeting!

August flew by and it's almost time for our next meeting:

Tuesday, September 4, 2012 @ 7pm

A Quilting Place

10841 Q Street

Omaha, NE 68137

The agenda includes:

recap of the August meeting

show and tell (bring finished projects or works in progress)

agenda for future meetings

a demonstration of convergence quilting

our first guild challenge

The executive committee wants your ideas:

What are your expectations of the OMQG?

What activities / demonstrations do you want to see?

Stay connected!

join us on flickr

visit us on facebook

Tell your friends, spread the word and we'll see you on September 4th!

QuiltCon Registration Videos

QuiltCon registration open August 30 at 10am EST!

 

In order to help make the registration process smooth as possible, they've created some great video tutorials!

 

Learn how to:

• How to register for show passes
• How to register for lecture passes & workshops
• How to add lecture passes & workshops to your registration

Have other questions?  Check out their frequency asked questions.

So are you planning on attending?  What workshops or lectures are you hoping to get into?  Please share!
We'd love to hear from you!

the modern quilting bee

With the development of modern quilting, the quilting bee has also taken on a modern twist. There are numerous online quilting bees and one that I'm a part of is do. Good Stitches {a Charity Bee}. There are several different circles and each member contributes quilt blocks each month to be made into a quilt for a charitable group.  My group, the WISH circle, makes quilts for Project Linus. We've only been working on blocks since June but already have one completed quilt to donate. I'm amazed that 11 members from across the country can combine their unique blocks to make a beautiful quilt. It's a quilting bee gone modern!

In June, our group admin Erica decided our first blocks would be these scrappy kaleidoscopes from Don't Call Me Betsy. We were given instructions to make two 12.5 inch blocks using bright pinks, purples, and oranges with some light to medium grays/neutrals. The goal is to work from your stash and for my blocks I came up with these:

(This was my first attempt at a pieced block, and I was pretty happy with the results.) I was blown away when I saw a picture of the completed quilt:

It's wonderful what a group of quilters can come up with whether they "meet" online or get together in person as a guild or group. It's a great way to try new blocks and techniques, meet new people who share similar interests, and sometimes even benefit an organization in need. 

quilting and the internet

When it comes to quilting, where do you find your inspiration? In the modern quilting movement, the internet seems to play a large role in how quilters communicate and share ideas. Much of my inspiration comes from other quilters I have "met" through blogs, flickr, and online fabric swaps and bees. (And I admit that I would probably get a lot more actual quilting done if I spent a little less time on the internet!) While there are numerous places on the web you can find and share what inspires you, today I'll talk about Pinterest and flickr.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard that lets you "pin" almost anything you can find on the internet. To me, it's a better way of "bookmarking" something because you have a visual reminder of what you pinned. Once you open an account, you create various categories of boards and start pinning! On my Pinterest account, I've created boards for quilts to make, quilt blocks, quilt tips and techniques, and my quilts. Just looking through some of my quilting boards is often enough to motivate me to get going on a project. The drawback of Pinterest is potential problems with copyright infringement.

Flickr is a website that allows you to organize and share your photos. You can create an account for free, but there are limits to the number of photos you can have and groups you can post in.  Upgrading to a paid account avoids a lot of those limits.  You can also create and join groups and there are over a thousand groups centered around modern quilting.  Did you know the Omaha Modern Quilting Group is on flickr?  Come join us and add photos of your projects to our group pool!

QUILTCON Countdown

27 days! Registration for the conference opens August 30th.  For more on QUILTCON (a quilt conference presented by The Modern Quilt Guild), visit their page.