April meeting recap

The exec members are trying to make sure the OMQG is meeting the needs and expectations of our members. First up at the April meeting, members were asked to complete a short survey. We want to know what other guilds members belong to and what you do/do not like about your other guilds. We also want to know what activities members are interested in (sewing day, overnight retreat, day-long demo) and if there are any charities your want the guild to consider making quilts for. If you were unable to attend the meeting, feel free to leave any comments on this post or you can e-mail your comments to info.omqg@gmail.com.

Once again we had a lot of great show-and-tell items. It's always inspiring and encouraging to see what everyone is working on so continue bringing your quilts to share.

There were also a few more Madrona Road projects to share. As a guild, we rocked this challenge!

The demo topic for this meeting was hexagons. Michelle showed her block from this Hexagon Rose Star Tutorial:

Michelle also showed several other hexi-inspired projects (click on the names/links below to be taken to the websites for more info).

• Hexagon baby quilt
• Patchwork Prism Quilt by Anna Maria Horner
• Graph paper generator (great for printing all sorts of graph paper to use when planning your projects!)
• Machine piecing pre-cut fabric hexagons (from Moda)

We will be starting a monthly block challenge! Up first is a paper-pieced star. Here is Michelle's beautiful sample block:

The templates can be found here. If you haven't tried paper-piecing before, there are some good tutorials here and here. ***When printing the templates, be sure scaling is turned off.  For the 12-inch block, the top side of section A should measure 4.5 inches (not including the seam allowance).***

We hope you were inspired at April's meeting. See you in May!

March meeting recap

Since it's almost time for the April meeting, I figured I'd better get a March meeting recap up on the blog! Sorry for the delay. . .

We started off with show-and-tell:

There were also more Madrona Road projects to share. Thanks to everyone who participated in the challenge and transformed their fabric into something beautiful! Hopefully we'll have more challenge opportunities in the future.

Lori gave a brief talk about her impressions of QuiltCon. It sounds like a good time was had by all and there was a pretty impressive turnout. The next QuiltCon will be held in 2015--start saving your money!

Michelle gave a scrappy trip around the world demo. You can find the free tutorial here and there are so many beautiful pictures. If you need some inspiration, just look at some of these on flickr.

The meeting ended with giveaways. Huge thanks to Jill Hanna for providing fabric prizes for the giveaways!

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, April 2 at 7pm at A Quilting Place (11019 I Street). Hope to see you there!

February meeting recap

Our February meeting was held on Tuesday, February 5 at A Quilting Place. The meeting started off with some show and tell:

It's always nice to see what everybody has been working on. (And for me there is always that extra motivation to make progress or finish a project so I have something to bring in and show off!)

Members also brought Madrona Road projects to share. At the January meeting, participating members received fat eighth bundles of Violet Craft's Madrona Road fabric line from Michael Miller Fabrics.

Even though we all started with the same fabrics, there was a variety of creative and beautiful projects:

And a huge congratulations to Katie! Her "Here Comes the Sun" wall hanging (bottom row, second from the right) was one of only 8 projects chosen by Michael Miller to be displayed at their booth at QuiltCon. There were 262 amazing projects that were submitted so way to go, Katie!

Lori gave a great demo on improv piecing. We are lucky to have such talented group members, and if you are knowledgeable about a particular quilting topic or technique, please let us know. We'd love to have you share your expertise!

At the end of the meeting, we had a discussion of what members would like to see at future meetings.  English paper piecing, machine binding techniques/tutorials, sewing curves, free motion quilting, and color were some of the suggestions and we'll keep you posted about topics for upcoming meetings. A sewing day and a sewing retreat were also suggested. We concluded with a round of introductions since participation is increasing with every meeting.

Thanks for attending and we'll see you Tuesday, March 5!

December meeting recap

The December meeting was a lot of fun and it was nice to see more new faces!

First up was show and tell:

We had a white elephant ugly fabric exchange.  (Of course I didn't get any pictures of this.) Members are encouraged to make something with the fabric they ended up with. There was a drawing with some great prizes donated by The Warm Company and Moda. We also had time to socialize and enjoy some wonderful holiday treats provided by Lori and Robin.

And a few announcements:

For those that signed up for the Madrona Road challenge, we expect to receive the fabric in December and it will be handed out at the January meeting. Participating members will have January and February to make their challenge projects.  There is a Madrona Road flickr group you can join and share pictures of your projects.

For those members interested in helping out with the Austin Children's Shelter charity quilt, we will be meeting on Saturday, December 29 at 10am at A Quilting Place (11019 I Street) to make the quilt top and back.  If you have fabric in the QuiltCon colors (plus white and gray) you would be willing to donate, please bring it along.

Since the first Tuesday in January falls on New Year's Day, we will be holding our January meeting on another day. When available, meeting information will be posted here on our blog and on our facebook page.

September meeting recap

Okay, it's a little late, but how about a recap of our September meeting?  If you missed the meeting or want to review what we talked about, the minutes are here.

Some members brought projects to share:

Exec member Carey demonstrated convergence quilting:

You can find a link to Carey's handout here.

Members are challenged to make their own convergence quilt and bring it (or you work in progress) to the October or November meetings to share.  The October meeting will be about the internet and social media.  Come learn more about flickr, instagram, blogging, and more!