The general membership has chosen to disband as an organized quilt guild and going forward will meet monthly via Zoom to share their work. The name Moncton Modern Quilters was chosen and most communication will be completed via the Facebook Page of the same name. You can still contact the group via the email address: monctonmqg@gmail.com

For the time being this blog and the IG account will remain, but no further updates will be completed.

November 28th Workshop with Cheryl Arkison, "Make Words Not War"

The MMQG is pleased to announce that registration is now open for "Make Words Not War", a text building, technique learning workshop with Calgary based quilter and author, Cheryl Arkison! 

This is a webinar conferencing (Zoom) workshop so it's all about ease of execution: your fabrics are at hand, you don't have to lug your machine or share your snacks, and no one cares what you wear! What could be easier!? Well, talk about easy...in this technique based class all you need are 6" scraps or a couple of contrasting fat quarters to make those letters stand out! Scroll through Cheryl's IG account @cheryl_arkison or Cheryl's website for more photos of examples.

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Make Words Not War

Say what you want to say, but say it in a quilt. From simple holiday greetings to profound statements, use words in quilts to convey your message. This class covers planning and construction for any letter.

With a little bit of planning you can turn your words into beautiful quilts, table runners, or even personalized baby gifts. This class covers planning your letters, improvisational piecing, and fabric selection.

Date: Saturday, November 28th, 2020

Time: 11 am to 4 pm ADT

Cost: $45.00 MMQG members/ $55.00 non-members. Fees are non-refundable.

Registration now open! We had a waiting list for our first workshop, so don't delay!

To register: e-transfer your fee to monctonmqg@gmail.com Subject line: Cheryl A's workshop

                  Please use e-transfer password: wordsnotwar 

All welcome!!

Help needed with Hospice Quilts

From Giselle, our Hospice Quilt Project Coordinator:

What a lovely morning to enjoy the rich fall colored leaves complete with lovely warm weather.

In the spirit of moving our Hospice quilt project forward, I currently have two tops (both 50 x 60 inches) ready for quilting, complete with batting and backing. Would love to hear from any volunteers willing to do one or both. I‘ll even offer to deliver to your door, masked of course. You can PM me, or comment on this page.

Thanks everyone for all that you‘ve done so far to bring this project about. The building site is well under construction, and barring any major hiccups, we hope to see an official opening mid 2021.

The Moncton Modern Quilt Guild is back! 

Like everyone these days, finding our way through the pandemic has taken some time and thought. After a poll of the members with an almost unanimous vote to not meet physically, we have decided to move forward virtually, using webinar conferencing as our platform.

Our first meeting via Zoom with Debbie MacDonald hosting was held on Monday, September 28th at 7 pm. We were pleased and excited to see the large number of members who were able to join in and we hope this format will serve as a reasonable way to engage and interact as a guild. A large majority of guilds worldwide are using this same venue so there is much to learn and no doubt tips to be gathered on how to make it work better for us, but we felt we got off to a pretty good start! 

We would also like to welcome Charla back to the guild fold and as well, welcome new members Bev and Millie!

The pandemic certainly offers many challenges, but on the positive side, it offers those who live outside the immediate Moncton area the opportunity to join the guild. It was also mentioned that not having to drive any distance will be especially welcoming during the cold winter months! Our fees are pro-rated at this time so reach out (monctonmqg@gmail.com)if you are interested in becoming a member.

If anyone who missed the meeting had issues signing in, please let us know so we can help you fix that for the next meeting.

Topics covered:

• Hospice Quilts Update - *see Giselle's report below  We received a number of donations of tops, backing and some finished quilts from Sharon Hamilton, Carol Davison and Pat Hume - all non-members but quilters in the community. Janet LeBlanc graciously donated a lovely sum of money from mask making to assist in purchasing batting and backings just when it was needed most so many thanks to Janet!  And many thanks to both Sharon, Carol and Pat for their very generous donations! The Hospice will be well stocked with beautiful quilts to keep the patients and their families cosy thanks to your assistance with our project.
• Also many thanks to Carol, Millie and Kim for volunteering to assist in working toward completing these quilts with quilting, labelling and stitching.
• Somewhere Over the Rainbow Challenge  - Maryse reported that they may still be missing 3 sets of blocks. If they don't have your blue, indigo and violet blocks yet, please connect with Maryse or Annette about getting those delivered to them so they can finish making sets and get them out to the participants.
• Poppyprint Workshop - Very popular workshop with 10 of our members signed up as well as quilters from across ON, BC, Scotland and the US. There is a waiting list and yesterday there was a flurry of inquiries. Supply lists went out last week. Class notes and Zoom invitations went out this morning.
• A virtual workshop with Cheryl Arkison on Saturday, Nov 28th - Make Words Not War. Cheryl's website. We discussed hosting this as well as purchasing a Zoom account and Debbie MacDonald will look into other webinar avenues available. Noted that virtual workshops will be the new normal for quilting instructors going forward. They have much more access to remote areas and small guilds like our own without the guilds incurring travel, accommodation and food costs to bring the instructor in. Consequently guilds can charge lower registration fees and the instructors can choose get to teach more often so it's a win-win for everyone. 
• Block Lotto - We discussed reviving the program but no decisions made as yet. If anyone is interested in taking this on, please reach out to Carol or Jennifer.
• Carol asked for volunteers to help run various areas of the guild and acknowledged that if not for the pandemic, elections would have been called. All help is welcome! Charla volunteered to run a virtual show and share on our various social media sites. She will be reaching out to gather photos of work we would like to share and posting them so please support her and send in your photos!
• Discussion about Round Robins/Row by Rows - Yippee! Another volunteer! Deb Crosby and Janet LeBlanc have agreed to take on organizing this project and will present at the next meeting in October.

** I did fail to mention that there are still seats available for Krista's Lecture, Search for Signature Style on Sunday, October 18th at 1 pm AST. This is an hour long lecture and tickets can be purchased by e-transferring 10.00 to monctonmqg@gmail.com

If I missed anything or anyone, my apologies. Please reach out and I will rectify that.

HOSPICE QUILT PROJECT (Update Sept 30, 2020)

1. a)  Quilts completed - 25

2. b)  Blocks signed out for assembly (Maryse, Lise, Deb C and Darline) - 4

3. c)  Tops to be assembled (2x French Braid and one from Sharon) - 3

4. d)  Tops ready for quilting: 

5.       50x58 (Sharon) 

6.       50x60 (Sharon) 

7.       54x60 (Sharon) 

8.       66x70 (Pat Hume) 

9.       70x82 (Sharon) 

10.       98x108 (Sharon)  - 6

11. e)  Bed runners to repurpose (donated by Sharon) - 4

12. f)  Jennifer  - 7 to be quilted

TOTAL = 48 

February 28, 2020 - Hospice Blocks

Check under Charity and Comfort Quilts for the latest blocks of the Hospice Project! All the info required is there as well as a link to a tutorial. Just remember to follow the cutting measurements on our blog which have been provided by Giselle and NOT the ones in the tutorial. Photos are provided of sample blocks.

There is a post about this as well on our Facebook Page so if you could comment on that post to let Giselle know you are making blocks, that would be great! 

Thanks for all your assistance in making the Hospice Project a huge success!!

Hospice Quilt Project Update - January 27, 2020

Giselle has provided us with an update on the Hospice Quilt Project. As of January 27, 2020 there are 8 completed quilts (YIPPEE!!) and there are two more that are being bound which will bring our completed total to 10. Many thanks to Deb Wood for quilting Tiny Houses #1, as well as Pink String #1!

At the present time there are 6 more tops in progress:

Darline Ashford has volunteered to make the last 5 blocks for the Woven Scrap top. 

Lise Dupuis is piecing Deep Breath.

Maryse Fagan is piecing the remaining Modern Boy blocks.

Giselle is piecing Pink Stripes #2.

Jennifer is piecing and quilting Tiny Houses #2.

The 6th quilt in progress is the Juvenile Rainbow Top and these are the strips currently needed for it:
RED - need 77”
ORANGE - need 50”
YELLOW - need 35”
GREEN - need 48”
BLUE - need 68”
PURPLE - need 75”
PINK - Completed!

**Please message Giselle directly via Facebook if you plan to make strips, as well as telling her the color and the measurement so she can keep track of what is needed. All details are on this blog under Charity and Comfort Quilts.

November 25, 2019 - Our first anniversary!

The Moncton Modern Quilt Guild is officially one! Our November meeting was dedicated to celebrating this auspicious event and we did it in great style! We had a number of amazing door prizes, all donated to us and it was great sharing this good fortunate with our members, although we did make them work for them!

Penelope at The Fabric Curator, an online shop based out of Toronto, provided us with a gorgeous selection of Robert Kaufman fabrics!

Bev of Edge Squared Quilting in Barnaby donated a whole selection of items including a book, some cool water bottles, and a hexie cutter!

Northcott was incredibly generous and sent us a Fed Ex box jam packed with bundles, fat quarters, and microchips! 

Wonderfil Speciality Threads sent us some beautiful threads!

Soakwash sent us a box of Pineapple Grove Flatter!

Jackie at The Fabric Cupboard donated a lovely fat quarter bundle and a gift certificate!

And our own Carol Miki donated a sewing mat to place your machine on!



First up was our monthly Block Lotto. Maryse was the excited winner of a whole slew of half square triangles and knowing the speed this energizer bunny goes, it shouldn't be too long before we see her completed quilt back in Show and Share!

Annette and Maryse did a great job of collecting this months blocks and delivering them back to the participants! Each member participating in the Challenge went home with one of these glorious orange bundles of 12 - 10 inch squares.

This month participants received a very generous discount coupon from Jackie at The Fabric Cupboard!

We also had a report from Giselle on the progress of the Hospice Quilts. Sue gave her a hand showing one of two strips of pink that Darline whipped up for the Juvenile Quilt. Note: The balance of strips needed in all colors except pink (thanks, Darline!) can be found under Comfort and Charity Quilts on the blog.

They also showed us the two Modern Boy quilts that Deb W and Jodi quilted for us. Another beautiful job done by these two prolific longarmers! Giselle mentioned that she was looking for assistance with binding the finished quilts and began getting some volunteers. 

One of our fun games was to create a modern block design using construction paper and tape. Afterwards everyone voted for their favorite and when there was a tie, we drew for a winner.

All the members got to guess how many spools were in the bottle and how many pins were in the pin cushion. Amazingly Lana had the closest guess for both and scored a couple of great prizes! 

Then, as we say, let the games begin and the race was on as members split into two teams and played some Minute to Win It Games! 

Maryse and Lisa give it their best as they move those thimbles from one dish to the other using only a plastic spoon and great concentration!

Lorette and Lise use all they've got to blow up a balloon and then blow each solo cup off the edge of the table so their team mates can have their turn!

Kim and Lisa wore the winning crowns as their team filled their panty hose hats with inflated balloons!

The teams also raced against each other playing a cup stacking game, a game where they each had to wear oven mitts and peel a Hershey Kiss and the Junk in the Trunk Game. 

Whenever and where ever quilters gather, there are snacks and tonight was no exception. Everyone brought something to add to the table and we all shared these lovely treats!

Deb W. brought all the fixins for these adorable candy cane reindeer and put them all together at the meeting!

As always, our Bring and Buy table continues to attract donations and sales and we thank everyone for helping raise the necessary monies for our backings and batting!

Gisele was excited to win the door prize from The Fabric Cupboard and I bet that gift certificate has been spent already! 

Deb holds one of the beautiful Northcott bundles which she won!

Melanie won both the sewing mat from Carol M as well as a water bottle from Edge Squared Quilting

Deb had a great night, going home with a door prize from Edge Squared Quilting as well!

Kim was pretty darn pleased to win the beautiful fabrics donated by The Fabric Curator! No doubt they will find their way into one of Kim's exquisite creations in the near future.

The Northcott bundles featured their Figo fabrics as well as their Colorworks line and everybody went home with several fat quarters and a microchip pack!

Annette came ready to celebrate with her fun party hat!!

There were only two Show and Share this evening: Carol's Kimonos and Jennifer's Pinwheels.

Again, thanks to those wonderful individuals who donated door prizes, thanks to the members who joined us for the evening and brought treats to share. And thanks to everyone for having a sense of fun and enjoying a great time with their fellow guild mates!

October 28, 2019 Monthly Meeting

At our October meeting, we handed out the postcards from the PEIMQG postcard swap. There were lots of happy sounds as members received theirs and vied to see their neighbour's. This was our guild's first swap and we have already discussed having another in the late summer, early fall of 2020! If you were not at the meeting and did not pick up your postcard, they will be available at the November 25th meeting.

Postcards received from the PEIMMQG

Some of the postcards created by our members for the exchange.

As well, the PEIMQG sent us a lovely thank you card! Many thanks to the guild for asking us to participate!

This month's block lotto block proved to be very popular and Carol Miki was the lucky member taking these blocks home! Next month Carol will present the block lotto block due in January.

Kim presented this month's block (due in November) and for each entry, you need to make a total of five blocks: one 4.5 inch HST and four 2.5 inch half square triangles. She has chosen white and either a solid or a modern print for the second fabric. All instructions can be found under the category, Block Lotto on the dashboard.

Kim's lovely selection of samples

 4 more small HST's for each large HST here will give a total of 12 entries....so 24 more small HST's needed. 

Work continues on the Hospice quilts and a nice selection of blocks was brought in for the current tops. The last of the required pink and green string blocks was collected and now we need a volunteer to piece the top. There is no rush so if this is something you feel you would have time for in the new year, please let Giselle know. 

There were also woven blocks and sections for the Rainbow Juvenile top brought in. All instructions and updates on what is needed for these two tops is on the blog dashboard under Comfort and Charity Quilts. Sometimes we also post what is needed on our Facebook page where you can comment and let us know if you have any blocks to contribute.

Pink and Green String blocks for the second top! Thanks to everyone who helped make two quilts with these blocks! 

Woven blocks. The number still needed is posted under Comfort and Charity Quilts on the blog dashboard.

Rainbow Juvenile top sections. The sections and quantities needed to posted on the blog dashboard under Comfort and Charity Quilts and we have posted it on our Facebook page as well. Darline has graciously committed to making the two pink sections required but sections are still needed for all other color ways.

The Bring and Buy table continues to thrive and bring in revenue for the Hospice Project. We thank everyone who donates by bringing and/or buying!

Our second guild challenge is organized by Maryse and Annette and what organizers they are! The first color of the challenge, red, was organized in groups of 12 along with a copyright free pattern, a rainbow pencil, a zip carrier for our fabrics and a 15% discount card for any orange fabric at Spruce It Up Quilt Shop, good until our next meeting! 

We commented that we felt rather special as each of our names was called out and Maryse presented us with our month's squares! It felt kind of like a graduation, or an induction..although most of us are no doubt already in the "too much fabric" hall of fame, if there were such a thing..

Members can join in the fun at any time and of course, will be responsible for providing their own squares for any colors missed in the exchange. All the details are on the blog dashboard under Challenges.

Jodi, Lise and Pat receive their bundles. All those happy, smiling faces!

 

Our evening's program was presented by Pat who gave us an excellent demonstration of piecing curved 4 patches and inserting odd slivers.

Pat is a retired school teacher and her skills are evident in her preparation of story boards which she created for her demo.

What was also evident was how much she enjoyed demonstrating her self admitted favorite part of the process, pressing into submission. We all agreed that was a useful skill and that her demonstration was great!

Fortunately Deb W. has been her usually busy bee self and had lots to show us for Show and Share..Also note her EPP patch on her jeans - one of the guild's first demo's given by Charla.

Our next meeting will be held on Monday, November 25th and will be our first year anniversary celebration! Members are asked to wear their party hats and bring a dessert or nibble to share as we enjoy a social evening. There will be games (all fun and not lame at all, we promise you) and door prizes (amazing door prizes...you need to be there!) and we will be sending out an email reminder. Hoping to see all our members gathered for our first birthday as the Moncton Modern Quilt Guild!