Important Meeting Announcement
| June 9, 2013 | Posted by Mary-Anne under Uncategorized |
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The MMQG committee would like to give notice of a meeting to be held at Camberwell Library, on Sunday 30th June at 9.00am. The sole purpose of this meeting is to discuss incorporation of the MMQG. We have chosen an existing Sit and Sew date as the most practical time and venue opportunity to conduct our business.
It would be advantageous for as many members of the guild to attend this meeting as possible.
Important update about your committee.
| June 2, 2013 | Uncategorized |
Important update about your committee : after several months of enthusiastic work for your guild, Bronwyn H has decided to step down from the committee. We wish to express our thanks to Bron for her hard work in supporting and assisting with so many MMQG activities. The committee is pleased to advise you that we… more
Get Ready to Sew
| May 30, 2013 | Uncategorized |
As an antidote for the winter blues, do we have a treat for you! The Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild is running a ‘No Frills’ Super Sewing Saturday on 10 August 2013 at one of our favourite fabric shops, GJ’s Discount Fabrics. The idea is that we just go and sew flat out from 9am –… more
Happy Birthday to us!
| May 26, 2013 | Uncategorized |
This month of May marks MMQG’s third birthday, and to celebrate the occasion, we thought it would be fun to offer a prize of a $50 voucher to spend at the fabulous l’uccello store, located in the iconic Nicholas Building at 205/37 Swanston St Melbourne. To be in the running to win, post your favourite… more
Quilting for Charity
| May 23, 2013 | Uncategorized |
With the occurrence of recent news-worthy international events, you may have noticed a number of quilting-based charity/support drives advertised on Facebook and the net in general. We thought it timely to ask our members for their feedback about whether we should incorporate charity activities into our regular activities, and importantly, how this is to be… more
What we did last Saturday..
| May 16, 2013 | Posted by MMQG under SASDs, Uncategorized |
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Another fantastic day on 11th May: sewing and feasting and chatting and cutting and laughing and book reading and shopping and sewing some more…..conversations topics were wide and varied – from Dr Who series threads, and the correct Tardis blue to the virtues of triple cooked chips and acrylic manicures and text quilting that pushes boundaries.
Many people in the group are sewing up a bag for the Sewing Circle Tote Sew Along, in various stages of happy completion! The Sew Along was originally started by Oh Franson!’s Elizabeth Hartman, but we have the delightful Cathy B. heading the MMQG movement! Check out her blog and the facebook page for updated details.
We didn’t actually do a Show and Tell that day; we were all too laid back and feeling just a little bit full from the oh-so excellent Hellenic Republic Lunch AND devouring Jo’s Caramel Slice. Here are some photos of some brilliant sewing!
Kristy’s Liberty flower
Kristy playing with her Liberty
Sarah-Jane’s Improv Oakshotts
Andrea P.’s starburst BOM
Mandy’s applique
Lots more photos are on our Flickr site!
Our winners for the door prizes were: Cherry (who chose ‘Hand Quilted with Love‘ by Sarah Fielke) and Anna ($20 GJs voucher) and we had some visitors (Andrea and Bec) come and say Hi – it’s a good sign when people just want to drop by and soak up a few minutes of quilty atmosphere.
Stay tuned for some extra special days planned for July 21st and August 10th….
Sunday Sit and Sew
| May 7, 2013 | Posted by MMQG under SASDs, Uncategorized |
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A lovely Sunday on the 28th April was spent sewing and chatting away – sometimes more chatting than sewing but does that matter? We have a lovely bunch of regulars who come to Sundays and it is always good to catch up with each other and especially eat lots of Jo’s own Melting Moments..yum!
Sandra brought along a very special quilt to show us. This was gifted to her by a friend who, sadly, has since passed away. A Dear Jane Quilt, all handpieced and hand quilted.
It was lovely to be shown this quilt that would have taken such hard work and dedication to complete. It could not be called ‘Modern Quilting’ but there is so much that modern quilters can learn from a traditionally styled and made quilt such as this, for example:
- Pairing simple fabrics with negative space – although the fabric prints and colours are not called modern, the use of the pattern of each block is – one colour paired with neutral background forming positive and negative spaces is considered an attriubute of modern design.
- Sticking with a project, no matter how complicated – who of us has many WIPs that seem to never get done because we get bored, or it is too difficult or time-consuming?
- Enjoying the journey that comes with making a challenging quilt, taking our time with the process and not worrying about how long it has taken or how many other quilts people have made.
- Not just using simple or large patterns to ‘churn out’ quilt after quilt because we want to use up our huge stash but revelling in the ‘small’.
Thank you Sandra for sharing this very special quilt that is dear to your heart.
Cherry brought along her finished Hanging Lanterns quilt and her Gypsy Kisses – what fantastic quilts!
Caroline and Carolynn won the prizes! Lucky ducks!
Carolynn’s wonky house
Don’t forget that members can bring along items to sell, at Camberwell Sit and Sew Days. Your stash may earn you cash! A Trading Table can be set up at the beginning of the day for those who may want to trade, sell or giveaway any of their quilty items. Please remember to take home any unsold items at the end. Sandra brought some fantastic meterage of Kaffe fabric, which got snapped up very quickly!
Next SASD is Saturday 11th May at GJs.
Friday 31st May SAS Evening at GJs still has places available – how good would you feel to get some sewing time in before the weekend?
June is open to take registrations for
Saturday 15th and Sunday 30th.
Happy Sewing!
Member Spotlight on ….
| April 27, 2013 | Posted by MMQG under Uncategorized |
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Over the next few months, MMQG will be highlighting members of the group; who they are and what they love to do.
Our very first is the lovely and very talented Kristy. Kristy is a valuable member of MMQG – we regularly see her friendly smile at meets and she produces amples of really interesting and original work for the rest of the group to aspire to. If only we all could have the talent of this gal! Now unfortunately, we don’t have a photo of Kristy – so we may have to prop her up on a stool next meet for everyone to see as she waves hello hehe!
Handmade Retro is Kristy’s blog: ‘traditional items with a funky modern twist’ is what she loves to make and blog about. Have a look at the prolific list in the sidebar of things ‘on the go’. Kristy also has several patterns published on Moda Bakeshop – what an achievment!
Salt Air Diamonds - Moda Bakeshop – one of Kristy’s many patterns – so clever!
How and when did you first get interested in quilting and blogging?
What inspires you?
I find the work of other people to be really inspiring but I am trying to not get caught up in the latest craze so much so I get to work on some of the things I get an idea about and not end up with so many unfinished things! I am also noticing more and more shapes and patterns around me – my high school craft teacher would be proud.
What distracts you?
Almost everything – I am pretty distractable.
What do you enjoy the most and what gives you the irrits the most about your quilting?
I really like planning things and choosing the techniques and fabrics that I think will make the most of a design idea. That I don’t always have the skills or machine space to have my machine quilted designs come out like they look in my head. And that I always woefully underestimate how long something will take me and I end up feeling rushed.
Tell us a little about your first quilt and your most loved one…
I now realise the first quilt was one that I made for my dog when she was a puppy
What are you working on at the moment?
So many, many things. I wrote a post about them here. But the next due to be finished is a birthday gift and then I think I need to get cracking on a quilt for my mum – she has been waiting since last Mother’s Day.
How do you fit your sewing and blogging in with other aspects of life?
Poorly – I tend to sew most on the weekends and have a huge and unmanageable number of things I want to finish. I’m too rushed or tired on the weekdays after work. I do have some hand sewing I bring to work to do on my lunch break but for the most part it doesn’t even make it out of the car.
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| April 14, 2013 | Posted by MMQG under Facebook |
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The forum section on the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild website has been operating for around three years. It was set up as a means for members to communicate with each other but we have noticed that active usage has declined over time. It is now mainly used by members for participation in Bees, however as the current Bees have finished, we have decided to close the forum to members and move to Facebook as the chief medium for member communications.
There are a number of reasons behind this decision:
- Since encouraging various members to use the Facebook page as a trial over the last two months, we have noticed a significant increase in communication and ‘views’ compared to the Forum.
- As with all other administrative functions of the Guild, technical support is provided on a voluntary basis. The work involved in supporting the Forum is far more time consuming than administering a Facebook page.
- Facebook is simpler for members to use, particularly with mobile devices.
- There is one less log on and password for people to remember. Password resets and dealing with people being unable to access the Forum takes up most of the technical administrative effort.
Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild will continue to maintain a website and all bookings will continue to be made via Eventbrite, accessed from this page. We will also continue to produce blog posts to notify people of upcoming events and dissemination of other information. However, all member communication will be conducted via Facebook from Saturday 20th April.
To access our Facebook page, which is a closed group, go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/MMQGuild/ and click the join button. Once you have been added the group, please review the Policies and Guidelines, in the document section, for the code of conduct rules for using the page.
We believe that using Facebook is a much simpler means for people to communicate and there’s already a fun, new project being discussed on the page, so get over there and see what’s happening.
March SASE & a New Sew-along
| April 7, 2013 | Posted by Mary-Anne under Uncategorized |
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Thanks to all who attended the SASE on 22 March at GJ’s. It was a great night; so good in fact that the hosts only got around to taking a couple of photos. There was lots of activity – Jo and Andrea M (under Alissa’s expert eye) were giving paper piecing a go
and Carolynn and Cathy B were taking a break from quilting and making bags.
Bec was making a gorgeous baby quilt in a chevron pattern and we welcomed two new members, Julia and Michelle. There was a lot of excitement about the Sewing Circle Tote sew-along that Cathy B has offered to host and we are all dying to get started on now that the pattern has been released.
Want to know more about the sew-along? Join the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild Facebook page to see what’s happening. Just click the link below and send a Friend request:
https://www.facebook.com/melbournemodern.quiltguild.7
See you at the next event at GJ’s on Saturday 13 April. If you haven’t booked a spot, be quick as there is only 1 place left. If you miss out, you can always put your name on the waitlist.
