November Meeting

The Long Island MQG is pleased to host Deborah Fisher of Fish Museum & Circus at our November meeting.  All are welcome to attend.




Guest Speaker & Trunk Show Deborah Fisher of:    


      Fish Museum & Circus

About Deborah Fisher

Deborah Fisher is the author of Sew Fun (Interweave, 2013) and Quilt Giving (Fons & Porter, 2016). She is the director of the Bright Hopes Collaborative Quilt Project and of Bo Twal, a non-profit international doll project. Find out more about her projects at fishmuseumandcircus.com and @fishmuseum on Instagram

SHOW AND SHARE

Bring in your latest project to share with the group. 

RAFFLE PRIZE

We will have a door prize as well as a Raffle prize to give away. Raffle tickets are $1 for one or $5 for 6.

may meeting announcement.

Hello, Everyone!

Photo courtesy of Melanie Tuazon

Happy May! We have a fantastic meeting planned for you this month! Guest Speaker, Melanie Tuazon will be here!

Photo courtesy of Melanie Tuazon

You may be more familiar with Melanie by her IG handle @MelintheAttic. You will definitely recognize her work, especially her quilt Flounce, which took 1st Place in the Modern Traditionalism category at QuiltCon 2016!

Photo courtesy of Melanie Tuazon

Melanie will share the story of her quilting life, from a time when she had disdain for anything “crafty” to her career as a quilt designer, teacher, and ribbon-winner. She will talk about her mental and aesthetic approach to quilting, as well as major milestones, including showing quilts at Quiltcon 2015 and 2016, designing samples for Cloud9 Fabrics, and publishing patterns in magazines. 
You do not want to miss this meeting!

As time permits, we will also be:

- sharing the results of our monogram/logo challenge

- show and share, and

- the destash raffle.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at Pieceful Quilting on Tuesday, May 17th!

meeting recap: valerie zeman

It may have been a cold night to venture out, but the February meeting was worth the trip! Guest speaker, artist Val Zeman, brought a stunning collection of hand dyed fabrics and quilt pieces. She is preparing for an upcoming gallery show out east detailing the plight of the Piping Plover, and brought  a snippet to share with us as well. The lighting in the photos don't necessarily capture the subtleties of the hand-dyed fabric, so you will have to take our word for it! Or, even better you can take a workshop with Val to learn the process of making your own fabrics and see how fabulous they can be for yourself! See the bottom of this post for more details!

But first, the quilts!

 Part of the upcoming show:

 And some hand-dyed fabric goodness:

We also had show and share:

And introduced a new challenge! Due at the April meeting, we are all challenged to make either our initial, or if you have a business or blog, your logo, out of fabric. No rules on sizes, colors, or embellishments. Just remember to have fun and let your modern self go!

Finally, if you would be interested in visiting Val's studio or scheduling a workshop with her this spring (and, come on, after this, who wouldn't??), you can contact her by email at vzeman@mac.com

Workshops include but are not limited to:

• low water immersion dyeing
• printing with textile paints and thickened dyes
• screen-printing
• shibori
• breakdown printing
• soy wax resist
• flour paste resist
• paper lamination
• gold leaf lamination
• discharging

To check out more of Val's work, visit her website.

february meeting.

Well, would you look at that? We're already a month into 2016! How did that happen so quickly? We hope the snowy days have created lots of time for stitching this month -- and don't forget -- our February meeting is going to be held one week later this month, so you'll have some extra time to get your projects ready for show and share!

We have another great meeting planned for this month! Here's what's on the agenda:

• First, just another reminder that this month's meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 23rd. That's a date change. For this month only, the meeting will be held one week late.

• Second, we have an awesome guest speaker -- Val Zeman -- coming to discuss the techniques of hand dying fabric. She will bring some examples as well as talk about her process and her new studio.

• Third, we have two new challenges to introduce at the next meeting. Get your creativity caps on!

• And as always, we will have Block of the Month, Show and Share and the Destash Basket Raffle!

Looking forward to seeing you all on February 23rd!

january meeting recap.

Our first meeting of the year was a great one! Jessica Alexandrakis came to share her improv-style of quilting and to teach us some reverse-applique!

Jessica shared how her quilts evolve throughout her creation process. Many times the quilts she sets out to make fizzle out, and those works get incorporated into new, even better projects! She encouraged us to play, explore and not be afraid to think outside the "rules" of traditional quilting.

Holding a quilt made with Japanese fabrics, combining an earlier "fan" quilt with two sailboat blocks.

Here, she used those same fabrics and incorporated some more of the leftover fans into her border.

A quilt made for her sister, which incorporated many scraps of fabric from previous projects.

Scrappy bear paws, using blocks collected from a sewing bee swap.

Trying out an idea gleaned from a book: 16-patch blocks on point as a border for her scrappy spiderwebs.

A modern sampler created for her latest book Get Started Quilting.

A wonky star/house top quilt made with Good Neighbors fabric by Amanda Jean Nyberg of Crazy Mom Quilts.

Quilt for Lexi, using her own fabric.

At the end of the lecture we all had a chance to try our hand at reverse appliqué. There was no time for show and share, so make sure to bring all of your finished projects back to the next meeting!

A few reminders:

• The Sewcial - due to scheduling conflicts (and the SNOW), our Sewcial has been rescheduled to Sunday, January 31 from 12-4 at Pieceful Quilting. More details to follow.

• February Meeting -  The February meeting will be held on February 23rd (one week later than usual) because of the winter break at most schools. 

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Sewcial next weekend. In the meantime, stay warm and enjoy the snow day!

hello, 2016!

Happy New Year! Did you have a fantastic holiday? We sure hope so! And we also hope that with the new year comes new opportunities for all of us to make, create, and challenge ourselves in new and exciting ways! Cheers to 2016!

Now, down to business! We have a great meeting planned for Tuesday, January 19th:

• Guest speaker Jessica Alexandrakis will be back with a lecture she's developing specifically for us! The topic will be appliqué, particularly reverse appliqué and free hand/improv appliqué. It should be really interesting! Jess also has a new book, Get Started Quilting: The Complete Beginner Guide. If you'd like to keep up with Jess and her sewing adventures, you can check out her blog Life Under Quilts.

• Block of the Month

• Show and Share

• De-stash Basket Raffle

Looking forward to seeing everyone for our first meeting of the new year!

november meeting recap.

Hello, Hello! How's everybody doing? Still basking in the glow of all of those Pearl Bracelet bundles?? Me too! If you weren't able to join us for the November meeting, here's what you missed:

We started the meeting by getting right down to business with our guest speaker, Mr. Giuseppe Ribaudo (more affectionately known as Giucy Giuce on Instagram). Giuseppe shared some of his greatest hits. Feast your eyes on these rainbow-ed beauties -- all in color order, of course!

In the Throne Room Quilt (pattern from Rebecca Bryan's book Modern Rainbow)

What Shade Are You? Quilt

And the back. . .

Up Quilt (made for fall quilt market with Alison Glass Handcrafted Fabrics -- also on the cover of Generation Q magazine!)

Up quilt: close up

Up Quilt (Back)

Medallion Quilt using Alison Glass Handcrafted

And the Back

Marcelle Medallion

Marcelle Medallion up close and personal (though the photo doesn't do it justice!)

And, last but not least, Giuseppe shared a quilt that he had received back from the longarmer (the uber-talented Karlee Porter) that very morning. They plan to submit the quilt for entry to Quilt Con, and you can now view the finished quilt HERE.

After Giuseppe's presentation, he generously gifted all of the members with bundles of Lizzy House's Pearl Bracelets! Woo hoo!

Thank you, Andover, and thank you, Giuseppe!

Giuseppe chatting with members

Next up, Carol reviewed the directions for this month's block of the month.

Finally, we had show and share, where Karen wowed us with all of the quilts she made using two-inch squares -- all to prevent the thread in her machine from getting tangled when she starts her stitch!

 . . . another. . .

 and another!

 Julie shared some early *coordinating* holiday gifts:

 Karen shared a clever plus quilt made using the versatile nine patch:

 And Judy shared her cleverly constructed quilt using hexagons.

It was another great meeting! Thanks to all who came out to support our guild!