Our December meeting was very social, even if our shared space was online. After announcements, we had a Zoom version of our annual Holiday Gift Swap by showing off the gifts that members received from their swap partners prior to the meeting. It was so lovely to see the range of handmade gifts – from bags to ornaments – that people made with their partners’ specific tastes and preferences in mind. In place of our usual holiday potluck we split into breakout rooms to play “Never Have I Ever,” do a quilt-y version of Mad Libs, and to take part in a convivial and casual scavenger hunt. Read the Mad Libs concocted during the meeting for some giggles.
To finish up we had a sizeable Show and Tell. You can see some of the beautiful and inspiring finished works in the December Show and Tell album associated with our Facebook group.
GUILD ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Anniversary Mini Virtual Quilt Show: Hooray! You can see all of the quilts made in celebration of the Chicago MQG’s 10 year anniversary in this Virtual Quilt Show! Click on each thumbnail for larger photos and more information. And a sincere “thank you” to Jenni Grover and her husband Joe for putting together the beautiful website.
Membership Renewal: If you haven’t yet renewed your membership for the 2021 calendar year, head to the Membership page on our website now. We’re updating our newsletter mailing list and member Facebook group access this month. Guests are always welcome to attend a first meeting for free (or for a $10 fee if we’re hosting a paid guest speaker); the second meeting is $5.
New Charity Pods!: We’re organizing charity pods again, similar to past year’s groups. This is a great way to get to know other members of the guild and produce a charity quilt at the same time. If interested, you will be put into a small 3-5 person group with the objective of planning and creating a charity quilt. Your group can plan and execute the quilt any way you’d like. We’ll be deciding on the charity and their requirements before the next meeting. Contact Ellen if you’d like to be part of a pod.
Show and Tell: Please continue to upload your show and tell pictures to each month’s Facebook album (especially big quilts and other items that are hard to show off on the Zoom platform), and we’ll create a slide show to present during our meeting’s “show and tell” time. You’re also welcome to share in real time during the meeting if you wish. If you don’t use Facebook, you can email pictures to Julia. Please upload or email photos by the day before the meeting.
MQG news: Are you attending QuiltCon Together 2021 next month? If so, you may want to join our Chicago MQG QuiltCon Together Facebook group as a way to connect with others from the guild who are participating.
The MQG is organizing a “greatest hits” exhibit of quilts to be displayed at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah. Go here to enter a quilt or find out more.
Be sure to check out the national Modern Quilt Guild site and take advantage of the many resources available to you as a member: webinars, quilt patterns, block studies and more!
QuiltCon Community Outreach Challenge: Look for our finished quilt in the virtual show next month during QuiltCon Together 2021.
Weekly Sewcials! Open to all CMQG Members: Sewcials on Zoom are every other Tuesday evening and Wednesday afternoon. These unstructured sew-ins are for members who want to hang out, catch up, sew a little (or do any craft, really) and meet other members. Jenni Grover will host them as we begin, but we’d love to have other volunteer hosts as well. The next Tuesday Sewcial is January 12 at 6pm, and the next Wednesday Sewcial is January 20 at 1pm. Check your monthly newsletter (the Full Bobbin) or the member Facebook page for the Zoom link.
CMQG Tenth Anniversary book: Book orders coming very, very soon!
Guild-wide sew along: If you’re participating in the Big Fun Mystery Sew Along, you can find the Month Four instructions here and the Month Five instructions here. Month Four focuses on dazzling stars, while Month Five introduces versatile “X” and plus blocks. The sew along will feature ten months of new blocks and then a few months of putting them all together, each quilt unique to its maker. We’d love for you to join in. Its absolutely okay if you don’t make every block, or if you like one and make it more than once! Tag your pics on social media with #BFMSAL. We love seeing your progress!
Modern Quilt Bee: Follow along with the progress of the #chimodbee on Instagram. And please reach out if you’d like to be part of a future bee!
Using hashtags to search and share: Jenni showed how to use a hashtag to search and connect around guild projects in Facebook and Instagram. You can use this more than for the Chicago MQG. Working on a specific pattern or block? Look for a hash tag related to it. One that was mentioned during show and tell was #OrbiterQuilt which is a Libs Elliot pattern – Libs was a speaker and workshop teacher at our guild in 2019.
Star Stitches: We hope you’re enjoying this way of recognizing members for achievements and triumphs both large and small — not just quilting related. Each month you can submit your friends’ achievements (or your own) for announcement and celebration at the upcoming meeting. Look for a link in each month’s member newsletter.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Sunday, January 17, 2:00-5:00, virtual meeting via Zoom: Annual Member Mini Trunk Show. Join us to see the amazing and diverse works of Chicago MQG members Katie Cooper, Trish De Preter, Kathy DeVries, and Emily Parson. The Mini Trunk Show is a well loved meeting each year and is a great way to learn more about some of your fellow quilters and their paths to quilting.
Sunday, February 28, 2:00-5:00, virtual meeting via Zoom: Make Do. Ideas and inspiration for substitutions, sourcing hard-to-find items, mending, shortcuts, etc.
Saturday, March 20, 10:00-5:00 (UPDATED!), virtual workshop via Zoom: Color Interaction with Tara Faughnan. The workshop is limited to 20 participants and will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration opens Tuesday, January 19 at 7pm. Workshop fee is $75. All current members will receive an email with the sign-up link.
Sunday, March 21, 2:00-5:00, virtual meeting via Zoom: Guest Speaker Tara Faughnan. Tara will discuss her creative design process. She’ll share the ways in which she takes an idea and develops it; how the role of scale and color are integral to her process; and how she resolves issues and deals with a creative rut.
Use and follow our guild hashtags!
#chicagomqg
#chicagomqglecture
#chicagomqgshowandtell
#chicagomqgdingdingding
#BFMSAL
#chimodbee
#chicagomqg10yearmini
All meetings are 2-5 pm on the third Sunday of the month, unless otherwise noted.
This month’s meeting is on JANUARY 17, via Zoom. (Look for a link in our member newsletter, the Full Bobbin.)
Meeting location: Online, via Zoom.
Rush Oak Park Hospital
Centennial Room
520 S. Maple Ave Oak Park, Il 60304
A list of our meetings can be found here.
Not a member, but would like to be? Click the button below to join our Guild!
We hope to see you there!