Thursday, December 3, 2020

November 2020 Meeting Recap

Note: Detailed meeting business notes are emailed out to members after each meeting. If you missed something, email nanaimomqg@gmail.com for the link. 

Last Month Review: 
Thanks to all who joined our first virtual Pop Up Sew Day on October 25!  There was lots of fun and socializing and widely agreed to do it again. Members can join the next virtual Sew Day Saturday November 14 from 10am-1pm. Zoom links will be emailed to members after the meeting.

Membership
Carly sent out an email reminding members to renew by the end of December or they will be considered lapsed and will no longer be listed with the MQG mothership. Check in with Carly by email if you're not certain whether you need to renew!

Activities:

November Program: 
NMQG is joining with Nanaimo and Parksville Quilt Guilds on their program on Monday, November 16th at 6:30 pm featuring Carola Russell of Carola’s Quilt Shop with  a 1-hr talk entitled Scrap Happy and Fat Quarter Fun. NMQG is supporting this program, so members are encouraged to attend!

December Program (Tue, Dec 1): We're holding a Slideshow & Share of our works in progress along with our next meeting. Please send good quality images to the guild email by Sunday, Nov 29 to be included in the slideshow. Please state “Dec Show & Share” in the subject line. 

Modern Block of the Month (MBOM) with Sarah
- 12 monthly blocks that will make up a modern quilt project. (See subsequent post for detailed instructions of the MBOM post.)
 - Following the Knoxville (TN) Modern Quilt Guild  See the Projects tab and posts for info, instructions and to follow along.
- To share your finished block, send high quality images to NanaimoMQG@gmail.com, with Nov BOM in the subject line. 

 Mini-Quilt Challenge 
Inspired by Krista Hennebury’s example of making mini-quilts to keep yourself productive and to expand your style and design eye, Joanne will be leading a series of mini quilt challenges from now through June to help build our Modern aesthetic. 

Check out the "mothership" Modern Quilt Guild site for more characteristics of modern quilting, and chose the subject of Negative Space for the first challenge. Check out the details on the MiniQuilt tab on this blog.

Thanks Kathleen for the notes! 

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

November 2019 Meeting Recap

Hello everyone, here's your summary of what happened at this month’s meeting for everyone who wasn’t able to attend (and as a future reference/memory jogger for those who did). 

News/etc. from the meeting:

  • A couple members brought some books and magazines they no longer need or want, and I think all found new homes. BTW, if you have quilting books or magazines you would like to de-stash, do feel free to bring them to a meeting.
  • Membership is due and we need to send things in to the MQG in a few weeks. If you haven’t renewed yet, please email us to sort it out.
  • Also, if you’re a new member and you have not yet received your MQG pin, please let us know at the December meeting.
  • If you are interested in submitting a quilt to the Quiltcon juried show, the deadline is December 2. More info at: https://www.quiltcon.com/submit-a-quilt
  • We had info about some spots open at a Stacey Day workshop being put on but the “regular” Nanaimo guild, and she brought the sample quilt for us to look at. The workshop will be Saturday March 21, 2020 and will cost $40, for more info:  www.islandquilters.ca/newsletters/newsletter0519.pdf 
  • We got into a discussion of the need for a new leader of the guild as neither of the current co-leaders can continue, for a variety of reasons. We discussed splitting the role into a leader/president role and a program director role, and this led to a broader discussion about how as the guild grows we will need to have some more formality to how things are run, such as bylaws, a constitution, proper meeting minutes, and breaking up the various duties of the executive into smaller jobs. This is something that will come up again as we grow, but in the meantime there have been a couple people who expressed interest in sharing the program director role. 
  • Someone asked about the round robin, so there was some discussion of how that went last time. For those of you who participated in the previous round robin, if you have yours finished/quilted, could you bring it to the December meeting to show?
  • There was also the question of whether there would be interest in a field trip of sorts to Dressew in Vancouver. If so, who would like to organize it and when?
  • After the break, the group did a design exercise with coloured paper, mimicking the process of improv piecing a block from a selection of scraps. The original inspiration had been Stonehenge, but we thought it would be fun to put it to a vote as to whether to reveal the inspiration or just lead it through color by color (starting with a blue “sky” block). Everyone wanted to not be told the inspiration, and hey, that’s better anyway, since it’s fun to just let the fabric (or, in this case, paper) lead you where it wants. It was great to see how varied the end results were (same Instagram post as our show and share below).
  • And of course there was show & share (also has pics of the results of our improv piecing with paper exercise): 

POTLUCK and SWAP: As always, our December meeting is our annual potluck - bring a dish to share, can be hot or cold, dessert or salad or whatever, plus your own plate, cutlery, and mug. 

Our swap this year is fabric Christmas ornaments or decorations and we’ll be doing the usual stealing game as well during the swap. 

Also, due to setting up with food and all that, the December meeting starts at 6:30pm instead of 7:00pm.

DONATION QUILTS: As we discussed in previous meetings, we have an ongoing project to make half square triangles for quilts to be donated to kids in foster care. We’re now up over 35 totally finished quilts (and two more finished ones were in our show and share tonight. 

We had a brief discussion about whether to continue with the HSTs theme or move to maybe using more panels as centrepieces and adding borders. It was decided that we’ll open it up; if you’d like to continue making the HSTs as last year and described below, awesome. If you’ve had enough of HSTs but want to do a different pattern or do panels, that’s cool. Just make it modern and make it overall about 45” x 60” if you’re doing an entire quilt on your own, bonus points for that size plus borders to beef it up. 

We also have a huge roll of batting for the donation quilts, so get in touch with us if you have a top done because there is batting to be had for it and we can cut it for you if you tell us what size your quilt top is.



If you missed the specs on the HSTs: we’re going for a scrappy sort of look, but big and modern. Half square triangle blocks should be trimmed to 8.5 inches, with one side lighter and the other darker (relative is OK, like pink against white), and we also discussed having one side be a solid (or a subtle print that reads as a solid) and the other a print. The target age is the slightly older kids and teens, say 6-16, as there tends to already be a lot of donations aimed at the really little kids. Final quilt sizes will be lap size (5 blocks wide by 7 blocks high, plus borders) or twins, but you can also just keep feeding us HSTs and we’ll build the quilts later on. As this is an ongoing project, just make ‘em as you can and bring ‘em – great way to work through your stash.

Next meeting: Tuesday, December 3rd, 6:30pm

Upcoming quilt shows: 
Maybe Island Quilt Guild: July 18, 2020, more info on their website here: http://mayneislandquiltersguild.com/quilt-show/

Links for our guild: 

See you in December - happy quilting!

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

October 2019 Meeting Recap

Hello everyone,

Here's your summary of what happened at this month’s meeting for everyone who wasn’t able to attend (and to jog memories for those who did). 

News/etc. from the meeting:
  • We’re going to borrow an idea from the Rocket City MQG and start doing a 30 minute social time prior to the start of the meeting. After all, we have the space from 6:30 to 9, so why not use it? There is a kettle in the kitchen, so bring your favourite mug and your favourite tea bags (or your Starbucks/Timmy’s). We’ll see about figuring out a sign-up or rotation for treats at some point, but for right now it will be ad hoc as for the break.
  • It’s membership renewal time. If you haven’t renewed yet, please do so at the November meeting or get in touch with us.
  • Quick update on the donation quilts project: We’re up to 29 fully finished quilts, another almost done, and 17 quilt tops awaiting quilting. Speaking of which, we’re having a sewing day at Jonanco this Saturday from 9-4 to work on the donation quilts… more on that below.
  • We discussed the CQA’s Quilt Canada challenge, “Gateway to Adventure” - I’ll put more details on that below. Let us know at the November meeting if you’re interested in participating.
  • As mentioned/discussed before, this December we’ll be doing an ornament swap at the potluck rather than the mug rug. In keeping with that, we brought in a few fabric ornaments to spark some ideas (and there’s always Pinterest too.) 
  • We were going to have a quick run through the MQG website, but ran into technical issues (i.e.: needing a long extension cord that we couldn’t find), so we will do that at the November meeting. Also at the November meeting: there will be an improv exercise using construction paper.
  • We discussed maybe starting a lending library similar to what the Victoria MQG or the Nanaimo Quilter’s Guild has, but aimed more at books on modern quilting. However, the consensus is that, at least for now, most of our members tend to use online resources instead of books, so we decided to build a resource list with appropriate links on our website. It will take a while to get it made but we’ll try to have something at least started by the next meeting, and will slowly add to it as we go.
  • And of course there was show & share (also has pics of the example decorations):

SEW DAY AT JONANCO: This Saturday October 5th at Jonanco, all day (9-4ish). This is for assembling and otherwise working on the donation quilts, come on out! Jonanco is at just south of Nanaimo at 2745 White Rapids Rd. 

DONATION QUILTS: As we discussed in previous meetings, we have an ongoing project to make half square triangles for quilts to be donated to kids in foster care. Barb said we’re now up over 35 totally finished quilts. 

We had a brief discussion about whether to continue with the HSTs theme or move to maybe using more panels as centrepieces and adding borders. It was decided that we’ll open it up; if you’d like to continue making the HSTs as last year and described below, awesome. If you’ve had enough of HSTs but want to do a different pattern or do panels, that’s cool. Just make it modern and make it overall about 45” x 60” if you’re doing an entire quilt on your own, bonus points for that size plus borders to beef it up. 

We also have batting for the donation quilts, so get in touch with us if you have a top done because there is batting to be had for it and we can cut it for you if you tell us what size your quilt top is.

If you missed the specs on the HSTs: we’re going for a scrappy sort of look, but big and modern. Half square triangle blocks should be trimmed to 8.5 inches, with one side lighter and the other darker (relative is OK, like pink against white), and we also discussed having one side be a solid (or a subtle print that reads as a solid) and the other a print. The target age is the slightly older kids and teens, say 6-16, as there tends to already be a lot of donations aimed at the really little kids. Final quilt sizes will be lap size (5 blocks wide by 7 blocks high, plus borders) or twins, but you can also just keep feeding us HSTs and we’ll build the quilts later on. As this is an ongoing project, just make ‘em as you can and bring ‘em – great way to work through your stash.

CQA CHALLENGE: The highlights: those who want to participate will each make a small quilt (maximum perimeter of 72”, so max 18x18” or 12”x24”, etc.) based on the theme “GATEWAY TO ADVENTURE”. The quilt must have Kona K001-147 Jungle in “a visible amount” plus 3 other fabrics, which can be solids or prints, and will be due by the April meeting, when the guild will choose one of the quilts to represent the guild at Quilt Canada (deadline for entry is April 15, 2020). 

More info: https://canadianquilter.com/member-guild-challenge-2020/

Please let us know by November if you’re going to do this challenge, because we may be able to order a small bolt of the required Kona fabric and get a discount on it if enough of us are going to do it.

YEAR AT A GLANCE: This is what we have planned so far:
- November: design exercise, MQG website 
- December: annual potluck and Christmas swap - this year it will be quilted or other fabric ornaments
- January: design exercises or a guest speaker, TBA
- February/March: one month will be a trunk show, the other will be technique demos
- April: presentation or design exercises, TBA
- May: TBA
- June: stash sale as previously discussed, we need someone to take on organizing the details; summer challenge assigned
- July: annual potluck picnic

And of course, we take August off. 

Next meeting: Tuesday, November 5th, 7pm (doors open by 6:30 for the pre-meeting social)

Upcoming quilt shows: 
Maybe Island Quilt Guild: July 18, 2020, more info on their website here: http://mayneislandquiltersguild.com/quilt-show/

Links for our guild: 

See you in November - happy quilting!

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

September 2019 Meeting Recap

Hello everyone, here's your summary of what happened at this month’s meeting for everyone who wasn’t able to attend (and to jog memories for those who did).

This meeting was the first on our new meeting day of the first Tuesday of the month after being asked to make the shift by our meeting venue. That worked out great for a few members who are now able to attend, though we know there are a few others who won’t be able to make the Tuesdays. We do hope to see some of the latter folks at least sometimes - we will miss you otherwise!

We also had a bunch of new faces (10 by my count), which is awesome! Some heard about us from our booth at the Nanaimo Quilt Show while some of the others have found us through Facebook or our blog. For our new members, as mentioned briefly during the meeting (at least I think I mentioned it): please make a quilted nametag for future meetings. You pick the design and size.

Other news/etc. from the meeting:
  • We went around all introduced ourselves and how long we’ve been quilting and what brought us to the NMQG
  • Since we had so many new people, I read a Facebook comment I made talking about the guild’s general vibe and focus; I intend to whip that up into a little introduction to the guild blog post that we can also send to prospective members who email us.
  • It’s that time of year again - membership renewal time! For those of you who missed the meeting, we will be taking them in October and November as well.
  • Speaking of membership… As emailed about last week, we will need a new membership co-ordinator. One of our new members expressed interest in taking this on, so hopefully that will work itself out.
  • Our leader/president's new work schedule means that she won’t be able to attend most of this year’s meetings so we need a new chair/president/leader. Duties include organizing the meeting agendas, including guest speakers and demos, answering email inquiries about the guild.
  • We talked a bit about this weekend’s Cowichan Exhibition with it’s annual feast of gorgeous quilts to admire. More info and hours: http://cowex.ca
  • We talked about the donation quilts project, more below… also we talked about Jonanco and their quilting setup… Jonanco will be having their “Demo Days” on Saturday September 28th for anyone who wants to check them out and find out more about their facility and programs.
  • We went over the general month to month plan for the coming year, more below
  • There were a couple completed summer challenges (up cycling) If anyone else is still working on their upcycling challenge, no worries - bring it in whenever it’s done.
  • We had a presentation about color theory and color harmonies in quilting, with loads of fabric examples
  • And of course there was show & share.


YEAR AT A GLANCE: This is what we have planned so far:
  • October: demo on making quilted Christmas ornaments; if anyone else has a short demo or a technique they’d like to share, let us know
  • November: design exercise
  • December: annual potluck and Christmas swap - this year it will be quilted or other fabric ornaments
  • January: design exercises
  • February/March: one month will be a trunk show, the other will be technique demos
  • April: presentation or quest speaker, TBA
  • May: TBA
  • June: stash sale as previously discussed, we need someone to take on organizing the details; summer challenge assigned
  • July: annual potluck picnic
And of course, we take August off. 

There is also interest in doing a round robin starting in January and revealing in June. Is anyone up for organizing it?

DONATION QUILTS: As we discussed in previous meetings, we have an ongoing project to make half square triangles for quilts to be donated to kids in foster care. We’re now up over 35 totally finished quilts.

We had a brief discussion about whether to continue with the HSTs theme or move to maybe using more panels as centrepieces and adding borders. It was decided that we’ll open it up; if you’d like to continue making the HSTs as last year and described below, awesome. If you’ve had enough of HSTs but want to do a different pattern or do panels, that’s cool. Just make it modern and make it overall about 45” x 60” if you’re doing an entire quilt on your own, bonus points for that size plus borders to beef it up.

We also have a huge roll of batting for the donation quilts, so get in touch with us if you have a top done because there is batting to be had for it and we can cut it for you if you tell us what size your quilt top is.

If you missed the specs on the HSTs: we’re going for a scrappy sort of look, but big and modern. Half square triangle blocks should be trimmed to 8.5 inches, with one side lighter and the other darker (relative is OK, like pink against white), and we also discussed having one side be a solid (or a subtle print that reads as a solid) and the other a print. The target age is the slightly older kids and teens, say 6-16, as there tends to already be a lot of donations aimed at the really little kids. Final quilt sizes will be lap size (5 blocks wide by 7 blocks high, plus borders) or twins, but you can also just keep feeding us HSTs and we’ll build the quilts later on. As this is an ongoing project, just make ‘em as you can and bring ‘em – great way to work through your stash.

SEW DAY AT JONANCO: Saturday October 5th at Jonanco, all day (9-5ish). This is for assembling and otherwise working on the donation quilts, come on out! Jonanco is at just south of Nanaimo at 2745 White Rapids Rd.

Next meeting: Tuesday, October 1st, 7pm

Upcoming quilt shows:
Maybe Island Quilt Guild: July 18, 2020, more info on their website here: http://mayneislandquiltersguild.com/quilt-show/

Links for our guild:
Join our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/258471184565888/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nanaimomqg/
Blog: http://nanaimomqg.blogspot.com


See you in October - happy quilting!

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

June 2019 Meeting Recap

Hello everyone, here's your summary of what happened at this month’s meeting for everyone who wasn’t able to attend (and to jog memories for those who did). 

This meeting, we had a couple new guests - nice to meet them and we hope to see them again soon!

The big urgent business: this weekend is the Nanaimo quilt guild’s show and we have a booth in the merchant mall, right next to Troll Brothers Quilt Designs’ booth. We passed around a sign-up sheet, and there are special nametags for those volunteering at the booth so they can get into the show for free - these will be at the entrance. Several of our other members are volunteering at the show in varying capacities, so be sure to come say hi. (Details below on time and place.) 

Other news/etc. from the meeting:

  • The church we meet at has requested that we switch from Wednesday to Tuesday starting in September as one of their own weekly groups needs the room on Wednesday evenings. We discussed the change and agreed that it will work, so from September 3rd on, we’ll meet on the first Tuesday of the month at 7:00pm.
  • Re: last month’s surveys: while we got lots of good feedback in the meeting, no one who was away responded when we sent out the questionnaires via email. We know a lot of you were busy working on stuff for the Nanaimo quilt show or away on retreat, so we’ll send the questionnaires again. Please take a few minutes to give us your ideas and suggestions for next, they’ll be very helpful in planning next year’s programs to make things fun for everyone.
  • Our president is taking VIU’s textile/fibre arts class and she brought some examples of her class work and demo’d a couple transfer techniques from the class. 
  • We worked on hand-sewing some labels onto some of the many finished donation quilts.
  • There will be no meeting per se next month, but we will be having our annual picnic. (Details below on time and place.)
  • We assigned the summer challenge: up cycling. More info below.
  • And of course there was show & share: 

Picnic: 6:30pm Wednesday July 3rd at Matteo Sutton Park in downtown Nanaimo (same spot as last year’s, the big park with the parking lot at the corner of Comox and Terminal where we’ve had it before).

It’s a potluck, so bring a dish to share as well as your own plate/cutlery/water bottle or other beverage. We’ll be grabbing a picnic table or two, but bring a lawn chair or the like just in case.

We’ll also have a clothesline put up so bring your show and shares and some clothespins to display them.

SUMMER CHALLENGE: This summer, the challenge is all about up cycling. For those of you who were at the May meeting or saw the show and share Instagram post from last month, you saw an example with turning an old dress into a modern pillowcase, but you can do the challenge however you like with whatever you like. Take an old or unwanted fabric item or item of clothing, table linens, whatever… and turn it into a new quilted item. You choose the style and size, the only rule is you have to take a photo of the original item before you make any changes to it to show us along with your new finished item at the September meeting. 

DONATION QUILTS: with a couple more quilt tops and a couple more finished quilts coming in tonight, I think we’re now up to 25 totally finished quilts and 6 or 8 tops waiting to be quilted. Well done, everyone! (And of course, if you have time over the summer, keep on working on them!)

Donation quilt HSTs general info: As we discussed in previous meetings, we have an ongoing project to make half square triangles for quilts to be donated to kids in foster care. 

If you missed the specs on the HSTs: we’re going for a scrappy sort of look, but big and modern. Half square triangle blocks should be trimmed to 8.5 inches, with one side lighter and the other darker (relative is OK, like pink against white), and we also discussed having one side be a solid (or a subtle print that reads as a solid) and the other a print. The target age is the slightly older kids and teens, say 6-16, as there tends to already be a lot of donations aimed at the really little kids. Final quilt sizes will be lap size (5 blocks wide by 7 blocks high, plus borders) or twins, but you can also just keep feeding us HSTs and we’ll build the quilts later on. As this is an ongoing project, just make ‘em as you can and bring ‘em – great way to work through your stash.

Next (non-picnic) meeting: Tuesday, September 3rd, 7pm

Upcoming quilt shows: 
  • Island Quilters (the traditional guild here in Nanaimo): June 7-8, more info in the members section of http://www.islandquilters.ca/index.htm
  • Not an official quilt show, but lots of quilts to look at at the Cowichan Exhibition’s quilting division in Mellor Hall on the Cowichan Exhibition Grounds, September 6th-8th in Duncan. You might even see some of our members’ quilts there. More info at http://cowex.ca
  • Maybe Island Quilt Guild: July 18, 2020, more info on their website here: http://mayneislandquiltersguild.com/quilt-show/

Upcoming retreats:
  • Stitch, Sip & Splash: presented by Troll Brothers Quilt Designs - July 12-14, 2019 in Shawnigan Lake. More info: https://trollbrothersquiltdesigns.com/collections/stitch-sip-splash-quilt-retreat-2019

Links for our guild: 
Join our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/258471184565888/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nanaimomqg/
Blog: http://nanaimomqg.blogspot.com

See you at the picnic - happy quilting!

Thursday, May 2, 2019

May 2019 Meeting Summary/Recap

Hello everyone, here's your summary of what happened at this month’s meeting for everyone who wasn’t able to attend (and to jog memories for those who did). 

This meeting, we did some brainstorming for what we'd all would like us to focus on next year/season (Sept to June). For those of you who missed the meeting, no worries: we'll be emailing out questionnaires. 

Some of the main points from the in-meeting brainstorming:
  • Everyone loves show and share (of course), but people also mentioned having enjoyed past trunk shows and guest speakers and wanting more of those. The design exercises and demos were also popular.
  • Rather than the frequentmini challenges we had this past fall, the preference is to just have one challenge a year over the summer.
  • People would love to do a round robin again.
  • We’d like to set up some workshops for the coming year. In particular, there was some interest in doing a bag workshop, as well as interest in an improv piecing workshop and one on rules (both for use on the machines when quilting and different ones for templates and cutting, etc.)
  • Sew-ins will likely be cancelled next year, save for a couple of one-day quilting bees at Jonanco for the donation quilts. We’ve had to cancel 3 out of 5 library sew-ins this year due to insufficient signups. As the guild grows, it’s something we can revisit.
  • Block lottery/block of the month was a mixed bag. If we are to continue doing it, we will need someone to step up to co-ordinate it.
  • For now, we’ll put off doing the stash sale as there’s only a couple members who want to sell stash. As our numbers grow, or maybe next year, it’s an idea we’ll revisit.
  • There was also discussion around the donation quilts and timelines of when to donate the quilts we already have done. So far there are 25 completed quilts and a bunch of other kits out being worked on.
  • We got talking about gear we all have and floated the idea of maybe making a list of who has what that they maybe don’t use a ton and would be willing to lend out to other guild members. Kinda like a tool library. 

Of course, we look forward to hearing from the rest of our members who weren’t able to be at the meeting. Ditto if you had other ideas after the meeting. Like I said, questionnaires will be coming, so do tell us what you'd like out of the guild for the coming year. 

Nanaimo quilt show next month: We will have a booth in the merchant mall at the Nanaimo guild’s quilt show next month. It would be great if people could pop in and volunteer to be at the booth for a couple hours to help spread the word about our guild. We’ll send out a sign up sheet soon - set up is Thursday June 6th and the show is Friday June 7th and Saturday June 8th. 

There should be special nametags for those volunteering at the booth so they can get into the show for free. 

Also, we’ll be hanging up a few of our quilts. We already have a couple, but it would be great to have a couple more. Ideally the quilts will have hanging sleeves, but if not, we can use binder clips to hang them. Please let us know if you’d like to lend us a quilt for the show along with its rough dimensions so we can plan the space. 

Other news/etc. from the meeting:
  • A couple of our members' new studio, Sew It Begins, will have its official opening on Saturday May 25th in the afternoon. The shop is on Nicol Street in the same building as Iron Oxide Art Supplies.
  • VIU’s textile arts class begins this Monday May 6th. The class is ARTI 103, I think, and there may be a spot or two left if you’re interested. More info: https://campusevents.viu.ca/arti-103-introduction-textiles-and-textile-design 
  • One of our members brought in 500+ HSTs for the donation quilts and we split them up into groups of 35 (i.e., enough for one quilt 5 squares by 7 squares) and took them home to square up (and some of us will sew our bundles together as well). 
  • And of course there was show & share:


NEXT SEW-IN: Saturday May 25th from 10-4 at the Nanaimo North library on Hammond Bay Road, please email us to sign up for it by May 22nd beforehand. If we don’t have enough people signed up, we will have to cancel it. Please do come if you’re able to, it’ll be the last one for a while.

Donation quilt HSTs general info: As we discussed in previous meetings, we have an ongoing project to make half square triangles for quilts to be donated to kids in foster care. 

If you missed the specs on the HSTs: we’re going for a scrappy sort of look, but big and modern. Half square triangle blocks should be trimmed to 8.5 inches, with one side lighter and the other darker (relative is OK, like pink against white), and we also discussed having one side be a solid (or a subtle print that reads as a solid) and the other a print. The target age is the slightly older kids and especially teens, say 6-16, as there tends to already be a lot of donations aimed at the really little kids. Final quilt sizes will be lap size, 5 squares by 7 squares, or slightly larger. You can also just keep feeding us HSTs and we’ll build the quilts later on. As this is an ongoing project, just make ‘em as you can and bring ‘em – great way to work through your stash.

July picnic: Our annual potluck picnic will be held as usual at Matteo Sutton Park in downtown Nanaimo (the big park with the parking lot at the corner of Comox and Terminal where we’ve had it before). The date is July 3rd and as usual, we’ll start a bit earlier than our normal meetings, so 6:30pm.

Next meeting: Wednesday, June 5, 7pm

Upcoming quilt shows: 
Island Quilters (the traditional guild here in Nanaimo): June 7-8, more info in the members section of http://www.islandquilters.ca/index.htm

Upcoming retreats:
Stitch, Sip & Splash: presented by Troll Brothers Quilt Designs - July 12-14, 2019 in Shawnigan Lake. More info: https://trollbrothersquiltdesigns.com/collections/stitch-sip-splash-quilt-retreat-2019


Links for our guild: 
Join our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/258471184565888/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nanaimomqg/
Blog: http://nanaimomqg.blogspot.com

See you at the June meeting - happy quilting!