BNMQG will be meeting ONLINE on March 24

submitted by Nancy Powell, president

Hi Modern Quilters,
I miss seeing you so much and the inspiration that each of you brings to our meetings. However, in consideration of the (World Health Organization declaring the coronavirus (COVID-19) a pandemic/the state of IL banning or discouraging events of 50) the Bloomington Normal Modern Quilt Guild meeting is cancelled for our in-person meeting for next Tuesday, March 24^th.

We are acting out of a sense of responsibility to our members and our greater community but that doesn’t mean we still can’t have some quilting fun and get some inspiration. We will be replacing our in-person meeting.

March 24th’s meeting of BNMQG will be a virtual meeting via Facebook or Instagram (your choice) from 6 pm – 8 pm. It will be an Open House type of meeting so you can come and go. You will be entered into a drawing for prizes for posting in the meeting. Please fill out the meeting survey on our website in the member area or there is a link in the email that you have received or will receive soon from BNMQG.

Join us for a virtual show and tell on Tuesday night (March 24) anytime from 6 pm – 8 pm via Facebook and/or Instagram.

Here are some ideas for sharing –
- Photos of a finished project(s),
- A photo of you’re the project you made for your swap partner,
- Questions or photos of works in progress,
- A photo/tour of your quilting space, etc.
So,
- Take some photos to share,
- Make a short video or
- Go live using Facebook Live during the “meeting”
We’ll treat it like an open house where you can come and go, post comments and/or photos.
When you post, please use the hashtag #BNMQGquilts to be entered to win a prize on
- BNMQG if you’re joining us via Facebook (not the Bloomington-Normal Modern Quilt Guild page) So, if you haven’t joined BNMQG there are directions later in this newsletter and now is the time.
- @BNMQG on Instagram – use the hashtag #BNMQGquilts

If you are joining via Facebook, Nancy Powell (nancynpowell@gmail.com) will be your moderator. If you are joining us via Instagram, Kathy Cook (wearbuzz@gmail.com) will be your moderator.

We’d like to get an idea of how many of you will be joining us and whether you’ll join us via Facebook or Instagram. So, please make sure to take the survey.

Please check your email in the hour before our regularly scheduled guild time for other information about our virtual meeting.

Please wash your hands, stay well, and we hope to see you virtually soon!

If you feel sick by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), check these CDC guidelines.

Protect yourself and keep our community healthy, limit your contacts. Wash your hands with soap. Avoid crowds, no more than 10 if you’re over 60.

We will be rescheduling our April 4th Modern Free-Wheeling Circle workshop. Hopefully we will be back on track for our April or May meeting but we will readdress these month-by-month. Please stay safe and healthy as we pray there will be some help with containing this virus!

Quilt Show Season is upon us what a way to start it off with Kathy Cook’s first place quilt at QuiltCon 2020. I am busy finishing up some UFO’s looking forward to Heart Beat design night. We are also excited to be preparing our first Modern Mini Showcase. Even though the Clinton Quilt show has been postponed to October 2-3 (from March 27-28), we are busy making signs and designing the display. We still need mini quilts. Please remember to bring any of your finished minis to our next meeting (whenever that turns out to be).

Some upcoming Quilt Shows you might be interested in putting on your calendar: NOTE: please note that some of these shows may choose to cancel or reschedule. I’ll try and keep you updated.

March 20-21 – 20/20: A Quilter’s Vision Springfield Quilt Show – The Orr Building on the Illinois State Fairgrounds – CANCELLED
April 3-4 – Festival of Quilts – Spiritual Life Center, 1301 Cunningham Ave., Urbana, IL – Postponed, will be rescheduled.
April 22-25 – AQS Quilt Week – Paducah, KY – Schroeder Expo Center • 415 Park Street, Paducah, KY (Note: This will be the only show in Paducah this year.) – CANCELLED and rescheduled to Sept. 2-5.
May 1-2 – Bloomington – Hands All Around Quilt Guild – No UFO’s Left Behind – Interstate Center, 1106 Interstate Drive, Bloomington, IL – CANCELLED
June 19-20 – Decatur Quilters Guild 40th Anniversary Party – Ruby Celebration – Decatur Civic Center, 1 Gary Anderson Plaza, Decatur, Il 62522
July 18-19 – Illinois Valley Quilters’ Guild Quilt Show – Celebrations 150, 740 E Highway 6, LaSalle, IL
August 20-30 – Gems of the Prairie Quilt Show – Life Together Center, 3625 N. Sheridan Rd, Peoria
September 2-5 – AQS Quilt Week – Paducah, KY – Schroeder Expo Center • 415 Park Street, Paducah, KY (Note: This will be the only show in Paducah this year.)
September 10-12 – Wisconsin Quilt Expo – Escape. Create. Celebrate. – Veterans Memorial Coliseum, 1919 Alliant Energy Center Way, Madison, WI
October 2-3 in Clinton – Vision of Colors – Little Galilee Camp, 7539 Little Galilee Rd, Clinton, IL 61727

Heart Beat Update
We had a Sit and Sew on Saturday, February 22 from 9 a.m. – 3:00. Blocks are finished and our meeting on Tuesday, March 24^th was to be our Heart Beat design night. We’re working on a plan to make sure these get designed, sewn, and quilted. BNMQG is on track to reach our goal of 30 quilts for babies in the NICU.

2020 Kona color of the year Mini Quilt Challenge
Hopefully you’ve started designing your 2020 Kona Challenge Mini Quilt with the color of the year – Enchanted. If not, it might just be time to start.

It’s still not too late to sign up. Sign-up for the 20” square mini quilt challenge started at the January meeting. To join the challenge, bring a $1 to sign up. If you would like a 6” x 20” piece of Enchanted, it is free when you sign-up for the challenge. Your Mini quilt is due at the May 15^th BNMQG meeting.

Check your sewing room…Do you buy layer cakes to use when you quilt? If so, please save the 10” square cardboard pieces from packages of layer cakes and bring them to the March meeting to be recycled into another project.

BNMQG Swap
Don’t forget to bring your swap partner’s project to our next meeting. In the meantime, consider taking a photo of the project you’ve completed for your swap partner and share it in our virtual meeting on Tuesday. I hope you’ve gotten to know your Swap partner and that you’ve finished up your swap project. Remember that your completed products will be exchanged in at this meeting. Contact Pat Messinger if you have any questions, her contact info is on the Members only page.

Modern Mini Showcase in March:
BNMQG is getting ready to have our own traveling Modern Mini Showcase as an educational opportunity to teach people about modern quilting. PLEASE consider loaning us your mini quilts for some upcoming shows – your tiger lily, splash, other 20” square modern minis, and the 2020 Kona Color challenge quilts. They will get some new audiences! We can take them until our August meeting. Give them to Kathy Cook or Nancy Powell. Our first Modern Showcase will be a part of the Clinton Salt Creek Patchmaker’s Quilt Show at Little Galilee Camp in Clinton which was scheduled to be March 27 and March 28 but has been rescheduled to October 3-4. This year’s theme is Vision of Colors.

Rebecca Bryan is still scheduled to be at BNMQG on May 15 and 16
Nationally known quilter, teacher, and author will be giving a lecture and trunk show to the Bloomington Normal Modern Quilt Guild on May 15, 2020. Her trunk show will introduce you to the field of graphic design and how you can use ideas from graphic design in your own quilts. During the trunk show you’ll see the quilts from her book Modern Triangle Quilts and how they relate to the field of graphic design. She’ll answer questions like: What is Graphic Design? And discuss common graphic design vocab. You’ll leave the trunk show with fresh ideas to apply to your own work. She will have books and other products for sale at this meeting. Please note that this evening is a FRIDAY night and will be our May BNMQG meeting.

Lecture is free to BNMQG members.
Guests are welcome for $10, payable at the door.
Location: Christ Lutheran Church, corner of Fort Jesse and Hershey Road in Normal, IL

Rebecca will also be teaching a workshop Design Improv with Triangles on May 16 from 9 am – 4 pm. Registration is limited to 22 participants.

Early bird signup for members begins at this month’s meeting for $40. If there are still spots available, cost for members will be $45 and after the April meeting, non-members will be considered to fill the workshop at $50 each. An optional lunch will be available for $7.00.

Please remember to provide your own drink for the day. Want more information on the workshop and the prep involved, please check out Rebecca’s website. Check out this page for even more information and resources if you can’t make her workshop.

Guild led workshops
This year we will have scheduled 2 guild led workshop – one in April and the other in July.

The April 4^th workshop will be rescheduled – After a lot of interest, I will give one on the Free Wheeling Circle Quilt by Gyleen Fitzgerald. This is a really fun and fast quilt to make so start pulling your solids or fabrics that read like solids. The cost is $35 and includes the pattern. Below are some variations- with or without a border, with or without sashing, with or without fusible bias tape, and layout of your own design. The supply list can be found on FB in the file section of BNMQG. Some paper copies will be available at the March meeting. Extra patterns will be available for sale after the workshop if you are unable to attend.

The July 25^th workshop will be a bag making class given by Pat Messinger – the Compass Bag. More information will be available when the details are firmed up.

BNMQG Nominations Committee is now open.
We will need a Committee chair and 2-3 members to make up our nominating committee to get a slate of officers ready for 2020-2021. Please let Kathy Cook know if you could help. This commitment requires you to be familiar with the job descriptions/duties for your officers and willingness to ask members to run for officers – President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. The duties of the officers are available in the Members area of the BNMQG website.

QuiltCon

Congratulations Kathy Cook for being awarded 1^st in Small Quilts at QuiltCon 2020.
If you were able to go, I hope you had a great time viewing the quilts, the charity quilts and of course shopping in the vendor area.
If you took some photos of your favorites, please post them on our FaceBook page for inspiration!

The Modern Quilt Guild

Have you seen the Moulinets Quilt by Angee Turner, an individual MQG member? It is a fun intermediate quilt of double pinwheels and you can download the pattern for free after logging in at: https://www.modernmonthly.com/moulinets-quilt

If you haven’t seen them, there are 26 full episodes of Fresh Quilting available to watch here.

Please log in to https://www.themodernquiltguild.com/ to make sure your email and contact info are correct so that you don’t miss important emails and information.
If you’ve got more time to quilt, learn, design, etc., it’s the perfect time to explore the MQG resources on their website.

Tech communications:Website/Blog – Have you received for your new password for our website/blog (https://bnmqg.wordpress.com/)? If not, first please check your spam and trash. You’ll need this if you want access to the Member Only area on this site. If you cannot find the email, contact Lisa Baermann at l.baermann@comcast.net

In the member area, please check the list of members and double check that your contact info is correct. If you need to correct your information, please send an email to: BNMQG@hotmail.com and put Attn Cathie in the subject area. Thanks.

Have you joined BNMQG on Facebook? The BNMQG is a NEW closed group just for our current members that was just started this year. This is the place on Facebook where we will be holding our March 24^th virtual meeting and you won’t be allowed to join us unless you are a member of this Facebook group. Here is the link. https://www.facebook.com/groups/BNMQG/ . 1) Request to join the group, 2) answer two questions, and 3) you’ll be approved to become a member of this page. You will be able to download files from this page for newsletters, workshop instructions, renewal forms, etc. This was not possible on our Bloomington Normal Modern Quilt Guild (PAGE). This is different from the other Facebook page where anyone can see posts on that page and files aren’t allowed to be shared – https://www.facebook.com/Bloomington-Normal-Modern-Quilt-Guild-469886799702183/

Are you on Instagram? Follow our guild @BNMQG and as you post your modern quilting photos, please use the hastags #BNMQG and #BNMQGquilts.

For your calendar:

March 24 – Virtual BNMQG meeting from 6pm – 8pm on Facebook or Instagram,

Swap projects due – It’s SWAP night! Share your projects at our virtual meeting.
Early bird signup for Rebecca Bryan’s workshop on May 16 and get $5 off the workshop (see the registration form/dates at the end of this newsletter) Early bird = $40, Members = $45, Non-members = $50 with an optional lunch for $7. Check the deadlines on the form, fill it out, write a check and send it in.
We will continue the sign up for the Modern Free Wheeling Circle Quilt workshop when we have the new date. $35 workshop fee is due when registering. This fee does include your pattern. The supply list is now available in the file section of BNMQG on Facebook.
Kona Color challenge signup still continues for $1.

April 28 – Heart Beat Design night – stay tuned for updates on this meeting.

Signup for Rebecca Bryan’s workshop May 16 if there are spots available (after the April meeting the registrations are open to non-members). Sign up for lunch if you’re interested.
Signup for the Compass Bag workshop given by Pat Messinger on July 25 – $35.

May 15 – Rebecca Bryan Meeting (free to members, $10 for guests)

Bring Kona Mini Challenge quilts to the meeting.

May 16 – Rebecca Bryan Workshop – registration is required

June 1 – Mini quilts will be hung in Scouts Downtown Café (113 N Center St, Bloomington, IL 61701) for the month of June. Come see the quilts, have some good food, and thank Scout for hosting our mini show!

June 30 – BNMQG Social – stay tuned for a surprise!

July 25 – Saturday Bag workshop date to be announced.

July 28 – Program TBA

August 25 – Color Workshop, Leslie Swearinger

September 25-28 – BNMQG 2020 Retreat – Add it to your calendar!

October 2-3 – Clinton’s Quilt Show – Vision of Colors – at Little Galilee Christian Camp in Clinton from 9 am to 4 pm daily where you will be able to see our first Modern Mini Quilt Showcase

Happy Modern Quilting! –Nancy

Guild Contact People: