Hi Modern Quilters,
I have been quilting and watching a lot of webinars on designers, color, design, and quilting. There is a lot of good information out there. Here are some things I’ve enjoyed. There are many others, but I’ll leave those for another newsletter…. Enjoy.
- Jacquie Gering has a couple of webinars
- Lyric Kinard has been doing covichats with some awesome quilters including Carole Lyles Shaw, Bonnie Hunter, Gyleen Fitzgerald, Mel Beach, Susan Brubaker Knapp, Victoria Findlay Wolfe, and many others
- Sew All the Curves with Jen Carlton Bailly
It was awesome to see faces again and share quilts and ideas at our first ZOOM meeting in April. I’m hoping we have even more members join us this month. Please encourage your BNMQG friends to participate. Join us at 5:30 for a social time and as always, we’ll start the meeting at 6pm with announcements and committee reports, followed by a virtual quilt show of our minis (please post your mini pics in BNMQG so I can make a mini slide show), show and tell (of course), and a presentation about using Instagram by Kathy Cook.
Just think how technically advanced you will be after we have our virtual meetings!
JOIN US – Put a reminder in your phone and join us for our monthly meeting on Tuesday night (May 26) from 6 pm – 8 pm via ZOOM. Join anytime from 5:30-6:00 for a social time and bring your own treats to social hour. Watch your email – you should have received a link in your email to get into Zoom for the meeting. ** The email came from Lisa B from her work email at District87.org. We chose ZOOM because it is the best platform to use as it works easily for people with all sorts of tech skills. The email that you receive will have options for joining the meeting. Read the email to see those options. If you haven’t done ZOOM before, please join early in case you have any technical questions!
New to ZOOM? Here are some links to show you how it works.
BNMQG mini quilts for the Kona Color of the Year Challenge – Please post your mini quilts in the 2020 mini quilt photo album so they can be featured in the mini quilt virtual quilt show at this month’s zoom meeting. Update: We will be having our Mini quilt show at Scouts in September (instead of June). So it’s still not too late to make a mini (hint hint)
Modern Mini Showcase
BNMQG is getting ready (and now we have even more time!) 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 that has been rescheduled to October 3-4. The quilt show’s theme is Vision of Colors.
Rebecca Bryan is being rescheduled – date TBA
Nationally known quilter, teacher, and author will be giving a lecture and trunk show to the Bloomington Normal Modern Quilt Guild but it will be rescheduled until our next guild year, hopefully this fall. We still do not have a date. So, if you have signed up and sent a check for the workshop, you are on first on the list when the workshop is rescheduled.
In the meantime, please check out Rebecca’s website: Bryan House Quilts
Think Retreat!
It’s time to sign up for the BNMQG Retreat that will be held on September 25-28 at Camp Cilca. There are still a few spots available but they are filling up fast. The Registration for 2020 can be found at the end of this newsletter. Print it off (or if you want, just write the info on a sheet of paper), fill it in, and mail the form and a check. The address is included on the form.
Heart Beat quilts – We will have an update from Pat Silva about the Heart Beat quilts at our May meeting.
BNMQG Nominations Committee
Noemi Bowers chaired the Nominations Committee and we will get an update from her at our May meeting! The duties of the officers are available in the Members area of the BNMQG website. Thanks to the committee of Noemi Bowers, Ary Anderson, and Vickie Alsene for all of your work with this.
Guild led workshops
The Free Wheeling Circle Quilt by Gyleen Fitzgerald Class will be offered on June 6 from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm via Zoom. The supply list and fabric requirements . The patterns have arrived and are ready when you are! I’m offering porch pickup for your patterns or you can send me a self-addressed stamped envelope (size 10 business envelope) and I can put them in the mail. Pick up your pattern or send the envelope to:
Nancy Powell (address and phone and are in the member directory)
Text me so I can put your pattern out for pickup from my bench
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. Make sure to have one available when you take the Free-Wheeling Circle Quilt workshop. You’ll be glad you did. If you have extras to share, you can drop off your extras when you do a porch pickup for your pattern and I’ll have them available for others when they pick up their patterns.
The Compass Bag Workshop has been put on hold for now. It is a workshop that we feel would be best done in person. I’ll keep you updated. Thanks Pat for your flexibility.
The Modern Quilt Guild
- QuiltCon Update – did you read the email that announced that QuiltCon will be a virtual show? If not, you might want to check emails or go online to
- Have you spent any time in the MQG resources? Check out the recorded webinar – Dive into MQG Resources to learn what’s available and maybe even learn some new things that you didn’t already know.
- MQG Call for Submissions – lots of different kinds of opportunities … check it out!
- Consider joining the MQG Modern Classics Challenge from MQG. Using their special color palette and a quilt pattern that was previously released as Quilt of the Month patterns, make the quilt. In my opinion, the color palette is actually quite nice! I’ll show it in our Zoom meeting.
Tech communications:
Website/Blog – Do you remember the password for our website/blog? You’ll need this if you want access to the Member Only area on this site. Contact Lisa Baermann if you need help – her email is in the member directory.
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. It was just started this year.
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.
Are you on Instagram? Follow our guild @BNMQG and as you post your modern quilting photos, please use the hastags #BNMQG and #BNMQGquilts. If you don’t use Instagram, maybe you will after Kathy Cook’s presentation at our May meeting!
For your BNMQG calendar:
June 6 – Modern Free-Wheeling Circle Zoom Class
June 23 – BNMQG meeting – stay tuned for a surprise
July 28 – BNMQG meeting – Program TBA
August 25 – Color Workshop, Leslie Swearinger and voting for 2020-2021 officers
September 1 – Mini quilts will be hung in Scouts Downtown Café (113 N Center St, Bloomington, IL 61701) for the month of September. Come see the quilts, have some good food, and thank Scout for hosting our mini show!
September 11-12 – HAAQG Quilt Show – No UFO’s Left Behind – Interstate Center, Bloomington
September 25-28 – BNMQG 2020 Retreat (Registration form is at the end of this newsletter)
October 2-3 – Clinton’s Quilt Show is hosting our Modern Mini Showcase – Vision of Colors – at Little Galilee Christian Camp in Clinton from 9 am to 4 pm daily
Looking forward to seeing your beautiful face on Zoom at our meeting on Tuesday. Calll your BNMQG friends and have them meet you there. Miss you all very much. Find JOY in what you can find joy in!
Take care and Happy Modern Quilting! –Nancy
Bloomington/Normal Modern Quilt Guild 