Lyric Kinard is our featured speaker at our next ZOOM meeting JUNE 23, 2020

This has been an exciting month for BNMQG considering we haven’t been physically together for severalmonths now.  We’re averaging around 40 members per meeting (which is just barely less than an in-person meeting) but we still could use more.  The travel isn’t long.  The weather isn’t a problem.  ZOOM is really easy (just ask anyone who has attended our meeting via zoom).  Lisa B. does an amazing job of running the behind-the-scenes stuff.   AND if you’re still intimidated by the technology, email me and we can have a private zoom (it probably would only take 10-15 minutes) so you can see how easy it is.  We want all of our members to be able to attend our meetings and it’s so much fun to see each other’s beautiful faces.

We had our first ZOOM workshop – Modern Free Wheeling Circles, which, from my feedback was a success and I know I had fun.  After 4 hours, most everyone had all of their blocks constructed and ready to add the finishing touches.  We laughed.  We could dig in our stashes for additional fabrics (or to add to our blocks in case we miscounted-LOL).  We didn’t have to setup or tear down our sewing stations in a remote location.  Some people even sewed with a lake view!  Demos were given and we could see each other’s progress.  Questions were answered. Some people shared Internet and sewing spaces.  Photos will migrate over to Facebook as quilts are finished.  People who signed up and paid for the workshop got their patterns and they have a private Facebook page to access extra information/resources and photos.  I’ve already signed up for an online workshop with Carole Lyles Shaw to see if they are as much fun as we had…the standards are high…just saying!

There have been 4 sessions of Tech Tuesdays and they’ve had great reviews.  Individual help was priceless and the sessions included really good ways for using Instagram by our own Kathy C.  We offer sessions at 11am and another at 6pm most Tuesdays.  We are looking for more topics for Tech Tuesdays – anything tech related.  At the next Tech Tuesday (6/30) we’ll be looking at some ways to make your Instagram posts more fun using Boomerang and Layout. There will also be time to answer questions about posting, editing and anything else you need help with.  Signup

Stitchin’ Saturday was fun.  People dropped in and sewed and talked for about 3 hours.  It was fun seeing the projects that were being worked on.  We’ll try this again.  Watch your email for more opportunities!

In the past we have had the opportunity to bring guests to our meetings and there was a $10 fee charged when we have a speaker.  We now have that capability for our zoom meetings.  Starting with this month’s meeting, we will feature a speaker – Lyric Montgomery Kinard.  We are offering a paypal option for non-members to attend at the low price of $6.00.  There is a link from the event on Facebook or on our website.  If this takes off, we may be able to get even more speakers for our guild meetings! So spread the word to your quilting friends.

Lyric Kinard

Lyric Kinard is a well-known artist, author, and quilter!  She is an award winning artist with a passion for sparking the creativity that she knows each of her students possess. With playful support and gentle encouragement she will take you through your first steps on a new path, seeing the world through the eyes of an artist. As an artist, author, and educator she transforms cloth into art in her studio and timid spirits into confident creatives in the classroom.

Lyric was recognized for her talents as the 2011 International Association of Professional Quilters Teacher of the Year and is the author of the book Art + Quilt: design principles and creativity exercises. She has written extensively for Quilting Arts Magazine, appeared on Quilting Arts TV, and The Quilt Show. In her past life she was a musician, earned a BA in English Literature from the University of Utah and has also formally studied architecture. She currently lives in Cary, North Carolina with her husband and some of their five children.

You can see what she’s been up to on her blog.  Enjoy some of her great Covichats which are interviews with some famous quilters and artists from all over the world.  Some of her guest have been Carole Lyles Shaw, Mel Beach,  South African business owner Henneli Davie, Wendy Butler Berns, Joe Cunningham, Cristina Arcenequi from Seville, Spain, Victoria Fiindlay Wolfe, Jacquie Gering, Bonnie Hunter, Michelle Wilkie, Susan Brubaker Knapp, and many more.  They are fun to listen to as you sew.  You don’t want to miss her website… take a peek before Tuesday.

This month’s program with Lyric:

Learn how easy it is to find inspiration in any environment as you create your own unique abstract designs by following this very simple exercise. The elements of line, shape, and value will be explored as you generate a plethora of little thumbnails, jumping points for your own original modern designs.

Option 1 – have paper scissors, sharpie, and several sheets of blank paper ready.
Option 2 – Have printed PDFs, paper scissors, and a sharpie ready.

This is a FREE event for members. The PDFs will be attached to your Zoom Invitation Email, so look for the attachments! An email will be sent to members for this event on Zoom. Join us for a short social time from 5:30-6:00. This will give everyone time to enter the meeting, chat a little, and work out any last minute technical problems.

It was awesome to see faces again and share quilts and ideas at our ZOOM meeting in May.  I’m hoping we have even more members join us this month.  Please encourage your BNMQG friends and invite non-members to attend.  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 quick show and tell (of course), and followed by our featured presenter – Lyric Kinard for her program and followed by a question and answer opportunity.

JOIN US – Put a reminder in your phone and join us for our monthly meeting on Tuesday night (June 23) 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 receive a link in your email to get into Zoom for the meeting.  It will include two files from Lyric to print before the meeting. ** The email will come 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.

• 8 Tips to Use Zoom as a Pro
• Using Zoom? Here are tips to get the most of it
• 7 tips for using Zoom

Kathy Cook

This month we’re featuring textile artist Bisa Butler. With rich colors, this quilter makes breathtaking, intricate portraits from cotton, silk, velvet and wax printed textiles sourced in Ghana.

Her quilt “The Safety Patrol” was acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago.  You can find more of Bisa’s quilts on instagram @bisabutler and on Facebook at Bisa Butler-Fine Art.

 

 

 

 

BNMQG Nominations Committee

A big thanks go out to the committee of Noemi Bowers, Ary Anderson, and Vickie Alsene for all of your work with nominations.  The election will take place in August.  As of this time, the slate of officers are:

Nancy Powell – president, Kathy Cook – Vice President, Betty Woodruff – Treasurer, and Paula Meiner – Secretary.

Membership

I’d like to take time to thank Susan Chancellor for all of her work as the BNMQG Membership Chair.  Susan has had some things come up and Noemi Bowers has agreed to step in as the Membership Chair for the remainder of the year and next year!  Thank you Noemi.

 

 

 

The Modern Quilt Guild

• Have you heard about Textile Talks? Textile Talks features weekly presentations and panel discussions from the International Quilt Museum, the Modern Quilt Guild, Quilt Alliance, San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, Studio Art Quilt Associates and Surface Design Association. The programs are all free and will be held online at 2 p.m. Eastern (11 a.m. Pacific) each Wednesday. -MQG
• 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.
• 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 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!

Tech communications:

Website/Blog – Do you remember the password for our website/blog (https://bnmqg.wordpress.com/)?  You’ll need this if you want access to the Member Only area on this site.  Contact Lisa Baermann if you need help – 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.  It was just started this year.  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.  Want more Instagram help, let us know and we’ll work it into some Tech Tuesdays!

For your BNMQG calendar:

June 23 – BNMQG meeting – Lyric Kinard will be our featured artist

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 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

———————————-

Continuing Reminders:

BNMQG mini quilts for the Kona Color of the Year Challenge
Keep posting your mini quilts in the 2020 mini quilt photo album.  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)

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 form 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 Registration form for 2020 Retreat.

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.

Heart Beat quilts – Hospitals have put a hold on taking any quilts at this time…so, our work with our heart beat quilts will continue when we are able to meet again in person.

 

 

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

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 M. for your flexibility

 

I’m looking forward to seeing your beautiful face on Zoom at our meeting on Tuesday.  Call your BNMQG friends and have them meet you there.

Take care and Happy Modern Quilting!  –Nancy