Lots of fun activities were available for BNMQG members in the month of June. We started off with a Sew day on June 9th. BNMQG members came together to sew on community outreach projects such as Heartbeat quilts and 10th Anniversary improv log cabin blocks or to work on their own project. Sew days are lots of fun! If you haven’t joined us yet, please consider coming to one soon! We have a Sign Up Genius set up for Sew Days, just so we can have the church setup – we always do a few extras, just in case.

Our June meeting was a social and game playing night. We had yummy treats provided by Linda L., Viv B., Sue W., Barb S., and Lisa B.

We had brief business meeting – we are up to 110 BNMQG members!

Our Fabric Raffle winner was Pam L.

Our library is usually available at meetings – we have an inventory on our member’s only page. Just put down a $5 deposit to check out a book from our librarian, Valerie S., your deposit is returned when the book is returned.

As of our June meeting, we have had 310 10th Anniversary Improv Log Cabin blocks turned in! We are happy to take donations of leftover fabric to add to quilt tops for negative space with the blocks. We will also accept donations of batting and backing fabric.

Heartbeat quilt kits are being returned as completed quilted or as tops or quilted tops that just need binding. If you are interested in quilting or binding (or both), please contact Pat S. and she will get you a top (or two).

Our upcoming July meeting will be our very own Kathy C. – Big Stitch Quilting. She will be discussing Big Stitch Quilting.  Join Kathy Cook for a lecture on Big Stitches. Her lecture is free for BNMQG members, guest tickets are available to non-members on our Events and Workshop tickets page. She’ll share details about the origins of centuries old practices including Kawandi, Kantha and Boro. Modern big stitches are being used for everything from accenting quilts to mending jeans! You’ll learn everything you need to get started on your own projects.

In November, we have David Owen Hasting who will do a zoom lecture, “Minimal Design, Maximum Impact” which is free to members, but tickets are available to non-members on our Events and Workshop tickets page. David will also be conducting a zoom workshop, “Mini Mid-Mod Quilts” on December 3rd – tickets are also available on our Events and Workshop tickets page. Tickets for the workshop are selling fast, so don’t delay!

In January, BNMQG is hosting via Zoom Carolina Oneto’s lecture, “The Power of Color Composition”, which is free to members, but tickets are available to non-members on our Events and Workshop tickets page. Carolina will also be conducting a workshop via zoom “Curves and Transparencies” on January 28th. Tickets for the workshop are selling fast, so don’t delay!

BNMQG has a committee working on the design for our MQG Community Outreach Challenge Quilt. Kathy C., Betty W. and Nancy P. have come up with a great design using the blue/green color way. There will be more options to help sew blocks for this quilt at our next sew days.

We will be having sew days on:

• Tues., July 26 starting at 9 am – our meeting day so come and sew and stay for the Big Stitch meeting with Kathy Cook.
• Tues., August 23 starting at 9 am – our meeting day so come and sew and stay for the special 10^th anniversary meeting and election of officers.

Our BNMQG Modern Mystery Quilt is moving right along – we have completed 6 challenges so far! The winner of June’s prize drawing was Ann C. Our wonderful leader, Nancy P., is guiding us through lots of modern techniques – she does a live zoom each month, and also has written directions with resources, including video links. It is so fun to see everyone’s “blocks” in their color palette.

Nancy P. also presented on how to make traditional blocks look more modern, changing up the colors, the placement, using multiple sizes of blocks or even making them 3D! The instructions for making the blocks 3D were emailed to all members prior to the meeting.

We had lots of wonderful Show and Tell!

We had a brief break and then the games began! There was a prize table to pick from. Thanks to all of our BNMQG board members and committee chairs who donated the prizes!

We started off by playing a relay race to have all members at a table each thread a plastic needle onto a piece of yarn while wearing gardening gloves – that was a fun one to watch! The winning table got to pick from the prize table. The members of the winning table were Betty W., Lori L., Ann U., Kathy C., Valerie S., Debbie P. Notice that Valerie’s pic is blurry – she was moving fast!

We also played a couple of rounds of Trader’s Dice. The prizes for these games were the 2 1/2″ strips or 5″ squares that were traded during the game. Thanks again to all of our BNMQG board members and committee chairs who supplied all of the fabric for these games.

Then we played BINGO – oops, we actually played BING – it was fun no matter what! We had several winners for BING:

• Dee Lyn B.
• Dawn P.
• Sue W.
• Debbie P.
• Barb S.
• Barbara J. (guest)

We had another Sew day on July 9th that was well attended. We got a great start on our MQG Community Outreach Challenge Quilt. I’m sure that it will continue to change as blocks are made – that is what improv is all about!