Submitted by Paula M., Secretary

The May meeting was called to order by president, Lisa B. at 6:00 PM.  The meeting was held at the Christ Lutheran Church and via Zoom.  There are now 107 members (3 new members joined tonight) with 50 attending in person, 8 via Zoom and 4 guests. 

Refreshments were provided by Marge E., Karen G., and Noemi B.

Lisa reported on the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show which hosted lots of entries from our guild.  We were honored to have a 2^nd place winner in Barbara S., and a 5^th place with Donna P.  Congratulations, ladies!!!

Submitted by, Paula M., Secretary

The April meeting was called to order on May 3^rd at 6 PM by President Lisa B.  The meeting was held in person at Christ Lutheran Church and via Zoom.  There are now 101 members with 55 attending in person, 3 guests and 7 people on Zoom. 

As people were arriving and shopping the De-Stash sale, pictures from the Ken Burns tour and from some members who went to the Paducah AQS week were shown.

We started out with our Kona Mini Challenge Quilts displayed around the room – so much talent in this group!

Submitted by Paula M., Secretary

The March meeting was called to order by President Lisa B. at 6:00 pm.  The meeting was held in person at the Christ Lutheran Church and via Zoom.  There are now 100 members, with 32 attending via Zoom with 1 guest and 33 attending in person and 2 guests.  

Lisa reminded us that the April meeting will be held May 3 and the May meeting will be May 31. 

Marilyn B., Dee Lynn B., and Betty W. provided the food for the meeting. 

March’s presenter was Christina De Miranda with a program entitled “Thru-Quilting: My Journey Thru Modern Quilting.  Christina showed us many examples of her work, including her first projects. Detailed photographs of the quilting were also displayed. She uses mainly straight line quilting and it is very impactful on her quilts. She has likes to work in a series and explore different designs in a series with a set of parameters. Christina also creates paper piecing designs and is starting a new mystery quilt that is part of her constellation series.

For our March meeting, Cristina De Miranda will be joining us via zoom, but you have the option to come in person to Christ Lutheran Church or join us via zoom. Zoom invites will go out a day or two before the meeting and will also be posted to the BNMQG Facebook page.

Thru-Quilting: My Journey Thru Modern Quilting

Tuesday, March 22, 2022
6:00 pm CST, social time starts at 5:30 pm CST
Guest tickets are available for $10

This trunk show will showcase quilts designed by Cristina De Miranda of Ships & Violins. The journey begins with a look at her improvised patchwork pillow covers inspired by a thru-hike of the East Coast Trail, and continues through her designs as a burgeoning modern quilt pattern designer. The show will include details about her inspiration, her approach to design, and how pursuing a creative business is not so different from a long walk in the woods.

Submitted by Paula M., Secretary

The February meeting was called to order by President Lisa B. at 6:00 PM.  The meeting was held via Zoom with 56 of 96 members present.  We also had 1 guest. 

The BNMQG board appointed Betty W. as our first Executive Director after the membership approved the changes to the by-laws at their February board meeting. Congratulations to Betty!

There are a few changes in upcoming meeting dates: March will be as planned on the 22^nd.  It will be in person or it can be observed via Zoom.  April’s meeting will be May 3.  May’s will be pushed back a week to the 31^st.  Please take note of those changes.  They have already been updated on the BNMQG calendar.

February’s presenter was Betty W., one of our members, on Modern Quilting for the domestic, midarm or longarm machines. Betty offered many examples of ideas to use on your modern quilts, including ghost blocks, line quilting, following shapes in the fabric pattern, as well as dividing up negative space into smaller areas that are filled with different motifs. She shared many quilt pictures with closeups of her quilting and discussed how she chose some of the elements.

Betty has agreed to do a Tech Tuesday on March 15th at both 11 am and 6 pm – sign up here for either (or both) sessions. She is happy to discuss your Kona Mini Challenge quilts for ideas on how to quilt them or any other modern quilt that you are looking for inspiration.

Betty is one of the BNMQG’s founding members and is currently serving as our first Executive Director. 

Betty has been quilting since 1998 and she purchased her first long arm in 2008.  Betty quilts for herself and for others, including award-winning quilts. 

She will share many tips on how to Quilt Modern – this is for both domestic machine quilters and long arm quilters.  Whether you are planning to quilt a mini quilt or a bed sized quilt.  She will share techniques she has used including straight lines, curves, simple dot to dot quilting as well as the use of ghost blocks.

Our meeting is via zoom – check your email a day or so before the meeting for the zoom link. Can’t wait to see all of you!

Submitted by Paula M., Secretary

The January meeting was called to order by president, Lisa B at 6 PM.  The meeting was held via Zoom, with 62 of 95 members present.  We will have at least 1 more Zoom meeting: February.  We will decide about March at a later date. 

Our presenter was Cindy Grisdela with a program that focused on the Anatomy of an Improv Quilt.  Cindy discussed her process and how sometimes projects need to be on the design wall for awhile to figure out what they really need to be. She also said it is ok to take things apart and re-use them. Her talk included many pictures of her award winning quilts. Her workshop on Saturday was on Curves and Stripes. It was a sold out class and we had lots of fun.

Purchase a Guest Ticket for Cindy Grisdela’s lecture here.

Submitted by Paula M., Secretary

The holiday meeting of BNMQG was conducted via Zoom on December 30, 2021 was opened by president Lisa B. 

We had several rounds of our potholder swap during the meeting. Lots of creativity from all of the members who participated – just a few are shown here.

Submitted by Paula M., Secretary

The November meeting was called to order by president, Lisa B. at 6 PM.  The meeting was held in Christ Lutheran Church in Normal and via Zoom, with 61 members and 2 guests present.  The next 3 meetings will be available only by Zoom.

Refreshments were provided by Maria C., Kathy C., and Barb B.

Yvonne Fuchs, coming via Zoom from Hawaii, was our presenter.  She focused on transparency quilts and how to choose colors and fabrics for a transparency quilt.  She showed many transparency quilt examples and talked about how she did better on some color combinations than on others. She uses each quilt as an opportunity to learn something – it could be about color or a sewing technique. To check value in her fabric choices, she takes photos with her phone and then turns them into grayscale to check contrast, to ensure that her values will contrast enough, but will not be too similar.