January 2017 Meeting

Hello Fellow Quilters!

Welcome to another year of great times at the Syracuse Quilt Guild.

We started off our first meeting of the year with Pam White, our new president, introducing her goals for this year. They are:

1. Get to know everyone! Pam invites us all to wear a name tag to future meetings. If you have one from a previous meeting, Quilt Fest, or anything else, feel free to wear it to our next meeting.

2. Promote Quilting. Pam and her board have lots of fun speakers, events, and even a field trip planned for 2017.

3. Have fun!

4. Make charity quilts.

5. See a lot of beautiful quilts! So be sure to bring anything you have finished for Sew & Tell every time month.

Next, Pam showed us how to make perfect circles. We were all wowed by how simple her technique is, and how perfect those circles really are.

She also went over quilt labels. She suggests these 5 things to put on every label you make:

1. Names: of the pattern designer, of the person who pieced it(full name), and the quilter
2. Dates - when the quilt was started and finished
3. Where it was made
4. Care instructions

*A great suggestion from Margo is to put all this information in a document on your computer and then print it out on printable fabric. Click here to see the type she likes to use.

Margo introduced Traveling Box Blocks. We are going to give these a try this year. Here's what she had to say:

You choose what block you would like to have made. You choose the colors. You choose the size of the block. If you want a consistent background then you supply the background fabric. Or, you could choose the focus fabric and have others add matching or contrasting fabric. Or, you just ask that the makers supply their own fabric.

It will work best if you cut to size all the fabric pieces you are supplying and put them in a freezer bag. Or, each freezer bag could contain the pieces for one block and the completed block could be placed in the bag when done.

Add an instruction sheet and a sample block and bring your box to the next meeting.

Each month the box will Travel to another member (there will be a list for each box) and you won't see the contents of your box again for eleven months. If we start the boxes on their journeys in February then we can have an opening party in January 2018!

Margo passed around a sign up sheet for the Traveling Box Blocks. If you weren't there and would like to participate, reply to this email and we'll add you to the list. Be sure to bring your box ready to go to the February meeting! By the way, pizza boxes work really great for this!

We have another new activity to look forward to - a mini-quilt swap in June! Kim told us all about this. So plan to make a cute mini, swap it with someone else, and then go home with another mini for your collection.

Karen's presentation on mats and rulers was wonderfully informative. I don't know about the rest of you, but I came home and immediately gave my mats a bath. It's like they are brand new again! Karen also told us about Cutting Mat Cleaners which you can find on nancysnotions.com They are $11.99 for two, so find a quilting buddy and split the cost!

Sandra had lots of great information from the Utah Quilt Guild.

1. There is a beautiful opportunity quilt up for raffle (see above) Buy your tickets 1 for $1 or 6 for $5.

2. Sandra's in charge of the mini-quilts for Quilt Fest again this year, so she suggests we make two mini-quilts when we do them for our mini swap 😉

3. The guild is still accepting Ruby Jubilee quilts made personally. Please check at the Utah Quilt Guild website for more information about Ruby Jubilee red and white quilts.

4. 2017 Quilt Fest will be held at the Davis Conference Center September 19-23.

5. Sandra has a new email address. Please contact her or Kim if you need it.

6. This year the Utah Quilt Guild president is having us choose our own charity. Please come with some suggestions for the next meeting.

7. Bonnie Hunter will be doing classes at Village Dry Goods July 25-26 and at Nuttalls in Riverton July 27-29. These locations are still subject to change, but go ahead and mark your calendar for the dates. The cost is $75 per day.

Sew and Tell