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Friday 24 November 2017

MMQG Turns 4! The November 2017 Birthday Party Meeting Recap

Although it was cold and dark outside well before our meeting time - there was no shortage of festivity for us at our November guild meeting.

We are so ready!

You see, November is a special month for us. It's our birthday! The guild has grown so much since a handful of quilty people met for the first time in a VON Boardroom in 2013, and we have the dedication of our many executive and guild members to thank for this.

This years party was a total hit! There were almost $500 in prizes to be won, and everyone went away with a little something. Fat Quarter Cupcakes were almost cute enough to eat!

Yum! And so cleverly displayed. Thanks Patch for the load of FQ's!


Big thanks to President Crystal for scouring the prize bin and for doing some serious hustle to collect all these wonderful prizes for us.

We had a little program too - Amanda showed us the sweetest technique for flanged binding. Crystal shared a sweet prairie point Christmas tree ornament that can be made with very little sewing. A perfect project for our homemade ornament swap that is held at our Christmas Party.

Turns out flanged binding isn't that daunting after all!

Those sweet little points are attached in the middle to a disk of stable foam. Genius!

Throughout the evening - we had cupcakes! And as was previously mentioned - MANY prize draws.
Shouting out to all our prize sponsors for the evening:


WOAH that was a lot of prizes. Here are some of our lucky winners and their goodies:
Cute pattern, Linda!


Joanne won a 6 Month Subscription to Make Modern - the digital magazine that features our own
Julia Wentzell's Potters Wheel Quilt on the cover this month! 

Sandra scored this sweet bundle from Clinton Modern Creative - an online fabric shop

And - as usual - our show and share was epic. Feast your eyes:

A set of vibrant place-mats for the charity auction that we support - as a big thanks for our meeting space.


A nautical pillow and table runner set also for the auction.

This one was commissioned to Linda - and she got to keep it! How Lucky! :)

And the big reveal - Linda's BIG birthday quilt

A labour of love, a collaborative effort.

Look at the texture in that baby!
Barb shares a pillow made at a curved piecing workshop from Fiber Fest - very nice.


And a runner from a mini-charm pack, also for the auction.

The dimensional nature of these pencils was really hard to capture in a picture, but they look almost round!
Bravo, Joanne

And sweet in baby size too.

Julie's Halloween Masterpiece - some of the blocks are paper pieced and others are wonky log cabins.
Quilted with a completely appropriate spiderweb motif by our own Val L.

A cute pair of QAYG Christmas Stockings - Thanks for the great class on these Adrienne!


The "on point" quilt - being taught at the beginner quilt class at Patch this session.
Great use of low volume to blend some of the "points" and pop others.

A sweet throw quilt from Jeanette - also for the Auction.

The back - that much coveted Ikea Numbers print.

This adorable, bright and nautical baby quilt is a special gift for a newcomer Mama in Jeanette's community.

a "HOME" pillow from our Newfoundland contingent member, Gillian.
Thanks for your contribution to the auction, always good to see you!

A festive strip n flip from Amanda - she says: "thank goodness for colour catchers!"


Sheryl shares a sweet string block baby quilt - that is intended to be a gift... but almost to cute to give away!



Hope you enjoyed this meeting recap - again a big THANK YOU to everyone who makes MMQG what it is: our executive volunteers, our talented members, our local fabric shops and YOU - our online community.



Saturday 18 November 2017

Meet your MMQG 2018 Executive

Here we are... your trusty 2018 MMQG Executive

Back: (l to r) Adrienne, Aimee, Crystal & Sarah
Front: (l to r) Andrea B, Jeanette & Amanda
Photo Credit: Chantal Davies
Missing: Andrea TJ


Each MMQG Executive Committee Member is a special person, and we thank them for the tireless hours they put into making sure we all have a great guild experience. We've just had our first ever election (usually there's no contest - so this is awesome!) and this is the lowdown on who will lead the MMQG into the new year.

Now, without further ado - your 2018 Maritime Modern Quilt Guild Executive, in no particular order:

President - Crystal Gammon



Crystal is a wife, mother, registered nurse and one heck of a quilter! You can often find her whipping up a Hazel Hedgehog pillow, chasing a toddler, or planning guild stuff while at the football field. #godestroyers! This is Crystal's second year as President and for that we are PUMPED. You can find her on the good ol' Instagram @halifaxmom


Vice President & Retreat Coordinator - Amanda Nielsen



New to the executive team this year, we are fortunate to have Amanda join us as Vice President, and remain as Retreat Coordinator for a second year. She LOVES Carolyn Friedlander fabrics, and puts her trade as a stage manager to good use at home right now - wrangling four wild and wonderful sons and shift working spouse. Welcome Amanda!

Secretary & Charity Coordinator - Jeanette Smith


Jeanette has been a valued member of our executive for many years. Her secretarial skills are second to none, and have you SEEN the colour palettes she chooses for her quilts? Just, wow. She is also half of the creative goodness that is Seam Work. Jeanette has two busy highland-dancing girls, a lovely husband who doesn't mind at all when we commandeer their house for an exec meeting, and Ben - the cutest Cavalier King Charles Spaniel you've ever seen.

Treasurer - Aimee Semel


Aimee has also served as the MMQG Treasurer for a long time. In addition to doing a bang up job managing our dollars, she's the mother of a superhero! Baby Katie is basically our hero/mascot. Of note: Aimee almost never irons, works almost exclusively in solids, and is the mastermind behind Candy Coated Quilts.


Social Media Coordinator - Sarah Pettipas



Sarah is a healthcare administrator by day, and our social media aficionado by night... and sometimes also by day. She is pretty sure she was a mermaid in a past life, loves crafts of all kinds, is married  and hates scary movies. Sarah enjoys quilted projects that can be completed in a sitting or two (have you SEEN her work-in-progress shelf?), keeps every scrap of nautical fabric big and small, and can also be found @sarahpettipas, @sweettinystitches and @_maritimemqg



Workshop Coordinator - Andrea Bezanson

Another new addition to the Exec team this year - is the wonderful human Andrea. When she's not working the day job, or reading for pleasure (now that school is over - YES!!!), she can be found loving Harry Potter, hanging out with her rad son, or petting fabric. THANK YOU Andrea for joining the team!



MQG Ambassador - Andrea Tsang Jackson



We are not sure how she finds the time, but we do love our MQG Ambassador Andrea T J. She is an incredible pattern designer, mother and mastermind behind the creative goodness at 3rd Story Workshop. We really appreciate the time Andrea takes from her busy schedule to keep us up to date on the goings on with the greater MQG organization, and look forward to having you with us this again this year!


Swaps Coordinator - Adrienne Klenck



After a little Executive rest, our Past Prez Adrienne puts her Executive pants back on this year as our Swaps Coordinator! As the other half of Seam Work, a kind and patient instructor for beginner quilters, spouse and partner in an urban gardening business and a project manager in health care by day, you never know what Adrienne will sew up next! Much love to her furry assistants/babies: Orangie, Penny, and Charlie Dog.


And last but not least - a special thank you to outgoing Executive members this year: Lori Parsons (Workshops), Anja Clyke (Charity) and Jennifer Trott-Zisserson (Vice Prez). You've each served more than one year on executive - and so todays MMQG would NOT be the same without you! Your dedication to making the guild a great, creative place - is so appreciated.


Here's to a quilty 2018!

Thursday 26 October 2017

MMQG Throwback Thursday: The Augu-sep-tober Update!

Hello Quilty friends from far and wide - hang on to your hats as tonight's blog post is a whopper.

You may, or may not, have noticed that the MMQG Blog was on a little rest this summer and early fall. Summer, and Fall, can be busy bee times for lots of reasons. We all have them - but we're here tonight to do a proper recap and hoping you'll enjoy it all the more for the anticipation.

August, September and October Meetings:

Meetings can be a little scantily attended in the summer time - and so our August meeting was short, and sweet. We had a great demo from Anja on no-waste flying geese and the many ways you can get many, many HSTs from larger squares - and we love to get as many units as we can from our scraps!

A small but mighty crew















a sampler made from all HSTs!


It also seemed to be the meeting of show and share the clothes you made: 

An adorable Gemma Tank by Andrea B


Jenn TZ made that dress she's wearing! 

And social media Sarah made the dress she was wearing too... #notpictured #photographerproblems

Lots more treasures came to show and share as well - some were top secret and therefore also not pictured... we love seeing those gifts you're giving, before you give them!




Our September meeting was a hoot too! We decided to try something new and watch a webinar from the MQG for our program. Those in attendance really enjoyed the discussion on alternate grid work.

And - the greatest thing: post summer show and share!

Adrienne's been working on this QAYG beauty since retreat - WOW!

Another beautiful finish from Adrienne


Shelley found the CUTEST baby sewing machine! 

The charity quilt tops also started to roll in - Thanks Gail!

Sleepy Fox from Andrea TJ - look for this class at Patch this fall!

A transparency study also from Andrea TJ

This is Linda's travelling quilt - check out her blog for all the juicy details

One of a pair of baby quilts for twins from Jeanette

And another - that whale!

Sarah had a crib sized flimsy to show and share

And Susan finished her Canada 150 quilt!

And when you have 150 scraps... you make many bags. Right? :)

A cute soccer bag from Julie D

And memory pillows.

Karen found these cuties from many moons ago - and we gave advice on how to preserve and display them now
The October meeting program was called "Finishing School" - a cute play on words to share many techniques for finishing your items in a clever way. We learned techniques like how to install an invisible zipper, how to make a hanging sleeve, how to make piping and put it on a project, how to finish off binding with glue, and how make invisible pieced backing. A big thanks to Karen, Crystal, Julia and Adrienne for sharing their skills! How many people hustled home to put in an invisible zipper? 






Show and share was delicious as usual - feast your eyes!






Super cute wallet by Anja

Susan tackled a wallet too!

Andrea's INCREDIBLE RJR Fabrics quilt... see her blog for more info

Cute Placemats from Karen

A Kraken Mini from Jen TZ

R2D2 - in all his 237 piece glory. WOW.


a beautiful finish from Aimee - using v and co ombre!

A completed charity quilt

a beauty from Dena

and another charity quilt.

August, September and October Sew-Ins:

In the summer - we whisk away to an air conditioned sew-in space - a big THANK YOU to Anja for arranging with Atlantic Fabrics for us to use their classroom. August sew in was another small but mighty team, with some cute projects on the go as per usual.

September we had some logistical difficulties, but where there's a will and a generous soul, there's a way! Julia was hosting a little quilt market prep sew-in in the basement of her church, and she graciously extended some space to us to get organized with our charity quilts. A big thanks to everyone who switched plans mid stream and came out to help.

October sew-in was held just last weekend back in our regular location - and it felt like a mid-summer day! As per usual we spent time catching up, planning fabric pillaging voyages, hand quilting, snacking and laughing. Here are a few shots from the August, September and October Sew-Ins for your viewing pleasure.


The summer of baby quilts for Caitlin

HSTs abound

Basking in the AC at AF

Totally focused

There's that ombre beauty again!

an impressive kit

Charlie-dog, what a sweet bandana you have!


Balancing Crystal's layout

A beautiful charity top pieced by Barb

On the string block train

In our happy place - October Sew In

If you made it all the way to the end of this post, you are probably one of our biggest fans! Thanks for checking in - and stay tuned for all that November has to offer.

We have much to look forward to! A quilt as you go stocking workshop, our BIG Birthday Meeting with lots of treats and prizes, and of course - sew in!

Make sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook for live updates. 'Till next time!